But can you win a Championship without a Star? If T Mac is traded, that leaves the Rockets with only one high caliber player, but what if Yao goes down again? The Rockets need another big time guy. What's interesting is that all the rumors (Amare, Vince, Nash, Baron Davis) all have that in common. Think about it, rumors are a part of life in the NBA, but all of our rumors seem to involve going after star players.
None of those so called stars have ever won a ring.....none. Yes the Rockets can win without a superstar player...if you have enough good players to compliment them....ala Detroit a few years ago. DD
I wrote about this a few years back. Yes, Detroit won without a star, but they're the only team that has done it in 30 years. Those are pretty tough odds. It's still a star's game. One Piston's Championship doesn't change that.
Basketball is NOT a star's game. Basketball is a TEAM game. Jordan didn't win until he started embracing the concept of team basketball. You do not NEED a star to WIN. A star just makes winning a lot easier because they can score a lot easier.
Good positive post, and definitely an interesting and good offseason/season coming. We're in a great position and I think good things will happen this offseason, even if 2010 has better players expiring and up for trades. Oh well. We have players right now that have high value like Scola, Brooks, etc. in case Morey needs to make a "crazy" trade for somebody freakishly good, but if it's just getting a backup C and outside scorer, we're still in great position to do that, and like somebody said, Les has Morey's back with th money. It's gonna be a great season next year. Go Rockets!
You have your opinion, I have mine. Stars make things a lot easier, but you do not need a star to win it all.
Good post. The Rockets are in a wonderful position going into this offseason. As a fan, you have to be excited. However, just making the playoffs or getting to the second round is no longer the goal. To win a championship, the Rockets have to be better than they were this year. You can expect some improvement from some of the players, and hope for better health, but to make a real leap I think they need to do more than retain Artest and Wafer and get a backup center. That's why Morey, hopefully, will look to do more via trade. I'm glad he's not talking like he wants to stand pat, and that he might look to pull off a significant talent upgrade. That's a bold, championship attitude -- the difference between aiming to be great and aiming to be really good and competitive. But hopefully he won't try to do too much and give away some of the Rockets' underrated parts who contributed to the success this year, or goof up the good chemistry. A lot has been said about their wealth of trade material, but some of those guys, like Scola, are just a good fit for the Rockets and bring intangibles. And they seem to be set at point guard, unless an elite guard drops in their lap. Brooks and Lowry are a real nice tandem with different strengths, and they're young and poised to get better. Watching them develop's gonna be fun.
http://www.authenticbasketball.com/top_tournaments/nba.htm The list is daunting. Not only do you need a major star to win a Championship, you need one to even make it to a championship series. Again, I see one exception since 1980, but the trend reaches back even further than that.
I'm stating facts. Stars win rings and games, if you don't believe me, go find the last team in the last 30 yrs that didn't have a all star that has won a ring. If you need help without google since you probably haven't been alive that long, let me know. I can bring it off the dome.
Yeah, that about sums it up. Choices choices choices. What do you do? You got some young talent that is valued real high now, you could maybe get something great for 'em, but you don't want to give away so much you lose your chemistry/heart. I guess it goes back to that "in Morey we trust", but man is he in a tough/unique position! Whatever happens though, we will (in high probability) enter next season a better team than last year, and I can't wait to see it! Go Rockets!
With the current team we can win a championship, each player needs to improve: AB has to improve his passing Lowry has to work also on that Scola has to improve his defense and be more agressive on offense Artest gotta work on shooting Yao MUST learn how to manage with double teaming, Hakeem the dream even when doubled knew how to get the ball and attack the basket We just need a backup center: i go for Tyson Chandler and a healthy but efficient Tmac or someone who can score and pass the ball Finally all players MUST know how to pass the ball to YAO
The good news is the Rockets have greater depth, experience for their young core or players having advanced to the NBA Conference semifinals, and now are a very tough and gritty team that plays defense well, long after JVG was resplaced by RA. The REALITY and number ONE priority for the Rockets is the team must face the fact that it is EXTREMELY UNLIKELY that Yao Ming will ever put together a string of injury free seasons and neither will T-Mac. Preparing the team for the inevitable injuries to Yao and McGrady is priority #1 IMO. Since they can't keep two injury prone stars, it makes sense to trade McGrady most likely at the trade deadline to get the insurance for Yao's injuries at the center spot and a player or two to improve perimeter shooting and slashing penetration to the hole off of the pick and roll or pick and pop. I see the only untouchables on the Rockets at this point to acquire a back up Center for Yao are Scola and Brooks (unless the rockets can sign Monte Ellis of G.S. or Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler in a blockbuster deal with New Orleans involving several Rocket players) except for Yao, Scola, and possibly holding onto and re-signing Artest. I would also consider dealing with Golden State for 6-10 C/F Ronnie Turiaf, Baron Davis and Maggette for T-Mac and whatever other player other than the above mentioned to make this trade happen. I think the deal has to come with either Golden State or New Orleans for Yao's backup and I wouldn't be opposed to the blockbuster trade of Brooks, Landry, T-Mac, Battier, and whatever other players, cash and draft picks (other than Scola, Yao and Artest) to acquire pg Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler and James Posey from New Orleans. The injury situation MUST be addressed and trading T-Mac no matter how well he may come back to play HAS to be done because he's expiring and injury prone and the team has to now positions itself to sustain the inevitable injuries while they've showcased their young and cap friendly younger players nationally during the playoffs this past season (except for Scola) to take advantage of Yao's window of opportunity to win possibly a couple of NBA championships withing the next several years while Yao will be at his prime.
Yao's injuries MUST be considered a yearly occurrence that has to be expected and planned for by having 7 foot bigs with shot blocking and rebounding strengths if the team is going to contend for championships. The team is not going to sustain Yao's injuries without making a major move this offseason and now is the time to make the blockbuster deal or before the trade deadline.
Correction of above post: "I would also consider dealing with Golden State for 6-10 C/F Ronnie Turiaf, Baron Davis and Maggette for T-Mac and whatever other player other than the above mentioned to make this trade happen". My bad...that would be Stephan Jackson instead of Baron Davis with Maggette and Turiaf.... I'd want Baron Davis in the deal with the Clips but Camby's injury history with B.D.'s would be too much risk and Camby is expiring.
You're absolutely right. Another quality big man is a must, plus a veteran point guard, plus a star to replace Tracy. That's a heck of a tall order, but the Rockets have some chips to play with.
I don't know if only going after stars with rings is reasonable. People aren't just offering up Kobe, Duncan, Wade, Pierce, etc. What about Paul, Granger, Lebron? Because "none of those so called stars have ever won a ring.... NONE. Oh my GOSH! The way people talk about that 2004 Detroit team has always sort of befuddled me. People always bring up how they didn't have any real star talent. They had star talent. They had stars in the "making." Do you really think that team got so much better in 2006 they just decided to select 4 of their starters to the all stars? They just finally got some recognition. Rasheed Wallace was a two time all star in his prime went he went to Detroit. Ben Wallace was then "currently" a 3 time all star (and in MVP votes he was in the top ten). They also had Billups who would be a 4 time all star and Hamilton a 3 time all star. They also had James, Prince, Okur, Williamson, etc. of the bench. This, plus they had a "promising" young big in Darko. So that is an example of a team without any stars? Every other team that has won the championship in the last three decades had stars and we don't need to worry about getting stars? And if we do get stars, we can only get stars that have a ring? Ok...
DING DING DING !!! Repping you up. Yao qualifies as a star and so does Ron to an extent.......you don't need a superstar just the right components around our 2 stars. DD
