I know the season has just ended but even now I see bright future for us...As fans we can be excited about next season because it really looks good. Of course the main thing is health, can we finally stay healthly the entire season (especially superstars)? I can't tell you but I hope so. Next season we will have Tracy and Yao back healthly and as I said, let's hope they can play the entire season together - if yes I'm sure something good is gonna happen. But look at the rest of the teams. We have very excited offseason (trade market) ahead of us. There will be a lot of great players, Morey will probably also look for some changes, improvement. Maybe we can upgrade, maybe we can get better PG, etc... Look at our rookies. Carly Landry was incredible in his first season in the NBA. He showed he can play and he will be very important next year. He will also be healthly because I'm not sure if he was 100% after comming back from that knee injury...More, he will be a lot more confident which is key in this game. The same thing about Scola. He has already stepped up and next year he can be only better. The same thing about Aaron Brooks whom speed may be very needed. I also belive Novak can develop and he can work on his speed, etc to become a better defender. This guy can really shoot and that's what we need, that's what we needed in the playoffs.... Rafer Alston, Shane Battier will also be healthly. Maybe we will trade Rafer but if not he is still very important player and when he is healthly he can play well. Shane can knock down those 3s too but what's important for this team it's his defense. It is great to have guy who can guard opponent's best scorer and he can do it well. It will be Rick's 2nd year and I expect us to play better offensivly. We now know his system, everybody knows his task. I expect better execution next season This team can easily win 60 games next season if only we stay healthly. Yao and T-Mac are still one of the best players at their positions in the leauge.
I think it will take more than health or roster tweaks to leapfrog over the western conference elites.
If everyone is healthy, we still aren't as good as Utah, San Antonio, the Lakers, and the Hornets. We CAN beat them, but they'd still be the favorites. Our main problem is that after you get past our top two guys, the other good teams in the West are better at basically every position on the roster including backups. We have to get more consistent offensive production out of the 1 or the 3 next year to be a real threat.
They will be as good as....well,I am not authorized to post image.but I found them cute,that would be nice if someone can post it here. http://blog.photo.sina.com.cn/showp...oto.sina.com.cn/orignal/4d339ee044c968a6a338e http://blog.photo.sina.com.cn/showp...oto.sina.com.cn/orignal/4d339ee044c96921720c9 http://blog.photo.sina.com.cn/showp...oto.sina.com.cn/orignal/4d339ee044c968c21365c http://blog.photo.sina.com.cn/showp...oto.sina.com.cn/orignal/4d339ee044c968cf74017 http://blog.photo.sina.com.cn/showp...oto.sina.com.cn/orignal/4d339ee044c968dcabd58
So a Team that lost T-Mac for 17 games and have him hurt a lot more games, Yao for 27, Scola only play 39 games as a started, Landry only played 42 games, a new coach, new team mates, 3 rookies, new system, and Houston only lost 2 more games that the best team in the West and they can't leapfrog over the western conference elites? Next year Dallas worst Nest year Suns worst. Denver suck as usual GS fun to watch, but not good enough. Jazz will be the same, good at home bad on the road (we know why) NOLA about the same but good SA older but still good. Only the Lakers have a chance to get better. Look what health did NOLA from being a lottery team now the 2nd best team in the West and 2-0 over SA Health can change ppl perception real fast.
they could be better, or worse. i mean isn't it a bit too early to talk about this since we don't know the makeup of next year's team yet?
Every team in the league will come back healthy and every team in the league is expecting improvement from its young players. The difference is that the probability of our players staying healthy is lesser than others and we have less young players with lower ceilings than other teams. We will need a significant roster addition to contend for a title next season.
I concur. Standing pat is not the answer. We can not count on Yao and Tmac staying healthy.....so plan for one being injured. DD
Dallas was healthy, Suns was healthy, SA their main players healthy, NOLA heatly, Utah healthy. None of the West contenders have injury problem like Houston other than the Lakers. So no West contenders team can hope that health be the answer. Last season NOLA team have healthy issues, they stay put and with a healthy squad they are where they are now. And BTW we have 2 of the top ten rookies in the NBA.
Standing pat is never the answer, unless you're trading away a few young clutch championship players for an aging star. But that's another discussion.
I don't agree that even with full healthly roster we are not better than Utah or La...Maybenot better than San Antonio. But I agree that we need some upgrades. I'd like to see maybe 3rd scorer or realy good point guard. We also need someone who could come off the bench and just score points. I hope Francis can come back to his good rythm because we need guys like him.
This post is so egregiously false, I don't even know where to start... If our two guys are all we have then we shouldn't have been half as good as we are/were without Yao.
How good can this team be? Very good IMO but ... being very good doesn't mean we'll fare better because it depends on our opponents and I believed the top teams like Lakers, SAS, Suns, Utah, Denver, GS and others will improve their roster. I heard Gilbert is interested to join LA (that could be a major improvement for LA) and is Denver still going for Artest?? Well, it's a long summer.
I have to disagree with that. Well big big time. The Rockets will become amongst the "expert" favourites next year. Kenny and Charles claimed once Yao returns, we are a dangerous contender. When we finally have Kenny and Charles back, that is a sign of things to come. I would completely disagree with what you said about us not being able to match any of those teams healthy. You honestly think the experts will still pick Utah?? When Yao returns?? As for Hornets, we blew them out with Yao, and beat them by 10 without Yao. If I'm correct we're tied 2-2 with these guys. We have a good chance of beating the Hornets. The only teams we haven't actually played against healthy are Lakers. I think if we could get francis healthy, then we have a very good chance against Lakers. I still have my doubts against SA though.
