http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_0725.shtml HOUSTON, TX.---The Houston Rockets Final Report Card does not look good. This is an old and slow team. Several veteran players were brought in and spent most of the season injured. A veteran team should not lose in the first round of the playoffs. They had role players in the starting lineup. Now you know why they lost in the first round. They got rid of Jim Jackson and kept players that could not carry Jackson�s jock. Jimmy Hoffa will be found before we learned why they got rid of Jackson. Where does the team go from here? First, they must get rid of their aging and slow players and go with a younger and quicker team. They must find a true point guard and a power forward. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REPORT CARD Vin Baker: Best years are behind him. He was injured most of the time and was not used when he was healthy. He cannot be brought back. GRADE: D Jon Barry: Has had some good games, but his age and lack of quickness have been a liability. He should not be brought back. GRADE: C- Ryan Bowen: Has not done the job expected of a role player. He is a stand up shooter and cannot create. He should not be invited back. Why was he signed? GRADE: F Juan Howard: Played a key role before injuries. When healthy he is a compliment to Tracy McGrady. He is getting older and you don�t know how he will respond to his injury. If he is healthy he will take pressure of McGrady. GRADE: B+ Mike James: This was a good addition. He plays better as a starter and did a great job when he replaced an injured Bob Sura. He is quicker and a better shooter than Sura. GRADE: B Tracy McGrady: He is the Rockets. His performances explain everything. Without McGrady the Rockets would have been a lottery pick. GRADE: A+ Dikembe Mutombo: Did an outstanding job filling in for Yao Ming. He is almost 40-years old and his best years are behind him. Team seems to play better when he is in the game. He should be brought back. GRADE: C Moochie Norris: He played a little more than the trainers. Can�t figure out why he is on the team. Can you believe they brought him back a second time? Stop laughing! GRADE: F Scott Padgett: He is a stand up shooter and cannot create. He is too slow to matchup with most players on defense. He should not be invited back. GRADE: F Bob Sura: He has a lot of energy. Plays hard and tough, but is more of a role player than a starter. He is not a true point guard and at age 33, will be better coming off the bench. GRADE: C+ Charlie Ward: I am still trying to figure out why he was brought here. He has been injured most of the time. He should not be brought back. He just laughs all the way to the bank. He is under contract for two more years. I would like to be his agent. Stop laughing! GRADE: F Clarence Weatherspoon: This is another player I cannot figure why he was brought here. He should not be brought back. He was paid to sit. GRADE: F David Westley: He has been valuable as a defensive player, but disappeared in the playoffs. He is 35 and his best years as a starter are behind him. He would be better coming off the bench. GRADE: C+ Yao Ming: This is his third year in the league. For a player of his height, more is expected of him. He gets tired early and often. He seldom put together back-to-back good games. He plays in China during the off season and it takes its toll on him. GRADE: C+ COACHING: Jeff Van Gundy has not gotten the team beyond the first round. I question how he used some of his players and some of the players he brought in. Did he let a rookie out-coach him in the playoffs? Why was Rockets owner Les Alexander so anxious to extend his contract for one more year? He had two years left on his old contract. Did he think other teams would be knocking down his door calling for Van Gundy�s service? Don�t laugh. GRADE: C MANAGEMENT: Carroll Dawson. The Rockets general manager did a good job when he traded for Tracy McGrady. Getting McGrady was a no-brainer. He brought in several questionable players and over-paid them. He has brought in role players as starters. He pays mediocre players superstar money. Hey, charity starts at home. The entire town laughed when Rod Strickland was signed. Did Strickland really look like Red Foxx running down the court? GRADE: C ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joe Booker is a former three sport high school athlete and two sport athlete at his alma mater Prairie View A&M. As a high school basketball coach Booker won 174 and lost 49. His teams won one state title and six district titles. He was named coach of the year twice. He posted a 50-14 record as a baseball coach and won two district titles. He is inducted int the Prairie View Interscholastic Coaches Hall of Honor. He has been a part-time baseball scout for the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros. He was also a scout for the now defunct Oakland Oaks of the old ABA. He was the first full-time sports information director at a black college when he was hired in 1968 at PVU. He was voted SWAC Sports Information Director President twice. He was the first and only black college sports information director elected President of the NAIA Sports Information Directors( 1976,when black colleges were members of the NAIA). He is a retired educator and now spends his time as sports editor for the Houston Forward Times.
He gives Vin Baker a D--but gives Ryan Bowen who at least played and slowed down Dirk a bit an F !! Juwan and Mike James get B's but Yao gets a C+
Just look at the link and it saids it all. Black athlete..... Sooooo, anyone who is not black pretty much stinks. hmmmmmm.
Black Athlete?? I've never heard of them.. who are these guys and other than tossing out their oppion(Not giving any "WHITE" guy any higher than a C), why should I care what they say?? Plus they are called BLACK ATHLETE, they hate us cause we have the WHITE boy super squad
Anyone who can't see that the JJ for Wesley trade was a really good trade in retrospect is an idiot. I should have stopped reading there - but nooo, I had to go on and read how CD is a crappy GM. There's zero mention about how he built a team with really good chemistry in half a season even though he had zero assets. Oh yeah - and their assessment of Jon Barry is completely the opposite of JVG's. "A liability on the court" - never mind that JVG said that his plus-minus rating was off of the charts.
That was one of the worst bits of analysis I've ever read...where do I begin. "A veteran team should not lose in the first round of the playoffs" That's pretty lazy. "They had role players in the starting lineup" uh, doesn't pretty much every team except the western and eastern conference all-stars. I don't understand this guy's definition of a role player. "They got rid of Jim Jackson and kept players that could not carry Jackson's jock. Jimmy Hoffa will be found before we learned why they got rid of Jackson." 13-14 w/ Jim Jackson. 38-17 w/out Jim Jackson. That should be all he needs to know. Then he rates Juwan Howard a whole letter grade higher than Yao. Apparently 18.3/8.4 on 55% shooting is worth a C+. Whereas 9.6/5.7 on 45% shooting is worth a B+. I hope this guy doesn't get paid for writing this trash.
And who is David Westley? I also was unaware of the fact that CD traded for players and then overpaid them. I was under the impression that the players that he traded for already had contracts. I'll try to pay better attention next time.
he gave deke a C, which also is unfair. i don't think it's biased against whites, it's biased against the rockets, especially against the coach and gm.
lol.....looks a lil suspect I must say. Don't know what my brotha was thinking about when he wrote this. Just another writer that saw all of 6 games this season and feels he knows the Rockets problems. I love the white boys on this team! Hell! besides t-mac, Jon "icecream" Barry and Bob "Woozie" Sura are my favorite players. It doesn't matter what color you are, if you've watched this team all year, then there is no way in high hell these two are not on your short list of favorite rocket players. He needs to stop making an ass out himself....period. He kept saying he doesn't understand why certain players were brought here...Huh?? If you don't understand why, then WHY comment about the team? Because if you watched the team, you would know WHY. Ignorance isn't always bliss.
in answer to dekes grade, i think he is grading everyone on the same scale. meaning super stars and role players are both judged the same. not on potential vs output.
This site is a joke. I never ever want to see a posting with this link ever, EVER again. You would think that they only saw the 1 game that Vin Baker played in and that was it.
My report card for this analysis would be a D-. The author is definitely uninformed and should be embarrassed on reporting on a subject that he did not research that well.
Well put. Stating that losing the first round and then giving Barry an F was all I needed so see that this was utter garbage. It's not when you lose, it's who you lose to and how. We lost in 7 games to a 58-win team. That's marked improvement over last year's team who would have been swept by this Mavericks team.
I quit reading when I read the bit about Ryan Bowen being a standup shooter. hell....he isnt a shooter AT ALL. He was brought in for his defense and hustle...any shots he makes are a bonus. Some of our slower members here could do a MUCH better job at writing up a report card than this fool did.
