1. Backup Center: We have to sign a backup center behind Yao. When he is not in the game, we dont have any interior defense and we cant rebound well. We should hurry to sign because we cant afford to lose more games due to that. Mutumbo would be the perfect backup. 2. Health: I seems like our players dont know when to comeback. Our players plays one great game and then, the next one, he cant play well. After that, he sits one game and then, play one great... It s like a circle. The doctors should tell them the time that they should sit. They cant sit one and play other. This is why we are so inconsistent. Sit if you need it, dont rush it. 3. Clutch Time: We are not clutch. Two times is a row, we lose because we were no clutch. Last time vs Cleveland, we were down 1 point with like 5 minutes left, then, we choke and missed our shots. Today, we never take the lead. We were always down 2 points and missed shots. At the end, we missed open threes. Yao, also was clutch. He missed his fadeaways and a free throw. We have to do something with that. 4. Heart: One game we play with all of our heart and the other game, it seems like we dont care. We play with no energy. This is why we lose again teams like Memphis. The players should put all their heart on each game like the Cavs game. 5. Inconsistency: We are not consistent. One game, we are near perfect and the other one, we play like a lottery time. One game, we have our defense like the Celtics and the other one, we play defense like Gs. One game, we have an excellent offense and the other game, we cant score.
I put heart at first place, we also won 22-0 streak when injury attacked Rockets. Now our biggest problem is all our players have no appetite to get a win, except Yao, he is always our MVP.
The only problem I see is laziness (I dont need to name names). We have more than enough to be at the top of our division right now.
6. Confidence: SOme of our players dont seem to be confident. Like T-Mac tonight, he passed lot of easy lay-ups.
Once Rox get healthy and a new backup is acquired things will fall into place. With Ron and Shane healthy the rest will use that as energy, then the heart will be there. But I dont know if McGrady will be healthy at all this season, he better rest his azzz
Give the damn ball to Yao. He can fix it, when we catch up the score or only 2 points left, we dont know how to offense, jump shootings are not the answer, give the damn ball to ball, Yao is our most offensive weapon.. Did our players not realise or Adelman forget Yao?
I want the Rockets to hold a team only meeting and announce that they all agree for Ron Artest to be the vocal leader of this team when he's on the court. It may hurt his pride but if someone actually got up on McGrady about his useless ill-timed heat checks and his lately guaranteed-to-miss jumpers a foot from the 3 point line with 2 defenders in his vicinity - it might do a world of good. I want Artest to get in the face of players when a rebound goes right over their head or they show a lack of intensity in getting it and the other team takes it from them. I'm not saying be exactly like Kevin Garnett and have another Big Baby incident. But i would love to see Artest get in the faces of some guys during games - than when they do something good be the first over there hi 5'ing them.
Some sort of Shake-Up needs to happen in the New Year. Last year it was Scola inserted into the starting line-up replacing Chuck. That gives me hope that Adelman will bring something like that along. This year I hope Brooks gets the start instead of Alston. With Artest (when healthy) finishing games at the PF position, we are kind of redundant with Scola/Landy/Ron/Hayes/Dorsey, even if a few of those guys double as back-up (and totally undersized) centers. That log-jam needs to be sorted out, Artest-next-year or no-Artest-next-year. It'd be nice to get another scorer to compliment Yao, since the other scorers right now are streaky - TMac/Artest/Brooks/Alston/Scola/Landry. If Hayes/Head/Waf were moved to get someone decent at any position (and preferrably not at PF), I'd be all for it. But we probably won't be getting anyone that good unless we're willing to part with one of the Scolandry twins. But you never know who's willing to dump someone for whatever reason. Man, those games where we had 5 guys in double figures seem so long ago.
I agree with the OP to put the first 3 problems in the list as 'to be solved'. As this season progressed, though, i begin to wonder if the latter 3 problems would ever be solved. Actually, Heart, Confidence, consistancy/inconsistancy are tip of the iceburg. the real issue are two key factors: Character and Leadership. I'm becoming more suspicious that the Yao/ Tmac combo just don't have what is required to win big in the NBA. Yao's cultural background decides that he would never be a commanding and demanding leader for a championship team. He simply doesn't have the fire of a Jordan, a Kobe or an Olajuwon. Tmac, well, he might be better suited to be an artist, or a philosopher sth. He has risen above 'silly firece competition'. He has laid back long ago, looking down on all living things from high above, with mercy and a subtle smile. If he were to release an auto-biography disclosing all his thoughts about the game and life, I would be exited to grab one at once. Because I just can't see through the mistery of psychology inside this extremely talented figure. The biggest problem I see for this team is the charater-combo of Yao/ Mac. It's still early in the season. So I'd better hold back until next April-June.
