I'm sorry for your disappointment in Rick Adelman. Sorry for your disappointment in Mike James. Sorry for your disappointment in Bonzi Wells. Sorry for your frustrations about Luis Scola. Sorry for your anger about Steve Francis not being played. After all our wonderful offseason acquisitions, how could this be happening? If you think everyone's underperforming, I call you an optimist. There's a much worse possibility: This is the reality, and everything that went before it can be deduced backward. Adelman was available because he was unemployed, because he's not a great coach. James was not a steal. He was a salary dump just like Juwan Howard. Bonzi stayed because he couldn't get more money elsewhere, because he's no better, over the course of a season, than what you're seeing. The Spurs are not stupid. They knew what they were trading to us in Scola. He is not the force Rockets fans imagined. We were able to sign Francis because he did not get the kind of offers that he would have gotten if he were as good as his fans here suppose. He is not some untapped power waiting to be unleashed. Adelman is not a moron or a mule for keeping him on the bench. He really is worse than the guys you're seeing out there. I could go on. Tracy McGrady is not the unluckiest guy in the world in the first round. There's a reason he never makes it out. Yao Ming is not being held back by (insert name of latest coach who failed to play him or play him properly -- Tomjanovich, Van Gundy, Adelman, etc). He is what he is. This is not underperformance. This was overestimation. Have a nice day.
Growing pains, that is all it is....growing pains. Scola and Brooks are going to be major contributors at some point...and if the team keeps losing maybe earlier. Tonight shows you just how important speed is at the PG position....and we have one of the fastests PGs in the NBA..... If Chris Paul can guard other team's PGs, then Aaron Brooks can too. DD
You didn't talk about Tmac's injury. I think that is the key reason why the team is 6-6 instead of 8-4... Tmac will need 1 or 2 more games before he fully recover.
Seconded. You're fantastic most of the time but you completely Drexler'd this. Look, we beat 5 legitimate teams (and the Bobcats), now we've lost 5 straight to 5 contenders, with a 4 in 5 night stretch in there and McGrady out for 3 of those games. Where's the problem? Slumps happen -- at least we're getting beat the teams that are supposed to beat us. Sure, Rafer sucks but he ain't stayin'. Y'all need to either chill or go catch the Celtics bandwagon while the wheels are still on it.
hmmmm, or maybe its ony 12 games with a completely new coaching staff that is trying to install a completely new offense. so what we have here, is last years team, complete with the incredible collapsing 4th quarter. adjustments will be made, and then we go on from there. i find it amazing that everyone rails on francis, about how much he sucks. but he doesn't, not by a long shot. but i tell you what, if you wanna plug a guy like him in, you gotta have your offense down, everyone else needs to know what the hell theyre doing. he aint the sharpest tack, but he will get at least 10/4/4 a night, and thats coming off the bench. tracy and yao are NOT leaders. they are really good players, but never leaders. mcgrady and yao soft. they will fold like deck chairs when hit in the mouth, and all the other teams know that. thats why they do it. bonzi and james are bench players. streaky, but more than able to light it up on any given night. scola is a foriegn player. its gonna take him a while, and its obvious that no one else on the team trusts him. they often look him off when he is fighting for post position. that will change. and finally, all you who live in the past, and believe that a "pure point" is what the rockets need, WAKE UP. the NBA is a modern league, and the point guards who win, are cutters, and slashers. guys who take over games. while jason kidd is the standard line when someone points this fact out, let me point this out. HOW MANY RINGS DOES KIDD HAVE? francis should probably be starting, and soon after that, brooks. but thats that. i dont think i overestimated this team, but i think alot of people around here were misguided by thinking we would win it all this year with a new coach and such. i like our team, but i also think jvg would have won alot more if he had this team. adlemans true test will be his flexability. last years team, which is essentially what he is playing, cannot run his offense. so if we dont get to the playoffs and past the first round, look for lots and LOTS of changes. tmac will be gone, yao will stay cause le$$ is making too much money off that guy, but alotta new faces will be here. eh, i aint worried. its only basketball.
I am with you, DD. I don't feel panic at all after this loss. A number of things to be noted: As bad as McGrady's shots went, he still found ways to make huge impact despite still recovering from elbow injury. Yao found his shooting touch and was once again comfortable with Adelman's offense. Yao played solid defense overall and made several key stops in the paint in the 4th quarter. The foul on Harris was a bad one. He should either let it go after Harris beat him on the dribble, or foul effectively, not necessarily a hard foul, but one that would stop a 3-point play. But frankly, I think it was more of a brilliant play by Harris than a dumb move by Yao. Some insisted it originated from the bad defense on the high screen pick and roll, but I didn't see that way. The defensive assignment was all messed up. I may have to review the game to confirm this. As I recall Rafer was on Dirk at the top of the key, and Dirk passed the ball to Harris who was guarded by nobody, Yao left his own man and came over to help. McGrady and Yao had it going pretty nicely except the last couple of pick and rolls. The poor spacing and lack of coordination between the two occurred unfortunately at the critical moments, which led to turnover as well as poor outside shot(s). If the two keep working on the pick and roll, it will definitely become one of the most potent weapons of the team. I don't know if Brooks and/or SF3 are the savior, but Bonzi and Scola needed to get their games back, quick. It's very puzzling Scola can't play decent when McGrady is playing. Rafer and Head were OK, at least they hit their shots. Losing close games are disappointing, but definitely not demoralizing. Despite the 6-6 record, this team has proved they can hang tough with the rest of the elite teams in the West, except maybe Phoenix right now. When most pieces are coming together, the Rockets will be tough to beat. I have confidence in this team.
