I don't think we'll sniff 48-50 wins with this team even with Tmac, remember even during the 22 wins streak when Tmac was the leader we still had Mt. Mutombo who was(even at age 80) a better defensive player then Yao by a little bit (remember he had some games where he had around 20 rebounds too). We don't have that interior D and ANY team, not just ones with great big men, will run it to the basket w/o fear of a shot blocker. That's a huge factor whether Tmac comes back or not. You're putting too much stock into role players that had good shot blockers/intimidators (and rebounders) to back them up on D and Yao and Tmac to draw double teams. I don't see how you think 'we'll be okay'. Okay meaning the players will still get their checks, maybe? Yeah, I'd agree with you on that one, lol.
DUDE YOU MAKE NO SENSE AT ALL.. how do go from "only if Yao was THAT valuable" http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=4804352&postcount=7 And then to say..." Yao was key to our team and we'll miss him." It can't be both. Go figure. I've already proved my point. I'm done
I agree with the original poster. My worries that I posted a few months ago still pertain to now. Even if we assume we have no more injuries and we win the "games we are supposed to win" against the "supposedly bad teams from last year," I do not see more than 20 wins before the all-star break. That would put us nearly 10 games below .500 by the all star break, after which we then play 7 straight playoff teams with only 1 (Det @ home) I would give us a win. Some of you will say we can beat some of the playoff teams, which is true, but we can also lose many of the games to teams we should beat. How many regular season games over the past few years have we wished we could re-play or called "message games" because it was a game we should not have lost? And many of those games were with Yao and/or McGrady, who we will likely not have at our disposal until the all the all-star break. Now we have team on which no one has ever been the go to player on an NBA team. None of these players have had to have a defense focus on them for 48 minutes for significant number of games. There will be at least 3 rookies playing major minutes for us (considering Dorsey a rookie due his lack of real playing time last year), a few players new to the team, and most of the players learning new roles on our team. Yes, there are surprise teams, teams that grow quicker than expected, and teams that can win on hustle & defensive prowess. I just do not see that this year.
this is getting really annoying. yao is valuable/key b/c he was our best player last year. but he's no lebron james/chris paul/wade valuable where you take them off their teams and the team just falls off the map and look like an NBDL team. that's why i bring up his MVP candidacy. you keep beating the horse saying is 20/10 valuable. yea it is. but there's different values. we'll still be a decently competitive team even without yao (and tracy). that's a testament to our great role players. they've shown time and time again that they can and will overcome adversity. ONE MORE TIME, this isn't the first time we have lost yao for an extended period of time. and IT WON'T BE THE LAST. we've done fine without him before, and we will be fine without him again.
I would not rule out a 50 win season. You still have a very good team on the floor with Battier, Ariza, and Scola - all of these guys play the game like it should be played. Don't under-estimate that. Plus you have Brooks and guys like Hayes and Landry. If David Anderson becomes a contributor, that will have a huge impact. This team will win a lot and lose a lot. When you have a wild card like T-mac, that can change things drastically. If this team can hover near .500 for November, then you have to expect that 45-50 wins is definitely possible. Adelman is a great coach, and Morey is a great GM. Don't count our guys out just yet.
I'm not going to say a lot because the season hasn't started, but u think they will sweep those teams, that's pretty far fetched. Memphis will have the best post player on the court when they play. Minny will have the best player on the court with jefferson. Ok City has some good high end talent and the rox had trouble beating them last yr.
We didn't sweep any of the lesser teams the past few years when we had perennial 50 win teams, what makes anyone think those lesser teams will be an easier W. We'll go through our stretches of losing to bottomfeeders and winning against contenders like every team does throughout the long NBA season.
40-45 loss team, not bad but not good either. Oh and for the people out there who think this team has the potential to win 50 games...c'mon now, seriously, that's reaching elite status in this league, do you really think this team is elite??
I think we win between 30-35 games so I am right with you. This team has nothing but role players and a broken down coming off of surgery star. At least sucky teams like Minn have a couple of young studs that might surprise. John Wall is a VERY real possibility.
Well the Rockets were due for an Astros season...seems like the Houston team that will have the most success this year is a college football team.
Losing records but the games are going to be good for a few quarters before superior depth wears us out.
Thats becaue yao is a center and it's he's job to score the ball effeciently.SG's like Tmac, AI and kobe are VOLUME SCORERS. show me another 52% shooting SG in the league. i mean comon
My response was to another poster claiming Yao is not that valuable. I compared two of the highest paid and most criticized players on the Rockets. You're just stating the obvious.
My heart says they play .500 ball my mind says we'll be lucky to win 30 unless Tracy makes a miraculous comeback. Big teams are going to slow it down and kill us on the boards. Small teams are going to run and outscore us. As setup we have an awesome group of role players, but several of our guys need sonmeone to set them up for shots, Ariza, Battier, Hayes, Budinger, Anderson etc... other than Brooks we have no one who can get there own shot off and we have no one who must be double teamed to open things up for everyone else. We also have no one to protect the basket and every team is going to take it to the hole which will cause us to be in constant foul trouble or the opposition will have a higher shooting percentage than we'll be able to overcome. Too many holes that as the season goes on will become more and more obvious. At the same time this may be in the best interest of the team for this to happen. It may open up the possibility of getting 3 big time players in next year. Also a big IF year. IF Yao comes back the same player, IF Tracy comes back or hopefully his very good replacement plus IF we get a high draft choice in the mix and you have the possibility of another San Antonio story when Robinson went down and they picked up Duncan the following year and you know the rest of that story. They'll be interesting to watch and some games because of their never give in attitude they'll look awesome but don't expect much or this year will kill you. Sometimes you have to take a step back to make the ultimate progress you want to achieve.
What? Tmac is taking more out of our payroll than any other player on the team(he's a max player afterall)...he should at least be one of the elite players in the league at his position don't you think? Look at the other shooting guards in the league compared to him...if you compare salaries and numbers he should be in the high 40% FG for the season...but he's closer to 40%(and that's the year before last, he was hurt last year). If you're paying a sub-elite player, 'elite' money you're hurting your team...which is what Tmac is doing to us. There are many other 'volume' shooters in the league and most of them are all shooting it better than Tmac...check the numbers and you'll see the truth (I believe ALL of them shoot better freethrows too).
Year Team G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% 07-08 LAL 82 82 38.9 0.459 0.361 0.840 - $19,600,000 - Kobe Bryant 07-08 MIA 51 49 38.3 0.469 0.286 0.758 - $14,410,581 -DWade 07-08 POR 74 74 37.7 0.454 0.340 0.753 - $2,883,120 - Brandon Roy 07-08 PHI 82 82 39.5 0.456 0.329 0.721 - $2,804,889 - Iggy 07-08 BOS 73 73 35.9 0.445 0.398 0.907 - $16,000,000 - Ray allen 07-08 DEN 82 82 41.8 0.458 0.345 0.809 - $19,012,500 - Allen Iverson 07-08 HOU 66 62 37.0 0.419 0.292 0.684 - $19,014,187 - Tracy McGrady
