SI.Com-Rox one of five teams that have taken a step backwards this offseason

I know you are but what am I?

 

I'm going to have to agree with KD here. We really didn't take that "next step". We added Battier & Snyder(if you consider him proven) as the two only proven players. We still have many problems. We still lack athleticisim, we still have Juwan Howard at PF, we still lack foot speed, we still lack a 3rd scoring option, we still lack a legitamate slasher(outside of Tracy).

We lack many things, and it's foolish to deal Rudy Gay, and sacrificing the future for present ONLY. Fact of the matter is with the improvements Dallas has made and other teams too, we won't win the ring. We just won't, we stilll have way too many problems. Van Gundy's discipline on youngsters, lack of taking risks is really putting a hole in our wallet not just for now, but for the future. Main problem is, there's nothing we, as in fans, can do about this. We have to sit here and take this ****.

We have 3 years apparently for this window, screw this. 3 years, if it's 3 years. **** Van Gundy, to be honest. Get Phil on the phone and overpay for his ass, put up 12 mil of whatever it'll take. If it's 3 years, it should be more than this, get Van Gundy out, get this management out. If Van Gundy isn't on the 1-year Isiah lease, we have serious problems. We cannot win with Jeff Van Gundy. We have to win with a combination of everything, we have to win with some youth(erraticness), athleticism, rebounding, top 10 defense and offense. Fast break or half-court. I'm tired of sacrificing the future of this team. I love bringing in Shane, but at a different price.

The Rockets aren't one of those teams, they are a 1st round exit caliber, 2nd round AT BEST.

We still lack a 3rd perimeter scorer, one who can put the ball on the floor & score. We still lack athleticism as well. If Kirks your 2nd most athletic player, it's hard to judge yourself, Kirk may be highly tested, but so is Luther and in terms of explosiveness Luther is nothing special. I love the depth we've added though.

 

Fair enough. I actually misread your post and conlfated it with the one to which you were responding. That's my bad.

 

Well, Duncan is moving to the five, so that's not an issue. Who else do we have? Garnett is certainly a star, but who else? No one knows what Phoenix will put on the floor at the four, Haslem proved it does not take a stud to shut down Nowitzki, Brand is good but not great, Gasol will be playing more of the five this year, West is coming along but will not overwhelm anyone with his size.

I can understand the point that play at the four in our conference is outstanding and I can also agree that we need to replace Howard with a more athetic option (though I don't think that is happening this season unless we get very lucky), but I just don't see what our options are. Battier is an above average defender who can handle Dirk, Garnett, Odom, and some others who like to play outside the paint. Hayes is a more than adequate post-defender who we can match up against a Brand, West, or anyone else who will body up in the paint. I think Howard is long enough and physical enough to battle with Gasol, as well as other larget bigs whom Hayes can't handle.

I would love to see us upgrade the four, but there just aren't that many options right now and our rotation is good enough to get by considering Van Gundy does a good job of protetcting the paint with his defensive schemes.

 

Good objective take not toodiscouraging for SI standards....but who cares what SI says. It's not like that if we win it all they are going to put us on their cover nationally.

 

way to speak in absolutes there, pal. so you just know for a fact that Novak wont be bust? or that snyder wont lose it?? or that vspan will even get off the bench??? c'mon.

i love how you bash someone for their logic and apply the same damn logic to make your counterpoint..... don't forget, everyone thought swift, DA, and alston would lead us to the promised land - it was practically guaranteed last offseason. look how that turned out.

FACT - the Rockets have not done all the could have done to make this team a true championship contender. period.... luckily for them they still have some time.

 

Woah, how did I miss this?

Old Man....Battier, Novak and Snyder ARE better than Wesley Bogans and Swift.

Battier is a proven solid player who does the intangibles
Novak is a great shooter who can stretch the defense though is a bit of an unknown
Snyder is an athletic player who can shoot

Wesley is on his last legs - and is declining swiftly
Swift - is a complete and utter bust
Bogans - can't shoot.

We got younger, and much better at shooting the ball......

And that is what we need around Yao and Tmac players that can shoot......

This team is SOOOOOOO much better because of the little things all the new players bring, thus making the sum of the parts greater than the whole.

The old Rockets may have been individually better (even that is questionable) but this years team fits in perfectly with our 2 stars, more so than at any point in Tmac and Yao's Rocket careers.

DD

 

Ok, this Kelly guy has a point or two. But when you say the move is an insurance move, you are an idiot. Period. You'd keep R. Gay if you have no confidence (or hope) that TMac can stay healthy. Without T-Mac, all bets are off.

Let's just hope for the miracle - and TMac and Yao stay off the sidelines, we'll contend.

 

Yes I know, I know... Reread it, that's what it should be... I was rebutting his statement with sarcasm or something like that.

... remember I am an Old Man.

 

If you think that Bogan Wesley and Swift or better for this Rockets team than Battier Snyder and Novak than so be it. It's your prerogative. I personally think you don't know **** about basketball if you think that. But feel free to do so.

 

Rocket needs:

1) Healthy Tracy.
2) Yao Ming playing like he did near the end of last season
3) Guys who can shoot and are athletic/young
4) PF that can rebound...that's all he need to be able to do.
5) A backup Center...Deke is way beyond old...


if the players they bring in can fit the billing above then this team is well on its way to winning its first title. until that happens, this team is not going anywhere. don't even think they will make the playoffs with the current team, too many holes for the fragile back of T-mac's to carry.

IMHO.

 

No offense, but you're getting a little ridiculous here.....

This isn't some "Hey, who's better: Kobe Bryant or Royal Ivey?!" kind of argument like you're making it out to be. You're acting like you're arguing in favor of some apparent obvious answer when in all reality that's not the case at all.

Let's break it down......

Battier is clearly an upgrade over Wesley. Battier brings everything to floor that Wesley brought (intangibles, high basketball IQ, defense) only in a bigger, better and younger version of it.

Is it really so out of this world to think that Snyder could come in and replace Bogans as the defensive minded/can't shoot 2/3 guy off of the bench? They are similar in a lot of ways and Snyder has twice the ceiling of Bogans. Is it really that nuts?

Novak vs. Swift? LOL, this might the only area where you might have a minimal point since Novak is still sort of an unknown. Fortunately for him though, being the bench 3-pt specialist and averaging 9 points/4 rebounds or better isn't very hard or unheard of. If he can do that, he's already better than Swift.

 

lol at taking a step back, this is still just speculation so i wouldnt take his opinion to heart.

 

1) We can only hope.
2) I think he will as long as the offense is run through the post like it should.
3) Shoot - Novak, Head, Battier, Snyder (kinda), JLIII (kinda)
Athetlic/Young - Head (23), Battier (27), VSpan (24), Snyder (23), JLIII (23), Novak (22 and not athletic)
4) Hayes
5) Yes we do need a PF/C who is a rebounder, banger type

So yes address #5 and then see what the young guys can do. The only other thing we could try is picking up a guy with the TE or trying to trade Howard and Head for a legit PF.

I don't like this trade idea so much anymore because Head is a good SG off the bench and could improve greatly. We don't need to subtract any more depth from the SG position even if it helps us at PF. Just see what Howard has left in the tank instead. He might look more comfortable with a healthy Yao and TMac on the floor with him much like during the 2004/2005 season before he went down with the injury.

 

Indeed it is.

 

What people are going to be surprised with is how well Battier plays the 4. And I don't think the Rockets need to take the "next step" with two healthy superstars - just arrange the right talent around them. We have an extremely versatile PF in Battier who moves well off the ball and has range that extends out to the perimeter. Going to be very hard to cheat on Yao. My biggest concern right now is our lack of perimeter defense -- Alston, Head, Spanoulis and Lucas all struggle to stop penetration. Offering Head and our $4.2 million TE to Sacramento for Bonzi Wells would alleviate some of this, but it doesn't give us a great shooting backcourt.

Houston still has the majority of their MLE to spend. A $4.2 million TE. Way too early to say they've taken a step backwards because they couldn't sign Mike James.

 

you can't offer a player [Head] with the TE. it's either player+player, player+cash, player+draft pick, player+cash+draft pick, etc., or TE, TE+cash, TE+cash+draft pick, etc.

 

You can't combine the TE with a player.

You can do this: trade the TE for Bonzi & trade Head for cash or picks.

 

nice article from Kelly, as per usual, one of my favourite writers and all around nice guy, like you thinking, and completely agree, still hoping for some sort of serious move to get us out of the first round, also still very unsure about the hairstyle in your picture.....

i presume their is going to be a follow up article on the off season winners, or have you already done that??

 

IT WAS A MISTAKE REREAD IT.