The question you are asking is not complete.... If you would have said...Yao would miss 32 games, and Tmac only 8, then yes, I would have believed that the team as assembled could be competing for the 2 or 3 seed. While I love Yao, I believe that Tmac is what makes the team go. DD
It has been a long time that we don't have adequate power forwards and point guards. Our bench depth has always been thin. Whose fault is that? Are we going to ever solve these issues?
Last year the team thought it solved it's PF issue by getting Swift, that turned out poorly. Sometimes you roll the dice and it comes up 7. DD
So Bonzi basically doesn't play, Yao misses 32, T-Mac 8, Snyder 20, you would still expect 60 wins? With the toughest schedule in the league (we play our division and our conference more than we play East) Wow. No wonder you're never happy! lol
First of all, on THIS team APG is not necessarily imporant for our PG. Shooting is actually more important. That said, Daniel Gibson is NOT the starter for Cleveland. Larry Hughes is. Kevin Ollie is NOT the starter for Philly, Andre Miller is. Atlanta....I'll give you that one. Anthony Johnson is the starter now. Boston, I'll take Delonte over Alston. Better shooter and finisher. Lakers....I'll give you that one. Minnesota's starter is either Mike James or Randy Foye. No explination necessary here. It writes itself. Portland, Jarret Jack is a toss up. Memphis the starter is Chucky Atkins, Atkins is a better finisher and shooter. ESPN's depth chart sucks.
This really has been an impressive season. I was going to take issue that being in the toughest division mattered because I assumed our division and conference records were terrible, but we're 7-8 in the division and 26-23 in the conference. Not shabby at all. With that said, I think we all know we're going to have a tough time beating the Jazz and/or making any noise in the second round. That's what so hard. It's like trying to encourage your little brother whose team made the little league playoffs. Sure there's a chance he'll make it to the little league world series, but there's really not.
The other thing that gets overlooked now is T-Mac's 8 missed games understates the seriousness of his back trouble at the beginning of the year. Before he saw the new back specialist and returned when Yao went down, he was playing like an old man. I really was getting myself mentally prepared for an early end to his career. This has already been a special season.
Jeff, while most are probably giddy about the fact we'll win 50+ games this year with the injuries we've had, its still early to consider this a great season. Regular season, sure, excellent, give JVG coach of the year even. But lets not get too ahead of ourselves. If we lose in the first round, again, with a fully healthy squad, what is the season? To me, i dont consider it great by any means, not at all. Its a failure, and letting go JVG along w/ major trades should be discussed..... Also, w/ a fully healthy squad, we still have some deficiencies. This team runs out of gas in the 4th quarter (maybe from playing too hard D in the 1st 3?). We play excellent D, and then, bam, cant stop pick n roll to save our lives in the 4th. Also, its pretty distraughtful that we couldnt get a decent backup PG via trade exception, and pretty tradable assets........ So sure, I'm happy w/ 50 wins, but I have great expectations for the playoffs. Maybe we can be like clutchcity and turn it on......until then, I'll hold on to my opinion......
Winning the #2 or #3 seed means winning our division. Do you really think the Rockets have a better roster than Dallas or San Antonio?
Fifty-plus win season is OK, but our records vs elite teams are anywhere from mediocre to poor. For pete's sake, we have not solved the NO/OK problem. Currently at 7 wins and 8 losses, we are the only playoff team in the entire league with a losing record vs divisional rivals. No instant gratification from me.
I guess many of you are forgetting the first month of the season when Yao was the MVP and carrying the whole team and TMAC sucked, no he didn't defer to Yao, he just sucked. No one on this board thought TMAC could carry this team, not even TMAC himself. But for whatever miracle happened, TMAC turned back time and became the MVP and the team got HOT. This team absolutely over-achieved this season.
Excuse me, are any of those teams even in the playoffs besides the Lakers?!?! Non of them are going to play the "Tony Parker's" or the "Steve Nashes" in a 7 game series.
It's a relief that the Rockets has made the play-offs but I don't want us in the play-offs just to make the numbers. We are not the Timberwolves! It's all the way or nothing! The x-factor are our role players- they play well, Yao and T-mac will get the space they need to dominate and win. Utah - Dallas - SA - Detroit - the Red Glare is coming!
Agreed - this team has surpassed my expectations. What more can a fan ask for- but steady improvement year after year. This is my favorite time of year as a sports fan -especially now that Houston is competing at a very high level. Who would have guessed we would still be competitve with Yao injured for 32 games + recovery time playing into game shape. My playoff tickets arrived yesterday-and I could not be happier. I have been talking to people waiting in lines (grocery, post office, engineering offices, pharmacy,blueprint shop,etc.) about the Rockets. Not many people I run into even follow the NBA-more times than not when I give them a salutation of "have a great day" they respond with "hope your Rockets win"! On the job - the dump truck /concrete truck drivers all have radios-after the Detroit win at home -everyone spent 15 min talking about the Rockets win!!!! People are writing "Go Rockets!" on the job site outhouse walls- there is no greater honor! Speculation and hopes for home court and getting past the 1st round have the everyone talking!!! This has been great season already. Thank you Rocket Players for your efforts, Thak you Jeff Van Gundy for your very hard work and attention to detail, and Thank You Carroll Dawson for putting a good team on the floor for the fans. Thank you Les Alexander for being an enthusiastic owner and supporting your team in many unsusng hero ways! Thank you Clutch and Clutch fans.net for providing this forum for us!
If you thought that depth chart was correct, then you don't know enough about NBA basketball to be making any arguments.
