Thanks, DD. Your recap skills are legendary. Sounds like they're happy enough with Ariza as he is, though any improvement would be a nice bonus. Dorsey must be really bad if they're dogging on him like that. It was a joke, but there's truth behind every joke and that one was harsh. Andersen obviously isn't going to be our next Scola. We don't have a reliable center on the roster and that is scary.
DD and I used to disagree a lot in the past, but it was all respect. Over the years, a lot of new posters get annoyed with his wishy washy changes in what he thinks about the rockets, but we all put up with DD because of other contributions to the board . He types like a b****, but he's our b**** .Thanks a lot DD!
Something that caught my eye, morey said playing hard was a skill. I disagree big time with this because you're suppose to play hard. Now if guys are equally talented and abilities, you take the guy the talent/play hard guy, but you don't pass a talent for a play hard guy. In the end or in the playoffs when everyone plays hard, the talent guy is going to win out.
no it is. talent can get you places even if you don't try as hard (ala the lakers the past 2 years; they tried a "little bit" harder last year and won the ring). if the lakers do ever put forth a consistent effort, nobody can beat them. outside of kobe, the other players are inconsistent in terms of effort (odom/gasol/farmar/bynum) and that was why we were able to go 2-2 w/o any stars. there's a reason why teams accumulate talent first, and surround that talent with hard-working role players second. you don't win in ANY league without some type of first class talent (or close to it). in football, you see it with pitt (loaded with defensive talent, and some very good offensive talent). in baseball, the red sox and yanks are always near the top b/c of their superior talent. in basketball, lakers/celts/cavs... have some of the deepest teams in the league. hard-working role players can keep games competitive b/c they do try hard. but let's be serious. even daryl morey stated he WILL get a first class talent b/c he knows only that can deliver a championship.
Morey said it in the interview today, and its something I've firmly believed for some time. Working hard is itself a skill. Not everyone has it, and not everyone can just turn it on -- even in the postseason.
while that may be true, but you still want to get talent first. you build a team around talent, then you surround that talent with players that complements that talent. that has been primarily the case in EVERY sport. again, if you saw more than 2 laker games in the postseason last year, you know their effort was fairly inconsistent in almost every series, except maybe for the finals. and yet they won simply b/c they had superior talent (it helps that their best player rarely wavers in his effort).
Do you really want me to cite examples of less talented teams dominating more "talented" teams? Because I can. It happens quite a bit. Obviously you need a mix of both to be great, No one is debating that... Read what I quoted.
So in your opinion our $20 million worth of no talent but hard workers should never have been able to compete with their $70 million in talent? It most definitely goes into the talent evaluation equation. I also submit that availability is a players most valuable asset, as we have so painfully seen in the Yao/T-Mac era.
did i say that? b/c i just said in the previous posts that hard-working players CAN compete with elite level talent, but for only so long. that's why i believe we'll be a pretty decent team this year even if tracy doesn't play at all (though we do have talent in brooks/scola/ariza--though not elite level). but who's expecting us to make the playoffs even among our own fans? not much. and yes, availability is key. you can only use your talent if you can freakin' stay on the court. yao and tracy haven't been able to, so we haven't reached our potential.
A skill is is something that is learned. Playing hard may have to be learned by some players who relied strictly on talent(maybe didn't give 100% on defense and every offensive set) in their b-ball career prior to the NBA, or who aren't the most talented, so they feel they have to outwork their competition.
A guy that is a harrd worker is not the same as a guy who plays hard. You should always play hard but only your work ethic makes you a hard worker. That's why the rockets have had minmal success in the post season against a team like Utah. Houston talent level is a 6.5 maybe a 7,but they play so hard that they can get to a 8, but when playing against a team like utah that has the talent level of a 8, when they play hard as usual, they can get to a 9. Now I know some will say its just a matchup, but its more than the matchup,its the talent. If you polled gm's in the west of all the rosters even healthy, the rox would be below utah right in front of phoenix at about 8. Of course there are other variable like coaching that plays into it and the rox are getting better talent, but coaches always want the talent.
Lee, not trying to open a can of worms in garm, but in your opinion does T-Mac play hard all or most the time.
If I were to put a number on it I would say 6.5. Tracy never looks like he's playing hard, but he plays hard. That's why in the playoffs, it seems like he elevates his game because now he's playing at a 9 or so. Kobe,wade,james,dirk, and guys like thaat always play at a 9 or higher. I wish he played at a 8 all the time,but he doesn't. Yao plays at a 8 and if his stamina was better he would probably play higher.
