[BARKLEY on the series] Utah was a bad matchup for Houston

Seattle was only weakness.

This year's team could have lost to Phoenix, Dallas, Golden State, and maybe the Spurs. All of those teams have Point Guard nightmares for the Rockets.

 

Actually yes. In fact we did that 2 years ago when we had Yao on Josh Howard so Yao wouldn't have to match up with Dirk.

 

So Yao was matched up against two All-Stars and its his fault?

Yao vs. Boozer / Okur that should have meant TMac would eat them up playing against inferior talent right?

TMac vs. AK47 or Fisher

Both of our stars let us down.. I actually cringed this series when TMac would take outside shots and shouted attack the rim everytime he touched the ball.

Above all I blame JVG for not using a zone to help offset Boozer inside and throwing different looks at the Jazz.

J

 

If we have an altheletic strong PF who can rebound and block shoot, we certainly can put Yao on Okur without hesitate and we'll shut Boozer down.

 

No. You have to make your outside jumpers to make it easier to drive to the hole. If you just can't make jumpers, the defender will just forcus on your driving and allow you to brick.

 

FWIW, we would've killed the Lakers.

 

Uh the end of the game Rafer snuck in behind Boozer a couple of times and once cleanly stole the ball. Other teams do it to Yao, it is called a double team.

The football analogy would be blitzing - temporarily overwhelming an area with too many defenders and hoping you don't get burnt where you left a hole.

So don't do it all the time. But then don't do it never - or almost never, when it is too late.

JVG = Marty Shottenheimer. Prevent defense prevents victory.

Tired legs lose.

Mind does not overcome matter in the NBA.

Systems break down when attacked at their weak points.

Repetitive systems give your opponents the time they need to figure out how to compensate and overcome them.

Taller, younger, faster more athletic lineups overcome shorter, older, slower less athletic lineups, system or no system.

 

Besides all the hype, we've only known this since draft day, along with the whole world. Somehow Rockets front office and coaching didnt think it'd be liability enough

 

on another note, Barkley has surprisingly become sympathetic towards T-Mac, always saying he doesnt deserve the blame and he feels for him.

 

Rockets lost because they played badly. Put it in a simple way: they cannot shoot straight.

Jazz and Lakers are only two slumping teams in west. I don't think Rockets could pick a better matchup other than Lakers or Jazz.

Don't blame on mis-matchup. Blame on the players. Our superstars didn't play like super, and our role players simply sucked.

 

Codell, I couldn't agree with you more. Boozer was playing absolutely out of his mind in this series. It was insane how easily he could attack the basket and score. Once Boozer and Okur regained their confidence, I knew it was going to be a long series.

I also agree that Van Gundy is a great coach and should not be fired. He does, however, have a tendency to inflexible with defensive assignments, which in turn, limited our success. Playing a zone or simply just keeping Yao out on Okur and Hayes on Boozer may have made the difference in the series.

On the other hand, this series also showed how awesome TMac really is. He put the team on his back for long stretches and really carried them when they needed it. There was a complete over-reliance on him offensively. Each time he went out of the game, the team didn't know what to do besides go to Yao every time. The key to future success is lessening the burdens for our superstars. Witness the Phoenix Suns, the Suns almost always have at least three players capable of bringing the ball up the court and/or making plays. Movement off the ball is rarely stagnant when it gets thrown into Amare, nor does he need to post up every time to receive it. Whereas, we had only Alston or TMac bringing the ball up. However, Alston seems to be completely incapable of conducting an efficient offense. Also, Yao tended to force a lot of shots which ended in turnovers or bad shots. This is probably because he believed those shots had the best chance of going in because his teammates were going to drive the lane.

We need to retool. We can not get past the 1st round next year with the same personnel. TMac is the only play maker for the team. Through trade, free agency or the draft we are going to need to fill some major holes in our offense if we wish to play at a higher level. We need somebody who can penetrate the lane and take some pressure off of our superstars. Van Gundy tried his best with the players we had. Management did a great job of completely retooling this past year. We had a lot of holes and they were patched up and even improved. It was simply too difficult to get players that were athletic because they tend to be in higher demand. Our pure lack of athleticism and mismatches on D led us to an early exit from the playoffs. No matter what TMac says, it wasn't his fault!