We should get better at playing basketball. If we want bigger and more atheletic we would have gone after Diop. Weird how Carl had the highest FG% among all the PFs Tracy played with. Weird how Stromile Swift, for one, failed to grasp that concept. Didn't pass on Swift. Didn't pass on Snyder. Didn't work out. Reality is you want guys who suck at basketball. Like Ricky Davis. Reality is Morey knows talent more than you. [
Nobody with real jobs on planet earth would "completely rebuild" a team that has just won 52 and 55 games. Grow up. When that same team is set up to have loads of cap space in the biggest free agent class of all time in two years then it would be Isiah Thomas-like to completely rebuild. To get comparable value to McGrady, or Yao would kill their cap flexibility and make them no more likely to advance in the playoffs than our current roster.
Show me a game that the Rockets have lost when Yao and Scola both have started? Can't do that can you? Once this team got adjusted well enough to the new system because remember they got a new coach the winning streak started then you had injuries after that it was known that the Rockets would fall off... that is what happened. If you want to accept that negative facts you also have to accept the positive ones. A lot of Houston fans have a hard time accepting that simple fact. This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say negativity. First this poster says regular season doesn't matter. I can understand that... then he brings up regular season records when it comes to playoff matchups only in a negative light to put down the rockets and even if the rockets are favorable in a positive way in the regular season matchup against a western conference playoff team then the poster will definitely go back to saying regular season doesn't matter in general. Doesn't matter which way you go on this it is a lose-lose you are facing negativity in this situation of thinking. That kind of negativity is crazy. If the regular season doesn't matter it doesn't matter leave the regular season out of it period. With that logic you could say the Rockets got lucky on their 1995 championship because all the teams they beat in the playoffs did real bad things to them during the regular season. They weren't seeded 5th or 6th seed in 1995 for nothing. Pheonix should have beat San Antonio this year ect... but the point is if regular season wins don't matter then they don't matter so it is inconsistent to bring up regular season matchups with certain teams especially when your team is unhealthy in general. Bottom line is they need a year when everyone of their significant players are healthy and giving 100% then you can judge and find the positives and negatives but don't go all the way negative to where you are contradicting yourself in your own negativity. Open to the reality that this teams health has been it's biggest problem every since Tracy McGrady era in Houston started.
No, it's past time for you to grow up and learn how to read. We were discussing contingency plans here and not about what may (or may not) happen in 2010. I'm talking about the entire premise of building a team around Yao & Tmac being faulty because they are both fragile and how no amount of contingency planning can overcome that situation. It's also taking a big gamble that in two years the entire concept of building a team around Yao & McGrady will still be a viable plan. To date, it hasn't exactly worked out as planned and there is no indication that anything will be all that different 2 years from now. Now before you misread this post know that I understand that waiting until 2010 to go after free agents is Morey's plan all along. Given the circumstances (CAP & contracts), that's really his only real play here but even then unless Yao & Tmac can show that they can both be healthy when it counts, that plan will come to naught.
I'll even go further with what your saying Leebigez, forget about potentially beating the Jazz with a Ron Artest. I say the rockets would have beaten the Jazz with a healthy Rafer Alston.
Agreed. The offense looked so much smoother when he was in there. The Rox were 2-1 in the games he completely played. And in that game 6, he went down after the Rockets cut that 19 point lead to 1 right before halftime. It seemed like his injury sucked out any hope the Rockets had in the 2nd half. Losing only 4-2 to a tough Utah team w/out your starting center and your starting point guard for 2 1/2 games says alot about the character and ability of the team.
IMO Brent Barry has been underrated his entire career so it doesn't surprise me that people don't think much of him this late in his career. Good pick up. ...and am i the only one who drooled a little while watching this video? I think everyone understands that having Yao back makes a huge difference but i think when rafer well we are unstoppable. All i really want is a good shooter who can play the one like a Jason Terry/Mike Bibby type.
I never said Diop was a good signing, ever. Neither did I say Barry was a bad one either. I merely stated there is a reason why 37 yr old guys are picked up later and not counted on to do a lot. PJ Brown could still play, but no one was beating down his door and trying to pursue him like the main target. I really don't know why I'm responding to someone who probably never even played jr high ball. My bad.
I've been talking about 2010 all year as a jump, but also, the team stil has to compete for a title. I've shown how the rox can still acquire players that help them now and in 2010. Let me say this that in business, there are variables that you can't see now that pop up. Example. Last year my rigs were costing $440 per fill up. The year before that it was like $300. Now I knew that diesel would go up and the 4 rigs idle at about .75 gallons per hr with the driver idling in the summer about 30 gallons per day. What I did was install the auxillary power units that burn 1/10 of a gallon per hr. These unit cost 8k per, but even so, my trucks cost $740 per fillup times 4 trks times every 1000 miles drive. So in a yrs time, I had a fuel bill of 6400 per week to 25k per week. I didn't wait, I moved ealy to make the trks more diesel cost effective instead of waiting till OPEC and congress decided to drop the price of crude. The goal is to win in anything u do, even in business. If the rox just sit back, talk about how hard there trying, but can't do anything, what you will see is a empty Toyota Center. If you're going to wait till the trafing deadline or 2010, then that's when you can expect fans to fill up the arena and cheer like crazy. Your investment out is what u put in. People in Houston have too many avenues to spend their money. I make a boatload of money and I pick and choose the games I go to because I haven't felt this team is trying to win a ring since the Hakeem days. The last 2 years is especially hard because I think this team is really 1 very good player away or 2 good players away, but we keep getting fed dome. Although I support my team, I don't have to be blinded. I realy think Les brought in morey to get cost down so he can sell the team. I think by 2010, the rox will be owned by someone else.
kurt thomas wasn't consistently ahead of barry. kurt was a situational sub for the spurs - witness the lakers series where he barely played at all until the latter half of the series. (sidebar: that was a terrible coaching decision by pop. kurt was very effective in his limited minutes.) either way, its semantics. the slot positioning of barry really is irrelevant because, ultimately, what matters is where and how he plays on each team. which brings me to ur point about him playing 3 pos 4 us. he is NOT expected to be the primary backup for the 1-3. he'll be spot minutes at 1 and 3. brooks is the backup @ 1 for now. tmac slides to 3 a lot, as will landry and maybe greenE. do we need to upgrade that? YES. are we done changing? prob not. the excitement seems overdone, yes, but its prob due 2 lack of previous moves and the fact that its a DEFINITE upgrade over luther! that's a good thing...no...GREAT! leeb, I hope ur right about les selling the team. I don't know that the rox are marketed/viewed as strongly as they should be. just my opine. there's no reason why we shouldn't b the #1 FA destination in the ENTIRE league. given that most players are about the $, we have a tool bigger than NY, LA, or CHI. we have china. chuck hayes got a shoe deal! is it a stretch 2 think that a marquee FA could come 2 hou 4 less, only 2b subsidized immensely via chinese endorsements? why we haven't cornered the market is beyond me. we employ their athletic icon!
Verse- The reason why players don't come to houston for less is because they don't view houston as real contenders. That's why players would go to spurs,suns,pistons,mavs and this year the celts. Watch how many guys want to go to play with paul over the next yr or so. Anyone watching basketball know houston is really a team void on talent and long on hustle. In the regular season you can beat a lot of teams like that. I'm not going to strayed this thread off the path, but let me say something. The moment Les hired Morey, around the league people viewed this as les wanting to sell the Rox. Why? How many teams have a non basketball guy running a basketball team. Just like when the magic hired a hockey guy to run hoops. Morey's job in Boston was to crunch numbers in some capacity or to streamline the organization economically. Every team except the rox have a guy that have dealt with scouting and stuff with hoops. If you're replacing a guy like Dawson, why not get a successful teams right hand man. Someone that has worked under another gm like dumars, buford or someone like that. This is a move 2 yrs ago with les losing money on investments to sell the Rox. I don't have any recorded conversations, but I even think that guy will be from asia. Just like Nintendo owns Mariners, les is planting his seeds to get out of the nba. Truthfully, that might not be such a bad thing. Anyway, I still think Barry helps, he just don't help nearly enough.
leebigez: EXCELLENT points. from a business standpoint, it does appear les is positioning himself to sell. hire a guy who "specializes" in numbers and whose business strategy is to acquire high production, low investment players. a sound business model, to be sure, but a model not entirely rooted in championship aspirations. by contrast, you have the spurs organization who utilizes a similar model economically, yes, but has invested HEAVILY in overseas scouting. they were so far ahead of the curve it 's ridiculous. they found a way to accumulate lottery talent with low picks via extraordinary scouting. tell me again about our scouting department? yea we plucked landry, he was...and is...damaged goods. with what we had to work with, I understand the odds of a gem are low, but that's besides the point to me. the point is that we, imo, don't have the infrastructure to consciously pluck a diamond. by contrast, the spurs KNEW what parker/ginobili's ceilings were. allstar/hof ceilings. we need to find a similar method to get ahead of the curve. back on topic, barry's a great pickup in/4 the model we have now. he's a head upgrade and that's great.
and before someone rebuts "no the spurs didn't know" let me say this: when parker/gino were acquired...the preseason that they were acquired...there was talk of their ceilings, as every org has. the concensus then was indeed, that they had plucked a pg that would surpass gary payton as one of the top pgs in the L. same for ginobili. I can't stand the spurs, but damnit I have to give them credit for what they did. my suggestion on our future is build a winner NOW using our pieces get that 3rd scorer. I think carter's our target so far, and that's fine with me. makes a lot of sense marketing and basketball wise. beyond that, we need to milk every $ possible from our partners in china. let it be known that if you come to houston, you're getting big endorsement $ from china... build that winner and players will keep coming over beyond the tmac/yao years because the connection would have already been made. leebigez, u were saying people don't come now becuz we aren't seen as winners. that's not entirely accurate, though there is some truth in it. people don't come to SA as FA, though they are winners. winning doesn't always trump $. SA isn't seen as a marketing/social hotbed for 20+yr old guys. houston CAN be.
my apologies to the OP for somewhat derailing this thread. leeb/i's convo prob deserves its own thread.
