I said over and over, if they were healthy, last year rockets should win close 70 games. This year's Rockets should win about 45 and in playoff. This team have big winners. The winner mentality can't be coached. It's a big intangible talent.
If everyone was healthy, we'd have won the NBA Final last season. I had such high expectations for the Tracy/Yao tandem that I thought we would have a dynasty run after we made the trade with Orlando. Then last season with the arrival of Artest, we were the best team on paper. Oh well, life sucks most of the time.
I lot better than I expected them to be before the season; I thought they would struggle to break 80 pts per game. How wrong I was. I predicted 35-40 wins, that still might happen, but I certainly hope not. This is the group of dream role players which were needed several years ago. A healthy Yao and TMac never had this kind of talent to play with. Really a shame. I love watching this group. Since the Championship years, this is the most interesting team since the 2005 bunch that took Dallas to seven, with the obvious exception of the late season Rockets of last Spring.
Well it looks to me like Morey is moving away from the "2-star + complementary pieces" mold and going with the "5 - 8 Workhorse/Pseudo-star" mold. The latter is really Adelman's game plan on the court anyway. The Princeton offense works through all of the players on the court making it a 5 man wrecking crew on the defense vs. 1 or 2 man wrecking crew with some guys waiting for their open look. The "star" mold allows teams to focus on those one or two players and minimize his ability to execute the offense. With our system, its not a matter of focusing on one guy, you have to play one-on-one because if you rotate off of the open man, he's going to score. That's what worked for the Kings and that's what's going to work for the Rockets. I think Morey and Adelman have the right idea. You can still have stars on the team but they will be more integrated into the offense vs. standing out as the key player. Too bad McGrady did not start out his career under Adelman or he would have been far superior of a player than he is now.
Dude, too early, I think you should say that after all star if we are above 50%.... they are not consistent, they have not shown any ability to win close games....
