Last year the Houston Rockets went into the regular season with a primarily veteran team. The only significant rookie or young player on the Roster was Luther Head, the rest of the expected rotation players were all veterans, but more than that, in some cases, very old veterans. Injuries felled that team, and the Rockets front office realized they needed to get younger, so this year there will be significant playing time divided among a good many 1st, 2nd and 3rd year players. While I compliment the front office for adjusting when things don't work out, and for trying hard to get that RIGHT mix of chemistry, I have to wonder why such a radical swing? This year we have so many young players that will need to play well for the team to succeed. JL3, Novak, V-Span, Snyder, Hayes etc..etc..etc.. Have we gotten too young? Or will the addition of a solid veteran like Battier & the healthy return of Tmac and Yao be enough to take the pressure off of the young guys. Personally, I would like to see one more veteran player added to the mix, be it a PF like Ely or a SG like Bonzi Wells, just to take a little more pressure off of the young guys. DD
agreed, I think we have the right mixture of Young and old players rafer and juwan are also veterans who hopefully can teach the young guns the tricks of the trade while describing mutomobo a veteran is an understatment All the young guys we got can hopefuly provide that extra "spark" to the team when things are not going well. ie novak draining threes left right and center, or Span penetrating like he has never penetrated before.
There are so many "if's." If Alston can shoot consistently, if TMac is really "back," if Ming's foot holds up, if Head had improved his game, if Hayes keeps developing, if Snyder gets his head together, if the young players can really contribute, if Mutombo can hold up, if....... Obviously, this is not a "solidly" constructed team that is a "sure thing," it is an experiment held together by threads. I don't like this approach, and, clearly, it is not the players that have made these decisions. I especially feel for TMac and Ming, they really deserve to be on a better managed team than this.
I agree with this to a point, however, I do not think you can go into a season with any other idea than assuming Ming and Tmac will be healthy. Last year was an aberation (I hope) and you have to treat it as such. My point is have we surrounded our 2 best players with complimentary players that will improve the team? Is Synder better than Wesley, is JL3 better than Moochie (I LOL when I wrote that), is Novak better than Bowen, is Hayes better than Swift. These are the things we need to find out about, and IMHO, they are swinging too far in one direction, BUT it could work out. I would rather see a more risk averse approach though. DD
I personally like the infusion of youth on this team. The management in my opinion has finally gone in the right direction by surrounding Yao and T-Mac with some young players that may be kept around for several years to grow with the two superstars. I'm not expecting this team to win a championship this coming season, but I would realistically like to see them get to the playoffs and advance past the first round. Hakeem did not win a championship till late in his career and the team they surrounded him with was kept around for several years to grow with him. I think Yao has been exposed to an inordinate amount of player turnover due in large part to JVG's impatience with the roster. If they add another veteran player, I would realistically add someone like a Kelvin Cato who is familiar with Yao and JVG's system and brings toughness.
isnt trading for battier at the expense of gay a very risk averse approach? I think young role players carry less risk while young players who might turn into stars carry more risk since their trade value would be high so if some of the young players dont work out, well, we wont be hurt as badly as say if gay doesnt work out
I would like to see another vet added to the mix as well. I still think there is a trade in our future.... I like the youth, and the focus on shooters.
The age composition of the team has nothing to do with a change of style. It has everything to do with worshipping at the altar of $Ball. If they wanted to get young, they'd have kept Gay and Swift over Battier. They got younger via Spanoulis and Snyder because they wouldn't cough up a possible $900K trade kicker to Mike James. Whatever youth they have wasn't driven by design. It was driven by the melding of the combined focuses of Morey, Dawson and Van Gundy. A Pot Luck Stew of direction. The negative embedded in all of this that nobody wants to admit is that Van Gundy will pull Spanoulis, Snyder, Head, Jacobsen, JL3 and/or Novak out of the game at the first hint of a missed rotation or a shot taken too quickly in the offense.
We've got two superstars Tmac/Yao, both veterans now. We've got Battier who should provide some veteran leadership. Alston isn't a young player. Deke is 52 years old. Howard only got older. If Sura plays, he is very old as well. I don't think we have a shortage of veterans. As long as our KEY veterans, namely Tmac/Yao/Battier stay realatively injury free, we are fine.
JL3>Moochie Novak>Bowen (I haven't watched Novak play but it is hard to be as useless as Bowen) Hayes ? Swift (better defense less offense less boneheaded) Snyder ? Wesley (Wesley was pretty bad last year) Hopefully Head will get better and VSpan proves to be helpful.
I hope the Rockets roster is much better this year, as well. Last year my expectations were high because of Stromile Swift. Some might say that we have a lot of unknown additions, but none of them have proven to be busts, year after year, like Swift. We don't have to hope that a "new environment" will bring them around. While none of them have the "upside" of a Swift or Gay, they ALL seem to be very motivated and dedicated to winning.
This team, so far, is playoff bound. I see them finish no better than 6th seat of the west if they have a good start. If they don't have a quick start, anything could happen and it could be a long season.
Clearly I agree with Battier, I have liked him since he came out of college, and if we could search you would see threads where I thought we should try to get him instead of Griffin. I know it is a chemistry experiment, and THAT is the crux of the matter, have the new players worked out. I actually like all of them, and most of them are very good at SHARING the basketball, which is a great thing that promotes good team chemistry. However, as someone pointed out above, JVG is a hard coach for rookies to play for, and we have a LOT of rookies out there. But, I am liking the mix more and more each and every day. I just would like ONE more veteran...at the SG or PF positions. DD
Funny, I think they finish no worse than 6th seat if they have a good start. As long as Yao/Tmac play 70+ games together, we will get 50+ wins. You cannot go lower than 6th seed with 50+ wins.
Damn. That's the sad and sobering truth. But there's always hope. So what if the Rockets' decisions were predicated on being stingy, not taking a chance on talent, and so what if JVG is too detail oriented to the detriment of his own team at times (especially the development of youth)....I know it's not the best model to building a championship team because we all know that the Rockets org priorities are 1) make money and then 2) win games... but with all that said, there's still hope that they could fall ass-backwards into a winning program that's advances in the playoffs and has developing youth. I mean, I know that there are better ways to achieve these aspects of success, and the Rockets are average to below average in doing these things relative to the league (seriously, luckily landing #1 Yao, and having T-Mac choose to play here because of Yao)... there's still hope..isn't there? God I hope Yao and T-Mac's greatness together can be enough to get the championship one day.
You guys are killing me here.... Last year this BBS was riddled with threads and posts clammering for more youth on the team, we had to many old guys....blah blah blah Now we get some unproven youth (and all youth is unproven) to put around our super stars who themselves are veterans now (T-Mac 10th season and Yao 5th) and this thread pops up clammering for older players. Bottom line is this.....every team in the NBA going into the season is an experiment. There are no "sure things" in sports, just ask the NY Yankees. Sure JVG will get on his young guys for making mistakes but that is his job as the coach isn't it? If he didn't pull a guy for making errors and correct him and we lost the game because of it I'd bet a ham sandwich there would be a thread or two popping up screaming to fire JVG for not pulling said player blah blah blah. Sure not every player is going to be a lock and there will undoubtedly be some more changes but I like the direction we have gone and we can add more pieces when the time and price is right....and most importantly when the chemistry is right with that extra piece. The last thing you want to do is bring in a knucklehead to screw up the locker room and practices. Just having T-Mac and Yao on the floor together should take the load and pressure off of all these guys and let them perform to their highest capabilities. JVG is a good coach and a great motivator and its the young players jobs to figure it out. Peace out!
I disagree that there are no "sure things" in sports. In every sport it is rather easy to predict who is going to excel. Most observers know who the NBA playoff teams are going to be with a high degree of accuracy. There will be a few surprises, but not many. The top ten college football teams are virtually the same teams every year. The elite NBA teams were usually constructed wisely over a period of years and they stay together i.e. Spurs. The Rockets at least appear to have no long range strategy. Every year TMac and Ming have to introduce themselves to their team mates. It is almost a consensus around the league that the Rockets role players last year were the worst in the NBA. That is on management not the players.
Seems like the Rockets are in the value shopping mode this offseason-- meaning unless they can get a vet for much less than his on-court value (i.e. Bonzi for whatever they got left to get him with), they'll sit tight and see what the youngsters can do until maybe a week or two into preseason or maybe even later. By then, there will still be enough vets left on the FA or trade market for the Rockets to get to plug holes with. Basically, that's how it worked with Jim Jackson, Barry, Wesley, etc. Even Sura signed relatively late, I recall.
