Ric Bucher: I dont see a Tmac-led team winning a chip, EVER

More excuses. The Rockets had the better record, they had the home court advantage and they even had the superior superstar players.

Stop passing your revisionist history off as fact.

 

Disagree. Utah was clearly the better team. They had much more firepower. They had the luxury of going 10 guys deep. They're 11th and 12th men could have easily cracked our rotation. We didn't have a backup pg. We didn't have a true powerforward. Remember, Utah had injuries last year too, and they struggled mightily without Boozer and Kirilenko, unlike us. Had they been healthy the whole season, they could have easily been a top 3 seed. The Rockets withstood injury like no other last year, so I have to give them their props for the regular season. The day Yao went down, everyone was calling for lottery, so give Juwan and Deke their kudos. But Utah was clearly the better team from top to bottom. All our wins were come from behind in the 2nd half and playing great defense on everyone but Boozer. We pretty much let Boozer do everything for Utah and had everyone else do nothing offensively. If we have Scola to hustle down a few rebounds, or Francis or Mike James to take the big shots in the 4th quarters of Game 6 or 7, then we easily go to the COnference Finals. Or if you sub wade, lebron, or kobe for TMac, we easily go to the Conference Finals. We were that 1 piece short, and that's why we came up just short. Tracy and Yao can't lead. James and Francis can.

 

Also, you know you have a problem when Juwan Howard is your leader. He was supposedly wanted by many teams at the deadline, but if we traded Juwan away when Yao was injured, we would have been thin up front, and our locker-room and bench would have been quiet and comatose.

 

Okay then you're saying that Dallas was the best team in the league and they should have won the championship 5 times already. SA should only have 1 ring. LA should have 1 too. Phoenix should have beat SA last year. Playoffs is a different ballgame my friend.

If Houston plays Utah with the roster they have now, then without a doubt we're the better team. But Utah is a great team. Don't discredit them. I'd say we'd win in 6 with homecourt with the roster we have now.

 

Yeah this is pretty much the reality as I see it.

Utah was just the better team, for whatever odd reason a lot of fans really overrated the Rockets team last year. Honestly I don't even think last year's team would have beaten the 05 team. 07 team won 52 games 05 team won 51 games, that doesn't make the 07 team better than the 05 team.

And as you said arguing yeah but look all the injuries, if not for the injuries they would have won way more than Utah. Utah had the best record in the NBA until they were hit hard by injuries.

Indeed, then Utah was better, as it stand now I agree completely, Utah wouldn't put up much of a fight against the current Rockets squad. There have been major improvements.

I also notice that a lot of fans here don't think some of the moves were really that good of moves while also complaining Houston should have beaten Utah.

I just think a lot of fans have been sold on system ball due to 4 years under Van Gundy.

 

these kind of reports and talks is why i think the team will still be on tmac's shoulders next yr.

tmac def. gets a lot of credit when we do well (6h in MVP voting). but when we lose, he gets a lot of the blame also and rightfully so.

 

I won't say "clearly".....Tmac,Yao,Battier,Rafer,Howard,Head,Deke,etc. was good enough to beat the jazz (that's why they were favored).......I'm not putting "all" the blame on tmac, but when your best player has a bad series he deserves a lot of the blame....anytime you go up 2-0 on a team I don't believe they're superior or clearly better........the rockets and tmac choked.

 

though the western conference was pretty powerful in 07

 

he does get a lot of the blame. look at this thread. look at the statements made about him.

 

Ric Bucher, just added to the HATE list.

 

What trash. I can't wait to see that idiot jump on the bandwagon come playoff time this year.

 

going up 2 - 0 doesnt mean anything besides you took care of home court. the rockets barely won at home, but were getting killed on the road. t-mac deserves alot of the blame since i doubt kobe or wade would have shot so poorly against the jazz, t-mac being the only one who could create his own shot hurt us. but truth be told, this team can only go as far as T-mac takes us. hopefully with a more open offense and more players who can create, it will take a big load off of him and he won't be so tired out there, making it easier for him to kick into a higher gear in crunch time.

 

That's ok!
Even if Tmac fail to be a leader, we still have SF3 and Yao to share the role!

It's a motivation! Go Rockets! show them wrong!

 

Beliave that Mac can lead team that is good.Last year Rockets were average,solid but still good.We needed few pieces and more athleticism.It isn't all T-Mac's fault cause we lost to Jazz.I would blame Alston or Van Gundy more.I would rather blame Yao because of his turnovers and his problems with Carlos.Still I would really like to left those serises behind us because I lost few years of my life because of game 7.

 

I have felt Tmac will never be "the" leader we need for a while. I obviously don't know the guy, but he seems to lack that fire or charisma or whatever to take a team over the top. That being said, he is an incredible player that, I think, can help the Rockets win a championship because he is going to have a lot of quality players around him who seem to have that fire.

A couple years ago when he was whining about stuff going bad outside of basketball and it was getting him down ... and then it was revealed that a lot of the problems stemmed from family members basically deceiving him, I had sympathy for him, but I also thought "damn, this guy is not the leader of a championship team". You can't let that stuff bleed into your game and make it public like that. This will keep him from reaching the only level of basketball he has yet to achieve ... the elite level. He has never been quite consistent enough largely because I think he lets the outside world come too far into his game.

Go Rockets! I still think they can make a run at the title this year and TMac will be a huge part of that.

 

Utah PLAYED BETTER in the series. They stepped it up a notch. We stepped it down a notch, and lost the series by, what, 4 points in game 7? How does that present you with the notion that they were CLEARLY the better team? We lost, yeah, that's easy, but personally I think they were able to focus and play better, while we were not. Had both teams played to their optimum ability, we take that series in 6. Just my two cents.

As for the dude's comments about Tracy, whatever. Saying someone hasn't displayed the ability to do something so far is one thing, saying something can't happen ever, that's another. It's a blanket statement in a safe zone by a journalist that's paid to be heard and noticed. I don't take too much stock in his assessment, though I agree Tracy needs to prove him wrong for the statement to be argued too heavily. I guess the difference between us is, I, personally, think he can do it. I won't go into how much of a lead role he needs to play, only to say that he is an integral part of our team, and that we CAN do it. Hopefully our experience in our short time together as a team has shaped us in a fashion that tempers our ability to win big in the future (now).

As for Francis and James being our leaders? Jeebus help us, I hope we have a better shot than that. I like 'em, but c'mon. Inspirational, emotional, sure, they could be, but our leaders? As our championship teams showed, you don't need a vocal self important person to lead a team. What you need is greatness and a cast of characters that contribute to making it unstoppable. We have greatness, now lets see if our cast can make us unstoppable.

Who cares what dude said, it's intangible.. what he's claiming. Perfect journalism. How many players win rings? one team each season. The odds are in his favor. Personally, I like our chances of making something happen, and have faith in the people on the team of doing it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

 

I don't see a Tmac-less Rockets team winning a championship either...not this team anyway!

 

people need to understand the best players don't have to be leaders.

fisher/horry were the leaders for the championship lakers; shaq and kobe were the best players

avery johnson was the leader for the spurs' first championship, not tim duncan

tracy and yao are our best players and they do lead BY EXAMPLE simply b/c they're our best players. they are unselfish, work hard, and have the respect of our role players. but clearly, they're not "motivators" or a locker-room leader. that can be a steve francis or hell, it can be dikembe mutombo or guys that are vocal. that does not necessarily have to be a bad thing.

kobe is the best player of the lakers right now; he is CLEARLY nowhere is an average leader. that's why they got fisher back.

so relax guys. bucher's statements may be true for NOW, but let next season go by and we'll see

 

Horry DOES belong in the Hall of Fame.

But Ric Bucher's wrong about T-Mac.

 

no horry does NOT belong in the HOF. u have to at least be a star. it's easy to knock down open jumpers when no one guards you. and horry doesn't play the whole reg. season