There was a chat on ESPN earlier with Ric Bucher, and a guy asked if the rockets can beat the spurs. He said not even close because swift is an underachiever and anderson has to prove something. Then he said there is some good news. He talked to a guy who had lunch with yao, and the guy said that yao's arms look genormous. Which means his upperbody is getting stronger. Hopefully this can be a sign that he wont be bullied around. Rickey (Houston): With all of the transactions that the Rockets did during the offseason can they really overtake the Spurs and win the championship. Ric Bucher: (2:10 PM ET ) Not even. They filled some holes on paper, but JVG has his work cut out for him. Stro Swift doesn't have a lot of fans among GMs because he doesn't play hard every night. That makes him a younger version of Kelvin Cato. Derek Anderson will have to buy into JVG's approach to defense. Big question if he can after all those years foundering in Portland. On a positive note, I just talked with someone who had dinner with Yao in Shanghai a few days ago. Says his arms are genormous. Good sign that his upper body could be as strong as his lower
Valid points, both these guys haven't proved squat in a red jersey yet. However, we have a rather large motivator to handle Swift in the person of Tracy McGrady. Swift was the man Tracy wanted and it seems to me like a good bet that he'll make damn sure Swift ain't slacking. And if Swift does get a bit lazy on the floor... gee, I guess we'll just have to bring in that Howard guy who has the sets down pat. As for Derek Anderson, I find it difficult to believe he signed here for less money in anticipation of all those offensive isolations he's going to get. JVG is known far and wide as a defensive-minded coach; signing with Houston without fully intending to play JVG-style defense is kind of like traveling to Paris to watch "Armageddon" in your hotel room.
This can't be true. Yao has not been in Shanghai since he returned to China to join Chinese National Team in Beijing as far as I know.
JVG should be able to get the best out of both Swift and Anderson. He did alright with Kato, who had less natural ability than either. I suspect T-Mac will also push Swift quite a bit. That's another reason it was such a key to re-sign Barry -- we need those give-it-all kind of guys to guilt the slackers into trying harder. As for Yao's arms, I'd take that one with a boulder of salt. Who's to say Bucher's friend wasn't just surprised because he remembers the skinny Yao? If someone on the Rockets staff made the same claim, you could take it seriously, but the anonymous friend of a sportswriter?
Gaining strength is fine for yao, but what I don't want to happen is for him to lose quickness and the mobility he has. Yao has pretty good strength right now- watching the miami game again I watching him back Shaq up in the post with what seemed like not a lot of effort- I feel that even if Yao has all of this added strength, he may not use it properly. For example, fighting for position or rebounds will have to utilize aggressive power moves and shoves.. Yao has to be able to not be nice and perform those moves gently, he needs to push/shove bump with aggressive power (not excessive power which will draw fouls), and in order to utilize that kind of power he can't be "nice". He can have all the strength in the world but if he does not utilize proper technique he'll just be a strong 7'6" guy who avg 7rbpg. Which I why I feel that stamina and mobility should be more of a priority for Yao but some more upper body strength wouldn't hurt either, unless overdone and otherwise wasted.
Not worried about it one bit. We don't need these guys to come in a light the league on fire. Even if they just play like they always have, they give us the defensive flexibility to play with the Mavs and the Suns. Offensively, we're already pretty strong. And if they contribute offensively too, its all frosting! The Rox proved they can play with any team. We just didn't have a backup PF when JHow went down...and still took the Mavs to 7 games (when their franchise player is a PF!!! ) I'm feeling pretty good about this season.
Does Rick Bucher realize that we, for all intents and purposes, have the same team that tore up the league last year when everyone was healthy (before Mike James even came along) and now we're just ADDING Derek Anderson and Stromile Swift to that? At the very worst we should finish no worse than last year.
Ric Bucher has some strange opinions. He was on ESPNEWS the other day and said that he thought Phoenix had the best offseason...
I would agree with this, but also remember, and I really do HATE to say it, but the officiating makes this tough. Add the fact that opposing players will flop/act to further make it seem like Yao is fouling, and we are in the same situation as last year. If Yao can somehow get the respect of the officating crew, then we'd have less frustrations. Disclaimer: Yao also is just not quick enough for a lot of weak side help (though he improved much late in the year), and picks up a lot of valid fouls there.
