Exactly! As if we traded Francis, Mobley, and Cato for Tracy and future prospects! Now it's for the future, well now we have to rely on Rocket's management to get guys in here that will work with Tracy and Yao, and I for one don't trust the Rockets in that department. Building around these two won't be nearly as easy as building around a Shaq and Kobe either, these two will need a lot more help.
I am not sure y ppl think that the team we have last year is not going anywhere.... we played Lakers tough for 4 games (the last one was terrible) without Yao stepping up.... practically we hang in the series with Francis alone... and ppl just came in and said that the team is not going anywhere with Francis on the team?? Tmac been in the league long enuff but he still refused to be the team leader... Yao might have a chance in the future to step it up but that doesn't seems to be the case from wat I see now..... chances of CD bringing in the missing pieces? Close to zero..... I was being optimistic with my last post.... but personally, I think this trade threw us back into rebuilding mode.... and with CD.... seriously, how many season are we going to wait b4 role players comes in? even when we get the pieces to fit in, who will be the leader on the court (a basketball team do need a leader on court to bring the whole team together)
I noticed Also . .the same folx that say ORLANDO ISN'T CHAMPIONSHIP caliber. . .. but we will be they act like Orlando has no draft picks and cannot trade or anything As of right NOW . . they are closer than we are PURE AND SIMPLE that is not to say they will win one 1st or at all but their team is more complete than ours wereas . .this time last year. . .the reverse was true honestly. . . i am losing more and more faith in CD Rocket River Rocket River
For what its worth, I really like Steve Francis. But my love for the Rockets always comes first. I will state that I was the happiest when Francis came to Houston. I have been a Cat fan since his days at RI. The charge of hatred for that duo is not with merit. Go Rox!!!
Other reams don't get nearly as many wide open looks as we do. It is pathetic how our team is shooting when we consider all the wide open bricks the role-players are throwing up. Heck, Ryan Bowen isn't even bothering to try to shoot anymore when he has the ball with nobody inside 10 feet of him, he just swings it around to somebody who is already covered. We have 2 players shooting over 40% from the arc, and they have combined for 28 attempts. On the TWolves, they have 3 guys shooting over 40% that have each taken more than 28 attempts. If we swapped Taylor, Jackson, and Sura for Griffin, Hoiberg, and Sprewell, we would be playing a lot better. One of the bg offseason losses for us was Eric Piatkowski. I wish we could have moved someone else to the Bulls and kept our best 3pt gunner. Jackson, Ward, and Padgett were expected to hit open threes for us, if they are not doing it for some reason, then we are going to struggle.
For the last time, I really don't care how the Rockets do this season. I am the same way, I really don't understand why they suck so badly. I thought they would be at least .500 till this point. But the reason I responded to that post with Orlando's record is because the bitterness some of these guy show towards their early success is sad. You can keep letting people know that I thought the trade was the right move, but in all honesty I'm happy Steve and crew are doing what they are doing in Orlando. These fans were never going to be happy with them short of a championship, so it was best. Like Steve said, everyone got what they wanted. As far as Ray Allen is concerned, good for them, he's had time to gell with his teamates. I never thought they would always be losers, but I am surprised they are doing so well. Good for him.
Well personally, I love Grant Hill and I wish him all the luck in the world. I don't know how much debate there is as to who is smarter, Tmac or Francis though. Watching Francis throughout his career, and Tmac solely this year, I'd give a major advantage to Tmac in IQ. That said, Orlando has a very exciting team, SF and Cat are playing like they did pre-YAO, not pre-JVG. Rudy slowed it down to dump it in too, just not too the extent JVG did. JVG gave the reins to Yao. Orlando has a great supporting cast to go along with the Houston guys, Hill and Howard especially have been terrific. I think Orlando's success depends solely on Howard's developement.
So what about those of us that say "Hill is a big part of Orlando's success" and "Yao and TMac aren't maximizing their game" and also believe that we have very sub-par role players - in comparison with other teams in the league - and a coach that maybe isn't a right fit? I think this is where most of us sit. And it seems rather obvious to me. Orlando, on the other hand, has built some great support for Steve and Cat. And Hill is a huge part of that. It's great to see Steve and Cat's heart pay off on a well-rounded team. And your question about role-player logic? Because we had those main pieces for four years. And we had lots of different role players around them. For all the positives, it never seemed to work just right. We haven't even had a full month with these new pieces. So that argument doesn't apply.
Please. Glen Rice shot 37.4% from range in his career as a Rocket. For comparison, Jim Jackson is shooting 38.4% from range this year and it feels like he's bricking left and right- he was even better last year. Oski- The difference is, most other teams don't have near the room for improvement among role players we do. mfclark- McGrady is without even a doubt a smarter player than Francis+Mobley combo. Francis is now #1 in turnovers/48 mins. Btw, I recall you touting TMac's lack of killer instinct/clutchness. Tonight change that for you at all?
I didn't mean McGrady being a long term project, I meant the team. As you saw tonite, this guy is a great player. Great players do those things. We've seen what Yao can do when his head is screwed on straight. We've seen what these two guys can do when they are playing up to their capabilities. The long term project is surrounding these guys with the appropriate role players for this team to blossom. As far as the allegation of hypocrisy that we say that Yao and T-Mac need the right role players, but we criticize Francis for needing them: 1. Francis/Mobley got 5 years. It clearly wasn't working. 2. Right now, our supporting cast is so pathetic that ANY addition would be huge. It's not like we're trotting out 5 All-Stars and Yao/T-Mac still can't get it done. We have possibly the worst supporting cast in basketball, so it's not like we've tried everything and it's still not working. 3. Honestly, what team has more potential? Yao+Francis/Mobley or Yao+TMac? Two very good players vs. a superstar? Honestly, this isn't rocket science here. Which guys are easier to surround and give u more potential? I don't see how some people STILL bash the Francis trade.
How many can? Can TMac do it again? How many can do what Sampson did with that twisted shot that won the West Conf game? What have Sampson won without Dream? You are better than this... stop hating. If you don't like Francis, just ignore the thread, don't be a Fegwu.
I will always like Steve and Cat but the trade for T-Mac was neccessary. With a better supporing cast we will become a good team in the future.
You're right, that was unfair. But my reason to post in this thread was to attack this wave of absolute idiocy that has swept through the board this year with Orlando's success and Houston's struggle - that we made a mistake with the trade.
The bottom line of the trade was and is this. This performance, and the 48-9-9 were absolute unreal performance that only a few in the game EVER were capable of producing. Francis could not do that. Marbury could not do that. TMac is one of the special few who can do what we witnessed tonight. The fact of the matter is the guy can allegedly be shackled by JVG's offenses, yet still come up with other-worldly performances. He's already come up with 4 30 pt games this year- Francis managed a grand total of 2 under JVG. Every time one of these threads pops up, the inherent implication, whether intentional or not, is that we shouldn't have done the trade. What we gave up was good. What we got can be great.
I don't bash the trade, I just enjoy exposing people who have such personal hatred for the guys we traded that they won't give them an iota of credit for Orlando's success. How do I know I'm right? After a legendary performance from T-Mac, people's gut instinct is to come back here and say "Ha, see, Francis sucks and could never do that." Or as nWo34 did in the game thread, his reaction was "Up yours Franchise!" as if Francis had been gloating about the Magic's success and the Rocket's failure or hell, as if Francis had forced a trade out of Houston. While the rest of us want the Rockets to win for the sake of the Rockets, there are those of you who just want this team to do better than it did with Francis and to be better than the Magic. That's just sad, petty, and also extremely obvious. And now that you've been exposed, you guys are going to try and deny it.
If you didn't fall under the description I made, it more than likely means, jeeze, I don't know, that I wasn't talking about you. Mind blowing, isn't it?
Ah, the sting of Internet wit. Such potency. You said: As though this implies that those of us who believe Hill is a very important part of the Magic's success (which I and many others do) are therefore belittling Francis and don't see the struggles of our own players. I was simply pointing out that that's not true. I loved their heart and effort while here. But Francis' and Cat's shortcomings are also very real, however they are surrounded by the type of team that can make up for that. We never had that kind of people to put around them, unfortunately. I agree with you about the folks that just do the blind hatred thing for Francis, though. But there are also a lot of people who saw the logic of the trade, and can understand why things are working out the way they are now.
Rokkit, you don't have to keep defending yourself brother, you're not the type of poster I'm talking about.
I understand why the magic are a solid team, it is because the magic coach let hill and francis run the team. the rockets need to let tracy to run the rockets
