Not much love for the Rockets all year because of several issues- preceptions... 1. Van Gundy slows the game down to ugly ball. 2. Yao is not dominant 3. Tracy is selfish 4. Old role players 5. Lack of athleticism Were we over-achievers? Truth be told- 1. Van Gundy is a great coach and his players love him. He found chemistry with this team and listened to his players. 2. Yao has incredible skills set, it learning, will get better over time and has the heart of a champion. 3. Tracy selfish- BALONEY- the guy is high character, high team and he is a superstar player, not just talent. 4. David Wesley is too small at the 2 guard to start and he struggled with his shot at times but he has the right attitude and effort to take on impossible defensive assignments night in and out and hold his own. He was asked to defend the Alamo and he took the challenge like a man. Sura- played hurt and out of position. He is an energy player off the bench and obviously not a starting point guard. But he has the same heart. Jon Barry is older, slower but smarter and works harder. When he hits his shot and makes smart plays he really fills a good role. Deke- is phenominal Mike James- is a good spark off the bench. Padgett is a good end of bench player. 5. Well TMac is athletic. The rest is troublesome. We are behind the league in young athletic talent. We really don't have tall athletic players at the 2,4 or 5 position. With Yao an athletic 5 is not a priority but at the starting 1, 2, 4 position we need help. I think we over-achieved. But I don't think we need too much help to be a top 4 team in the west. Our older players gave us great moments and they provided great chemistry, but they are old and we do need more athleticism. I would say this team was remarkable! With Yao still in the early stages of development. TMacs first season under JVG. And no real third option. And no great rebounder in the starting line up. We did very well. Give alot of credit to TMac he made every other player on the team better.
You mean the 2nd half when we started out down 15 and nobody else on the team could make an open shot to save his life? What did you expect him to do?
I seem to remember Jordan trying to involve teamates in the 1st quarter, but if they weren't hitting, then he took over. If anything McGrady wasn't selfish enough at times. Hakeem used to demand the ball most trips down the floor.
That's not true. Early in the 2nd half, when Yao scored 2pt to cut the lead to 13, the Mavs didn't score in the next possesion. What happened the next possesion changed the entire momentum of the game IMHO. Insetad of going to Yao, who just scored inside in the previous possesion, TMac came down the court, through up a quick 3pt and missed. The Mavs got the rebound, scored again, and the Rockets never got closer again. Had he played a two-men game with Yao, got a score on that possesion, we could cut the led to 10 or 11 with about 10 minutes to go in the 2nd. I don't think TMac is selfish in this series, or overconfident, etc. He was just not patient enough.
Why even talk about game 7? Sheesh, we lost by 40! There's no need to protect any ONE player from criticism and their is enough blame to go around to every player, pretty much everyone affiliated with the Rockets. Even YOU!
Yao has always being 'selfish' once he had the ball, but unlike the guards, someone has to pass him the ball within in 18' of the basket for him to be selfish. Too bad, we don't have anyone who can do that consistently.
I agree. But on the other hand, if it had gone in, we'd have been down by 10. I know it sounds ludicrous given how the game ended, but I thought at the time that if it went in we'd come back. I think that McGrady put too much pressure on himself because he felt like he had to win it for the team. I don't think he was being selfish - but he lost trust with the roleplayers after they kept missing shots. When there's only 1 other guy who's not sucking, it's hard to trust your teammates.
Some say we did just as well as last season. Well I disagree, because in last year's play-off series, we werent really competitive. Sure we were a JJ 3 pointer away from taking a game in LA, but the other losses werent even close. This year we did more with less(overall) talent. Over-achieve?? Maybe.
i thought it was a good season, not bad but not great. we didn't underachieve or overachieve. when you have an old team with a lack of speed you won't go too far in the playoffs. i thought we could have beat dallas but i didnt' see us going further than rd. 2.
Boy, we are never going to stop talking about that horrendous game, will we? Please people, let it go already. the ENTIRE team (even if you played well) is to blame. This is, afterall, a TEAM, and they win or lose together. No excuses. Let's just move on...
I do believe we over achieved this season. On paper we do not look like an elite team. Our bench is full of 3rd stringers.. we had a rotation of 2 3rd string PF's in the playoffs! I'm very proud of all our guys for working hard and having confidence in the system and the coach. I hope the clique- The Rockets- continues throughout the year with a few new commers each year. It is very exciting to be along for the Yao-Mac Dynasty ride for the next 7 or so years. The Rockets feel like family again.
LOL......yeah we could have used a little team defense in the first half of game 7... Bigons.....we are on the right track, sometimes you just have to pay your dues and take your lumps like a man. But if you put the work in the payoff will come. Considering we had so many different players (23?) on our roster this year and had to do some major salary dumps thanks to Rudy and CD from years gone by.....I would have to give us an A- overall. Now you could argue a B+ on some levels and I would be cool with that but c'mon....we started off the season in a total state of flux and had Charlie Ward and Tyron Lue as our starting back court... and as suspected had a 6-11 record. So to finish with 50+ wins and give Dallas all they could handle in the first round was awesome. I would make the point that if we had Juwan Howard in the line up we very well may have swept the Mavs and be staying up late tonight to watch game 1 or round 2 versus Phoenix.
