The dude said quit moping, which means this is no-mope zone, yet the #1 moper on this board managed to get three mopes in non-moping thread. And three other mopers agreed with his mopiness making him the leading mope-getter. Unblieavable! Franchise342, 10 years from now is too far ahead to ponder in basketball time. I agree with you about the next few years though. The Rockets, who last year proceeded to inch up that mountain, raising their heads above that fog, all IMO becasue of a couple of young bloods, will not, now, start sliding down that same mountain just becasue of an aging bloodhound decided to abandon them. Go Rockets! And to hell with the summer mopers! ------------------
The dude said quit moping, which means this is no-mope zone, yet the #1 moper on this board managed to get three mopes in non-moping thread. And three other mopers agreed with his mopiness making him the leading mope-getter. Unblieavable! Franchise342, 10 years from now is too far ahead to ponder in basketball time. I agree with you about the next few years though. The Rockets, who last year proceeded to inch up that mountain, raising their heads above that fog, all IMO becasue of a couple of young bloods, will not, now, start sliding down that same mountain just becasue an aging bloodhound decided to abandon them. Go Rockets! And to hell with mopers! ------------------
We are lucky to win 45 games next year. Yes Stevie & Mobley are studs. Yes we potentially got the best player out of the draft. But other than that we are a team of one dimensional players. Mo can shoot and stand in front of people, Bull & Walt can shoot and warm a chair, Langhi can shoot and jump, Collier can shoot, and Cato can well he can eat up the salary cap. I like Moochie & KT as good solid role players and I also hope we get Shandon back but I really doubt if he will. We have a huge hole in the middle. Has their ever been a softer team at C/PF than Cato/Collier/Mo? In the West we don't stand a chance, barring some type of trade to get a C/PF who can play tough and give us a low post presence.
The good and the bad are this(as I see it.) The Rockets biggest weakness last year was interior defense. The Rockets best interior stopper was Hakeem, and even if his offense was 100% absent he was still one of the better defenders in the league. Our biggest weakness just got bigger. Look forward to a year of guards and sf's driving to the hoop with no one to stop them over and over again. If we play teams with a legit center, then we can add that to our woes. Also the team seemed to play better as a team when Hakeem was getting more minutes, and a slightly increased role in the offense. Things will have to be different now. The upside is that Stevie, can mature into a leader, and hopefully both he and Cat will continue their steller improvement on the court. Mo is also young, and if he improves too, then that's another plus. If Rudy can get Griffen to make some type of impact this season, that's good too.
Let's take a look at the numbers from last year. Olajuwon was out in 25 games. Jan 1 Mon @ Minnesota L 96-106 14-16 Jan 2 Tue @ Cleveland W 100-95 15-16 Jan 4 Thu Detroit W 107-97 16-16 Jan 6 Sat Utah L 97-99 16-17 Jan 9 Tue @ Toronto W 110-91 17-17 Jan 11 Thu @ New York W 76-75 18-17 Jan 13 Sat Sacramento L 81-84 18-18 Jan 15 Mon @ Utah L 104-116(OT) 18-19 Jan 16 Tue Toronto W 114-99 19-19 Jan 18 Thu @ Golden State W 112-104 20-19 Jan 19 Fri @ L.A. Lakers L 101-114 20-20 Jan 23 Tue @ Denver L 100-105 20-21 ----------- 6-6 Mar 7 Wed @ Atlanta W 104-98 33-28 (*) Mar 8 Thu L.A. Clippers W 99-87 34-28 Mar 10 Sat Golden State W 86-81 35-28 Mar 11 Sun @ Phoenix L 92-94 35-29 Mar 13 Tue Indiana W 127-118(OT) 36-29 Mar 15 Thu New Jersey W 108-106 37-29 Mar 17 Sat San Antonio W 103-99 38-29 Mar 20 Tue @ Sacramento L 109-125 38-30 Mar 22 Thu @ L.A. Clippers L 92-97 38-31 Mar 24 Sat @ Seattle L 90-93 38-32 ----------- 6-4 (*) Olajuwon was in uniform, and played, but was injured early Apr 10 Tue Denver L 99-100 42-37 Apr 13 Fri @ Portland W 109-103 43-37 Apr 14 Sat @ Vancouver W 100-95 44-37 ----------- 2-1 Total: 14-11 = .560 (.560) * 82 = 46 Interesting...no?
WE CAN BEAT THE LAKERS Look, we saw the blueprint in the Philly series and we saw what didn't work (thus the eventual heart loss) from the western conference teams in trying to stop Shaq. You can only HOPE to contain Shaq. He is a big boy. Shag is big. So we can use that against him but focus on Kobe. We need to run and score like we can, and play defense well enough like Philly for our offense to literally win a championship. We can outscore the Lakers by limiting their offense to Shaq and Role players by shutting down or focusing on Kobe in defense. Eddie Griffin, Mo, Marc Jackson, Langhi, and Morris are all BIG guys that can run. We don't need THE biggest guy or THE PF to beat the Lakers, we just need MOBILE SIZE. I am excited, with Dream gone (god rest his soul), we won't have superior half court defense in the post or a consistent post threat but we will have THE FULL COURT. This team is going to be good, in a utopia world this team is the Eastern conference's best hope to win a championship. We just have to get past all those PFs to GET to Shaq.... Who knows what we can do to manipulate zones....
I agree with you that even with a great defender in the post Shaq won't be stopped. But it's a lot easier to stop Kobe if the Rockets have a great defensive center their to stop Kobe's penetration, and make him live or die by his jumper alone(which sometimes he might be able to do). The same is true for all the other roleplayers on the Lakers. If the lane is going to be wide open to them it will be harder to deny every other person on the team but Shaq. Also as far as the Philly blueprint, they played with a ton of heart, but lost the series. Also let's not forget they lost even though they had a great defensive center on the team. I think their blueprint has somethings to borrow from, but in itself was still unsuccessful in the end. Now Houston has Cato as our center. Sure a miracle can happen, but I wouldn't bet on it. I was really excited about gettting Eddie in the draft because that meant we had two possible shot blockers to clog the lane, like back in the Horry/Hakeem days.
A potential frontcourt of Kelvin Cato, Marc Jackson, Mo Taylor and Eddie Griffin is a mighty fine frontcourt for the future if you ask me. Before anyone replies, I am one of those fools who believes Cato will do well next year.
ZRB and Cat=Bum: I'm sorry, but you guys simply sound bitter. Hakeem was not by even the most optimistic appraisal on the planet worth the 7-10 games you seem to think. Only star players are worth that much. The rest of the team is improving; one player left. At absolute worst Houston's record will be the same, and the odds of a 45 win team being excluded again are slim. The two of you need to look beyond your Hakeem-tinged glasses.
Something else to ponder. Somehow I don't think Rudy and CD are done yet with making deals. I can't help but think they still have something up their sleeves that will make Rocket fans very happy. The Rocks have lots o' money and a few players to bargin with. They ain't done yet!
Check those numbers again edc. Without Hakeem we were 2 - 10 against any Western team not named Warriors, Clippers, or Grizzlies. To me that shows not necessarily how good Dream was, but more our lack of any other big man who could play help defense or score in the paint.
I agree with haven. Hakeem is a blow to the history of the franchise, but his loss will not make us a losing team. So far, our net has been subtract 1 Hakeem, add 1 Eddie Griffin, 1 Terence Morris, and the growth of Mo Franchise, Moochie, and Cat, plus the cap room available (lots) to sign or take on a bad contract to get via trade, a center...and we are +1 in the #1 picks owed column (owe 1 to Vancouver, are owed by Toronto and Chicago), and +1 in the #2 picks column (via Toronto). We have the ability to go out there and get another piece.
haven...Bingo...BINGO (i know, that was redundant). hakeem was my idol. i mixed in a lot of his concepts into my game, and it was damn effective. he was the greatest. that said... the hakeem of last year was not the reason we were as good as we were. he was a contributor, no doubt (when healthy), but at best he was a minor contributor. steve, cuttino, and motay are/were the majority reason. hakeem's contribution on defense will be sorely missed, but i believe in kelvin crapo...errr cato really, i think he's going to be serviceable this year. if we can add jackson (who i'm not estatic about, but is serviceable, too), we have several pieces to the "big man puzzle" in place. would it be great to have all the pieces wrapped up in one package (ala shaq, young hakeem, etc.)? sure. but those are far and few between. this is the nba 2001. you don't need a big bruiser to win. it's a matter of knowing how to counter your opponent. and that doesn't mean fighting fire w/ fire. it means using shaq's reluctance to move on defense against him. it means forcing kobe to beat you with his shooting, not his driving. it means getting up and down the court before a 'zone' is set up. i'm not sure if some people realize what we have going for us. we are rapidly developing an incredible team - the likes of which have NEVER been seen before. we don't have a PG or SG. we have GUARDS. steve's 6'3, cat's 6'5. oh yea, and we've got a 7 footer that can play the 2 or 3 in a pinch (langhi). we've got a pf (motay) with the game of a sf and a sf (griff) with the game of a pf. can you say matchup problems!!! at center, we have a big "?". but let's be realistic. we don't need superman. we just need the garbageman. someone to do some dirty work and stick a j. guess what? we're assembling that, too. i still believe, damnit. i still believe. hakeem leaving is unfortunate, but hey, the sun will still rise....
