Reality check: Don't expect much from worst lineup in the league

Yes, I said it. We have the worst lineup in the league, I am willing to bet that you would be even more shocked at how bad we have it now when you compare us against the worst teams in the league; take your pick: Atlanta, Hornets, Raptors, you name it.

For those who understand basketball, you know that it's the ultimate 'team' game, where the collective unit is always more important than what 'great' player you have in the lineup.

To be frank, we have about 4-5 players in the current rotation of 9 who shouldn't even be on an NBA team, or players who are normally relegated to wearing suits on the bench all season-long, in case they're ever called upon to fill in for injured rotation players.

Even when McGrady went down, almost all the current injured players were available except for McGrady, and we still lost eight games in a row. In today's league, there is an abundance of talent even on the worst of teams, and therefore no more 'gimmes' in the league; you have to bring it every night or your risk losing in this league.

EDIT: To mimick another thread I didn't see before I started this one, wake me up when we're healthy. We have already showed resilliance and heart and fought out injuries, but we at least still had two star players every night. Now not only is Yao out, but we have lost an ENTIRE position of our normal roster (Center that is), and that affects not only our offense but arguebly even more so our cohesiveness and stability on defense.

We're a wounded animal right now and likely will be for a stretch, and I doubt we will see many (if any) W's until at LEAST DA, JB, and/or Rafer are back.

 

Granted, he played bad tonight on the offensive end. However, I am not sure that forcing shots over 2-3 defenders would have made a difference in winning this game.

We're just bad right now, even when McGrady was out for an 8 game stretch we STILL had the majority of our roster along with Yao, but we don't even have that luxury right now.

Injuries have in the past and do kill promising seasons...this looks like one of those instances.

What do the Rockets do now? Simple: wait it out, and in the meanwhile, they will be lucky to win any games with Graham, Moochie, Baxter, and Bowen getting major minutes.

Oh yah, and Swift playing like a p***y.

Sorry man, I just don't think we can do anything about it, health is THE single most important factor, and I think when 6 rotation players (mostly our best players) are out, it means total destruction of a team.

This is just not our season. We were FINALLY making strides with a STILL decimated lineup (but we still had Yao and McGrady at least), and just like that everyone that matters goes down at once, and we're left with literally no one to play but a lineup full of "roster fillers" of mostly NBDL talent.

 

Agreed, they didn't do that badly on offense, but their defense sucked big time, IMO.

McGrady playing like he did tonight definitely hurts, no question about it.

I am not sure why McGrady was timid tonight, but he just didn't look ANYTHING like himself, I would be interested to see if there was something on his mind or something physical bothering him before I change my conclusion that it was just one of those very, very rare 'aweful' nights that one can remember for him.

 

Why in the heck would they do that? If anything, they will give up one of their 'older' and bigger contracts, not a young promising player that's expected to become their savior at one point or another.

 

I didn't say McGrady played well, I said he sucked tonight and it's the worst game for him (IMO) as a Rocket to date -- offensively that is.

I don't think we would've won even if McGrady got his average. If he shot more, that would've meant less assists for him (around 6, which is his average per game). Certainly we would've been more competitive, but IMO Toronto didn't even have to play all out and they still easily beat us.

IMO, our defense sucked the most, and that's to be expected since we have no centers playing for us, and everyone knows that our centers anchor our defense.

IMO, having Deke back healthy is our most important short-term goal, since if nothing else he will help relieve some pressure on defense from our guys and stabilize this team a bit.

 

It's amazing how one year we can do no wrong with our trades/moves, and then the very next one everything we touch turns sour and hurts us.

Thus is the NBA...