Rockets shouldn't make wholesale changes in the offseason

Good ideas...

That point guard/shooting guard should be JON BARRY!!!

Posey...yeah. Try to resign him for less than 3 mil a year. If not...then no. Rice needs to play some more. Boki needs to play at least 1 second. Morris deserves to play...

No one is actually going to trade the entire team besides Yao.

They mean a few players...

But yes..."Trade only Mooch, Cat, EG and/or Cato." And Glen Rice.

You forgot...RESIGN JUAQUIN HAWKINS.

 

Start Rice, you can't be serious. He may not be able to walk fast by next year. If it were financially possible, I would entertain trades for any players except Ming. Please Please Mr. Alexander don't put this same "team" on the floor next year, we fans have suffered enough. They are mediocre (.500), boring, and really dumb. This is not a dynamic young team on the rise. This is motley crew of selfish ball hog guards, an incredibly underused center, and a collection of not quite ready for prime time role players. This group is primed to lay another egg next year. Mr. Alexander, you can't do it to us. Have mercy!

 

Unless you know something that I dont, Hawkins isnt good enough!

 

"Expect changes this offseason, because they are coming. "
-anonymous

 

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1867717

April 14, 2003, 11:02PM

Alexander faces decisions for Rockets' future
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

To determine where the Rockets go from here after a season that began like no other ended like too many others, it is worth revisiting where they started.

Most seasons begin with optimism. But this one was different from the moment the Rockets drafted Yao Ming, inspiring owner Leslie Alexander to set all records for gushing.

"I love the team," Alexander said in September. "I think this is one of the great teams ever assembled."

Asked his expectations, Alexander said then, "Playoffs, and I think in the future, championships."

The purpose of returning to those expectations now that a fourth-consecutive season will end with the team out of the playoffs is not entirely to mock the owner's enthusiasm.

When determining what went wrong and what he can do about it, Alexander must first decide if he was completely inaccurate in his evaluations of the Rockets' roster and if not, why it has left him so unsatisfied.

"I'm disappointed," he said. "I would have hoped we had done better. I think we have the talent to do better."

If that sounded like he was pointing his finger at his coaching staff, Alexander did not assign blame but stopped far short of an endorsement.

Asked if he would go into the postseason assuming that with his expected full recovery from bladder cancer, Rudy Tomjanovich would be back as Rockets coach, Alexander seemed to say as much with what he didn't say as with what he did.

"I'm going into this thinking that my primary goal is to have a stable franchise," Alexander said. "To have stability means having people working with you awhile. We'll leave it at that."

Told that he seemed to avoid endorsing Tomjanovich, Alexander said, "We'll leave it at that."

The Rockets had a five-game winning streak and a place in the playoffs when Tomjanovich's bladder cancer was diagnosed March 17. But that was when they began the toughest stretch of the season having already forfeited their margin for error. The Rockets have not won consecutive games since.

They can clinch their second winning season in three years with a win tonight against the Grizzlies in Compaq Center's pro basketball finale or Wednesday in Denver. But the Rockets (41-39) have not been in the postseason since 1999, their longest stretch out of the playoffs since 1970 through 1974. Only Cuttino Mobley remains on the roster from the 1998-99 team.

Tomjanovich has been described as more determined than ever to complete the rebuilding.

"He can't wait to get these treatments over with and get back to work," Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said. "He's looking at film."

When speaking of the Rockets roster, however, Alexander sounded much as his players did on Monday when asked about keeping the team together. They of course called for another chance, saying they need more time together. Acting Rockets coach Larry "Mean" Smith said the team needs maturity but believes it is close enough to grow into it. He favors that over bringing more experienced players onto the league's second least experienced roster.

"I think we have an abundance of talent," Alexander said. "I think especially at center (Yao) and point guard (Steve Francis), everybody can see we have good players at the two most important positions on the court.

"Maurice (Taylor) is coming back from injury but playing hard and is going after rebounds. Eddie (Griffin) is a bright, young talent at that position. Mobley is a terrific 2-guard. We have a lot of talent. (James) Posey is new to team, but you can see flashes of greatness. (Kelvin) Cato has worked hard to be a fine young player."

But for all those fine, young players, the Rockets were unreliable. If they are to look back at where their season went wrong, it's difficult to not to focus on the collapse against the Trail Blazers and Jazz last week.

The season has been marked by a stunning array of breakthrough wins -- against the Kings and Spurs, at Utah, Orlando and Seattle -- canceled out by losses to some of the worst teams in the league -- Chicago, Memphis, Miami, New York, Atlanta, Cleveland and the Clippers (twice). There have been many games in which they seemed the better team that night -- at the Clippers, twice against the Jazz, at the Suns and at New Orleans -- only to lose in the final minutes.

"You get to that point," Dawson said. "You don't just become consistent. Consistency is always the thing you're striving for. That comes with more practice, more games, more experienced players."

But the Rockets did not grow more consistent. They kept the same starting lineup -- Francis, Mobley, Posey, Griffin and Yao -- together for 37 games. But even if they end the season with a three-game winning streak, they are far from a team ending the season on an upswing.

"We did grow as a team overall," Smith said. "Maturity is the key for us. As the guys get a chance to play a lot more together, they're going to get a chance to become better players.

"We're going to be a lot better next year. There's no question about it. We have pieces. You want always to improve. This team needs time to grow."

They have improved in the areas that had been among their greatest shortcomings, rebounding and defense (they rank sixth in the NBA in opposing field goal percentage and eighth in the percentage of rebounds). But they are not nearly strong enough in either to make up for shooting 44.2 percent (nineteenth in the NBA) or averaging 94 points (to rank twentieth).

"Going into the season with a fairly young team, one of the things I wasn't worried about was the shooting," Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said. "I know the coaches worked really hard on defense and rebounding which showed up this year. That was one of the surprises -- that we didn't shoot as well as we hoped."

But even the Rockets' strengths seemed fragile throughout the season. The Rockets have the worst road record in the NBA of any team with a winning record because they have so often seemed unable to handle the pressure of overcoming adversity, a shortcoming that seemed to show up again with the season on the line.

"That's what the NBA is all about," Rockets forward Glen Rice said. "It's about pressure. It just matters how you handle it."

As much as they assume they will improve with time, there have been signs of stagnation. Francis remains one of the league's most productive players. His shooting percentage has fallen in three of his four seasons, discounting 2001-02 when he was troubled by injuries and Meniere's disease.

The Rockets made Moochie Norris their third guard. But Norris averaged just 4.4 points per game and seemed to lose the confidence of coaches, forcing Francis and Mobley to each average more than 41 minutes per game.

Griffin showed few signs of improvement in his second season. Yao demonstrated the promise the Rockets expected. But particularly after his offseason duties with the Chinese national team, he was not the sort of player like Tim Duncan, David Robinson or Hakeem Olajuwon who raise teams to another level.

But if the Rockets choose to remake their roster, it will not be easy. They have $30 million in annual salary tied up in four backups -- Norris, Rice, Cato and Taylor. Cato has improved enough that with three years remaining on his contract, he is no longer unmovable in a trade. Rice, who turns 36 on May 28, is heading into the last season of his contract, making him attractive to teams looking to clear cap room in the 2004 offseason.

But the primary assets to move, besides untouchables Francis and Yao, are Griffin and Mobley. Mobley, however, has increasingly reigned in his offensive game and throughout the season improved enough defensively to make him more valuable to the Rockets than what they are likely to get in return. The Rockets might be hesitant to move Griffin, who is just 20 years old.

The Rockets owe the Grizzlies their first-round pick no matter where it falls in the lottery.

"The nuts and bolts we have right now are very, very good," Dawson said. "If we can improve this team, we'll do it. But the team being older next year, it will be better. We'll be more consistent."

Still, Francis saw his fourth NBA season end with the Rockets short of the playoffs.

"We have to believe in one another and be consistent," Francis said, seeming to point to the frequent tug of war about roles, particularly with a high-scoring point guard. "If we can do that, and guys come back with a team attitude next year, things will work out.

"Team attitude is being mature about every situation. If a guy is scoring a lot of points, don't get mad, be happy. At times this season, there was a lot of that going on. You're going to have bickering between teammates, but we need to come back on the same page the way we started the season."

"I think maturity is the only way. How do you get maturity? I think it's just time. There is a lot of stuff I have to look at. If somebody wants to say we didn't win because of me, I'm willing to take that."

His teammates did not say that, however. Instead, they called for another season to try to make this season's solid first half last.

"We are the second youngest team in the league with basketball experience," Cato said. "Everybody came in focused early, but after the All-Star break, (Tomjanovich's) illness and a lot of other stuff happened that really shook this team up. I'd like to see this team together next year."

It is not as if Alexander said the Rockets were already ready for championships. But whether this team will even get a chance to prove his excited evaluation correct is uncertain.

"You got to learn," Mobley said. "You don't come out a newborn knowing how to speak, walk, read books.

"Hopefully we'll all stay together, be patient and stick with it. It was injuries last year. This year we won 40-something games. If you look at a rebuilding team, that's what happens. If you win 40-something games in the East, you're in the playoffs. I just think we should stay together. Next year, I'm sure we'll win 50 games."

Alexander might agree. "This is the team that I think will bring us some championships in the years to come," he said. At the time, however, the season had not started.

 

Its hard to implemement an motion offense when the ball hits the sg or pg hands and stop. The stare down that Mobley,Francis, and Norris does, kills any kind of motion the coach wants. I've seen many occasions when the ball is swung out of penetration or double teams, that either Francis or Mobley hold the ball, dribbles it between the legs 5,6 or 7 times and puls a jumper or tries to penetrate. If you have a team full of playes like that, it really hurts your team trying to deveop a new system. Someone hs to go.