Brooks has not shown any composure during crunch time this season, at least, most of the time. He makes bone headed plays as the pressure ratchets up. It may be because of his relative youth or he is just not good under pressure at all. He still has a few games left this season to make his case for being the Rockets' starting PG next year. I still would argue that, if no elite PG is acquired for next season, Lowry should start and Brooks could come off the bench to provide a scoring punch ala Vinnie "Microwave" Johnson, and he could hog the ball as much as he wants.
I can't believe I endured Bullard's idiotic 'Let's see if I can work 5000 Motown songs into the commentary instead of talking about the game' crap just for the Rockets to choke the game away. Is Chucky Brown or Pete Chilcutt available to replace him? Moochie? Anyone?
To quote Chris Rock, "that's right I said it!" Two games and one DNP-CD into his NBA career, I am declaring Jordan Hill a bust.
Yeah there's no doubt about it, a large part of this loss falls on Adelman. He is sometimes puzzling as a coach.
Next Year Yao will be given the ball in the clutch, and hopefully he will pass out of the double to wide open 3 point shooters.
In this game the 3 ball killed us. Down the stretch we need more higher percentage shots. Landry was big in the fourth in the past because of his higher percentage shots. He is gone, now we are struggling to find that spark off the bench. We shot 7-28 in 3s, and took a few down the stretch when we struggled to score in the fourth. Can't wait till some of our injured players heal. Hill looks promising, hope he improves.
Gundy had the same problem too. He would love to run the starters into the ground with little rest in the second half and rarely made any adjustments no matter how bad things got. Rockets have been cursed with bad coaching/stubborn decision-making since the JVG days.
Theoretically that's ideal..but it usually ends with A. Inability to actually get to the ball to Yao and force up a bad shot or B. turnover Can you name anytime in the 2008-2009 season when the rockets hit a gamewinning shot that way? I can't.
I am not a fan of tanking. It's not sports. If they really play to tank, play the kid like Hill. Don't wait till draft to develope talent. That's alright.
Ummm, you realize Yao always gets fronted late in games right? How do you expect him to get the ball.
We need a clutch ballhandler to win a championship. A big man can't do it because he can be denied the ball. The Pistons won a championship with the no superstars but a bunch of stars model with Chauncey Billups as the clutch ballhandler. We don't have one and a star PF isn't going to solve that problem. Kevin Martin is an efficient scorer but there's a reason he doesn't have the reputation of being a clutch player. It's because he simply isn't one. This team needs a Ginobili more than it needs a Bosh.
There were a few more positives, I thought. Scola had another great game, putting up a double-double playing monster minutes. Conroy looked better running the offense. Jeffries continues to hustle and contribute defensively, proving he's more than just a "bad contract". Brooks/Martin looked potent again until they ran out of fuel. We may miss the playoffs, but there are some good things happening with this team that they can build on when they're healthy again. At this point that's more important than the win/loss column, IMO.
