They're in denial. They know that their championship comes every other year. So Spurs fans, take this season off.
I don't know about his predictions on other teams, but Hollinger doesn't have a very good track record when it comes to Rockets. His overly optimistically pro-Rockets discussions -- especially those regarding JVG -- sometimes are borderline laughable.
Before the draft Hollinger rated Nick Fazekas very highly -- way above Carl Landry -- and the Rockets "ignored" his rating. However, something significant may be lurking in something else he said: So what happens if you take that team and add Wells (essentially), Francis, James, Brooks, Scola, and Butler, and give it a coach who wants to be there? It's scary to think, but a gang that had 57-win talent a season ago may also be the league's most improved team. With Hollinger recognizing Butler, I think I see a ray of hope for backup size at PF/C -- something Hayes and Landry can't give Ming, Deke and Luis.
I just wanted to throw something out there for everyone whose hoping for an up and down tempo i just don't see it happening. Nobody's a bigger fan of T-mac then me, but for a top 5 wing man he is simply not a good open court player. He just doesn't have the explosion towards the hoop like he once did. Another is that well Yao Ming is Yao Ming and open court will never suite him obviously. Not only for his lack of speed, but that he doesn't get rid of the ball quick enough after rebounding, and he doesn't look up court.
Damn, Yao will be burnt out for the Olympics! Heck, it's not like China will have a chance at the Gold anyway.
Holy smokes. Hollinger is more optimistic than i am. Probably more optimistic than Adelman himself. In his article, he pointed out the rockets' weakness, discussed the off-season moves and gave his optimistic predictions about the rockets. Overall, i do agree with hollinger in every aspect of his analysis except for his predictions. I am a die hard rockets fan, however i am still not fully convinced that we will finish at the top of the southwest division let alone the Western Conference. Scola had a spectacular FIBA tournament but that doesn't translate into instant NBA success. Furthermore, we don't know how SF3 is going to perform. Is he going to jack up 12-15 shots a game? Or will he back up his words and play his facilitator role to let Yao and T-Mac be the spotlight? Despite all the question marks, I do envision the rockets as a legitimate title chaser. My predictions: 55-27 3rd in the Southwest, 4th in the West.
last yr tmac was kinda slow. so he was never in shape to run up and down. in 04-05, we ran quite a lot towards the end of the season. but running doesn't mean run like the suns. in orlando, tmac never ran like that. his running is basically fastbreak. or else he preferes to set it up in the half-court.
Funny how this works. Hollinger was the Spurs biggest fan last year, and putting them as the top team in the league for the latter part of the season, despite Dallas coasting to a 67 win season and Phoenix almost following suit. And now they're bashing him for praising the Rockets (who like the Spurs were awesome in the point-differential column) by the same metrics. For the most part, Hollinger has been pretty accurate with the Rockets recently. Obviously he was wrong like everyone else with our injury-plagued year. But otherwise he correctly pegged us as one level below the elites. Which we were. He does have problems with judging our new talent though, being very high on both V-Span and Swift. Hopefully, the trend doesn't continue with Scola.
I think if you put a gun to China's proverbial head, they would take an NBA championship for Yao over gold in the Olympics.
It doesn't matter how many wins the Rockets get in the regular season, it is all about how far they get in the playoffs.
I don't think so. An Olympic gold medal in Men's basketball?? That'd be 100 times bigger than the Women's volleyball gold in last Olympics, which was voted the most important gold because it was the only team gold won by China (kinda pathetic, isn't it?). I am pretty sure the majority Chinese fans would prefer the Olympic gold over NBA championship. But I don't think it will ever come down to that. So it is all moot.
Don't get too optimistic yet, we're good but there are still alot of question marks yet to be answered. I think 1st and 1st is quite a stretch. Dallas itself is already almost a lock to win 60 games every year. Avery does provide that consistency that JVG did with our team in the last few years. It'll be hard to unseat them. 2nd in the division wouldn't be out of the question. The big question is the playoffs. We match up pretty well with the Mavs and Spurs. Always have. Tracy's the Mav-killer, Tracy AND Bonzi are the Spurs-killers, so we're good there. But we COULD be in trouble if we somehow get matched up with the Suns, and let's face it, we almost-definitely have to go through them to reach the WCF.
