Reasons I think Rockets are championship contender

Here's some karma for you.....

10 years ago, the Rockets made it to the playoff as a 6th seed.

10 years later, it looks like the Rockets might make it in as the 6th seed.

We all know what happened 10 years ago....coulc it happen 10 years later?

Want something even more mysterious.....10 years ago, Shaq was playing for a team in Florida that ended up in the Finals. 10 years later, he's on a team from the state of Florida that has an excellent chance of making it to the Finals.

 

Just wait till we put our secret weapon One of these days when we are in a real jam, watch for Deke to play the 4 and Yao to play the 5. Van Gundy will put that matchuop out there. He will put James, Wesley, and Sura out there at the same time. We go small on the outside and big inside.

 

OK, first I want to thank all the Sonic and Sun players for attending this hastily called meeting, now down to business.

How many of you think the Rockets are championship contenders please raise your hand.

Ok, you can all put your hands down now.

 

That's a coincidence, not Karma. However, also 10 years ago our 2 superstars were a center and a SF/SG. We had a backcourt rotation of four either quick or defense minded 3 point shooting guards. We has a PF by committee. And hey, we wore RED UNIS!

 

The thing that makes the Rockets so dangerous, and contenders right now, is their smart "team" basketball. I feel joy in my heart when I see them zipping the ball around the perimeter, probing the other team for the weak point, and then exploiting it. And the way they rotate on defense, shutting down lanes and contesting shots is amazing. When a team plays like this, they don't have to depend on incredible shooting every night to win. The fact that we an incredible talent like T-Mac and a rapidly developing star in Yao, is just icing on the cake.

 

We've been playing very well lately. There's no doubt about that. However, some doubt still lingers on my mind concerning nothing but our rebounding. You see, we beat Dallas, Seattle, Phenix and Sacramental. All quality teams and in convincing manners. But except Seattle, the rest of those teams all have quality players missing, namely Dirk, Shawn and Miller. We beat all three teams at a 10+ margin. Some fans argue that those points are enough to cancel out the addition of Dirk and company, which I agree with 100 percent. However, we forget that those three are all the top rebounders as well as bangers on their respective teams. When they're not playing, our rebounding weakness wasn't exposed and we even outrebounded all of them, I believe. To simply put it, we forget those guys can contribute a lot defensively to their own teams, which sometimes does make the difference as to the outcome of the game. Talking about chasing a champion is all good, but personnally I think we haven't proved ourselves yet. The road trip sweep is just a little tainted by those three not playing( the Seattle game is all good though). The test lies ahead in the games against Miami and The Spurs(God forbids anyone sitting out). The nearest test should be Boston. Just don't take them lightly. They won 8 out of last ten, beating teams like phenix( thought nash wasn't playing) and detriot. They can certainly serve as a warmup test before clashing with the heat and the spurs. As far as rebounding is concerned, it all hinges on one person, Yao. It's fair to say being a contender or not is largely determined by the big guy. He needs to get more done for himself and Jeff Van Gundy needs to get more done for him.

 

I don't ever go to si.com, but with some extra time on my hands today, I wound up over there, reading an article called "Contenders for the Crown" by some guy called Chris Mannix... He listed San Antonio, Phoenix, Miami, Detroit, and one more... can you guess? (Not Houston, but I figure that's ok)... Boston!

Boston? I know they're good, but... ?

 

Boston? Talk to me after Friday.

 

I always take Eastern teams thrown into a media championship talk with a grain of salt, especially Boston and New York teams. Remember where the media capital of the world is. Boston has definately stepped up by getting Walker back, but a contender ? No friggin way.

 

He's also going to list the 5 biggest championship pretenders next time. Geez, I wonder if we are going to be on that one.

 

BIGGEST REASON THAT WE WONT CONTEND



1. The refs hate us!

 

I am very optimistic coz we have one of the biggest weapons around the league in Yao Ming and we really haven't used him that much. This team would be impossible to stop if somehow we could incorporate a fully-charged Yao Ming into the offense during the playoff time.

 

Million dollar question:

Will you put real money(money that comes out of your pocket) on the Rox to win it all this year thru Vegas?