Hey everyone, new to the boards. I live in Louisville, KY right now, but just recently landed a job in Houston. I am a HUGE CBB fan, been a UK fan all my life but I will watch just about any college team if they are on. I'm heavily invested in the sport and follow a lot of teams and players. I think come draft time I will be able to provide a pretty good analysis on who the Rockets should and should not draft. Right now according to NBADraftNet they have us (can I say us yet) drafting T. Jones from my Wildcats (um.. yeah we can talk about that later). My boy Patterson plays for the Rockets and is one of my favorite players in UK history. Nobody with a bigger heart then him. A few quick questions... Where are the weak spots for this team in the upcoming season? I managed to catch two Rockets games while I was in town a few weeks back against the Suns and the Thunder, and from what I can tell we have some good young talent in Patterson, Lee, etc. However I did notice our interior game was pretty weak. What do you guys see as areas of improvement? Who could potentially be added to the roster this upcoming offseason? I see Howards name being tossed around, which would be really exciting to pull in a superstar type player. Who are the Rockets rivals? Not so much a big issue in the pros like it is in college (UK fans hate just about everybody else) but I know some teams have bad blood with others? Who am I pulling against (other then Lebron)? Who could possibly be on the move? Obviously Martin is a great player but with the Rockets cap space (not sure exactly how much) could he be sent off to land a big name player? How about trying to lock up some draft picks for the 2013 draft, because it will be loaded. About how much do season tickets run? I will be working 6am to about 3-4pm so I should be able to catch a good number of games. I'd love to have season tickets, I'll be moving down and will only know a friend of mine who already lives there but just moved there a few weeks ago so I would probably attend the majority of the games. TIA, I look forward to becoming a fan of a pro team. It's a whole new ball game for me.
I think that Pat has potential to be a beast, but he has been rebounding like a girl scout. Why do you think this is? I don't buy the injury excuse, because we had a 40 year old, one armed man with a bad back putting it all on the line on the court. Is this a trait of Patrick Patterson, or do you think he can fulfil his potential in aRockets uni?
since the yao casualties, the weak spot has been the same....a tall mofo that can rebound, score and defend. shoot, he doesn't even have to defend just take up space.
Rivals? All you need to know is that the Jazz suck. Always have, always will. Any other rivalry is secondary.
If Pat can break out next year, that is playing into our hands otherwise he will always be a solid player.
Pattersons freshman year he played very weak also. He's a mommas boy believe it or not, and he really relies on confidence to get going. Like I said in another thread his stats were pretty good for a role player getting 23 minutes off the bench. In 3-5 years, he will be a solid 16,8 guy, it'll just take him some time to get his confidence up. I assure you, he is considered among many UK fans one of if not their favorite player to wear blue and white.
Pretty simple comparison between college and pro basketball really, if you're gonna follow those teams. One has Worldwide Wes on your side, the other one does not. Like college, now the NBA is all about recruiting unfortunately. With our incessant running in place and no realistic hope at imminent (5yrs?) championship contention, this is probably the worst time to be a Rocket fan since the pre-Yao Francis-Moochie days.
And regarding the Jazz sucking, yes this will always be true, but really my #1 team I hate now are the Clippers. They embody everything that is wrong with the NBA today. Flopping, complaining, and pandering for calls. Against the Rockets, whether it was as a Clipper or a Hornet, Chris Paul's strategy has ALWAYS been to keep it within 5 points until the last 2 minutes and then use his "star power" to elicit calls from the refs by driving into the paint and running into the nearest red jersey. Lately as our own star power has waned, this has worked ridiculously well. To top it off he is the biggest a-hole in the NBA when he's on the court. Now with Sloan out of Utah, there's a lot less of flopping/loose ball fouling/short shorts that made them such easy pickings for Most Evil Franchise in Sports. If they get good again, yeah I'll hate them most again, but for this temporary moment, kinda like George Karl's Sonics in the early 90's, the Clipps have dethroned the Jazz.
Along with the jazz, spurs, mavs you have to add the lakers to teams as rivals we haatee!!... We need a young stud big man... We need a star player... Half love our GM morey half hate him... We all think the owner les alexander is cheap... Im glad you joined the team but you just jumped on a mediocre treadmill we've been stuck on trying to get off... Also hakeem olajuwon is the greatest center ever...
We have weaknesses at Center and shooting guard. Which will never get filled, sadly, because we keep chasing after 2nd tier stars who don't want to be here.
If you plan on posting here often, you need to be illogical and lack any basic knowledge of the game of basketball. Foremost, you must love playing the armchair GM role. My advice is to learn nothing about this team and come draft night just throw out your favorite college players as who the Rockets should pick. Morey doesn't draft based on need anyways. Welcome to Clutchfans.
I'll give you a cliff-notes version of Rockets modern history and current state to catch you up so you can share the <del>misery</del> enjoyment with us: 1993-1995: Glory years. Hakeem in his prime was as great as any center ever. Buy/rent "Clutch City" and "Double Clutch" videos to re-live. 1996-1997: Made a good run with Dream, Barkley, Clyde but got bear-hugged out of the WCF by Karl Malone. 1998-1999: After Clyde and Barkley got old and retired, brought in who is now one of the most hated Rockets of all time, commonly referred to as Scottie Quitten. 2000-2004: Thought Steve Francis was the next great one. Then thought Francis + Yao = dynasty. Traded Dream to Toronto. Francis turned out to be talented but extremely inefficient. 2005-2009: T-mac + Yao. Sad to look back on, neither could stay healthy. '05 playoffs both were on top of their game but no supporting cast, lost in 7 to Mavs. Got Artest in '09, would have been legit contenders if Yao doesn't get hurt...even without Mcgrady. 2010-now: in a holding pattern. Been in the running for virtually every superstar available lately but none want to come to Houston. Daryl Morey is unbelievable at finding talented role players but can't land the big fish. Expect mediocrity until we can find a star. Historically we hate the Jazz more than anyone, though that has faded a bit of late. Welcome to the board -- right now is a pretty tough time to be a Rockets fan, but on the bright side no one can accuse you of being a bandwagoner.
Now to answer your questions... Weaknesses: Low post scoring, Lack of a star. Potentially added: This is a tough one because Morey tends to pull stuff out of the air whether it be a big splash or a medium. Rival: really depends, I hate the Mavs most (Dallas is where bball goes to die) The Jazz I use to hate (Stockton/Malone/Hornacek) but now they are just another team. Spurs I can live with because they are managed well and have a great coach. On the move: Anyone on this team could potentially be on the move. Season tickets: Not sure but the Rockets need help with filling up that arena with most of the lower bowl not showing up.
The Rockets are in basketball purgatory. I feel like this board is split 50/50 on whether they should tank to get a high pick (which could either turn into a star, or be used in a trade for one), and the others want to continue battlefightin' (You'll pick up the term "battlefightin'" if you follow the Texans). We need a Center and a Shooting Guard, as others have said. We have a big Power Forward from Lithuania coming over next season, and if he lives up to the hype, he might challenge Patrick Patterson for his minutes. Season Tickets: Depends on where you want to sit. Upper bowl ranges from about $600 to $1100 for a full season, depending on the view. For example, sideline seats will be almost double the price than the endzone and corner section seats. Lower bowl will be over $1000. I did a full season this year, but I'm doing a half season next year. Still lots of games, but not so many that I almost feel like it's a chore to drive through traffic and go out of my way to see mediocrity in person. Another good thing about a half season plan, other than it is half the price, is you still get to go to season ticket holder events. Let me know if you want any more info, and I can email you or something. Since I'm on the topic, I recently found out that season ticket prices for the Thunder are roughly the same price as Rockets tickets in the lower bowl, and cheaper than the Rockets in the upper bowl. Doesn't that piss you off?
Don't listen to them. The rivalry with Utah is irrelevant now that Stockton, Malone, and Sloan are gone. Our biggest enemy today is MILWAUKEE!
