He also saw Iverson light up our backcourt for his career high of 58 points 2 years ago. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about Taylor..."if he shows up out of shape". He got hurt playing basketball. He wasn't able to keep his weight down due to injury, but worked a good portion of it off before the season, and more as the season progressed. I see his rebounding as a potential issue for Brown, but not Mo's work ethic. As for EG, I'm hoping Brown takes interest in him. It would be very nice if he was able to turn EG into Theo Ratliff without the injuries and with range on his outside shot. Because of Eddie's age, I don't see him getting rid of EG before at least seeing what he can do up close.
I give you 10 to 1 odds that 5 games into the season, Larry Brown will become increasingly impatient and EG will be on the block for peanuts. Brown hates young, lazy, fundamentally unsound players. I don't know what EG's trade value is now but I guarantee you that once the season starts, it'll be less.
And that is key! I have to think if Brown does NOT take the Rockets coaching job, one of the points might be because he was not going to get enough control. He likes to be able to make personnel moves. Sometimes a lot of them and sometimes in knee jerk fashion. He almost traded AI to Detroit for Stackhouse don't forget! And quite frankly while he may be a great coach, his GM abilities are lacking, at best. The Tim Thomas/Ty Hill trade is a perfect example. This is where having CD/Rudy up there will be key as they will not give players away.
Just from reading the first 2 posts.........MAN. This is a great summary....stuff that everyone already knows. This thread should be a sticky! All the other threads are about these 3 major topics mainly... Crash's post was great! I agree! Griffin....better do good. And we should draft Kendrick Perkins. Resign Posey please. Resign Hawkins. Let Maddox go. But first....we need a coach. Depends on what the coach wants... "A banger 4, A new starting backcourt mate for steve that passes and shoots (at 1 or 2, dont care) A distributor, rebounding 3 A shooter. Cat to bench (or gone). Big contracts for bench guys eliminated." lol Pasox. We need these....but not likely. Anyways..what happens to Moochie?!? I hope he gets waived! What's wrong with Taylor's D?!?!? I hope Brown will just be coach. Eddie Griffin.......is an unknown. I hope he has stopped smokin.
Sure there is. It is why every journalist in town wrote about his flakiness and tendency to leave behind scorched earth. I love Brown, and if he'd really commit to Yao Ming and CD longterm; I'm all for him...but you cannot deny that he alienates teams. This is wrong. Indiana was 41-41 before he arrived, and 39-43 when he left. Don't you remember how Larry Bird had one of the biggest turnarounds in NBA history...taking Indiana to 58 wins after the team gave up on Brown? How does Brown's Pacers produce their worst record in 10yrs and Bird immediately produces their best record *ever,* and Brown left them better than when he arrived. Further, the San Antonio era is not a good example of leaving teams better than we he got there. Brown went there the year SA got Robinson and coached for 2 yrs in the cellar waiting for Robinson to retire from the Navy. Then he quit midseason in Robinson's 3rd season leaving them at 21-17 headed for their worst year ever that Robinson was at SA. Robinson's WORST YEAR. Again, not true. Indiana made 4 consecutive playoffs before he got there. As for NJ, he took that team knowing they had the 3rd, 10th pick, and 20th pick in the draft. The roster was completely overhauled. He went to SA knowing Robinson was his in 2yrs. UCLA was winning 25 games a year 2 years in a row before he got there under Cunningham; in Brown's last year (his second year) they won only 20 games, worst in UCLA for a millenium, and the next guy did better in his first 2 yrs. I agree, and that would be groovy. I have confidence that CD can make the right decision about whether Brown will flake or not. but you cannot just dismiss his history of scorching teams that everyone talks about. His "move on"s (as you put it) have been in a damaged state of a team or have flat out damaged teams preparing for playoffs. Brown "moved on" in midseason 3 times, and left Indiana in an alienated state. He "moved on" twice (Denver and NJ) just weeks before the playoffs started to take the UCLA job and Kansas job, respectively, and he "moved on" from SA at midseason when they were going no where. You have to believe that had he got the UNC job like he has wanted for awhile, that he would have left Iverson right before the playoffs, too. Great coach...but there is baggage that we have to have Dawson look over. <b>Don't forget that he was coach when David Robinson and Reggie Miller teams had their worst seasons in the 90s.</b> I believe Dawson will make the right decision. GO ROCKETS!!!
I agree with this. Eddie is lazy and without any fundamentals nor care, and Brown will immediately see that his blocking is more a detriment (allowing guys to back him in then going for the swat) that it is real defensive talent.
If Larry Brown can turn AI from a petulant ballhog to a MVP, I have to believe he can have a positive effect on Steve and Cat. I'm not ignoring the fact that Iverson still jacks up more shots than anyone in the league, but that is the design of the offense LB constructed in Philly, and it was good enough to get them to the finals. Having said that, our team is completely different with Yao Ming. He has to be the FOCAL POINT of our offense, ala Shaq, but that doesn't mean SF cannot fill the Kobe role and be a scoring force in support of Yao. The problem is, LA didn't win anything with the Van Exel's and EJones's trying to get their shots too. Hence the need to trade our players whose strength is individual scoring (MoT, Cat) for players who contribute in other ways. Even Glen Rice didn't fit in with Shaq and Kobe; guys like Fox, Fisher, Horry, and Harper were the glue guys who hit the occasional big shot, but new their role and had no problem defferring to the big two offensively. I hope whatever coach the Rockets hire shares this "vision" with me. With the two superstars in place, we have plenty of tradeable commodities (Cat, MoT, Cato, Rice, Griffin) to bring in guys who make their living on D, rebounding, and moving without the ball on offense. It has been mentioned often since Rudy stepped down that what our team needs most, before any changes in personnel, is a definitive direction or plan for the team, and I think that plan begins and ends with Steve and Yao. I really don't care if Steve is the PG, whether or not Mobley starts, subs, or leaves, or whoever they decide is the starting PF. I just want a confident, decisive coach who will DEMAND that everyone fall in line with his plan, or leave. Too bad Bill Parcells coaches football.
I agree. It's just hard to get all these role players...unless Rockets want major change. Maybe only one or two trades...
Hey partner, as always, an accurate thoughful post. But I think you're jumping on Jeff's quote: "There is nothing imperically speaking to support this reasoning. Every place Brown has gone, he has left better off than when he started. Every single team he has coached was a bad (or mediocre) team when he got there and a playoff team when he left". I know Jeff can and will, defend himself here, but he might have been more accurate to say "There is empirical data to show that all the franchises Brown's coached for have benefitted from his tenure there". There is a consensus of that around the league though I'm sure not everyone agrees on that point. As I said, I'll leave Jeff to state his case. I never thought I'd want Larry Brown coaching the Rockets, but I do now. It may just be residual loyalty for Rudy and what's happened to him (the cancer and...), it may be that Steve, Cat and Mooch finally baffled me beyond anger last season - or maybe it's just a weird weeklong form of indigestion. At any rate Silas would be my second choice. He deserves a good job.
Yes philly snuck through that hole when Indy was rebuilding and some other teams weren't ready, but since then, they haven't smeeled the east finals. Brown would make this team better, but are we going to see a conflict between him and cd? will cd make some of the knee jerk trades that larry might want to make him happy? We'll see
At first I wanted Larry Brown to handle CD's job. But looking at the trades he's made, I don't want to see him make moves out of frustration. However, I think a combination of Larry's suggestions and CD's work will ultimately make us a better team. This is Larry's final job. His final shot at a championship. You better believe he'll coach the HELL out of this team. He's going to make sure everything's perfect, and he will lead the Houston Rockets to the NBA Championship Final, and unlike the Sixers, we'll win it. The experience he has with Allen Iverson is PRICELESS. The respect he demands is incredibly rare. Micheal Jordan said that if he could choose a coach, he'd choose Larry Brown. It's just meant to be. Champions will be champions forever. Larry Brown MUST win an NBA Championship. Larry Brown will coach the Houston Rockets, and anyone who stands in the way of these goals will be traded or bought out. I don't expect any major deals during the summer (maybe a Guard) but I see a semi-major deal at the deadline (midseason). Ming MoT (after a summer of putting himself in BRILLIANT shape) Posey Mobley Francis We will be starting the season like this, barring major injuries.
Just from reading the first 2 posts.........MAN. This is a great summary....stuff that everyone already knows. I agree. The best Rockets thread in ages. Leebig and Crash started very strong. Amazingly the thread has stayed strong. I like Lee's comment about Larry and Philly. You need more than the vision thing. Larry was clear in his vision, Iverson and role players. Unfortunatley he underestimated the talent needed to win it all or stay in contention year after year. In his own way CD is strong, too and can hopefully balance Larry Brown out. Hopefully we can have Larry without the talent gap he tried to overome. Why give up on EG if you can't get a good player for him. Let him sit on the bench and learn like many 21 year olds have done. Maybe he has actually had his confidence shaken by being thrown in at too young an age. I know, Stoudamire, but maybe traditional wisdom applies to Eddie. Am I the only one to notice: And I talked to (former Rockets player) Kenny Thomas, and I talked about the team and organization. He loves it. He said very good things about the organization and the players there." Hey Larry can bring back KT who is his type of player and I believe all the "banger" we need. With a stronger Yao, Cato and KT how much banging do we need. AS far as I know the Rockets were seldom outclassed on the boards or "outbigged" from my recollection. Our primary need is veteran shooting under pressure. Note the rookies or near rookies of San Antonio wilting as shooters.
