Analyzing and assessing our championship aspirations

To be contenters, we'd need to address the follow issues:

1. Backup SG (I don't really trust Taylor)
2. Backup Center
3. The most important of all - that one missing piece, a true All-Star to put us over the top

 

That team played defense. I haven't seen anything close to defense in awhile now. Hopefully it doesn't continue to go unnoticed. That's what Bosh+Yao would have helped reintroduce and stabilize. Defense.

 

Our best player in that series was Aaron Brooks.

 

I agree with your overall point, but Ron Artest sucked ass in that series.

 

Yeah because Kobe having a broken finger and knee problems requiring him to have his knee drained throughout the playoffs and Bynum needing knee surgery throughout the playoffs means having everything go right for the Lakers.

Every team has injuries Celtics had Garnett and Pierce injured last year. Cleveland had Shaq injured. Every team has at least one player in their rotation get injured at one point or another. You can't go into the season expecting the Rockets to have some kind of perfect season where nothing goes wrong. Somebody WILL get injured at some point. Question is if they can stay good despite it.

I'm a Rockets fan and hope they do well, but to think that a team that has won one playoff series in the last decade is suddenly a title contender despite not having any significant change to the roster is kinda wishful thinking. Yeah we have Kevin Martin now, but we lost Landy and Artest, two guys who were crucial to taking the Lakers to 7 games two years ago.

 

Taylor is a legit back up....Why is addressing such a position so important? You're talking aobut a guy whos going to get 8 mins a game, maybe 10. Is it really that important to waste assets/cash/space ? Taylor is perfect back up for us, hes cheap, consantly improving, and a different look at the spot compared to Martin.

Like i said before, upgrading everything that isn't top notch is overrated. No one wins with stars/semistars at every position and backs up who can start on other teams. Its not realistic or necessary.

 

SG is arguable, I'll give you that.

Concerning the center position, it is necessary when your backup is a 6'6 center. Unless you can really trust Jordan Hill to do the job, I'd say it is a legitimate concern.

 

But did they miss a sizeable amount of games? Nope. Things did go the Lakers way, considering Kobe and Bynum's injuries could have been a lot worse.

 

thats a stretch. I just cant see us getting past the lakers unless a change is made

although ur right in that we will for sure get past the 1st and maybe 2nd round if no changes are made

 

Also, the loss of Landry was negated by the aquisition of Martin, who is better, and Ariza essentially replaces Artest. So I don't really see your argument.

 

Yao Ming and time together to learn the system for Hill and Martin will help a lot.

DD

 

Best player? And the guy that led us...ROFLMAO !!!

Ron Artest was a valuable role player on the Rockets, when he tried to lead, the team lost.

Man, the revisionist history is staggering.

DD

 

That's part of why i didnt mention it, but i do think it's still premature. Let's at least give Hill a chance to show what he has. If we can get miller at a bargain, then that's fine, but if not i dont think they feel a need to pursue someone. Miller is just the perfect mix. He's an experience vet, familiar with the system, a good guy, and he's at a point where he should accept to back up and be a locker room leader. Otherwise i think Houston would just go forward with Hill and adjust if it's needed later.

 

Agreed. I maybe a homer but
I think so many folx underestimate how good this team is
They not flashy
but they are d*mn good!

Rocket River

 

Ariza the esasiest to replace?

Try to find me a young, ahtletic player with size, who averages 15/5/5 while playing good defense with MLE?

 

Brooks is our building block. He is the youngest. Yao is expendable to me until he displays the ability to stay healthy. Scola is getting older we already probably have the guy he will mentor though as his prodecessor in Patrick because that guy looks like he is gonna be a real stud at least as good as Scola I think. Budinger is a guy developing we dont know his ceiling yet. Hill is the same he could go through the roof but more than likely at least gives us another solid starter type. Battier we need to deal him if we can before the wheels fall off and his value gets driven down. He is stilll good though. Ariza is a solid solid starter on any Championship team. Martin is a star but he might not alwasy be healthy so we could upgradethat spot in the next draft if we need to or see if he can stay healthy this year at least. He can mentor that draft pick though for a couple of years behind him. Lowry we need to keep him. The perfect backup or good starter if we aquire someone at another spot trading away Brooks in the package. NO BROOKS TRADE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN A SUPERSTAR. I empahsize that. Got to be something Superstar to maximize and rationalize the reason for ever using Brooks our only young, star, team carry, and non injury prone player. If not keep him and build around him. Yao has got to go or heal up or play like he is gonna be a 100% in his career again. if not? Got to go....

 

Otherwise a solid 54 win team easily.

 

Id say we are a second round playoff team, but I think this is the year we go all in. We have a core intact, and it is possibly Yao's last big chance to make some post season noise (just saying dealing with his next contract will be an issue and hes not getting any younger or healthier for that matter.)

Have a deep bench is great during the regular season, but in the post season it doesn't matter that much. Your main guys grind out most of the minutes and you just need a couple sparks off the bench for some extra points and foul trouble concerns. I love all our young players but I think if we have a chance to upgrade our front court by shipping them with picks, morey will pull it.

I'd like to keep Martin, Battier and Yao, everybody else is fair game. Hopefully we can land a decent back up C (or hill can become that) because as for right now I am concerned about Yaos playing time. Look at SA, they are masters and limiting their stars minutes until the home stretch then really make a push.

To meet both of these, I think we should keep the deep bench until the trade deadline and really look to upgrade then.

 

When did "BEING A HOMER" turn into a bad thing.

This is a Rockets fan board.

People around here are too busy b****ing and moaning about Bosh not coming here that they are missing a good ride.

The Rox are good as is......

DD