NBA Team Preview - Houston Rockets http://thebasketballjones.com/NBA Team by Team Preview Houston Rockets.htm Houston Rockets Head Coach: Jeff Van Gundy Projected Starting Line-Up: PG: Charlie Ward SG: Tracy McGrady SF: Jim Jackson PF: Juwan Howard C: Yao Ming Offseason Additions: Bob Sura Dikembe Mutombo Charlie Ward Juwan Howard Tracy McGrady Reece Gaines Offseason Departures Steve Francis Cuttino Mobley Kelvin Cato Adrian Griffin Eric Piatkowski Mike Wilks Analysis The Rockets have added a superstar in Tracy McGrady; McGrady joins Yao Ming to form perhaps the best 1-2 punch in the NBA. The loss of Francis will not hurt the Rockets very much because he was a scorer and they replace him with the league¡¯s best scorer last season. The player they may miss the most is Kelvin Cato who played wonderfully along side Yao Ming. Juwan Howard will be called upon to take some of the inside-scoring load off of Yao. Grade per Position: PG: Tyronn Lue, Charlie Ward, Bob Sura Definitely a serviceable group. Lue is a solid defender but is not a very good offensive player. Ward will also play D but is also a mediocre Point Guard at best. Sura will handle some of the ball handling duties and showed that he is capable last year in Atlanta. He is not a huge assist guy but he is a serviceable player. This may be the downfall of this team. Grade: C SG: Tracy McGrady, Reece Gaines, Bob Sura, Jim Jackson T-Mac is a star and Jim Jackson will also see some time at the 2-Guard position. This is a strength for the Rockets, they go from having Steve Francis, a scoring Point, to the best scorer in the league last year. T-Mac will also do a lot of the ball handling and should be a good passer. He will make Yao better and for that this unit gets an A. Grade: A SF: Jim Jackson, Maurice Taylor, Bostjan Nachbar Jackson is a very good role player and Nachbar has shown flashes of being a good player. This unit will play defense and hit their open shots. Grade: C PF: Juwan Howard, Clarence Weatherspoon, Scott Padgett Juwan Howard is a very good player, but is not a low post player. He will take some of the scoring load off of the shoulders of Yao, but not defensivly. They will miss Kelvin Cato but the group they have should be serviceable. Grade: C C: Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo Yao Ming is a superstar in the making. He is already the second best Center in the league and has shown flashes of greatness. He is an All-Star and should become even better if he and T-Mac learn to coexist. Yao is the key to the Rockets season and he needs to continue to improve. Deke gives this team a solid backup Center but you have to wonder what he has left in the tank. Grade: A Best Case Scenario Tracy McGrady and Yao play well together and dominate. The role players pick up the rest of the slack and they duplicate the strong defensive effort showed last season. Their lack of a legitimate point guard is overshadowed by the good play of players like Bob Sura and Lue. The Rockets are a legit Championship contender. Worst Case Scenario The T-Mac-Yao duo fails because Yao fails to take his game to the superstar level. The Rockets guards turn the ball over way too much and the defense struggles. The Rockets struggle to make the playoffs and are sent home early if they get there.
the jim jackson led SF group (which apparently includes mo tay) got the same grade as the charlie ward led pg group. okay then. it's more like pg D+ sg A++ sf B- pf C+ c A
JJ played excellent last season. So I agree that SF should be a C+ or B-. But we lack depth. But MoT and JHow at PF should also be a C+ or B-. Those two are solid above average NBA players. Yea, they each have their short comings, but together they should be pretty strong. Togehter, they should be able to play 48 minutes high energy. I'd have to give us D for PG (esp. with Sura going down). pg D sg A sf C pf B c A
IMO, rating individual positions on a basketball team is a bit pointless. It's really not about taking the abilities of each player and adding them up for a final score. But rather how all the players complement each other as a team. Just look at our 2004 Olympic team. JJ, Howard, and Ward/Lue might not be the greatest players in the world, but they provide the needed help, specifically outside shooting, that our stars need to open the floor.
When has Maurice Taylor ever played SF? PG: D We have a backup and a 3rd string for PGs SG: A+ TMac and JJ, can't get any better than that SF: C+ All or nothing for Boki PF: C+ Hopefully we can get 10rpg between the two C : A+ Only getting better
you stole my line goatboy.... hell, they could´have put that into every houston rockets preview the past couple of seasons...
I was disagreeing with the article putting MoT at the 3, then sarcastically saying that its as good an idea as putting Deke at the 4.... If you dont agree with that, and think that MoT at 3 is a smart or legit idea, I thnk YOUR idea is worth ****.
if mo lost 30 lbs, and gained a 3pt shot.....oh, and new how to play perimeter D.....i think he would be a good 3.
but sad thing is that he didnt do that, Instead he will prolly gain 30 pounds, lose another 2-3 ft off his shot, and forget that he everknew how to rebound or play D... Now hes just a terrible ball player period.... but obviouosly im exxajurating, and hopefully he is sitll the awesome 6th man that he was last yr.
If it read....... "The STEVE-Yao duo fails because STEVE fails to take his game to the superstar level. The Rockets guards turn the ball over way too much and the defense struggles. The Rockets struggle to make the playoffs and are sent home early if the get there." .......it would be describing last season for the Rox. Kind of ironic how they same the same thing, just with different names.
