In my view it's much too early to talk about what we will have as our bench. For example V. Span could refuse to play or he might get traded along with Surah, Head. Snyder,Alston,Hayes and Battier, especially if we are trying to get us two decent players a) a starting Point Guard b) a Starting Power Forward.If everything goes down in one offseason our team might look something like this: U/K U/K McGrady James Bonzi Novac U/K Hayes Yao U/K Mutombo U/K=unknown or it might possibly look like this Alston V span Snyder James Bonzi McGrady Battier Big Baby Hayes Yao Mutombo
I would say incomplete b/c we have two guys slotted to start who should be on the bench in Hayes and Rafer. Put those guys on the bench and add two decent starters and I say above average. If those two guys start we are in trouble. And Mike James is not the starter at PG I hope.
i think we'll have alot more depth this year than last year and dont forget a better offensive strategy. what im envisioning is for us to pull what dallas did when AJ came in and started coaching (they played pretty good D while still being very efficient on offense), hopefully we'll play very good D and alot better O.
If we draft a cold blooded shooter like Almond. We're a top 7 bench team. We need people who can put the rock in the hole. A player is left open on defense every time down the court. For us that player just happens to be Rafer or Chuck.
the value of a bench is vastly overrated unless you're dealing with injuries, which has ironically has been a reoccuring theme lately. otherwise you're talking about guys that only need to give at most 15 quality minutes behind a solid starter. i think Mike James, Luther, Snyder, Hayes and Deke can certainly do that. well maybe not Deke, so backup center might be the actual priority right now despite all the clamoring for a legitimate PF. the funny think is, all of those bench guys played more than 15 mpg last year for the Rockets except Snyder who had trouble breaking the rotation and of course Mike James. the best teams in the league last season were Dallas (flamed out even with the "best" bench in Buckner, Stackhouse, George, Croshere, and Diop), Phoenix (no bench really besides Barbosa and Kurt Thomas), and San Antonio (Finley, Barry, Horry, Udrih, and Elson/Oberto aren't exactly what i call a bench mob). as for Utah (Dee Brown, Giricek, Harpring, Millsap and Collins), does anyone really think that a healthy and motivated Bonzi and the addition of Mike James couldn't have easily changed the outcome of that series, let alone a different offensive scheme and a healthy Yao (MVP candidate level) as well? the Rockets were a 52 win team last year (unbelievable to many, but not to me) despite Yao missing almost half a season. now they add one guy who's a marginal starter (James) and possibly one more by virtue of him actually being likely to play this year (Bonzi). if they were according to Morey a 60+ win team last season, i'm not sure what that makes them this year. maybe 65+ wins if they're healthy? i was one of the guys who was so high on this team last season. i thought they were championship contenders on paper. i still do. but they were never able to get that team on paper onto the floor at the same time, and the team that did get onto the floor was so disappointing in their offensive execution. which was all the more frustrating considering they had two of the most gifted offensive players in the league and another that was all but a complete failure for whatever reason. i really hope that can change this season.
god the unrealistic expectations on this team is borderline ridiculous...65 wins? in the west?? lets have them win 55 and then celebrate a great year
The only way last season's squad would have been a 60-win team would have been to defeat Utah and GS. 52 was a stretch. (Projecting) Who in the West seems assured of Lotto '08? Seattle and Minny if they both blow it up, Clips if Sammy can't healthily play 75 and Memphis without a restoration of health coupled with some rebuilding. Any of the rest of 'us' (not named Phx, Dallas, or the Spurs) could tumble into Mayo territory. And I don't think he's anyone's answer!
Yao, TMac can start- Battier would be a good bench player Rafer would be a good 3rd PG on a team Hayes should be playing in Europe M James is OK off the bench Bonzi is fat Deke - needs to retire J LucasIII- not ready for prime time (NBA) Snyder- 3rd SG on a good team Novak- he would be OK in spot duty if he can defend anyone and rebound VSpan- cry-baby will be in Europe next season The bench is sorry. Good thing Yao and TMac have stayed healthy because they are carrying alot of baggage on the team. I would say first we should get a much better starting lineup then worry about the bench. Yao, TMac, Hayes, Battier, Rafer are one injury to TMac away from being a horrible lottery team. No way the talent of our roster wins 52 games without Yao, TMac and the grind it out, slow down defensive style that Van Gundy used. We need a real shooting guard, a real point guard, a real power forward. Then we can worry about the bench. I think Rafer, Hayes are jokes as far as the comparison to the rest of the western conf. Nash, Williams, Parker, Terry are far superior to Rafer Dirk, Boozer, Marion, Duncan are far superior to Hayes It is a tribute to Yao and Tmac (and Grumpy) what we accomplished compared to the big four of Utah, San Antonio, Phoenix, and Dallas, because they have alot more talent on their rosters.
55 wins is not a great year to me. especially if Yao and T-Mac both play over 75 games this season and Bonzi Wells and Mike James play over 25 mpg for 70+ games as well. as for the wild wild west, who really is getting better this year besides Utah, Portland, and maybe Denver and Golden State? San Antonio (slightly overrated because of their ridiculous sweep over Cleveland as well as being Utah's daddy) is only getting older. Bowen, Finley, Horry and Barry are all over 35 next season, and even Duncan and Ginobili will be 32 and 31 next year. Parker is the only young core player they have. the Suns have Nash, but he only has a couple MVP level years left, and he's the engine that makes the Suns go. Dallas (er... Dirk) will never ever recover mentally from two consecutive choke jobs in the playoffs. think Portland Trailblazers of the early 00s. speaking of Dallas, what the hell is so impressive about them anyway? how are they a 67 win team? who do they have noteworthy besides Irk Nowitzki? hmmm...well, Josh Howard is so much better than T-Mac it's not even funny. Jason Terry would absolutely manhandle Bonzi Wells in the post. Devin Harris is 10X the player of Mike James, Rafer Alston and Luther Head combined. Dampier really is the second best center in the league. And Stackhouse could really show Battier how to play defense. yes, those Mavs are the paradigm of defensive excellence in the league. magnitudes more so than the Rockets. offensively? just a little bit worse than the Rockets were last year. whatever will the Rockets do?
Will Bonzi: start come off the bench get traded Bench: who is and/or are the bench 5(s)? is there a starting 5 anywhere or are they a collective Bench?
The Mavericks were 10x the Rockets offense last year, they would have beat the Jazz in 5-6 games, probably blowing them out at least once(unlike the Rockets). You talk about that team individually but you forget it's not about individual talent it's about how they compliment each other as a cohesive unit. If they were so bad last year and worse than the Rockets, how are they a 67 win team? I think it's BECAUSE ACTUALLY WON 67 GAMES??? WTF We all despise dallas, but take your homer glasses off, they were a better team than we were
i hope Bonzi starts. or at least plays starter minutes. because a talent like that shouldn't rot on the bench. i also hope that Adelman gives everyone on the Rockets a clean slate and plays who he feels is actually worthy of big minutes instead of all this loyalty garbage to players like Juwan (well, he's gone so too bad anyway) and Rafer and Luther. if Bonzi starts, then (assuming the Rockets don't make a big splash at the starting positions) that means that Battier will probably have to be the starting 4, although Bonzi plays more like a 4 and Battier more like a 2. defensively, who knows. depends on the matchups i guess. Battier at PF. oh the horror. if that happens, the Rockets will just...die. because other teams' PFs will score 80 points against him, and he might not even grab 1 rebound a game. but he might make a three pointer ever week or so... oh, if only Bonzi could be like Battier and not worry about positions and just play basketball and do what he does, and whatever happens, happens. or like the olden days or even the present day all-star game. just put two guards, two forwards, and a center on the floor and see what happens.
hello, denniscd... wait a minute... what part of sarcasm don't you understand? the fact that you think that the Mavericks were 10X the offense that the Rockets were last year should speak volumes to how inept the Rockets ( cough...Gundy...cough... ) were on the offensive end. Gundy ball wasn't going to get the Rockets anywhere. only 4 players scoring in a game? the long-awaited arrival of a coach that can get players to score the basketball should remedy this somewhat. of course Dallas was a better team. they won 67(!) games. if they win the first 4 games of the season including one against the Rockets, they win freaking 71. that's what i call over-achieving; not the Rockets winning 52 games in the most ugly way with Yao missing 35 games and being rusty for about 15. you can't have it both ways. if the Rockets were so great in winning 52 games with the injury to Yao, then is Yao's value so little that the Rockets can't win 60+ games with him healthy all year and playing like an MVP candidate? or on the other hand, if Yao is so great and his loss huge, but the Rockets still won 52 games, then are the Rockets (T-Mac, Shane, Rafer and co.) without Yao really so bad? maybe the Rockets (and Yao) aren't so bad after all and weren't over-achieving. i didn't think they were overall, although Deke's play was outstanding for his age. he basically did what he does all the time in limited minutes, but kept it up for starter minutes. and then the 67 win Mavs only played 6 games in the postseason. speaking of the postseason, i'm trying to follow your logic of the Mavericks beating the Jazz in 5-6 games. the Mavs couldn't beat the Warriors (lost in 6) who couldn't beat the Jazz (lost in 5). but the Mavs could suddenly beat the Jazz? the Jazz also blew out the Mavs twice in the regular season. all the Mavs showed to me was that in the regular season, that they were mostly blessed with good health all year round, and they could beat all the teams they were supposed to beat almost all the time, but lose to the few superior teams most of the time (Phoenix, Utah, Golden State). reminds me of Detroit in 05-06. but i do agree that chemistry does go a long way. i'm sure many people can remember the second half of the 04-05 season. yet, they also forget so quickly and now they want all-stars or near all-stars at every single position and a starter on every bench position, which has never been the recipe for a championship in the last 30 years (the early 70s Knicks had it, but only one title to show for it). i can't think of a single championship team recently that didn't have a significant hole(s) in their lineup. finally, i think the league has gotten weaker as a whole, and teams don't have to be so strong to win 60+ games. the Mavs couldn't compete with the 93-94 Rockets that only won 58 games, let alone any of the 80s teams that even went to the Finals or all six Bulls championship squads and the teams they faced in the Finals or heck even the eastern conference finals. right now the bad teams are really bad, the mediocre teams are still pretty bad and even the best teams aren't that impressive. the whole entire East has only bad and mediocre teams except for Detroit, Chicago and maybe Cleveland. as far as the west goes, the Mavs are still pretty weak at point guard (Harris) and center (Dampier/Diop), the world champion Spurs are ageing quickly, and the Suns are not built for a title. the Jazz, whom you think are so much worse than the Mavs will probably have a better record than them next year. Deron Williams, Millsap and Brewer will improve, Boozer probably doesn't break his leg again, and Kirilenko probably contributes more than he did last season, and they don't implode the last month of the regular season. the Mavs on the other hand probably don't stay as lucky with health next season. so the time is now for the Rockets to take advantage. Utah's only going to get stronger, and Portland will become a powerhouse for the next decade so it's now or never for T-Mac and Yao.
The age old 'plaint of trying to take one guy's talent with another's heart (Stromile and Juwann anyone?) (Stevie F and Eric No er Snow perhaps?)
akuma...you think the west hasnt gotten stronger...the top two picks have gone to the west, denver will be better...and why do you all think bonzi will be anything better than our 6th best player...we are hyping him way too much...
