I'm not convinced yet that the Landry/Martin trade is in "fact" an upgrade. That remains to be seen. But, even if it is, will Kevin ever connect with us (the fans) the way Landry did? I'd be willing to sacrifice a few wins to cheer for a guy that took bullets and lost teeth for the Rockets. He just has more of a connection with us than Kevin is likely to ever obtain. Perhaps I am arguing that winning is overrated, but out of 30 teams, we just aren't going to win that many championships. Once that fact is accepted, I think it is acceptable to root for a team that doesn't have any serious character issues and is competitive.
I was pissed that we played the last game like it didn't matter. Even Luis Scola was jovial all game. I thought this was the all-effort allstar team! Jeff, I agree that this forum often treats the season as over or going deep into the playoffs, based on the roster, but the roster does effect what happens on the court and this forum is everything Rockets related. It's just ashamed that roster additions and trades dominate the overall thread percentage over what will/did happen on the court.
I hear you Jeff. I can remember lurking on the bbs in the clutchcity.com days before I made an account. I never bothered to make an account for a long time, because to be honest, I didn't think my basketball knowledge was up to snuff to contribute to the discussion. Back then there was still some trade proposals and salary cap talk but I think it was much more muted compared to the actual games. Considering that this was before NBA pass and youtube and what not, the site was often my only source of Rockets content other than games vs LA teams or a national broadcast, or if you were lucky, finding an audio feed streaming somewhere. For me, the site and the discussions going on were extremely educational for me in my process of moving from casual to obsessive fan Now I find the signal to noise ratio much less appealing. There's less talk about actual basketball and more of the younger guys, whom I guess are used to playing video games, playing armchair GM. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading a site for horse traders and as a fan of the team, it's really a downer. It's one thing to wonder if and how the Rockets can upgrade the point from Matt Maloney (anyone remember "Mighty Mouse to Houston is a done deal"?), but it's another to wade through pages of absurd trade proposals for star players that are unlikely to ever pay for us, at the expense of undervalued blue collar franchise favorite players that have played their butts off and have shown great loyalty to the franchise and the fans.
I'm glad the Rockets' brass does not share that thinking with you. You basically just said that you'd rather cheer for a bunch of "good guys" than compete for a championship every year. This is almost the complete opposite of the way I think and hopefully the organization thinks as well. Oh well, we're probably not going to win a championship anytime soon anyway, so let's pass on this great scorer (who happens to be one of the most efficient players in the league) so we can hold onto our fan favorite at a position that we are loaded. I love Carl Landry, but just because he was tough and played through some missing teeth and a flesh wound does not make Kevin Martin a malcontent. Kevin is a great fan guy by all accounts from what we've seen and heard. Plain and simple, he was an upgrade. Landry put together a nice stretch of 4th quarters and is a capable starter ... Martin is capable of dropping 25 every night, and doing so without taking even 20 shots. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot easier to root for guys that are fan favorites, and we have been blessed throughout the years to not have to root for scum. The only "bad guy" we've had since the early '90's is Maxwell -- the guy went into the stands and punched a fan and we still loved the guy on the court. But it's unreasonable to hold back on upgrading the team just to hold onto fan favorites. You know what fans like more than anything? Winning. I'd rather have one title in 20 years than not winning anything but consistently having teams full of fun players to root for.
