"Super-power everyone is expecting"? Who, exactly, do you mean by "everyone"? And what, exactly, do you mean by "super-power"? 48 wins and a first-round exit? Sorry, man, but you're mad. Stark raving mad. And to OP: the Pacers match up well against us. We've lost some "easy wins" to them over past two seasons. And the Bullets/Wizards have thrashed us when we were far superior to them. This year, they have John Wall. If we're 3-6 at the end of this "easy schedule" stretch, I'll be thrilled. Remember last year, when everyone and his dog got their panties wet because we started 20-13 with the hardest sched in the NBA? Now that the schedule gets easy, everyone reasoned, we'll get even hotter and win 55 games. I kept waiting for that easy part to come. We went 22-27 the rest of the way.
It seems to me that there's a big problem with identity on this team. Guys on the floor have little chemistry and no clue who to go to at the end of games. It's the worst possible scenario since going to ANYONE would be better than this indecisiveness. Martin in the last few minutes made a three, and honestly I was telling myself I would have been just fine losing if we had made the decision to go through him every play and see what he could do for us. Instead each player wanted to get a shot off in the end and it was total chaos. I think the underlying problem is this--the management and maybe also the coaching want Yao to become the first option again. They know that he has the highest potential out of all of our players. The problem is that right now--and the players all know this--he STINKS. He's bad on defense, he's afraid to jump, he's afraid to fight for boards or even box his man out. On offense he's a bit more polished but his shot still isn't quite at the level you'd need it to be at to consistently win in this league. So there's some dissention. Players don't like going through growing pains just to baby Yao back to a productive level; they're tired of losing at his expense. At that just compounds the problem, because Brooks is not suited to be a #1 option in this league. Martin has the skills but not the stubbornness or selfishness to tell players to "give [him] the damn ball". Lee and Budinger are good but young and still making dumb decisions at the worst times. Lowry you can tell has been working in the offseason on some sort of an outside shot, but the court vision seems to have suffered as a result. Battier needs to not start anymore; his regression in confidence on the offensive end is astounding, most notably in his wide open threes which never seem to go in anymore unless there's absolutely zero pressure. Scola's the one guy who never gives up and plays with tons of heart, getting better as the stakes go up. I dunno why I ever wanted this guy replaced as a starting PF; it was a big mistake. Can we rediscover some semblance of chemistry? Yes but think about the obstacles which must be overcome in order to do so. Yao needs to improve. The players need to believe in him again and defer to him genuinely rather than just because the coach tells them to. Battier needs to not start. These are huge issues. I'm afraid it might be some time before these Rockets actually start to be good again. And man, that sucks, because for three quarters we really looked like we had 'it' against the Lakers. Confidence is a fickle mistress though. And I stand by my prediction that this season is merely a prelude to next season, when we make our true run for a championship. In order to that though we need to establish ourselves as a power again in the West and make some noise in the playoffs. I still hope we can do that.
That's fair. We don't look like it now, but I thought it was safe to say a lot of people had very high expectations from this team. I still do have high expectations because it's only been 4 games. Right now, a lot of blame for our failure has to be put on little practice time and a hectic preseason in which players should have worked a lot on their stamina/conditioning whatever you want to call it. All of them look slow to react to what's going on in the game. Maybe they need to drink a cup of coffee before the game to get them going like Rafer, but the long-term solution is just practice... and lots of it. When we started last season, it seemed to me that each player knew exactly what his role was and exactly what he needed to do in every situation they faced. This year not so much, if at all; they're all looking to each other to react to someone else's decision. BUT, it's not something that they cannot work on. They need to practice, get back to thinking/reacting quickly, and Coach Adelman needs to give each of them clear instructions and expectations (I'm talking about the defense here more than the offense, though it applies to both). I'm sure that is what he is working on right now with this mix and match of lineups. He is trying to find the groups that mesh best so we can stick with those towards the middle of the season. Last year this came more easily to him because the team together was the underdog, and they all had this attitude. As fans, I think we can sit through about 15 games of disorganization from the team before we can expect to see improvement. That is what I will wait for.
