Year 6 in this thing? I don't discount the fact that there could be a much better 2-4 years next up. Yao is a special guy. Tracy too, still young in a way. But we can't say this is what we wanted from 6 years tandem. I thought we'd have had more success. Come high expectations come high dissapointment. There was a point in our lives where Bonzi Wells stoked our fires and the minds of many believed that the Houston Rockets had the talent to compete for a championship. Or when the still youthful Tracy had come to lead us there. Also a time when Yao and an older more versatile McGrady were going to get us a ring. The same duo later added Shane and later Ron and then promptly lost McGrady. If you search out the common denominators in the last few years spoils it can get disturbing. Not pointing out a specific one, but acknowledging there a couple. More than injuries as well but specific flaws. One superstar on this team has usually been more effective than two. Yao and Tracy as a healthy duo have a good winning percentage, but that never got us past the 2nd round. (keeping in mind their fragilities as well). All of the above has put a large burden on both the team and the fans the last few years. We have gone into the last few seasons with high expectations. Never reaching the top, and probably underperfoming over the span of 4-5 years (meaning many people predicted rings for this duo). Last year was great, the 3-4 years before that, meh. Then we drop from Cloud 9, to Hell. And we our rebuilding for a year, until Yao returns. 22 wins in a row, the Lakers series everything you want from a season. Except the big prizes. But..... Its sort of relieving to have a year with a lot of young guys, especially with the fact that we will be active in trying to acquire top tier talent via trade or free agency. Or maybe it is just relieving that I can probably honestly say nothing worse could happen to the team. Hopefully Yao and Tracy are here (if they can lead us to success) But maybe what we are really seeing this year, is whatever will be after them.
I tend to think Yao and T-mac got the unfair handshake in the early years. If Les surrounded them with quality role players like last year and this year team (when both T-mac and Yao was able to play in the playoffs), they might have did some good damage in the playoffs. Unfortunate during the majority of T-mac and Yao cycle, not only did we have to deal with injuries but we had role players like.... Juan Howard Luther Head Ryan Bowen Charlie Ward Rod Strickland Charles Oakely Mo taylor Old David Wesley Old Jon Barry Scott Padgett Weatherspoon Reece Gaines vin baker Andra Barrett Tyronn Lue 1 year Bobby Sura old Jim Jackson John Lucas Derek Anderson Stromile Swift Keith Bogans Lonny Baxter Kirk Snyder Greek T-mac Steve Novak Jake Tsakalidis Overweight Bonzi Wells Richie Frahm Stephan Graham Rick Brunson Maciej Lampe Nachbar Brandin Knight Rafer Alston Shane Battier (2006-07) All those people were on the team from T-mac 1st year 2004-05 to 2006-2007 (3 years with those people above) 2007-2008 we lost Yao for the playoffs 2008-2009 we lost T-mac for the playoffs Injuries is only part of the reason why T-mac and Yao era was not great, the other big part is, it took too long to get a good roster around them. 2007-08 was the year we finally got them some young decent role players.
The Francis era teams were a disaster, created by poor management. By the time we were able to luck into a solid foundation in Tracy/Yao they were surrounded by absolutely nothing. We finally have assembled a very decent and well rounded roster but our stars are burnt out. As of now we are limbo on whether or not Yao/Tracy can continue to be the foundation of our team. If they can, well we are still in a great spot. If not...well personally I am just happy we have Morey who knows how to assemble talent.
I think our best chance to win with Tracy & Yao may have been 06-07..... one of the problems with that team was that Juwan Howard was the starting Power forward for that team.... -rocketblaze
