I dont think Deke would have fared any better against Boozer then Yao did. But at least with Yao, they had to guard him on the other end which wore Okur out. Deke playing big minutes would have taken that part away.
And Boozer ran over Yao. Mutombo actually fared well in regular season games against the Jazz. And the Rockets got beat way too oft on rebounds, something Deke does well. I can't even think of the alternative if Deke was in those last few possessions of Game 7 instead of Yao. So back at you.
back at me? i agree, yao should not have even been defending boozer, he should have been defending okur. jvg saying he wanted yao near the box to get rebounds? i don't think he got too many rebounds being closer to the box!
I'm just happy we have some options for the 4 spot. Chucky can be our new O.T. and since Scola is an unknown quantity as far as the NBA is concerned, I'll be cautious. But every year is the same (except for 94 & 95), I'm always confident until our season is over.
I don't think anybody except Don Nelson goes into a basketball season aiming to have terrible defense. Adelman's Portland teams were good defensively, and in case you didn't notice last year Phoenix made decent strides towards improving their half court team defense (although don't watch all those 1-on-1 clips involving Amare plz. I don't like to be contradicted so easily!). In any sport I think you look for a balance; it's hard to win a championship if you have a glaring weakness on either front unless you are the Baltimore Ravens. So I bet Adelman does what he can to maintain that defensive headiness the Rockets had last year--you don't just lose it in one offseason if the personnel are the same but the coach is gone. Battier will still rotate with the best of them in the NBA and it'll just be up to the new guys to do the same. Hopefully what we see this year will be a counterpart to what happened to Dallas when Avery took over: their offense was still great, but all of a sudden they incorporated the other side into their game and won more because of it.
which is a shame on yao's part. either way we wouldve lost. okur would've drained 3s on yao while yao would run to the perimeter. its a lose lose matchup either way.
people who were hyper confident last year with Juwan Howard and Rafer Alston as starters were seriously deluding themselves...the Rockets about reached their ceiling during the regular season, especially given the injuries they had.
I am very confident of our team this year and truly believe its time... primarily because we have the right coach who is a former NBA player , who will be able to make adjustments and the read the situation on the floor correctly, and who can think out of the box and motivate players properly. For instance, if Rick sees a player chalking up a lot of ill-advised three point shots this is not something which will escape the perceptive eye of a very astute coach who played in the NBA level. Basketball is a game of momentum, lead changes, and breaks of the game. One lucky break or one crucial adjustment can make or break a team in the playoffs and i am confident that the captain of our ship in Rick Adelman will competently guide us through stormy waters and steer us in the right direction. The problem with our team before was that we kept repeating our mistakes or refused to correct apparent flaws in our game or system because we had a very stubborn coach, who only played division 3 college ball. Anyway, adelman is a class act, and he won't need any index card to figure out the rotations of a deep and talented bench. we have the right personnel on our team , the only thing left is for them to do is go get it. As a line from the movie "pursuit of happiness" goes : " IF YOU WANT SOMETHING... GO GET IT... PERIOD !!!" GO ROCKETS!!!
Last season I really tought we could make something good not great.This year I have higher hopes for Houston Rockets.There is nothing too do,only be optimistic and support our team whatever happens.
i was confident last yr b/c of the acquisition of bonzi. i thought he would provide the scoring that hurt us v. dallas (to challenge stackhouse) and also the perimeter size to negate the post up play of other teams on our short guards. but we saw how that turned out. i'm VERY confident about this yr b/c we have so many options that even if one or two flopped, we still have a lot of pieces. we have james/francis to negate bonzi if he's sulking again this yr. we have actual options at the 4 spot and hopefully that would open up our tmac-yao pick and roll again (the guy that guarded hayes/howard always leave them to cover yao when yao's man goes to cover tmac) and hayes can't do jack offensively and howard was just out of it v. utah. and we actually have offensive creativity. yao won't be locked down in the post. tmac won't be locked down in playmaker role and pick and roll offense. i'm really confident we can win the whole hting this yr if we have no injuries at all that could disrupt the rhythm of the team. tmac + yao = it's time baby.
I'm pretty confident. I'm not sure our new coach is the right answer, even though I like him. I just don't know that is what we need. We've definitely added some big pieces, and so there is huge potential. I'm optimistic.
Is reassurance the same thing as confidence? Because I feel more reassured about this team than I have any Rockets team in years. If McGrady goes down, we still have capable scores in Francis, James and Scola. If Rafer (assuming he's still the starter) can't hit the side of the barn (like in most games), we still have James, Francis and Brooks to fall back on. Yao has a minor injury? You still have Scola capable of playing the high post. I'm not saying these substitutions and options are equal to the players they would replace (like McGrady's scoring compared to Francis' or James') but it feels damn good to know that if TMac or Yao or both gets injured, we don't have to depend on lesser players to score.
I think this season is definitely more promising than last. The reason is that we have the identical team plus we have Francis and Scola. So that's definitely a lot to be hopeful about.
I felt three ways last year. 1) After trading Rudy Gay, who could've possibly been a third wheel on this team...I didn't think that was too good even getting Shane Battier. I thought it was yet another bone-headed move by the Rockettes (that was the nickname for them I gave)...I was like we lost almost 50 games just get decent player. I mean Shane Battier was ok player, but I figure he was the kinda player any team could end up with if they kept their eyes opened enough. While I figured Rudy Gay might turn out to be borderline all star worst...maybe another Rashard Lewis or Corey Magette...which I would figure with healthy T-Mac and Yao would be enough to get WCF. I was pretty upset and it was not good week....F JVG, F the Rockets, F the Rockets that, and they intentionally were not trying to win. I was like are they crazy...with all this win-now talk....with just acqusition of Shane Battier. I knew Yao, T-Mac, Shane, and the YMCA players. Wouldn't be enough to win the west. I felt we would be about 48 - 51 wins...as 5 or 6 th rank team. 2) We acquired V-Span and Bonzi, Y'know I figured...we might have pretty fiery bunch. V-Span had just almost took down a pretty good USA team, while Bonzi almost took out the Spurs averaging over 25 ppg and 10 rebs. And throwing Bonzi on team who at full strength was light years better than Kings. And a team who almost took out the Mavs with Yao, T-Mac, and rag tag group of aging vets. Would push us up to about 52 to 53, I figure T-Mac, Bonzi, and Yao wouldn't play every game...and we could even get a home-court spot in 1st Round. 3) Season started...Bonzi was already having trouble with JVG, while V-Span might not have as good as thought to be and said something to JVG to get him in further in the doghouse. After the first two months, Houston looked like a good team...we weren't gonna be as good as the Suns or Spurs, but we could probably give the Mavs a good series and win. Yao was probably the MVP league, if it doesn't get hurt....honestly he would've won with 26 ppg and 10 rebs, 2 blks....no one else in the league had numbers like. And really the Spurs and Mavs didn't have answer for him. But we would get past the first round, but lose to one of the big three in tough series. Then he gets Hurt...damn. So much for this season. 4) All of sudden, T-Mac takes over we go 20-12 without Yao, we're still beating bad teams, but can't really take the big 3 and the Jazz. But we have shot at homecourt...Yao comes back we get slightly better and roll into playoffs. With a first round home court advantage against the Jazz...so everything is coming true except for Bonzi having significant role. Then I watch the games...T-Mac and Yao look about the same, but the rest team is horrible...Game 3 came and.... .....after that game...I knew we where gonna lose the series...no matter what T-Mac and Yao did....because role players where just not good enough.
Yeah we were so relaxed when we won those 2 games at home.I remember Hayes was telling we could lose 2 at Utah and I was like no way Mavs could ever happen again.Damn, hate Jazz.And that trade was Stro and 8TH pick for Shane and I thought that was good trade,b/c we couldn't really know and wait Rudy Gay altough he is brilliant in Memphis.And if you think again without that trade we wouldn't have Scola-Vspan trade but thats another story.Btw great thread.
