For all you who think we are going to be a 4 or 5 seed

But that's the thing...anyone who seriously watched the Magic can tell you that they played no defense because they had no strategy to play it.

A guy like JVG - who has made a living out of getting the best defensive potential out of his team - will definitely keep that trend going.

And in Toronto, McGrady was their best perimeter defender - on a team with Doug Christie on the same roster. Even the coach at the time, Butch Carter, made it known that overall, McGrady was the best defender on the team. That was a McGrady who didn't have to carry the Raptors on his back offensively entire games.

 

Thanks Rhester!

Don't get me wrong, i love our potential with TMAC on defense and JVG is a master, but he wasn't able to convert MT into a defensive whiz or he would have been our starter last year. So, i don't see him converting JH nor do I see Lue getting any taller.

 

Rambling and a large mess of text with no paragraph breaks?

This team is better than last year w/o even making a move, and the rockets will sign a center and pg. I'm not even concerned with making the playoffs like I was last year. Last year there was doubt, because the team as a whole, were stupid, and had established a pattern of choking down the stretch. Now, nearly all the stupid players are gone. Now, unless there are severe injury problems, we will at worst be in the bottom rung of the playoffs. But even if that is the case we will at last have a team building chemistry, instead of just banging it's head in over and over again.

Cato's d will be missed, but his horrid o wont. And you can whine about Lue's d all day long if you want, but in the end his d isn't that much of a downgrade for Stevie's. This team may not be a "top 5" d next year, but you can rest assured, with JVG at the helm, we will have a solid d.

 

True...Baseball is the most boring sport in the world while basketball is very exiting and watchable.

 

Craigloria, whether we are better off post-trade is debatable, but one thing is clear: the landscape of the West has shifted alot over the past couple of weeks. All bets are off regarding the top 4 slots. It could easily be between any of 6 teams and Houston should without a doubt be considered one of them.

 

My apologies to the english professor for rambling. I haven't had 3000 or so practices to get my technique right, but, I will.

I would be interested to know which teams are we better than right now to make top 4? Which ones are we better than right now to make top 7?

San Antonio?
Memphis?
Sacramento?
Dallas?
Denver?
Lakers?
Minnesota?

That's 7 teams that will make the playoffs. That leaves Us, Phoenix, Utah, Seattle, New Orleans, and Portland trying to jump in the mix. I am as much of a homer as anyone, but i can't say we are definitely better than any of these 7.

 

from 919 today, earlier post:

Spurs = top seed. Anyone differ on this?
RoxMavsKingsWolvesLakesJazzNugsGrizzSuns battle for #s 2 - 8.
BlazersClipsHornetsSonics, all competitive all battle for 8th.

A lot of competitive balance.

 

Reality is finally starting to set in.

We went from being a flawed team to being a flawed team with a top 5 player on it.

I do believe CD will try to complete this team in the next couple of seasons, but we are far from being the major contender many feel we are.

And I honestly can't say we are a better team than last year's with another year together.

CD has work to do.

 

I agree. My response was about there is no doubt we are top 4. i am not 100% sure we are top 7.

 

the 4 or 5 seed is a lot to ask for and there are no guarantees. barring serious injuries however, even if we make no moves to bolster the roster, we will make the playoffs easily.

 

A bunch of BS.

 

CD is not stupid, he thought of this before hand, so what happens happens to late to do anything now.

 

We are in a better position right now than last year. And about just having two stars and nothing else? The Lakers didn't win the championship?? You know what, at least they got there, with two stars and basically nothing else. I don't think anybody here would complain if the Rox lost in the freaking NBA Finals with our current team. Granted the West is different now with the biggest changes in Denver, Utah, LA, Dallas, and the Rockets, all playoff teams except Utah, and Dallas and LA lost KEY people.......... but who knows if the Lakers would have gone all the way this year had they kept O'Neal.

Plus you talk about T-Mac and Howard being the second leading scorers behind Shaq and Kobe and they only won 21 games. It's not just T-Mac and Howard anymore, we have arguably the second best center in the whole freaking NBA, and rock steady SF to boot. The only problem as far as starting lineup is concerned is PG.

Granted we have a defensive disadvantage at PF, PG (depending on what happens), and a few nights at SF, but we will have the same advantage on almost every team at our C and SG position. This is a freaking exciting time to be a Rocket fan!!!!

 

Shooting - people have forgotten that Lue is a career 38.5% 3-point shooter...better than Mobley. Pike has to be better than last year, McGrady about the same as Mobley, maybe a little worse. Jackson is a good shooter, Boki is pretty decent and might play more minutes. That is five perimeter players that can shoot the 3 and there is still at least one more player to add. If anything, it seems our shooting got better with the trade.

Turnovers - as has been mentioned, two of out big TO guys are gone. Jackson had a lot last year as did Yao Ming, but McGrady and Lue are low turnover guys. McGrady's numbers are crazy considering he touched the ball on just about every play.

Defense - I have posted this before - Howard is not an intimidator like Cato, but he is a solid positional defensive player. He should actually be better than Cato against more mobile 4's. he was THE post defense for the Mavericks team that did well in the playoffs. Additionally, I guarantee that McGrady will block more shots for us than Cato did last year. Not quite the same, but Horry certainly helped our defense when he was here as a weakside shotblocking SF.

Lue's d isn't great, but he is not here for that and we are looking for another PG with strong defense. Whoever he teams up with will form a tandem light years better than a Francis/Moochie or Francis/MJax combo. Seriously, people are worried about Lue's D? Gaines is supposed to be pretty solid on D, but I am not even considering him because he is too much of an unknown.

 

The Lakers got to the Finals this year. Not bad at all. If the Spurs didn't beat them the prior year, they probably would have went then as well. Their bench sucked too (along with a few of their starters).

 

rimbaud, you just gave me goosebumps. Nice breakdown.

 

I think we are going to be a number two seed. TMac is going into is prime and has the physical tools to be a Jordanesque type player. Yao has another year of experience under his belt and will be less intimidated. He also will have a legitimate perimeter player to play off of. No team is going to be able to focus on Yao so he is going to get plenty of one on ones and open looks. Boki is poised for a breakout season. I believe the chemistry is going to be a hell of a lot better with TMac than it was with Francis. Howard is going to be a huge offensive improvement over every power forward we have had since Barkley. We are a couple of role players away from a championship.

I guarantee you that if you ask other coaches around the league who they are going to dread going up against next year it is going to be the team with the 7'6'' center and the league's scoring champion.

 

Sane for President!!!