Analyzing and assessing our championship aspirations

Not sure if it was mentioned but Amare and Boozer just went East. Lebron, Bosh, Wade, Pierce and Allen, Joe Johnson all still in the East.

The Nets are looking hard at Korver and David Lee.

Point is the West is getting weaker, Phoenix and Utah are headed down and one knee sprain to Nash and DWill and they are lotto fodder.

Rockets are in a great position, if Yao stays healthy the sky is the limit as is. Pointing to last season makes no sense, we didn't have Martin, Hill, or Patterson. Bud was a rookie and before Martin Ariza was chucking up shots. He looked 100X better in a smaller role.

Plus you know there will be a Morey swindle at the deadline.

 

So we are relying on our competition to get weaker in order for us to sneak into the playoffs as opposed to us getting stronger and taking a playoff spot away?

 

We are going to get someone. With the impending lock out there will be plenty of teams willing to dumb salary when the trade deadline comes. Hey we only have 18 mil committed after this season. We have the most flexibility in the league and Morey will not ruin it to over pay someone that is not top tier talent. Point is look for us to have either Chris Paul or Danny Granger by trade deadline. Also i do expect Brad Miller to be on this team. I think we are alright and if Yao stays healthy then we are dark horses as the Thunder were last year.

 

If he does it then great but trying and constantly failing isn't a good strategy. Top picks don't get traded much at all, and realistically we don't have anything a team would trade a top pick for. Our only asset that could land us one is a willingness to absorb salary. We had a chance to grab the #2 pick in a strong draft this year and didn't take it, so I have to question how aggressively they're pursuing it.

I wanted to get Amare or Bosh (granger would work too) and go all in this year. At least we would have a few months of pretending that we're legitimate contenders before the reality of Yao and Kmart's health sinks in. Sort of like our aspirations at the start of the year when we teamed Yao, Artest, and Tmac and we really thought the team was going places. Then if it doesn't work, we blow it up, most importantly getting rid of Yao. Building around Yao Ming is unbelievably stupid and yet they keep trying to do it. Yao Ming will probably never get a ring. It's time to get a franchise player to replace him.

 

Is there some way to give this clown negative rep?

Didn't you say you'd leave if Kmart proved you wrong?

 

Champs are champs until beaten... so I guess worrying about LA makes some sense. But the reality is, last season, the losses that hurt our overall record were to other teams, not LA, or other so-called powerhouse teams. And players almost always acknowledge, afterwards, that they had a "letdown". Attitude, effort, and cohesiveness would have won a few more games last season. Oh, and a stronger commitment to defense would have helped.

As far as the current roster, as we all realize, a lot depends on Yao. I seem to also recall, that a lot of fans felt lackluster about Landry, Brooks and Budinger before they showed why Morey was high on them. The biggest mistake in recent history might end up being Ariza. He had such an up and down season and was billed too highly for the talent he actually has. He's good... just not as good as billed by management. But that was probably more about spinning the perceived value of Artest after he left.

Speaking of defense again... Has anyone considered that we had a better defense the year before, and yet had fewer good one-on-one defenders on the team? The Rockets, under JVG, had a very stingy defense and it was by playing very good team defense. I'm a little afraid this may never come back under Adelman. But the flip side is his offensive schemes lead to more points than JVG, so a little letdown might be tolerable. But there is no excuse for the poor defense the Rockets displayed in more than a few games last year. The great homestand where they should have made up a lot of ground was frittered away, mostly because of poor defense. Battier, though a bit on the decline, is still solid. Jeffries is a pretty decent defender and shot-blocker. Hill has the potential. Budinger improved his defense. Lowry... well we know he's pretty good. Ariza can be good. Martin showed better than expected (given his detractors painted his defense as almost zilch.) Scola is pretty good but could improve. Anderson could improve. Patterson may be better than anticipated. All in all, I think better defensive players than the team that played such good defense the year before. It's mostly about focus and commitment which then result in good effort.

Offensively, I think they are improved with Martin, especially, if Yao comes back O.K. But even with a Brad Miller type center, the offense should be competitive. Someone mentioned that the rotation boils down to 8-9 players. But the advantage of our lineup, as mentioned by DD, is the versatility. Instead of worrying so much about how we match up to other teams so much, consider why we did give the Lakers fits. And I don't buy into this "they were just toying with us" analysis. We legitimately gave them headaches with speed vs. size. Phil Jackson got a little peeved with one reporter's questions and said after one of our wins that "they" ought to give the Rockets more credit. Don't kid yourself. Every time that Kobe Bryant steps on the court he wants to crush the opposing team. And Phil Jackson doesn't coach a team to "toy" with the other team. If they seemed like they "weren't in to it" that's also how you gauge a player's talent and value. So maybe they have a couple of players who weren't so great on that score. Isn't a big complaint here that McGrady had all the talent in the world, but just couldn't seem to couple a passion with it?

So I see the Rockets probably not making a big trade at this point. (I'm no discounting something happening; I just think it's less likely at this point.) I think they try their best to improve the center backup position. But it also has to be someone who can also carry the load if Yao has problems, or is slow to get in to top shape. So they actually have to be better than just a backup. I love Hayes defense, but he's too much of a offensive liability to make him our starter night in and night out. They'll probably be content to see how things go with Yao and cast for at least 20 games before making a concerted effort at making a trade. It really should be the main goal of the coach and current players to keep Morey's fingers away from the phone.

I'm happy with the underdog label. I hope all the players read Clutchfans and read threads like this. There are enough doubters as fans, that, if nothing else, they've helped the Rockets by providing some good BB/locker room material.

Here's to hoping for the best but planning for the worst.

 

other teams getting weaker does make our team stronger than theirs...it's all related...not to mention having a full team healthy makes us stronger too.

 

In your opinion, how far do expect the Rockets to go this season?

As currently built, I would want the Rockets to make the second round at minimum. I would be satisfied with a WCF appearance and very happy with a Finals appearance.

My question is, though, what do you expect at minimum?

My answer is the second round.

 

Ask me after the trade deadline.

.

 

At a minimum, my only expectation is that we make the playoffs.

 

I voted playoffs for the minimum,but I meant maximum instead provided if Scola /Lowry come back and if the team remains healthy(especially Yao).

 

The Rockets went after Amare at the trade deadline last year (but there wasn't much assurance that they'd be able to retain him), and they went after Bosh hard this summer.

What are you referring to when you said we had a chance to get the #2 pick but didn't go for it?

 

I guess this is when we find out exactly how crucial Yao is. I'd always thought of Yao as THE most important player on offense in ANY game. That is, there is 0 player now who can really defend Yao one on one straight up whereas there's still players like Artest and such who can shut down Lebron one on one. Having Yao is a MUCH more important aspect than many of you realize I think...can't wait to find out.

 

Yao's importance will be seen more on the defensive end than offensive end, IMO.

 

"If" Yao's healthy(by the end of the season & playoffs) we could be looking at the western conference finals.

If you look at it, behind the Lakers, its basically open season...Rockets, Thunder, Nuggets, Mavericks, and Trailblazers are all going to be fighting for the 2nd and 3rd seed to get home court advantage as well as the chance to avoid the Lakers until the WCF. Where they(Lakers) will be overtaken!

--RB

 

my expectations are that the rockets get to the wcf but as a rockets fan my heart is telling me this is the year

 

If we don't replace Mutombo with a good back up center we are only a playoff team!

 

I think with Yao back we're a pretty damn good team if (big if) he's healthy.

Yao
Scola
Ariza
Martin
Brooks

Thats a pretty damn good starting five. And they complement each other well. We've also got a great bench and young talent.

Imagine Martin playing with Yao. He'll get more open looks in a month that he has had in year. Ariza as a fifth option is great as he can get his offense efficiently and in the flow of the game and focus on defense and efficiency.

Miami/LA etc. never had to deal with a real back to the basket big man (Howard is not). Yao should have a field day with the lack of true big men and centers nowdays and with Martin/Brooks/Arize etc. outside, they can't collapse. This is a team built for the playoffs and to win.

We've also got flexibility and I think could make a deadline deal (Jeffries/Battier + Hill / even Brooks or Lowry/Knicks pick) to get a star.
If a Carmelo/Paul is unhappy and out of the playoff race they may unload one of these guys for cap relief and young talent so they don't get CavED.

I think we've got a great young team and have pieces to land a second star with a full compliment of players that can carry us to a Championship.

I think we'll be good but we need another star to win it all.

 

I like the optimism, I really do. However, I just want to put this out there. Yao is coming off an injury that took a year to come back from. A year. How many players do you know of came back from an injury as severe as that and played at an all star level? Hell, how many of you play pick up ball? When you sprain your ankle doesn't it take you awhile to get back to doing what you were doing on the court before your injury? I love Yao, he's a giant in more ways than the obvious one but he has chronic injuries.

I'm actually kinda nervous about this upcoming year because what if Yao doesn't play up to our expectations? People are talking championship contender when it easily could go the other way around. We're setting the bar way too high here when we should be having a look and see attitude.