Anyone with an ounce of objectivity would have called a series between a 52 win team and a 51 win team a toss up. The taller, quicker, and more athletic Jazz were taken to the final minutes against a team starting Hayes, Battier, and Rafer, and were taken to 6 games by a team starting Mutombo, Bobby Jackson for half the series, and a hodge podge of banged up role players. You can continue to play your A > B games, but empirically, the Rockets were not that far away. Maybe the Rockets win with Yao, maybe they don't. But the fact of the matter is, you don't know the answer and neither do I. Pretending that it's obvious because you think A>B doesn't make it right.
You said a team with 2 of 3 of Hayes/Battier/Rafer starting couldn't win. We had all 3 of them, and nearly pulled it off. Clearly, "upgrading" to just 2 of them in the lineup couldn't have hurt. Anyone with an ounce of objectivity would have called a series between a healthy 52 win team and a healthy 51 win team a toss up. The taller, quicker, and more athletic Jazz were taken to the final minutes against a team starting Hayes, Battier, and Rafer, and were taken to 6 games by a team starting Mutombo, Bobby Jackson for half the series, and a hodge podge of banged up role players. You can continue to play your A > B games, but empirically, the Rockets were not that far away. The fact is, Korver by and large sucked against us. 7 ppg, under 25% from 3 point land. His playoff production was essentially identical to Giricek's from the year before, and Giricek was a better defender. To play your little game and comparing playoff rotation changes, Scola + Landry + Bobby Jackson - Juwan Howard >>> improved Brewer + Korver - Fisher - Giricek Does that take us past the Jazz first round? I don't know. I do know it got us to 55 wins despite Yao missing even more time. Maybe the Rockets win with a healthy Yao (and Rafer and Battier), maybe they don't. But the fact of the matter is, you don't know the answer and neither do I. Pretending that it's obvious because you think A>B doesn't make it right.
Everyone here knows you do not like Yao but I actually respected your opinion before because you did always back up your opinions with reasonable facts. But I see you becoming more and more a hater lately. I guess maybe some fools called names on you before when you were still making valid arguments and pushed you more and more to the extreme. Anyway, you talked like you had a crystal ball and knew for a fact that he would have destroyed Yao in this playoff if Yao could play. Granted, Boozer had quite an amazing series against us last year. But are you aware that he just happened to hit one crazy shot after another crazy shot in that series? Most of his points came from the 16fters or 18 fters. Do you honestly believe that he could have done that for sure again this year? I don't deny the match up problem that he could give Yao but do you also honestly believe that his amazing series is 100% due to it? Geeze, are you aware that Boozer couldn't even do it again in the regular season this year? And then if you just want to talk about ownage, are you aware that Yao has also owned Boozer in the regular season games last year and the first game in the playful. He went 4-17 for 11 pts when Yao got 28/13 and we won that game. What it can prove is that Boozer could also be pretty bad against Yao if his magic shots didn't fall. Like I said, I used to respect your opinion and thought you were really thinking for the best of the team. But now you sounded more and more like a hater. Why?
San Antonio would have dropped us. We should never have let Tom Thibodeau go. Without him the Celtics would have not been as good. Its sad he doesnt get credit.
longhornchamp- I'm not anti-yao, I really like some of the things he brings to the table. The question was asked and I gave my opinion. I hear about upgrading hayes to play boozer, but that wasn't the guy who would have played boozer. Yao would guard boozer and I haven't seen anything that would tell me yao can handle the brand-boozer-jefferson types. So now we're back to square 1. Who handles boozer,memo and williams? I didn't bring in harpring. When the defense tilts to tracy combined with the physical play against yao, who relieves pressure? U will say scola I bet. I'm not raining on him, but now ur depending on a rookie to take u over the top. I'm just a student and a realist of basketball eventhough the rox are my #1 pro team, but I don't have to lie to myself and act like 1 player makes the monumental difference when the team has played .680 ball without him. One minute the team can win big without him, the next they can't win a playoff series with or without him. This team with or without yao is not title worthy. They are no closer to the ring than they were last yr or the yr before. No answer for williams,boozer, or okur without sacrificing the integrity of their lineup. BTW, it was nothing luck or circus with boozers shots last yr. In the nba, if u don't close space and get a hand in their face before they shoot, they're going to make shots. In my eyes and I've been consistent, yao doesn't play to his legnth. Deke plays long and he contest shots better than yao. So the rox started with the long arms of deke, then they would come in with the strength of hayes. That's why boozer struggled. The tradeoff is neither guy can score. That's why I was talking about lineup integrity problems with or without yao. If they had proper personel, Battier would guard Williams Tracy would guard the other wing and the other 6'7 guy would check ak-47. Also the 6'10 atheletic guy would check okur without compromising rebouding and scoring. Since theý have no such versitility, they will struggle against a team like utah.
What I want to know is why do posters have to insult other posters just because they don't agree with them? This is not required, you know. Why would Leebigez come to this board all the time and suggest ideas of how to improve the team if he "hated" the team? Why would he even care? Just disagree, that is enough. I "hate" name calling. We don't have to all agree. Give your reasons and discuss. Hey, some of us have been at this "Rockets Thing" a long time, we are justifiably frustrated and impatient. Thirteen years is a long time.
Wow, NBDL leading scorer Morris Almond? We would do well to counter with Idaho Stampede stalwart Randy Livingston. Kid can pass the rock.
Wikipedia says Randy Livingston retired from professional basketball following the season. Rumor has it he played a "Loser Retires" game of 21 with Eldridge Recasner and Emmanuel Davis, and lost.
I think up to the NBA finals at least, and is a tossup with SA, but a tossup that favors the Rockets, mainly because they would have been there more rested. Although it is unclear how T-Mac would have reached this series as his shoulder wasn´t fine enough to handle many more games.
When we received revelation yesterday from unknown referee...this was one of the first threads I saw, and instantly changed by my answer from NBA Finals/WCF to WCF/2nd Round. I think we would've gotten jobbed at some point in the series and cost us a crucial game against you know who.
With Yao in the line-up and healthy, I don't see why we couldn't have made it all the way to the finals...They were playing phenominal ball and having the premier big low post presence in the playoffs...I was picturing the NBA Finals..
i think we've been picturing that but our team never stays fully healthy when the playoffs rolls around.
Hater Alert! Hater Alert! Regular season is different from the playoffs. It wasn't only Boozer's offense that hurt Yao last year, it was Kirilenko's off the ball defense. Sloan had a great gameplan on Yao and adjusted after the first two games. AK would come in and create all kinds of havoc from help side for Yao. It could have been different since you have Scola instead of Chuck Hayes and Kirilenko couldn't have doubled off him as much. So Yao could have been better offensively. Boozer, has a game that could be Yao's achilles. When he shoots well, repeat when, he can hit from the top of the key, and if Yao comes out, he's athletic enough to get to the basket and finish. Boozer didn't shoot as well this year than last. So Yao could have been better defensively. I think it boils down to exactly what Gater said though, they are just bigger and more athletic. I still wouldn't have picked us even with Yao. Hater Alert! Hater Alert! I don't think calling out someone for disagreeing with you is a good way to go. He did support his opinion using the best facts he had, previous performance in the playoffs. Boozer owned Yao last year. It's a fact. The rest of his posts were really good.
