wow, it's not like this team really is all that good. The guy never had a chance. Expectations are wayyyyyyyyy to high for this overated team.
Other than the fact that Lebron is young, how are they that much less talented than our Rockets? 34-30 in the East...very weak.
Lebron is awesome but one thing that is keeping him down is his play on the road, he just doesn't know how to win on the road consistently yet. Lets not underrate the Rockets, this is how I think they stand talent wise. Sura>McInnis Wesley>Newble T-Mac>James Howard<Gooden Yao>Z Mutombo>Traylor James>Snow Barry>Harris ZERO three point shooters on the Cavs hurts them big time.
You have to be kidding. TMac = James Yao= Ilgauskas Gooden = Howard McInnis = Sura Newble = Wesley M. James = Snow They also have a legitimate young player in Varejao whom we should have asked for instead of Reece Gaines. Their talent is equal to ours in almost every area except all their players are much younger - with the exception of Yao. They also have a couple of talented enigmas in DaJuan Wagner and Jiri welsh, both of whom could be tradeable and are better assets than Vin Baker and Moochie Norris.
while i'm shocked to see it happen this late (and thought it was some sort of joke when i saw the thread) i don't see how silas is all that great. charlotte had some pretty talented teams for a while with quality big men (especially for the east) and never really did anything with it. i don't remember any great regular seasons nor postseasons. and cleveland is middling. i'm not really sure how much better they should be* or if that means silas sucks, but he doesn't seem like an irreplaceable commodity. i'm thinking a lot of other guys who don't weird out on eric snow or make "c u next tuesday" remarks to the press or who aren't batsh*t crazy could do the job he's done. still, why now and not just immediately after the playoffs seems messed up. which must mean it was something behind the scenes and not just "we wanna let coaches know the spot is availabe early on and get the team used to not having him now." like someone said, lebron may not have said fire him, but i'd have a hard time believing he wasn't informed and didn't at least silently consent to it. *as far as cleveland's talent, i suppose they are thin, but big z is the 3rd best center in the game and lebron is already a top 5/6 talent. of course, we had that and couldn't break .500 until sura was healthy so maybe this is all that can be expected, but it's still the east.
You can't be serious. Snow is washed up, Wesley is one of the best role playing 2s in the league and Yao=Z isn't even worth arguing.
You must be kidding Where does Davis Wesley stack up against the other SG's in the league? Kobe Bryant Dwyane Wade Ray Allen Allen Iverson Michael Redd Vince Carter J. Richardson C. Maggette Paul Pierce R. Hamilton Jalen Rose Bobby Simmons Desmond Mason Joe Johnson Manu Ginobili BenGordon Ricky Davis On 3/4 teams, Davis Wesley would be a bench player. Right now Ilgauskas is comparable to Yao. Neither player is consistently dominant. Obviously Yao has the much bigger upside but they are both all star centers. Cleveland has a bunch of young players that the Rockets would love to have. Their biggest issue is youth, not talent.
Where does Ira Newble stack up? Rocket's role players can hit jump shots, Cleveland's can't. Thus, is the difference.
The biggest difference between Houston and Cleveland is experience, not talent. You think it's difficult to trade for a Jon Barry, David Wesley, or Mike James? These players are career journeymen who could be had for a cup of coffee. It's not like we robbed the Brinks truck to get these guys.
RIET you are really reaching and you're smarter than that. David Wesley being the third or fourth option on this team still more than doubles Newble in scoring and shoots 40% to his 25% from the three point line. I would even argue that the Rockets will never have a better group of role players around Yao and T-Mac. You can't have a star at every position. Considering that Yao will soon be making max dollars they will not have enough money to put more talent around Yao and T-Mac than they currently have. And Newble, McGinnis, and Ilgauskas aren't young, so their problem isn't youth. Its talent. Wesley maybe a journeyman, but he was a key player for the Hornets playoff runs a couple of years back.
Cleveland didn't exactly have to pry loose their prized assets to sign guys like Ira Newble, Eric Snow, Robert Traylor and Lucious Harris. The biggest difference between the Rockets and the Cavs is Yao is better than Big Z at both ends at this point in their careers, and our rolepalyers actually complement our two stars. It'd be nice to have Varejao, but other than that - only McInnis of Cleveland's role players would see a bunch of minutes with the Rockets at this point, and that was before the Mike James trade.
On the one hand you're talking about individual comparisons while at the same time discussing role players and how they fit as part of a team. Fine, David Wesley is better than Ira Newble and Drew Gooden is better than Juwan Howard. How's that? As far as McInnis and Ilgauskas, they're 30 and 29, respectively and Drew Gooden is 23, and Varajao is 22. Pavlovic, Wagner, Welsh are all about 22 and have trade value. Compare that to the Rockets who do not have a single role player under 30.
Are you kidding? I'd trade Juwan Howard and his horrid contract for Drew Gooden in a heartbeat. And although he may never be an all-star, Drew Gooden at 23 has a ton more upside than Howard right now. Ilgauskus and Yao are very comparable at this stage. Varajao can eventually replace Ilgauskus who is still good for at least 3-4 seasons. McInnis is a solid player and is just as good as any of our PG's. He isn't as good of a shooter but is much more of a traditional PG running an offense than our mish mash of players. The reason the Rockets can win 5 and lose 5 is because of our inconsistent guard play. They pretty much dictate our success. We can beat the best teams and lose to really bad teams. That's not a sign of a great team but a good team with journeymen role players who can light it up and shoot you out of games.
T-Mac does two very important things that Lebron doesn't do at this particular (Van influence?) time, one is play defense, and the second is play well on the road. I know I've been a huge Lebron fan on this site but as the season has played out T-Mac has seperated himself and Lebron has shown that he still has a lot to learn. Yao is the second best center in the league, I would say Big Z is behind Ben Wallace, and Brad Miller, not at all equal to Yao. Varejo is good... when he's healthy. Sura takes McInnis out with his rebounding and defense. Why is rebounding SO underrated when talking basketball? There are three factors that play into winning basketball games, one is defense, one is offense, and the third is rebounding. A rebounding point guard is a huge positive especially on this team. Wesley is a huge difference maker, he's the Rockets third option on offense and the second best defender, third best player IMO. Lets not forget that the Rockets didn't become a really good team until after he came aboard. And those young guys you listed, well they matter as much as Gaines and Wilks did when they were here, very little. In a way the Rockets did rob a brinks truck, Jim Jackson didn't really fit in this season, Lue didn't make a difference, Gianes didn't even play. For those guys we get Wesley, who like I said IMO he's the third best player on the Rockets, Barry who has been huge in plenty of Rocket wins, and James an excellent back up PG. You talk about age, but what difference does that make THIS season? As fans we shouldn't even really worry about that, age ain't nothing but a number, all that matters is if that player can play. Took some drilling from a friend of mine for me to accept that, but now it's an absolute fact to me, the future is now. I mean who would you want backing up Yao, 50 year Mutombo or 24 year old Diop? What about the backup to Sura? 30 year old Mike James or 20 something Dejuan Wagner? 34 year old Jon Barry or 20 something year old Jiri Welsh?
o my god, phil jackson as rockets coach??!! Yao and tracey with jackson as the coach i can smell championship
for the ones that wants to compare the Cavs to the Rockets, sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of the parts (i.e maybe Rockets just have better coaching and/or chemistry?)
The Rockets have 7 guys who average more than 6PPG (and Deke is just under but still has a major impact off the bench), Cleveland has 4. If you have to start Ira Newble, and Traylor is your 6th man, you have serious quality depth issues. Gooden might has the better contract and potential, but Howard is a better NBA 4. Just look at last season. So not only are Tmac-Yao > James-Z, the Rockets have a vastly superior supporting cast. Sure they are older, but they are a lot better. And BTW 30 year old combo guard who are OK all around players but who do nothing really well and who are not noted for being real team oriented bust your butt guys to have on your bench do have a very limited shelf life and market value. McInnis is in fact is a FA this year and probably won't have big money suiters--almost defintely won't get an MLE even.
I'm very late to the discussion, but the Cavs letting Silas go is not the same as JD being let go by "Puck" in Orlando. The biggest difference is the Cavs have a legit interim replacement in Malone. Chris Jent may be a nice guy but is a complete novice. I'm as shocked as anyone by the move. Surely there are some undercurrents involved that aren't public yet. Despite denials, LeBron must have been not only been consulted, but he was probably disenchanted with Silas and this was done to appease him.
