This team is not great but IMO it should not be LOTTO without T-mac I think a bunch of players are underacheiving at this point but I have not panicking yet D.A. I expect much more from him. . . he use to be near great Rafer. . well . .he is Rafer. .. I expect simple consistancy Stromile - reminds me of a Cato when he 1st got here Very Raw. But Stro may have more upside Head is aHEAD of schedule So I think If T-mac never plays again this season we should still muscle out 40 wins This is what is bothering me about our record Rocket River maybe i'm just crazy
Disagree, our record is about right in a very competitive league with tons of talent that's in abundance even for the 'bad' teams (look at Atlanta's or NOK's or the Bobcat's lineups to see what I am saying). I think the most underrated aspect in this league is 'health', and Popovich has mentioned this a few times in the past (saying things like the only thing he's concerned about is having his players healthy by playoffs time). Another issue is having the 'right players', which does NOT at all mean 'talented' players, but rather players that will perfectly fit their assigned roles, and that are needed for a team like ours to 'complete the last piece of the puzzle' and give us enough amunition to win it all, which is the only goal we're shooting for (not just making the playoffs).
Rockets without T-Mac is better than Lakers without Kobe, but not as good as Bulls without Jordan, but probably on par with Suns without Steve Nash.
good point. take away the best player on any team and see how good they are. we don't even have a 3rd option.
November was a b**** even if we had T-Mac. The schedule lightens up after tomorrow night. So its really hard to tell. Theyve been losing close games. Its not like theyve been constantly blown out (only the game to Boston). If T-Mac was in those games I'd say we would have won 80% of them. I know we have the talent, but no one has the balls to step up and take the game over. Think about Barry on opening night. If T-Mac isnt there we need someone with that fire everynight. Some one that will make plays and give this team confidence.
Without T Mac this team dwells in the bottom 4 team strata of the league-as they have been playing against good teams
If you talk about the talent alone, the Rockets should be better than their record showed. The problem we have right now is that a large portion of our offense was designed with TMac in mind, often end up with him making the desicion with the ball. With him out, we lost most of our offensive sets. We are not playing as a team, offensively, right now. I blame the coach more than anyone else. Every team goes through injuries, just look at the Jazz, more rookies/young players than us, but they have a system, and all players know their roles.
I agree to a certian degree with daoshi. JVG designed to offense to revovle exclusively around tracy, which is great if he was there. but after he was injured, we had no plan B.
Tmac is out and you replace him with Ryan Bowen as a starter. That statement right there shows you the glaring hole in our bench. Ryan is wonderful energy and a defensive specialist, #12 man on the bench. And somewhere around #350 to 380 ranked player in the league. He is quite happy to be here making a salary. But this team needs at least an experienced 3, 6'9" who is ranked somewhere between #50-100 in the league to backup Tmac for these times. Or else next year draft another Head-type 3. Otherwise production falls off 80-95% when Tmac is down.
Derek Anderson was supposed to be TMac's backup. He hadn't done anything offensively before last night. Hopefully he has turned the corner. Wesley is shooting better now. And what can you say about Head! He's awesome as a rookie. I think without TMac, we should start Yao, Howard, Anderson, Wesley, Head.
IMO, this is why we look so horrible w/o McGrady: This is a roster full of guys that feed off of others to score. Look down the roster and consider how many guys are adept at creating their own shot: Yao - no (needs to be fed in the post) Howard - no Swift - no Bowen - HA! Wesley - only rarely Alston - yes, but injured Anderson - only rarely Barry - no Head - maybe Mutombo - HA! Without McGrady, the offense collapses. He generates the opportunities for everyone on the team, pure and simple. Right now, we're playing football without a QB. Evan
