[Salt Lake Tribune] Ask the Expert: Could Utah make it past Houston in a first-round

Forgot about that. Concur with the sweep!

 

The Celtics won and they did not have an elite point guard. The Bulls one six championships and they never had an elite point guard. Its a team sport its not all about one position. The PG is important so I would compare it to the spark plug (not the motor) of a car cause he gets the offense going.

 

lets not mention the lakers won and didn't have one
whilst Utah had one of the best and never won jack

 

is he serious? if we had rafer healthy ALONE last yr, we would have taken them to 7 games. our depth is just that much better.

but again, this group of guys hasn't won. until we prove something, nobody is gonna say we can.

 

This team ios deeper than last year with addition of Artest and Barry. This might be the first 60 game win for the Rockets.

 

The writer took into account that we'll be seeded first, right? That means he believes Utah'll be seeded eighth. Interesting line of thinking...

 

Bottom-line?
If the Jazz and Rockets (as currently constructed) meet in the first round of the 2009 playoffs and both are healthy, I'd take Houston in seven grueling games.
Too much Tracy McGrady.
Too much trouble finding somebody can guard Yao.
Too much pressure on McGrady to get to the second round. (Yes, that is Rox advantage)
Too much contribution from Artest, who made clutch shot more than once.

 

7 games? Nah, at most, rockets in 6. Rockets will take at least 1 game at Utah just like we did last season's playoff without yao and artest.

 

Agree with you on this one. Team play in basketball always wins because the liabilities of one player can be scratched out with the help of the other four.

Plus we don't need to have an elite PG, just give TMac, Yao, and Ron enough rest till the 4th qtr which is very possible now with our other guys(Shane, Rafer, Luis, Carl, Brent, Deke).

Then during the last minutes we can have this lineup:
PG - TMAC (conTemporary MAgiC)
SG - Ronron
SF - Shane
PF - Luis
C - Big Yao

Scary lineup in the dying seconds, all can defend and score, and 3 big time scorers at that.

NBA championship here we come

 

Seriously? No.

Tracy McGrady will be low on fuel, Too little Tmac
Deron Williams will not be stopped by Rafer, Too little Rafer.
Yao will get hacked by Boozer and Boozer will get the call, Not Enough Yao
Artest? Do we even know for 100% certainty he wont bust?

Realistically, Utah time and time again have proven they have what it takes, even if it takes cheating. Believe me, I WANT THE ROCKETS TO BEAT THEM. But, results don't lie. Until Ron Artest shows he's a part of this team, we can't say this team has changed. I'm not saying you're wrong, you're just not right yet. As of right now, the douchebag who wrote this article is spot on. Let's prove him wrong.

 

this is just silly...

 

Half Agreed. But McGrady will not be low on fuel if he has sufficient rest. Rafer was also too much for Jazz last season. The results would be vastly different if he was never injured. Refereeing will be better since Stern understands the hole that NBA is digging. So flopping will not work for Jazz any more or at least not as efficiently.

The rockets have a better chance than before, there is no question. Not to mention, Scola and Landry are emerging and getting used to NBA

 

He is biased to his city, give him a break. Very nice of him to admit some of those things. Good read.

 

ridiculous homer article.

if its a fully healthy rox vs. fully healthy jazz, rox win.

 

even with Artest and Barry, Utah still has two HUGE advantages. Deron Williams and whoever is being guarded by Yao (Boozer or Okur).

 

a healthy rockets team last year (yao, alston, battier, tmac) would have taken the jazz. with rafer finally playing, rox won a couple....

this year, we can get ron to defend the point and let tmac run the offense. having tmac guard the 2, battier guard the 3, landry/scola 4, and yao/dorsey at 5 is an incredible defensive elite team. there's so many options jazz would be worn down....


bottom line, a healthy rockets team would take the jazz (easily).

 

Rox will win over Jazz if they meet in the finals at 2009 playoffs.
but shall they meet?

 

In short, he's being politically correct, i.e., don't provide any bulletin board material. His criticisms are mild. The Rockets "as currently constructed" don't need any more incentive to beat the Jazz than they already have. Although, he couldn't help himself playing psychological games by mentioning the "McGrady out of the first round" tidbit. That may turn out to be the one thing he shouldn't have said.

 

if we are talking about the championship, championship is always won by superstars: KG, Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Duncan. They could win the titles with Rafer at PG, no doubt.

However, the championship talk is pretty much irrelevant to this topic, Rockets or Jazz.

on the other hand, if Rockets have Celtics' PG who was shooting 48%, finishing strong and getting a lot of rebounds, Rockets would be much better than Jazz and we would not even discuss this topic.

 

This is one team with which Yao has major problems. Can't guard Okur or Boozer. Okur guards him fairly well one on one, and Yao gets a lot of turnovers and fouls. Hayes showed last season that he can do a great job on Boozer. Now we have Artest to guard D-Will-a major help since he has the strength to guard him that Rafer lacks. Still, we would need to build up a good lead, because at the end of the game, Utah executes their offense at a higher level, while we put the ball in the hands of an exhausted T-mac. If it comes down to a free-throw shooting contest we are in trouble. Hopefully, with more depth this year, our stars will be fresher, and our offense improved. Having Barry to shoot our threes instead of Head, is a ridiculous improvement. I am sure that Harpring will try to get under Ron-ron's skin-he will have to try to control his emotions. I think the Rockets would win in 6.