You must not remember last year. A majority of the people on the board were saying we'd be lucky to win 45 games. Most people predicted we'd get the 7 seed. Not many were pleased with the Battier trade, and our offseason additions were all rookies whom we knew wouldn't play much. Bonzi came in fat and out of shape, and he took a leave from the team. To top that all off, after Yao went down with injury, people were calling for Greg Oden. You have to remember JVG, who rarely makes bold assertions to the media, said something like "Bet on us". It might have been a pr/marketing campaign, but hey, he was right. I did bet on them and I did win a lot of money. This year, there's definitely a different feel though.
Yao can't guard two players at the same time, which part of the reason why Boozer had good serious...give us a half-way decent power foward...we win that series....most of wasn't his fault...it could be attributed to the power play at 4 spot and and JVG strategy. With Scola, Yao can defend Okur or even Boozer the whole game, and go one on one not two against one.
the series showed yao cannot guard boozer for a long time. he just can't. the reason we were FORCED to put yao on boozer was b/c that puts yao nearer the basket for rebounding purposes and stopping the drive. he can't guard okur either b/c okur basically stays on the outside. but we need yao for offense. but in all, our defense was not the problem. when u have a game where only 4 freaking players to score in a damn playoff game, it tells you how pathetic your supporting cast is offensively. alston/head/howard really disappeared.
I wasn't particularly confident in the Rockets chances of going deep into the playoffs last year. My biggest concern was the lack of depth. This year, I'm more confident in our chances of going deeper into the playoffs, but the west is still really deep.
Hayes and Howard were doing poorly against Boozer, which one of the main reasons we had switch Yao on them to play them. I think he can guard Okur...most games have shown he can...Okur was cold in the series and didn't get hot until about 6 or 7...which why Yao was having such hard to time...he can't guard two players at the same time.
no no my friend. hayes actually punked boozer for the few possessions that hayes was on him. i clearly remembered hayes blocked boozer TWICE on one posession. but we had to have hayes on yao b/c if yao guarded okur, he would be nowhere near the paint. (howard was another story. he got destroyed by boozer too) yao can guard okur if okur plays on the "inside." but he doesn't. if yao guarded okur, okur would wisely stayed at the 3pt line and draw yao out there. if we could have put hayes on boozer full time, i guarantee a shut down would have been in place. hayes is just as strong and just as quick and he's scrappy. that would have frustrated boozer. trust me, but JVG said to start the series, we had to put yao on boozer by default. what other options did he have? yao is 7'6, u don't want a 7'6 guy on the perimeter.
go watch the series again my friend. hayes was on boozer for like 3-4 possessions a game. and those possessions belonged to hayes. and go read JVG's statements b4 the series started. yao was on boozer by default. JVG knew that was a poor matchup but that was the only way to keep yao in the paint for rebounding and stopping guard penetration.
Yes that's right. Yao was on Battier for the most of the times but Hayed did guard him several times and I think he did it pretty well. Yao was to slow. One fake and Boozer could do everything he wanted. The true is we didn;t have a guy who we could put on Boozer. When you think deeper Utah didn;t have a guy who could slow down Yao, Okurs should suck but he did a great job.
now, if we play utah again, we could go to a smaller lineup that will suck the life out of them. we'll put hayes on boozer and scola on okur, that should wrap up their front court. bonzi should match up w/ harpring. tmac guards giricek. francis/james should negate deron. u see how deep we are now. i think yao can guard boozer in stretches b/c boozer did make some incredible jumpers that i don't think he'll make consistently next time he faced us (remember that bad game he had earlier during the reg. season against us. he was just hot against us). let's just say i'm more confident b/c we are MORE EQUIPPED to face every team. we have the matchups to switch up the styles (ala the spurs can when they play phoenix or jazz). when yao is out, we can play the suns style (not as fast of course). when yao is in, we play half-court.
I agree with doublehh03. I know our team is very deep now, that changes in offseason were really succesfull. We have a bench which we didn;t have last year. Adelman will have deeper rotation not only 8-7 players (like JVG had). Hayes is quicker than Yao that's why he would be better against Boozer. Carlos isn't a good jumpshoter. He had a lot more easy dunks and layups cause Yao couldn't stay with him
Boozer had plenty of jump shots against us in the playoffs too. Not so much when Hayes guarded him thought.
b/c hayes would guard him very tightly. he can't beat hayes off the dribble so he had to post hayes up. and we all know how tough hayes is on the block. it's very tough to mvoe him.
i am confident because not only did we add good players, but we added a coach who will be able to utilize their strengths. prepare for the return of the spurkiller bonzi rockets vs celtics 2008 final
I'm much more confident than I was last season. Last year, there was at least one position (PF) that I thought we were COMPLETELY screwed at. This year, I believe we have great talent at every single position, and a lot of depth at most of them, too. This is the most confident I have ever been in the Rockets since 1996. If we don't make something happen this year, I will be crushed... even moreso than the 7-game loss this season.
