Did you read my previous post though? Another year's worth of experience is no reason to believe these guys will be better. In school, it was different. A senior (generally) knew a helluva lot more than a sophomore did. But how about your current job (assuming you've been in the workforce for a while)... are you improving VASTLY on a year to year basis? I'll grant you that there's one reason to believe there could be improvement out of Francis/Mobley: learning to play with the big man. I agree, that's one reason the two can be vastly superior next year (like sending an employee to learn some new technology). At the same time, they have shown little ability to even grasp the obvious lessons. Yes, part of the problem in the second half last night (and throughout the season) is that they didn't play well enough WITH Ming... but I think that's just a symptom of the bigger flaw, that Francis/Mobley simply haven't bought into any organized system. When the going gets tough, they get emotional (bad calls by the refs, a big run by the opponent, a dirty play from Rajah Bell)... and out goes any sense of playing within themselves. Not only were they not passing it to Yao, they were making bad decisions all over the court. Offensively, and most definitely defensively. I can hope, but I'm not optimistic this aspect of their game will improve over time. Yes, the Rockets need players who can pass to Ming... but above all else, they need players who're at least in control of their game and play smart. I strongly believe that if we had a Mike Bibby or Steve Nash or Jason Kidd, even if they didn't have "experience" in playing the two-man game with the big man in the post like Yao Ming... they're much less likely to let the game disintegrate like it did last night.
Man, you're killing me over here!!! Let's see, we started off the year with a bunch of quality wins. Yao was looking awesome. He's still, in my opinion, the top rookie. We've played some amazing games this year. We had a tremendous game against the Lakers. People act like all is lost or something! My point is simply this. Everyone knows that experience brings with it CONSISTENCY. Everyone wants to talk about Magic and Bird... Yeah, sure, they made the playoffs early in their careers. But, let's be real. Bird was on a team with McHale, Parrish, Dennis Johnson, and other guys who had already paid their dues and could keep things under control. Same with Magic. He had Kareem (who had already been in the league like 8 or 9 years). The only reason Shaq and Penny got there so quick was because the East flat out sucked (and still does) except for the Bulls. Like I said earlier, if the Rockets were in the East, we'd be a 3rd or 4th seed if all we had to do was play against all those weak ass teams night in and night out. I guess some of you think the Rockets are not improving. I would say we are improving but going thru growing pains. Sure, we won 54% of our games two years ago, but we also had some veterans on the team that still had some gas in the tank. Look what happened as soon as they left. So, my point is still proven true. Experience will get you to the playoffs. Experience in the playoffs will get you to the top of the mountain. The Rockets have no experience right now, but they will develop it and learn from their mistakes. I have confidence in that. And, as far as Rudy T goes -- does anyone remember where this team was when he took over in '92? We flat out sucked. We were totally underachieving. Rudy is the one who took that unit and got some cohesion and made it work. What's the difference? He had VETERANS on that team, for crying out loud. Give it some time.
Oh, and one more thing... They will either get sick of losing and start playing better team ball, or the bad apples will be traded and/or released. Either way, the team will improve because we have Yao. Yao is the centerpiece of the whole deal anyway. So, that's why we need some patience here.
