They haven't won any rounds. Our of the 3 occasions they have been in the playoffs, how many of the first rond matchups were they favored to win? Only Utah in 07. There have been 6 teams in the Western Conference that have been past the first round. LA, Dallas, New Orleans, San Antonio, Phoenix, Utah. Which of those teams was Houston better than?
I was discussing the merit of the argument that Yao is being held up by Tmac. As far as blowing it up, it's definitely an option. No playoff success guaranteed. I personally think that Yao plays best when Tmac feeds him the ball. When healthy, they've had glimpses of great play and good chemistry. I guess the question is, what do the Rockets look like after blowing it up. Sometimes when you blow something up, it works better, sometimes it doesn't
The Rockets have a history of trying to win now. The team trades away young talent for proven players because our fans and owner don't have the patience to wait for young guys to develop. We've been doing this now and it has not paid off. We get to watch our players get old and break down while the young guys we traded away help their teams advance. Would Rudy Gay or even Donte Green struggle to dunk the ball against Indiana on the last play of the game. Artest and Yao both look like they are declining already and we know Mac is on his way down. Meanwhile teams like Miami and Portland have drafted great young players and will be the top teams in another few years. Morey did great drafting Brooks and Landry but they have been the exception in Houston - young talented and athletic we just don't have many of these types of players. Mac's time in Houston is coming to an end - no way can you afford to pay a guy 20+ mil a year and he does not play half the season every year. Thing is no one is going to trade for this guy either, so we have two more years until he's gone.
I heard/hear you loud and clear. They both are awesome talents with even more potential. It's been four years and none of us have seen that potential (post first round success). Not sure it can happen with this pairing. Blowing it up is a gamble. At some point it has got to happen anyway. Someone at the top of the Rockets organization has to make the commitment to get the kind of players in there that are hungry for a championship.
You're just throwing a bunch of hypotheticals. Trading away young talent is not necessarily a bad thing. Look at some of the statistics here. http://www.draftexpress.com/article...s-and-Failure-through-Historical-Trends-1362/. From 1980 to 2001 only 8% of the players picked outside the top 14, become stars. The lottery is just that, a Lottery Rudy Gay perhaps would not struggle to dunk the ball at the end of the game, but would he put you in a position to win the game at the end? Gay has the worst winning percentage of any "star" You don't know if Miami and Portland will be great teams. You're repeating the media talking points.
His expiring contract might make him more tradable than you think, but I agree with you on the Rockets not giving him a max contract extension. I don't see that happen unless they win it all this season.
Well MacFan I'm not saying all the young guys we've traded were sure fire stars in the NBA besides Gay most are just solid role player types. What I am saying is our current formual has not worked over the past decade. I think we may have to look at drafting smart and start developing young players and that may be our best chance at a title.
When does his Contract Expire. If it expires at the end of next year I think the KNICKS would be ripe for the picking Like 3 draft picks and some someone of note Then they can go after Lebron and the Rockets can Reload! Rocket River
No reason to blow it up now. Other than Landry and Brooks, we really have no young talent to build a core around. Might as well ride it out because we still do have 3 All-stars on our team. If we don't end up signing Artest back, I would say blow it up 2010. McGrady comes off the books, a lot of players do I think (alston, scola, battier, barry, etc). Maybe sign a young star cheap to play around Yao. Or if we play our cards right, we could trade Tmac's expiring, take on some bad contracts but in the process get some picks and prospects. We would miss out on the 2010 lotto, but we would get younger. And besides, all of the guys in the 2010 free agency are going to sign for way too much somewhere else or stay with their current teams. I'm not really interested in signing a Deng type player for 14 million.
Problem with that logic, is that no one wins a title on drafting alone. Lets take Cleveland for example. They draft Lebron at #1... but they trade for Ben Wallace, Wally, West, Mo Williams.. all those guys. How bout Detroit. I can't think of anyone on that championship team that they drafted that was a key part of their run. Everyone was a free agent signing or trade. The Spurs are the only team I can think of who have won all of their key pieces in the draft. But they had the #1 pick, and then drafted Ginobli and Parker late and it worked out for them. So, sure, maybe we win in the draft for a year or two. But eventually we're going to be in the same position where we are trading guys and signing free agents to get talent just like we are in now.
I wouldn't blow it up, I'd just send Tracy packing, as in "Your Fired!" He has to much baggage, is mentally weak, basically a primadonna. We still have enough that we're not blowing it up. We still have the best center in the league, We still have the True Warrior, we still have Scolandry and company. Really all we need is a player that can hold down Tracy's spot, be consistent in what they bring to the table and leave it all on the court every game. This emotionally roller coaster is for the birds, not for the Rockets! One minute I'm playing, one minute I'm not. How are we suppose to find ant consistency, when we never know what to expect?
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid823425601/bclid853723710/bctid2917234001 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/6138625.html
Ok, hopefully the doctor will say him the same, that he can get back to 100% while playing. Maybe he will finally understand that and come out playing really well.
Well, D-Wade did say this kinda injuries are hard to deal with, the situation which was reported is, he's not 100% and he cant aggravate it further by playing on it. maybe its no coincidence that Shane came back and T-Mac shut it down. let him rest a few games and see how it goes.
