The major problem I see with the team this year (as pointed out in another thread) is direction. Are they trying to win now? are they building for the future? The truth is its both, simultaneously. This reminds me of the saying "jack of all trades, master of none." because the rockets have some great veteran players who are capable of contributing on a championship team, and yet they have some great young players who are no where near ready to compete for a championship, yet. The roster is stuck in the middle. The veterans don't have a team that is ready to win now since they are relying on young guys who are learning the game. The young guys aren't getting the playing time they need to reach their potential. So why are we directionless? Yao. If Yao proves that he can still carry a team, the rockets are just a couple of trades away from cashing in the young players for ready to win players. if yao proves the opposite, well the rockets are just a couple of trades away from rebuilding mode. DM has carefully constructed this balance in order to be able to pounce in either direction quickly. IOW this is an assessment year. a season in which we sit in front of a stop sign and carefully look both ways before making a decision. People who are calling for us to trade for an all star at the cost of our young players are simply running the stop sign. The same goes for those who want to blow it up and rebuild. We must wait to see which direction Yao goes, then follow... And we should also appreciate, not condemn DM for driving like a grandmother.
That's actually a good point OP. Best way to put it. Let's play the season out and 2011 will be the year we can truly see where this team is headed.
I refuse to trust Yao as an anchor, he will now miss a month of action this season and with the back to back requirements he will probably miss the equivalent of two months of action. Morey was stuck having to build around Yao but that is coming to an end and again what star can be had? Melo is going to the East coast, Paul is either staying in NOLA or going to NY and then..... Rebuild or reload whatever you want to call it but it's time to move away from Yao and start fresh with young blood.
The Rockets are not at a crossroads. They know exactly what they want to do. They want to win now with Yao. All the young guys are role players. Not one of them is anything more. You don't build championship teams around young role players. They have young guys because they are pretty good at picking decent players in the second round , they sucked last year and got a lottery pick and they got a good deal on a trade with NY that netted them Hill. THey would gladly trade all of those young guys for an Iguodala or Anthony. Lots of Championship teams have young guys on their squad. The key is to limit them to 1 or 2 that actually play a significant role and surround them with vets. Our situation isn't that much different than other championship teams. The Rockets would be happy if just Bud and maybe one other young player started to contribute this year. I think CBud might turn it around and do that. As for Hill, Patterson and anyone else it is less likely. Ish and Patterson will be on the Vipers so the only youth on the squad will be 2 second year veterans. With the emergence of Hayes' free throw accuracy, Hill's minutes at the 5 will be cut. My hope is that one of Hill or Patterson can develop into a real contributor at the 4. When Yao and AB come back and get back in playing shape we will have a team that is not at a crossroad at all. We will have the makeup of a veteran team sprinkled with a little youth. Now If Yao is seriously injured again the story changes. We become a rebuilding team, but again that would not put us at a crossroads because we would clearly be in rebuilding mode without one player that you would build a championship team around. If Yao faces another season ending injury it is in all likelihood his career is over or at least his career as a dominate force that you build a team around is. Right now that is still not the case. They are still trying to win a championship with Yao at the Helm. So no crossroads here, not today.
I mostly agree with your premise, but Yao's latest setback should be the final straw. The Rockets need to move on. It's a pity they don't have the guts to trade his expiring at the deadline.
Crossroads by accident. Before the injury Yao and Brooks, everybody thinks this is a championship team.
It's a business decision. As long as Yao has the ability to contribute in a positive way on the court Les will not trade him. Once Yao can't do that I expect his trade value will go down and we would get little value back but more than that I expect he would retire. Yao has to much pride to overstay his welcome. I would agree as a fan it is very frustrating watching the player your team is built around to continue to go down. But if he is really finished. If Yao will never return to the Great Wall he once was don't you think the market would know that. And what do you think we can get on the open market if Yao is really finished. This last setback was just a typical injury that any player can have. It becomes more serious when you have 300 pounds falling on your foot. But we have already had several players go down with similar injuries and no one is talking about trading them. What compounds Yao's situation is he hasn't even got back into game shape from his last injury and this is a big setback. But I was impressed with his improvement and I see indications that make me think he will return to his preinjury form and might even be better. If that happens and he doesn't have any more foot injuries there isn't a trade out there that would land us a better player. Not even anything close.
Smoothie, can you please put your thoughts in a movie so that I can understand, agree and laugh all at the same time? Kthx.
If Les resigns Yao because of a "Business" decision then I lose all respect for the guy. We don't need a injury pledged 10-8 center, plenty of guys around that produce that but stay on the court. Les would be setting the franchise back another 5 years if they stick with Yao and build anything around him. His trade value isn't fantastic but that really isn't important, let him walk this offseason and start over with someone else. Morey left his options open for this very reason and needs to take advantage of the situation. In regards to his latest injury, sure it isn't a major injury but we are about to be 4-16 in part because of this injury and if he keeps getting these "fluke" injuries at the worst times then it becomes a trend. These nagging injuries will continue to grow and he is about to miss a 1/3 of the season when you count the no back to backs...that is not good at all.
Why is the best team ever assembled and predicted to win 70+ games 8-7. Wade said they were a work in progress. Well this ROckets team is clearly not on that level but they are also a work in progress. ANd one of the problems they face is one of the same problems the heat are facing. That is having 2 goto guys and trying to mesh them together. The early stats on Wade and Lebron are that the team plays worse when they are on the court together. And what is happening is when they are together they just take turns. Wow 2 of the best players and they don't make each other better. That has to be because they don't complement each other. Well the same thing happened with Brooks and Yao. Brooks can no longer be that score first and then look for Yao or Scola type player if he does that he throws Yao and Scola off their game. They have to learn how to complement each other or they have to not be on the court as much together. At the same time throwing into Yao is still a work in progress. Yao only started to look almost back in the last game against Minny. Then he went down. And his defense was still subpar in that game. Yao by his own admission is slow to get back into game shape. He will be lucky to be back to himself by the All Star break. That said he looks like he can do it. He has definitely show moments of dominance in his short stint back. The rest of the team is also starting to mesh again. AB may end up being a 6th man of the year candidate and everyone is happy with Scola's improved play.
If....Yao gets healthy this season and rounds into shape by playoff time, then we are going to be total H-E-L-L to deal with. Think about it. We took the Lakers to 7 games the season before last without either Yao and McGrady but with Artest. This team now has Martin and Lee replacing Artest. If we can come together without Yao, then add Yao around Christmas and he stays healthy, we are going to be a difficult out in the playoffs.
Nice post OMR, but at what point in time do the rockets throw in the towel on building the team around the often injured Yao Ming? What do they do if he goes down again for some other injury again and again? How can a team build any type of chemistry when their all star player can't be relied upon to be in the lineup for at least 80% (Im being generous) of the season? I love Yao and this team would be deadly IF he were half way healthy, but he's not and in all reality he won't ever be.
What are you talking about? Everything Les does is a business decision. He resigned Scola and Lowry. It was a business decision. He hired Morey it was a business decision. He traded Tmac for a bunch of assets it was a business. he runs a business and he wants to put the best team possible on the court so they can win so more fans come watch, so more jersey are sold , so he can make more money. Yes he also likes the notoriety that winning brings but make no mistake about it. If the Rockets are lossing him big amounts of money every year he will clearly grow tired of them. Yao is an asset that helps him break into the Chinese market. As long as Yao is a positive on the court I see know reason for him to consider any trade for him. Again once Yao can not play up to a good level I expect Yao will quit. So you won't have to ask him to be traded or retire. But that day is not today. Before Yao went down with a typical NBA injury that could happen to anyone, he looked to be the dominant player he once was. That makes me very hopeful Yao can return to that form and maybe even better before year's end. Yes it is frustrating watching him go down. ANd yes his injuries in the past have been season ending which has also made our hopes for the team season ending. But at least this last one was not that and when he returns he should back on track. I say let's just wait it out and see what becomes of him this year. I mean what more can we really do. Do you actuallly expect a Yao for Lebron trade in the future. Not going to happen. Yao's value on the open market is much less than you think. We can't even get a Yao for Love or a Noah. Maybe Yao for Carmelo but that would just be a 1 year rental. Most likely a trade involving Yao returns us a Brand or troy Murphy. Maybe a conditional 1st round pick. if that happens you can an expect another decade before we are contenders again.
Of course the biggest IF, is Yao. He has to stay healthy and show signs that he can still be the star the franchise player, realistically I wouldn't doubt if he goes down again before All Star break. If Yao stays healthy and we come into AS weekend with a 15-20 loss differential over our wins, expect trades for those expiring, along with trade bait in a young prospect. Great way to put it OP.
Yes, Les makes business decisions but the best business decision any owner can make is to create a winner, IMHO, not to please the Chinese community. He did not trade TMAC for assets, Morey traded TMAC's rotting carcass for payroll flexiblity and an above average shooting guard to WIN. Yao's decision should not be about anything outside of what he can do on the court. Most Rockets fans in Houston, or even the US, are over Yao and are ready to move on. If Les wants MORE then normal empty seats then go ahead and resign Yao this offseason and wait for his annual season altering injury because we all will. I can not trust Yao for one second to grind out a complete season and lead this team. The team looks headed for a 4-16 mark, so if Yao stays healthy and the team makes an incredible run it would mean the team needs to go 46-16 to reach 50 wins and a probably 1st rd exit...sorry that gets old REALLY fast. Feigen, recently, noted that the chinese market/endorsements brought about 5% of revenues for the Rox, now while that isn't anything to ignore, it isn't a HUGE franchise altering amount either. I am tired of If this or if that with Yao, championship teams are not made of "ifs" but rather Concrete Notions. Oh and sorry but before he went down, the Wizards were destroying him with their athletic big men and the fronting problem was back, he looked good but no where near dominant.
Personally I think both Smoothie and OMR are right.... Of course the Rockets WANT to wind now with Yao and they HOPE that Yao is able to rebound back to his old form. But DM is a brilliant tactician and his plan B was to stack this team with assets (young players and draft picks) to allow for readjustments if the plan A (Yao) doesn't work out this year. I have my sights set on the trade deadline for two reasons..... 1. Most trades don't occur in the league until this point in the season 2. By this point we will have a pretty good indication where Yao is in his recovery. Let me add here that I don't see this minor ankle sprain as anything serious unless the they are lying about the severity. Its a common injury and his foot probably still has some weakness and / or fatigue from the rehab. Happy Thanksgiving!
Final straw? I would understand your sentiment if Yao had suffered a setback to his surgically restructured foot or sustained a new injury but, this was an ankle sprain. The most common sprain in basketball. You don't have to have bad genetics or bad bone structure to sprain your ankle. The fattest kid in the world can step on a rock and sprain his ankle. It's common. Let's stop the Yao bashing because he turned his ankle. This is getting borderline rediculous.
i don't think so. we are in a win-now mode and the team still expects yao to make it all the way back. and we are still trying to get another all-star to help yao out. i think that's the wrong direction b/ you have to know you cannot depend on yao anymore. i don't think this team can ever start from scratch. we will either stay mediocre until we get another star. but to be out 3-4 weeks? he's not dependable anymore as a franchise player. that's all.
