I would like to see Howard start instead of Mo. He isn't a great rebounder or defender but he is better than him. I think he will get better as a starter and might prove to be a good compliment to Yao.
I agree with you. My reason to start howard would be to bring Mo-T off the bench as a scoring threat and as a spark. This will also keep him out of foul trouble and give him more shots in the post with Yao on the bench.
I have seen plenty! First let me agree with you on the PF issue. I also feel we need a tough rebounding PF, Howard and Mo are redundant. --ball movement If you have watched rockets for the last 3 years, you know we are moving the ball much better. --improvement of Yao and getting Yao the ball. --less turnovers --fastbreak, transition offense Yes, we can finish fastbreaks now. I love the early post plays in transition offense also. --open shots No team in the NBA gets the same wide open shots our perimeter get. When the Rockets are a finished product, all mediocre shooters will want to come to Houston. We can make Pejas out of them. --30 minutes of good basketball every game We play about 30 minutes of good basketball every game. I mean good enough to contend for a title . Sounds crazy, but that's how I feel. It's the 18 minutes of breakdowns, confusions, can't adjust to changing defenses, ...., and generally junk that's costing us games. How many teams in the league that say that about themself? You can bet as this team stays together longer, 18 minutes of YMCA ball will drop to say 5 minutes. I'm waiting for the for the first 40+ minutes of good basketball in a game, it shouldn't take too much longer. We'll blow out anyone in the league. Regarding creating shot for others. What about Yao? Once he passes out of the post, 1 or 2 passes later, we get an open shot. I'm one of the few on this board who likes Lue's game. I feel he can also creat shots for other. Now. We can spend days talking about how much we suck in the 18 minutes I talked about earlier. But why? That number is surely going to drop. It takes time and experience for a team to adjust to all kinds of different situations in a game. You have to see it before you learn how to deal with it. I can't believe I just wrote all that, again.
After watching Yao for a couple of seasons, I have come to accept the fact that he will never be as dominating as Shaq. Yao will be a solid player but I think he needs to be surrounded by a core of solid players for the Rockets to win a championship.
According to Rudy's formula, in which you add 1 for every road win, and subtract 1 for every home loss, then we are +1 on the season. The lakers are +0. It's way too early to panic, everyone.
TMac doesn't want to play with a Yao Ming that scores 9 points every other game either. I think he'll be fine with whatever trade that makes the team better.
Funny how you mention the lakers and kings they just said a few minutes ago that Lakers will be the death of Rudy that the team is one sided.
You nailed it, Jeff. However, we do have all these problems you mentioned and there's no immediate fix to any of them, and that's what worries me, but not enough to make me lose hope. It's painful to say it, but Yao is more consistent last season than this season. Mainly because he had Kato. So far this season, I sense there's a chemistry problem not only between players, but between JVG and the players. I know I'm speculating but I can not help but feel that way after watch them play. At least last year we played hard and don't give up until the final buzzer even though we made tons of mistakes. I know it's early in the season, if they don't show signs of improvment in about 1 month, all hell will break loose. Lack of D by everybody, it seems Yao is the lone man standing under the basket and no one rotates and put a hand in shooters face until Andre Barret keep trying to bother the shooter with his hand but he's too short. IMHO, the most serious problem is rebounding and knocking down open shots. If we got guys like Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, or Peja, we will win most of our games. I think PG problem is gonna be solve first, after Sura comes back and Andre Barrett is pretty good, Lue is decent. Mutombo has been great so far, but don't know how many minutes he can play later in the season, once Yao is benched, if Mutombo can't go, we don't have a third string center. McGrady has been pretty good and we're only starting to see the surface of what he brings to the team.
No hope if JVG still coaches this team. No player will develop well under his style. What he only knows is to trim his players' talents to fit his model.
Odom and Mihm is the most likely scenario. Odom can play SF which allows Juwan to go play the 4. Rudy T likes Mo, and I'm pretty sure he has a different gameplan for Yao than JVG.
I think the Rockets are now just drones. It's the guys like Padgett who have to play halfway decent to get another contract next year who is busting ass. JVG is creating a mob of drones.
How are the Rockets doing? I haven't watched the last 3 games. Oh I see, a 3 game losing string. That's too bad. I've watch for the longest time and I was getting tired of watching Yao mess up. I don't know what's wrong but something is wrong. It's early and this team can make up the loses. But it's painful to watch Yao this year. And I'm a huge fan of his and the Rockets. T-Mac is T-Mac. The rest are not making the wide open shots. That's That. No way Yao or T-Mac is traded off this team.
LETS JUST FACE IT, WE DON'T HAVE THE TEAM. ALL WE HAVE IS T-MAC AND A BUNCH OF FILL-INS . AND YAO IS NOT THE CENTER WE HOPED FOR. I'M A BIG ROCKET FAN BUT REALITY IS REALITY. THIS TEAM COULD NEVER COMPARE TO THE ROCKETS CHAMPIONSHIP TEAMS. YAO FOOLED US ALL.
And most of this can be achieved by opening up the offense. Stop trying to control every minor detail and let the offense go. For the most part players have been out of place to get rebounds. The JVG system is designed to get back on defense quickly. If that weren't the case we'd be crashing the boards every time. Bottom Line this is not the right system for any of our current starters and the blame falls on JVG. This team is flat out no fun to watch...Thanks JVG for ruining my team and setting us back another year. Lottery here we come!
It's not like Yao can't be traded. I think maybe the best scenario for everyone is for Yao and Mo to be traded for Odom and Mihm. Odom immediately becomes the small forward replacing JJ in the starting lineup. Mihm is the starting center. Juwan becomes the starting power forward. Yao gets to play for Rudy T again who I think is probably a better fit than JVG. Yao also gets Divac to be his tutor. Mo gets to smoke dope with his Los Angeles homies. JVG gets his athletic team of TMac, Odom, and Mihm who can run and gun. Jerry Buss likes money. I think he would do this trade in a second.
Dont lose hope til we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. Its hard. I almost have lost hope, but I wont. Hope!
Since when did JVG want a team that can run and gun? And why are we going to trade Yao to the Lakers? So he can team up with Kobe and do what we have envisioned Yao and T-Mac doing here (winning championships)
Yao isn't going anywhere, we won't trade him. The fear is that he's not happy with the team and he'll bolt when his contract is up. The fact he enjoyed playing with Rudy T as coach adds to the fear. The fact that he doesnt look very happy this year adds to the fear.
