DD- That's where I have problems with the construction of this team. I'm not a knee jerk guy and we've had this discussion before. The problems with the guards of the rox is that most of them are offensively inept if the 3 ball isn't falling. Now if we use simple math, a good shooter will hit that 2 out of 6 times. When u have a bunch of standstill spotup 36% shooters, even when u get to's and rebounds, the team doesn't have guys that can turn,run, and finish. Battier runs to the 3 pt line on a break. Scola runs,but can finish. Tracy doesn't run and neither does yao. Rafer is, um rafer. So this team has 2 or 3 guys on the whole team that can transition. They had no shotblockers other than the occasional yao blks. Too many replicated players who can only do 1 or 2 things. Mostly 1 thing though. PS- Scola, Head, hayes, and francis has to go.
completly agree. They had something like 4 steals in a rown in the stretch of the 3rd quater. We were lazy and maybe out of gas after GSW game. We played no defense, anybody could make any shot. Just pathetic and another bad lose against even worse team.
Leeb, You and I agree about 85% of the time, this is not one of those times...as soon as our WIDE OPEN outside shots stopped falling they packed the paint. There was no room to drive the ball at all.....we could use a PG that has a midrange game, that would help a lot, but if our shots are not falling, this team can look U-G-L-Y. They just looked tired tonight to me..... DD
Be careful, you might get attacked by the vocal minority that actually believes Rafer helps this team. All you have to do to get my feelings on Alston is look in my signature. Randolph was on fire last night too. Rockets either did a poor job of scouting or making adjustments or both. They should've double teamed him to see if other guys could beat them. As far as rebounding, it's not about doing a better job. It's about lacking size in the front court. Yao is the only one above 6'9", but he's slow. Scola is unathletic and Landry still needs to improve his rebounding and they both lack size. Houston can get by against teams with small frontlines, but the Rockets will continue to get killed on the glass against teams with tall frontlines. Randolph is about 6'10 and Camby is 6'11" and Thornton is an athletic and active 6'9". Just imagine what a team like the Lakers or Pistons are going to do to the Rockets on the boards? Houston needs to sign Deke asap or trade Head for Sean Williams who's from Houston and is riding the bench in NJ.
i think leeb is right in that we do need a bit more athleticism in the front court. but this game may not be a perfect illustration of that. when shane is healthy, thorton will not be that unstoppable. and athleticism isn't the problem of not being able to stop randolph (just ask the balzers). i was hoping we can double a little to cool him down, but adelman obviously thought otherwise. when the shots ain't falling, the game turns ugly - for any team, that is.
Randolph is actually 6'8. He was listed as 6,7 at Michigan State, but when the night he got drafted, he grew to 6'9. Same thing happened with Jason Richardson. He was listed at 6'4 at Michigan State, and became 6'6 in the NBA.
All you Rafer haters out there...now that it looks like he might miss some time maybe you will see how important he is to the team. Yea the tear drop needs to either stop or he needs to actually practice it, but as i have said before and will say again, rafer alston is the MOST IMPORTANT player on the team. Not the best, most efficient, attractive, or whatever but he is our MVP. See the games he missed in the playoffs and get ready to see it coming up if he misses time. I hope I get proven wrong, but so far I have only been proven right.
I agree sign Deke or try to get Sean Williams on this team, but our guys still gotta hold on to the ball once they get their hands on it. It happened a few times where we got a rebound and just lost the ball, mainly Yao but it is that it is. Something has to be addressed though.
who gave the right to let the brooks shooted so many? 10-2 , Just gave some block opportunities to Camby
Rafer suckks. Sure, he is the only starter quality PG on the team (not saying much), but if you get another PG that is a quality starter, I guarantee he will be better than SKip.
DD , I agree with the no falling shots, but the strategy the clipps used was pretty good. Instead of Camby fighting with yao, he kept camby as the goaltender. Anytime the rox went to the goal, he would peel off scola and contest shots at the rim. That's why I've said 50million times, the best guy to play along with yao is either a camby type or a al harrington/tim thomas/ young horrýor marshall type. Those last types puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
you have when healthy, one of the best 2 guards, the best center, and a defensive juggernaut at SF who can also drop 20 a game.....now you want a perennial all star pg too?? live with it, this team has enough talent, it's just not executive well enough or staying healthy enough at this point.......it's like if the celtics were losing, and instead of paying attention to the big 3, everyone wants to blame rondo and say "well if we only added a deron williams type quality pg, then we'd be really good" that's how ridiculous everyone is sounding..........even if the rockets brought an all star pg in, and they still didnt win, then people would be complaining "ohhh we need a amare stoudemire/carlos boozer type PF, then we'd be really good"
IBM , its not about stopping randolph with atheleticism. People don't like him or call him selfish, but offensively, Zach is one of the better pivots in the the game. He's 6'9 with long arms, quick feet,soft touch and good range. If battier was healthy, he wouldve done a better job on thornton , but look at how he scored them. Its not like he scored them carmello style. He got steals and or just filled the lane on about half his points. He was a athelete making atheletic plays. I understand shots not falling, but the rox have major problems when 3's don't fall because they don't have guys that can make atheletic plays. You need guys that when their shot isn't falling, they can get to the rack or get a steal or even catching a lob and dunking on someones head.
ttrade ****in rafer!!!! he reminds me so much of juwan howard.... low fg, no d takes up a lot of minutes
