In the immortal words of Phil Jackson "Lets give these guys some f ing credit

Do you think that Brooks will ever be a good defender at PG?

 

ok, I'll ask again. Can you show me a single source that you do respect that agrees the Rockets have alot of talent? Is there nobody else anywhere that is as enlighted as you?

 

So, you're saying that everyone is wrong but you? No stats to back you up, no credible sources in agreement? Ok, well based on that compelling argument how can anyone disagree. You can use the "I'm right and everyone else is wrong" argument to make most any argument. Very handy.

That's great that you watch Rocket games. How many Sacramento games do you watch? Clipper games? Guys like Hollinger watch everyone. Additionally they talk to the GMs an scouts of the league who watch more games than all of us. Those Hollinger Future rankings were done based off interviews with League GMs. I've got to believe those guys know a little about what they are talking about. Certainly more than fans do.

Fact is the current Rockets have no elite NBA players. You're making the argument that Landry COULD be an all-star. Fact is that as long as Amare, Nowitzki, Duncan and Gasol ar healthy, it's almost impossible for Landry to be an all-star. Additionally, if a team's best player is a borderline all-star, then that team isn't very talented by NBA standards. Sure our guys have talent as you pointed out, but so does every other team in the league. By league standards, our current talent level is below average.

BTW Hollinger's power rankings are totally based off a statistical formula. Have you read the disclaimer on his rankings "Since this is an entirely automated ranking, you'll notice certain "human" factors missing". Hollinger doesn't pretend that his rankings reflect actual outcomes. I don't believe that Hollinger, Morey or any good statistician uses a single statistic to make decisions. Let's face it, if a single stat was 100% accurate then he wouldn't publish them and he'd be in Vegas betting on the games instead.

 

Well if it means anything to you, I am inclined to agree with you.

Landry has played like a star this season. In fact, the guy has a PER of almost 24 which puts him up there with guys like Dirk, Nash, Carmelo, Howard, and many others. And it isn't like this is an aberration. Last year he wasn't as efficient and only had a PER of 17.64 but in his rookie season, it was up at 21.51. Also, his usage rate has gone up significantly and along with that are better numbers.

Aaron Brooks is still learning but as of now is in the second or third tier of PGs, but I definitely believe he has talent. His PER is at 15.19 which puts him with guys like Derrick Rose, Rodney Stuckey, Devin Harris, and just barely below guys like Brandon Jennings, Tony Parker, and Jason Kidd. Oh but I forgot, the guy is just an overachiever with no talent...

Scola I will certainly admit falls into that category of guys that are overachievers that have the work ethic that makes them good players and in his case good starters. That being said, the guy is a double double machine and just gets the job done. His PER is at a respectable 17.55 which places him along with guys like Elton Brand, LaMarcus Aldridge, Anthony Randolph, and David West.

Ariza certainly has tons of talent, but it just hasn't shown in the stats column. But even with as bad as he is shooting, he still has a PER of 12.60 which puts him right with Ron Artest, Al Thornton, Peja, and Richard Jefferson. If the guy were more of a #2 or #3, I would be willing to bet he would have a PER of more like 16-17 and be surrounded by names like Gerald Wallace, Luol Deng, Rudy Gay, Caron Butler, and others.

Finally, there is Lowry. The guy has huge upside and quite a bit of talent. He is a very smart player, and a very good distributor. His PER is a respectable 15.03, but his assist ration is what is really impressive: 31.69. What does this mean? He just is an assist machine when he is on the floor. This number puts him just slightly below guys like Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Don't get me wrong. I am not saying he is anywhere near as good as Williams or Paul, but the man deserves respect for what he does on the floor and his numbers show he deserves more respect.

But what do I know. These guys have no talent.

 

Sure we have talent. EVERY team has talent. Can you name a single team in the NBA that doesn't have talent? All of the comments from the media is talking about our talent relative to other NBA teams.

 

The guy was trying to write something nice about our team and you people flame him for his grammar..

 

OP's me against the message board mentality certainly isn't helping him either...

but he brings up good points about our team. we were capable of making the playoffs before the season started.

everything the team has gone through with injuries and lineup changes has prepared them for the current situation they are in...

 

Yeah it just seems our "lack of talent" gets blown out of proportion by the media.

A good starting point would be defining what talent is: natural endowment or ability of a superior quality. In sports terms, I think it would be safe to say that talent is athletic ability combined with skill. Some players have all athletic ability but no skill while others have all skill and no athletic ability.

So who on the Rockets could we definitively say have "talent"?

So to sum it up, I think we can only say for certain that a few guys on our team are not really "talented": Shane Battier, Chuck Hayes, and Brian Cook. We are unsure about Taylor, Dorsey, Andersen, and Harris. That leaves Brooks, Lowry, Landry, Scola, McGrady, Ariza, Budinger, and Yao.

I would say overall we are a pretty talented team.

 

What a piece of crap! I wrote this long post and then tried to do a bullet point list and it deleted what I had in the post!

 

Yea and Landry will be a great defender at the 4, i love how you pretend like you want to talk basketball but in the end because you know i don't think Landry is an all star, and apparently that makes me a douche.

I forgot this was a Rockets forum where idiots like you and Rockets94 or whatevers would rather get into a flame war than a talk about basketball.

Fine Landry is a super star, just don't get upset and flame the team when we get knocked out in the firts round.

 

Every team in the NBA have talented players. You don't get to the NBA without being talented. When people talk about the Rockets roster not being that talented they are speaking relative to other NBA teams. The problem for the Rocket is that they don't have any elite level players. Most teams have an elite player or at least an all-star player or two. How many teams in the NBA don't have at least one player who is better than anyone on the Rockets active roster?

 

He's not being a jerk, far from it. You have some interesting takes. I like the premise of your OP and agree with a lot of it. I'm a huge fan of almost all the players on this year's team and they are just a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Having said that, these aren't the ESPN boards. Grammar counts for something. "Readability" counts for something. If a post is very difficult to read, many, perhaps most, of the folks here will just pass on by, which isn't what you want, right?

Hey, I'm a terrible speller and my grammar's not so hot, either. On top of that, I'm a two-fingered typist that's slow as hell. Despite that, I do the best I can to "clean up" what I post and edit mistakes that I catch. You have some talent and I'd like to read more of your stuff, so why not make an effort and make it readable? There are over 38,000 members now, and I remember when there were less than 3500, yet most of the posts have at least halfway decent grammar.

Just a suggestion. BTW, you'd be doing yourself a favor to pay attention to aelliott, who's one of the very best posters on this BBS.

Carry on.

 

Point taken, and I agree that we need an elite, or at least superstar, level player. I agree that we do not have one right now and may not even when Yao returns due to his injury. We will see what happens next.

The discussion though was not about whether or not we have any elite players. I think the point of the OP was that the media blows things way out of proportion when they simply call us overachievers and blue collar players with no talent. I would take the opposite approach and say we have loads of talent; in fact, we have more talent than most teams in the NBA. Having talent doesn't mean you have to become an elite or superstar level player.

If you can be a quality starter or role player in the NBA and have natural athletic ability and skill (as I talked about in the post above), I would say you have talent. We have tons of guys like this: AB0, Lowry, Scola, Landry, Ariza, Budinger, etc. The only guys I really think the Rockets have that truly fit into this role of guys with essentially no talent but are hard workers are Battier and Hayes. I think that was his point.

As far as your other point about no teams having a worse star player than us, you make a valid point. Landry is probably our star player, but he needs to keep this up for the whole season before I will put him up there with other star PFs. That being said, I believe the reason why we are playing as well as we are because we are one of the more talented teams in the NBA. The problem is we just don't have that one guy with superstar level talent (possible Landry could be that guy if he keeps his current play up).