Any way you look at it, this season has been a complete waste of time

lol... ???


Juaquin Hawkins-like him, good role player can stay on the team!!!

 

You all are so respectful!

FIRST. OF COURSE THEY REGRET NOT TRADING GRIFFIN. They probably regret drafting him and trading 3 picks for him!
Mobley is too arrogant and will never accept to playing less than 42 minutes per game. He just...is like that. But he has good trade value.
Posey is athletic. He can run. He can jump. He's a spark. But we should not resign him for more than $3 million a year. He's not worth more than that. There are plenty of other talented free agents. I hope they resign him for a fair price.
Kandi seems gone. And definitely Miller is gone.
We could make a trade for Brand. But it would probably have to include Francis, Yao, or Mobley. Odom would be easier to get...

I will watch the Clippers! What if they get Lebron James?!?

 

We not only wasted this season to improve. We wasted this season's pub from the media as well. We were the media darling earlier this season due to the arrival of Yao Ming. A lot of people focused on us. We had the prefect opportunity to build on that and put Houston basketball on a national-wide or even world-wide map. But we failed big time.

 

We are worse than wasting our time.

We should have started rebuilding as soon as we decided to draft Ming.

At that time Mobley did not feel happy and we cold have sold him for good deals. Many other teams may not want him because he is too famous an ISO player now.

In the past Rox received less media attention and not many people saw Rox's games. But now more and more ugly Rox games were broadcasted publically and more and more people are laughing at Rox as a dumb team and Rox coaches as dumb coaches.

How many games in which we make guards of other teams look like Jordan? How many games Rudy and Mean are totally outcoached?

Rudy said that Yao will fell better in Rox than in his National team because the guards in that NT don't want pass or don't know how to pass. Now what? We don't see anything thing better in Rox team, maybe even worse.

Instead, Rudy makes the china national coach feel better in that he can say "well, i could probably teach Rudy how to use Yao better". SF and Cat make the guards of china's NT feel better in that they can say "well, we could have done better if teamed with Ming in Rox"

.......

 

Houston Rocekts underachieved this season. Admit it.

Sorry this is not a knee-jerk reaction of us finally being eliminated for the playoffs. This is my true thought and analysis of this season.

1. The Team
As a team, we underachieved this season. Read those pre-season analysis again or at least think back what your pre-season expectation was. We were expected to make playoffs by nearly every single person. But we failed to do so. Admit the underachievment and stop defending them saying "we are a young team", "Other playoffs teams are more talented than us" blah blah blah.

2. The Players
Let's see...

Players who overachieved:
- Yao: Think back what you expected of him pre-season. Even the biggest Yao haters/critics have to admit that he exceeded our expectation.
- Cato: Again he's another player who exceeded our expectation. But he's 28/29 and most probably as good as he's now so we might better off trade him while his value is at the highest.

Players who met expectation:
- Posey: I think he provided everything that's expected of him at the time when we traded for him. But maybe he's playing for a contract. I hope we don't overpay him just because of 1 "meeting expectation" season. Let's see what happens.
- Taylor: Provided the scoring off the bench. I think he did just that.
- Rice: Did okay and he's not injuried as much.

Players who underachieved:
- Francis: I don't know what you expected of him this season. I for one expected him to be more of a true floor general/ a calming influence. But he failed in that sense IMO. What intangible did he ever provide this season?
- Mobley: When will he ever change? He's already a 28-year-old veteran. Let's admit that he will never change his "selfish" way and move on.
- Griffin: I read that pre-season some people said he would become our inside go-to guy. Some said he would outplay Yao. Even the less optimistic thought that he would at least "break out". Well he didn't. I am not even sure he's overrated in the 1st place or he really underachieved.
Norris- Again I am not sure what you expected of him. I expected him to at least contribute 10-15 minutes guard play off the bench to relieve the pressure of the starting guards. I didn't expect him to "help" but at least not "hurt" us. Safe to say, I think he hurt him more than help and 1 min of him playing was a horror.
- Nachbar: NBA ready anyone?

No wonder our team underahieved when so many players underachieved.

3. The Coach
Ultimately, the responsibility of the team result fell firmly on the coach and our team result failed this season. Rudy was a championship coach and I think it's not unreasonable to expect good to great coaching from him. But from our offensive system to substitution pattern, from developing young players to winning games, Rudy's average at best. He underperformed, big time.

 

Newgirl, I don't always agree with your posts but I think your analysis is right on the money! Too much underachieving this year on the Rockets team.

Forget the playoffs, the underachieving part is the most distressing aspect of this season and obviously has to be something that will be addressed.

I wonder though, is the underachievment the result of the player not performing well in general, OR the player not being put in the right situations to perform up to their expectations. In other words, is our offensive system so horrible that these players can't perform to their capabilities or are they players that no matter what system you run they are underachieving. Something to consider for the Rockets fans and for the Rockets organization and something they have to sort out.

 

Let's see, at the start of the season, a new center arrived from China who could barely speak English. He missed ALL of training camp, and almost ALL of the pre-season. By the end of the season, that guy was a focal point of the offense. Let me repeat: this new guy who could BARELY SPEAK THE LANGUAGE, and who nobody had even met until the START OF THE SEASON, became a FOCAL POINT of the offense, and we almost made the playoffs. Do I need to go on?

 

Don't underestimate the trade value of Glen Rice this summer:

1. He would be marketable as a player in a package to get the total salaries up that we could receive in return. He will count $9 to $10 towards the cap (with New York paying a portion of which). But he is in the final year of his deal, so our trade partner can shed a lot of salary. Which in today's NBA every team but Dallas and Portland is trying to do.

2. He was a servicable shooter off the bench, which every team needs, especially against zone defenses. He was hot after he came back from his injury.

3. He is experienced (with a championship ring), and a good locker room guy, especially in teaching the youngsters.

Package him with a Mobley or a Griffin to a team trying to rebuild or get costs in line, and we might be able to get a high-priced stud in return, or a mid-priced stud plus an overpaid player whose contract a team is trying to shed.

 

Please do.

The offense is essentially the same as it has been in seasons past. Only instead of Mobley running the ISO play while every watched, Yao is running the ISO with everyone watching. Phoenix didn't seem to have a problem getting Amare to be a focal point of their offense, while not costing their playoff chances.

Give me some specific examples on the court where you see the team making big strides. One where you can point out and say "this player would have made this mistake at the beginning of the season, but he doesn't make it any more" or "under this situation the team would have choked, but they don't any more".

 

Man, so many highs and lows in Clutch's first paragraph.

From:

YES!!!!

to:

That sentence made me physically ill.

 

That's a scary thought. If there's one guy I figured would not be the Rockets' head coach next year, it's Larry Smith. Clutch, is there any particular reason why he'd be back(other than $$$)?

 

Does it rhyme with clown or crown or down or town or frown or gown.

 

Hmmmmm ....lets see

Larry Brown
Larry Robinson
Larry Hughes
Larry Bird
Larry Johnson


my guess hes either talking about Brown or Bird.

 

Calvin Larry Murphy?

 

That would be cool if Larry Bird coached the Rockets...

 

Well, obviously Clutch is talking about Larry Staverman, who coached the Kansas City Kings in 1977...

 

Nice -- I skipped right over that!

I feel better now.

Let the speculation begin ...

And keep an eye on Roy Williams/the UNC job. If he doesn't take it, Larry Brown is their second choice and Brown damn near took the job last time it was available. I have a feeling he'd take it this time.

Assuming, of course, that Clutch was talking about Larry Brown.

 

Just plain ole Larry, with Curly and Moe as assistants.