Remember Yao getting injured halfway through our winning streak? Everyone giving up not just on the streak but the entire season? Remember winning 10 more games in a row when almost every one of those games were, according to the "experts", the last of the streak? No chance of beating the Nuggetts? Mavs? Hornets? Lakers? No chance of making the playoffs? "Will get swept by the Jazz"? Remember how we fought? Lets say McGrady comes back and is in the same form as 07, did we have a better team then? Comparision of the rosters: 2007 Starters: Alston McGrady Mutombo Battier Scola Bench: Hayes B. Jackson Head Mike Harris Brooks (He didnt even play much behind Alston and Jackson) Novak Landry 2009-10 Starters (Assuming McGrady comes back healthy): Ariza Scola Andersen Mcgrady Brooks Bench: Battier Landry Hayes Budinger Lowry Taylor Cook Dorsey (Whoever we sign out of the rest) Which roster looks better? Besides Mutombo, this year's roster looks much better than 07. Brooks/Lowry > Alston/Jackson McGrady/Budinger/Taylor > McGrady/Head Andersen/Hayes/Dorsey = Mutombo/Hayes (Defense replaced by Offense) Scola/Landry > Scola/Landry (Landry was injured most of 2nd half of season) Ariza/Battier > Battier/Novak?/Harris? So why are we giving up on the season already? I think this will be a really fun season, especially because we don't expect much out of this team. This team always surprises everyone, and im sure they will do the same this year. So guys, BE OPTIMISTIC. GO ROCKETS!!! WE ARE RED NATION (This sounds so corny for some reason) PS. Yah, tis the offseason/preseason.
I disagree that this years center rotation equaled that center rotation. Even Deke at forty something years old gave us a much stronger center rotation than the one we have now. The defense that frontline gave the rockets was more valuable than the offense this new frontline will give us.
I don't see why TMac can't be as good or even better than his 2007 season. He didn't even shoot well but he impacted the game in many other areas. The one thing we could use the most from Tmac is his ability to make plays. He's easily our best passer once he comes back. Head and shoulders above our PGs. With T-Mac returning, he helps take the pressure off some of our guys, which in turn should improve their game.
Alston is a better defender than any of our point guards. Mutombo was our best shot blocker. Battier was playing his best D that season (remember the Kobe game?)
We wont be one of the top defensive teams this year anyways. Like Adelman said, we will play more uptempo (kinda like the suns) rather than half court game. Deke didnt provide no scoring and it hurt us sometimes, because we are so dependent on Yao to score. We need offense from our starting center, and Andersen gives us just that.
Sorry forgot the offensive part. The reason why I say we are on the same end offensively is because although we didn't have great shooters that season besides McGrady, our chemistry was awesome. We could turn better offensively if everyone finds their place and role on the team.
Actually I was talking about the second part, thats why I bolded it. Ofcourse we were a much better defensive team, but how were we equal offensively? Was mutombo just as good a scorer as Andersen? Was Scola just as good a scorer as he is this season? Was Landry just as skilled offensively? Was Alston a much better offensive player than Brooks?
With Adelman running the show, we dont need to worry about Chemistry. If you fit in, you play, if not, you get the boot (ie. Wafer). Im sure once McGrady comes back, we will have great chemistry because it would give guys almost 2 months to play with each other and get used to it. Tmac can fit right in.
Even last season's chemistry can't beat that of the 22 win streak period. Many at times, I look at teams with lots of talent but they don't produce wins cause the pieces can't complement each other.
if tmac can come back healthy, this year's team will be better than any other rockets team in the mcgrady era.
Last season, we didnt know who would be playing and who wouldnt for almost half the season. Once McGrady was out, we started clicking. Everyone started playing within the system, except Artest (sometimes he would play too much one on one). Still we had great chemistry. It was our chemistry that got us into the second round, and close to beating the Lakers.
This team will suprise EVERYONE in the leauge.. i was thinking about the same thing one night.. this is a better team then the 22 game win streak team. and this is basically the same team that took the lakers to 7 games.. minus artest and wafter, but add mcgrady ariza anderson and budinger. I Believe, why cant most people do the same
WOW am I the first one to point out that our starting PF was Juwan Howard and Scola was still owned by the Spurs? You guys call yourselves Rockets fans... wow.
Our lineup against Utah in the 7 game series: R.Alston T.McGrady S.Battier C.Hayes (started some of the time depending on JVG) M.Yao L.Head J.Howard D.Mutombo (was NOT starter) J.Lucas K.Snyder V.Spanoulis J.Tsakalidis
