You really don't have to look past how many games the guy plays vs games he doesn't/can't play, how often he mails it in, and what his contract might net us in return (along with, unfortunately, some of our young talent) as the season progresses and other team owners quit lying to their ticket holders (and themselves) about just how good their teams actually are. If we're stuck with McGrady, I hope we win, win, then win some more. But Les does need to look to the future of the team. McGrady isn't it. (Unfortunately I don't know if Yao is, either, but Yao and his international dollars aren't going anywhere, so....)
I would've given them more credit like high school. But, yeah elementary school is even better...LMAO
Let's just face reality we are going no where with a Yao/Mac lead team NO WAY, NO HOW. They have enough trouble just trying to put the 2 on the court together. 6-7 years into it and only 1 first round victory and a bone headed Rudy Gay trade and they still got NO WHERE even in a win now mode. Hopefully Les will realize that the boiling point of frustration keeps boiling over because no need to tank it, they need to gamble. They are getting no younger and it's time to cash it in.
The problem is people are split on the Yao/McGrady reality. I personally think it can be competitive.
you're still hung up on the Rudy Gay trade? Battier's leadership alone is worth the trade, not to mention his defense. We've acquired Luis Scola and Carl Landry out of nothing, signed Trevor Ariza, picked up Brooks and Hayes out of obscurity, and you're mad at the trade of one RUDY GAY? I see what you are saying about the Yao/TMac era, but the GAY 4 Battier trade is the last thing Rockets fans need to be upset with. We've got a decent core, we need to get a full season out of Yao, Tmac or God forbid both
Very frustrating i agree it can be competitive, but it's competitive enough just trying to put them in uniforms. Is Les really profiting that much to care less needless to say? Don't you think that with guys getting older, Yao/Mac/Battier/Scola at some point they will move all the expiting contracts and youth for players that are better then role players to compensate what we will expect from them every season. Aging, breaking down and getting older and the team keeps adding depth instead. The focal point is that the issue is not depth, it's the lack of raw tallent that is better then role player. they need to focus on upgrading role players and youth and expiring's for impact players. This is what teams have been doing. Even when they are healthy there is teams in the West we have no shot against.
Don't forget we dumped Stromile Swift's contract in with that trade. Those other moves would likely not have been possible with his albatross contract on our necks. It would be nice if more folks here could see the whole picture. Someone start a thread about drafting Rodney McCray instead of Clyde Drexler please...
I tend to agree w/ you! I just think that the Rockets never put a legitimate team around the T-Mac and Yao. The interesting part is where do the Rockets go from here. I think they need to sign T-Mac to a 2 - 3 yr contract at 10 - 15 million per and when Yao comes back next year we need to see how far this thing can go. I think T-Mac is going to be even better this time around, because his career is going to an end and I think he wants see this as his last opportunity for a championship.
Call me crazy, but this franchise has made plenty of mistakes in it's history. While 4-5 teams have got even better this year, Rockets is still focused on just trying to get Yao and McGrady healthy and this mind set is very noticeable with this franchise the last few years. As far as progress went on putting players around them go, they could still do alot better and what kicked it off to a negative start was that stupid Rudy Gay move. It's quite obvious that the organization puts way too much faith into the win now theories completely trading off tallent for a role player who is easy to replace is still of question and will always remain a question. So here we are what 5 seasons later and this organization still has to much faith into Yao and McGrady and they are still at a stagnant progress ever since that Rudy deal. Anyways, just saying.
See, that's exactly my point. Complaining about things like that starts a sort of butterfly effect. If the Rockets have Drexler, then they aren't bad enough to get Hakeem. Rockets never win a championship? At least not until now? I'm not sure why some folks like Rudy Gay so much? Didn't Mike James average 20 PPG? It's easy to score on bad teams and lose. There's a lot of Rockets acquired since then, that I'd take over Gay including, Battier, Scola and possibly Landry. It's hard to keep track, but it would seem some of these guys would even deal T-mac for Gay. Gay is the same 45% shooter with no playmaking. Why is efficiency important for T-mac, but not Rudy Gay?
wasn't mike james a good pick-up for us in 04-05? we don't know how good some players can be b/c they're trapped on bad teams. rudy gay isn't a franchise player so he can't turn the memphis around. but he'll be a GREAT 2nd/3rd option potentially on a great team. look at jason terry. he was trapped in atlanta dropping 20 and 7 on the regular. but now on a stacked dallas team, he's arguably the most feared player off the bench. shane battier has been very good for this team. but we don't know what rudy gay could have been. under JVG, he might have focused more on D, since we had yao and tmac. and he could be a great 2nd option player right now. again, hindsight is tough. but i still would have preferred rudy gay.
With every passing year that trade looks worst and worst. Even with Gay or Swift they could have had Scola as well and Landry. They could have moved Swift in a different scenario as he was traded something like twice since then.
If the Tmac/Yao tandem of old had AB, Lowry, Landry, and Scola they could make some noise together. Instead they had Rafer, Juwan, Swift, and Head. But that's the past and you can't count on Tmac and Yao for the future. Both guys are older and injured. Even if Tmac comes back strong from his knee surgery he won't be his 04/05 self. Yao may not fully recover either. Why hitch ourselves to a wagon that has broken over and over again? And for another three years? No thanks.
No...we already had the #1 pick of the 84 draft, and we already had Sampson on our roster. Portland had the #2 pick and they had Drexler on their roster. Portland wanted Sampson in exchange for their #2 pick and Drexler. So if we made that trade, we would've had Drexler and the #1 and #2 pick of the 1984 draft.
I guess I misspoke. I meant to say "hang time". The more hang time you have, the more arm strength you need.
Didn't want to post this in a new thread so here you go. McGrady on schedule Guard Tracy McGrady went through brief portions of Sunday's scrimmages, playing roughly the same stints — less than two minutes on a game clock — as in his previous participation in practice last Sunday. There has been no change in McGrady's timetable to return full-time to practices, with an MRI planned for Nov. 23. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6663237.html
