Jeez folks! Take a chill pill or something! They started out last season the same way with the spotty play and things turned out OK (at least up until that last game at Dallas...). Anyway, the biggest problem I see here stems from overblown expectations - specifically I have noticed a tendency around here to overestimate the talent on this team and whenever said talent fails to measure up to expectations, an awful lot of anger and frustration is the result. Far too many folks were drinking the Rocket red koolaid especially after they "landed" Stromile Swift. Many were certain that this team was the 2nd best in the West behind San Antonio. Well, it should now be obvious that that's not the case TMac or no TMac. A team that can't shoot over 30 something % is simply not going to win many games, period. That they look ragged now is not all that bad. If they look like this by the end of December, then things will really be bad. Until they show otherwise, I am taking a wait and see approach because I'm not all that convinced that they still have the right mix of players just yet.
If you watch the highlight on NBA nations, YAO looked horrible - always on the losing end of the highlight
We need consistent shooters. But who will trade with us if we continue shooting like that. Anyway, I will also take the wait and see approach, but only till tmac comes back. I just hope the team can turn around before tmac comes back, if not, then we are not ready to be a serious contender.
Honestly It bothers me if we cannot win without T-mac Our team has to at least be 50 50 without him I mean .. . He should be the PUSH over the top not the thing that keeps us competitive I don't want us to be lotto team without him I want us to be fighting for 8th place without him and fighting for #1or2 with him Rocket River
I don't know who all was at the game but what is up with the stupid fake "brick" sound effects when someone misses a shot. Also, why is the volume of the music so quiet. It is like it is barely on.
We flat out suck. It's the hornets and magic we lost to. Chemistry problems are moot since I can't imagine those teams being any more familiar with each other. Will we be better with Tmac? Of course! Will that make us enough to be contenders? I seriously doubt it if we're this bad without him. All the problems we had from last year are still popping up. We can't hold onto leads. There's absolutely no execution down the stretch. We're still slow and inconsistent. And we rely too much on the three. My championship expectations are seriously tempered. Short term fixes? Deactivate Wesley and put Mooch in as backup PG. Seriously, he can't do any worse. Give Head Wesley's minutes at the backup SG. Barry and Rybo will have to hold down the 3 spot. Rely more on pick and rolls to get yao the ball because simply posting it up is not getting it done. Ugh, what a mess.
Everyone is overreacting. It's only been 3 games. Look at other teams that have lost a superstar. In Miami, Shaq is gone (so obviously it's up to Wade to pick up the slack). Consequently, the Heat have lost two games in a row and only recently beat the Nets to sit at 2-2. Remember last year when Steve Nash went out? The Suns lost like 9 games in a row even with Amare Stoudamire and Shawn Marion (and Joe Johnson) on the team. When you lose a player of T-Mac's caliber, there's going to be some drop-off no matter what team you're talking about. If anything, the Rockets really need a PG like TJ Ford, Baron Davis or something like that. You just cannot skimp at the PG position.
Your ignorance is sublime. After the Drexler/OT trade we actually started playing better basketball when Dream went out for a couple of weeks. That's when we finally found momentum. That team was a textbook example of how difficult it is to change roles when new people come in. Maxwell completely lost his mind and didn't give a damn about the team. Posts like yours, if ever read 10 years ago, would have had Vernon banging on your door demanding you help him out on back mortgage payments - or else. Truly, you want a savior on the court, and even if the rules hadn't changed there's no one like that out there, and there never was in the absence of good team play. We're a mess right now. Funny that you compare a "never-gonna-be-great guy" just starting his fourth year to a team with two HOFer's late in their careers that almost inexplicably turned it a notch and made NBA history. You have become quite predictable. Pity, you almost make good sense when you're not back-handing Yao in your comments, but it's obvious you enjoy your chat persona above any semblance of reason.
yeah, i was trying real hard to find some positives. the important thing is the team not losing confidence among each other. i hope tmac doesn't return too soon. let all the weakness get exposed NOW, so there is still time to fix them. if tmac returns soon, maybe the weakness will get temporarily covered up instead of being dealt with.
ryan bowen was the only player on that team who played any defense. everyone else was just standing around looking stupid.
wow these threads are freakin hilarious. talk about overreacting. this team will gell, i think some of you are severely underestimating how good t-mac is and how difficult it is to replace him. this team is built to be great AROUND him. we shouldn't have lost either of these games, no doubt about it, but to use them as a judge for the next 79 is kind of pointless.
this only proves that Tmac is the only legitimate superstar of this team. Yao can't carry an nba team on his back..
Relax everyone-its just the beginning of the season.... When you practice and play with T-Mac as the starter for such a long time and all of a sudden he goes down there's going to be an adjustment period for whoever is replacing him. Not too mention the fact that its just impossible to replace the best player on the team. Also, this is the first time Yao has had to carry this team by himself , give him a bit more time to get used to it. Remember T-Mac had to carry the Magic and ended up with a 19 game losing streak and by that time he had already been in the league for much longer than Yao has. The same things people are saying about Yao now (after 2 GAMES!!) are the exact same thing people were saying about T-Mac during that losing streak with the Magic. We had a rough start last year also and bounced back -I think the same will happen this year.
