He's just saying that if Yao goes down (knock on wood) nobody on the team will be able to step up and carry the team like T-Mac did in the past. Artest is good, but he's not as good as T-Mac or Yao. If Yao stays healthy, though, then he (durvasa) likes the balance of the team.
The Celtics have a number of players to step up, and they don't depend on one player for their offense like we do with Yao. And Yao is just far more injury prone than Kobe.
Maybe I misunderstood what you meant by "forget it". I don't see any team in the league going deep in the playoffs without their best big and best perimeter player. Do you disagree??
I don't disagree. That's the problem. We're already down our best perimeter player. Now what's remaining is our best big, and he happens to be injury-prone. That's a concern.
I know but we thought the season was over last year when yao was out and went on to win another 13 in a row or somethin like that, so you never know what this team and rick can do until given the chance.
We may have more depth, but who out of that depth will step it up in year's past like a healthy McGrady is the real question. Winning a few more regular season games is nice and all, but we've been doing that for quite some time and it hasn't led us anywhere because nobody comes to the party except McGrady. I want the Rockets to win out but without a premier scorer (don't mention streaky shooters on this team) to compliment a lost post presence, it really decreases our chances. Barry, Artest, and Shane can say all they want to the young guns but how will AB, Kyle, and Von perform is a big question mark in the playoffs. Go Rockets!!!
I am perhaps the most pessimistic poster on this entire board ... and I *love* the way the Rockets are playing now.
I don't understand what the heck happened. I stopped looking at this board for like 3 days and even though we've been winning, every thread on the front page is hinting that our team sucks?? <br> What is wrong with you people? You act as if Rafer was our savior... If anything, we should be happy about the direction this team is moving in
I don't have a thought to spare for T-Mac. That is yesterday's news. I enjoy the team very much, the most so far this season.
we will have to keep winning and win games vs contenders, then confidecen will be back to our players as well as fans, it's just natrual feel pessimistic when two of our starts are gone .
I just don't understand all of the people who are saying that we had a shot at the Championship before, but now that Tracy is out we don't. Where is this coming from? Earlier in the season, we consistently didn't show up for lesser opponents, consistently blew leads late in games, and we just plain boring to watch. Just over the last few games we have blown out lesser opponents, come back from a big deficit to win in the clutch, and have had the best ball movement I've seen from a Houston team in a long time. I understand that McGrady in the past has come up big in the playoffs. Well, at least statistically. And he at one point was arguably the best player in the game. But the McGrady that was out there THIS YEAR (not last year, not three years ago, but this year) was not going to lead us to anything. I just do not understand how so many people cannot see this. It was so obvious to me whenever I watched games that the offense was awful with T-Mac in the game. Teams have won championships with "only" two superstars. Hell, teams have won with zero stars (see: Detroit Pistons). We have two of the best players in the game, and a supporting cast most teams would kill for. Even if Yao and Ron don't show up, I have seen Scola, Wafer, Landry, and Brooks all single-handedly lead this team to victories. When (not if... when) we reach the playoffs, we will not have the whole "T-Mac has never advanced" story all over our heads, and our boys will be able to just play ball... and I think that will be incredibly important. Do I think we will win the championship? Probably not. Do I think we have a chance? Absolutely. And, in my opinion, anyone who is saying that our chances of a championship have gone down since McGrady is out is just finding a reason to complain.
<br> I just don't understand the pessimism. Everyone seemed to have a party when McGrady went out, so who cares. That decision was basically inevitable. And, really? Rafer is not something to covet, so people need to get over it...
Well yeah, I see that as a concern going forward, for our future. The probability of them both going down isn't that high. I'm less pessimistic about this season but more so about our future. We could get past the first round and go out swingin' against a good team, which might be exciting to watch. I just don't see us improving much in the future. Our best players (Yao, Artest, Shane, and Scola) are in their prime and we have good role players. We'll likely see this group's best THIS season, unless by some rare chance Tracy comes back healthy and contributes (i know, stop laughing).
Since McGrady is already down, it is equal to the probability of Yao going down. Historically, that probability has been high compared to your average star player.
There are too many threads being created to counter another thread. Someone makes a thread about Ron Artest. Some posts have mean comments towards Artest. Someone makes another thread about why people hate Artest. Some will make a thread, excited about the new team game without McGrady, and excited for optimistic for the games ahead. Others will make a thread about how we aren't scaring anyone so don't get excited. I think it can all be discussed within a thread, but hey I'm not a mod. And I am optimistic about this team without McGrady. I remember his 47 point performance in the game against the Jazz in the 2nd game of last season that gave us hope. I really hope he isn't done, but some wish he never wears a Rocket uniform again. Maybe I should make a thread about that, but I won't. This team will play better with a "healthy McGrady"* but since we can't have him, we play better without the injured McGrady. * = extinct ?
This is my point... I understand that people feel we need T-Mac, but why? We are 8-2 without him versus teams currently in position to make the playoffs. As someone earlier in this thread said, "Numbers don't lie..."
