SI: Rockets gaining on Mavs, Spurs in Southwest Division

Losing fisher made them lose his defense, his clutch shooting and his veteran savvy, nobody in their right mind would rank them higher than us this year. We have way more firepower and weapons than they do. I cant wait to see scola stuff the **** out of boozer. Hopefully rick adelman wises up and puts yao on kirelinko, battier or mcgrady on okur who just camps out on the three point line, and scola on boozer to try to neutralize him. Anyone else agree with me that yao should not guard boozer?

 

we are better than them. but u can't be mad that they are ranked higher to start the season. most reg. season predictions are based on what happened the year before. the jazz finished better htan us (though i thought we were better than them LAST YEAR too. we were so bad and yet it took them 7 games to beat us).

so don't be mad. all i care is about performance and not talk. i don't care if they rank us #1 or #29. as long as we play to our capability, i'm satisfied.

 

So by translation, Rafer for Mike James? Sounds familiar...

 

all the rockets need to do now is get rid of Rafer "skip to my lou" outta here!

 

i think we all should understand rafer is not that bad of a player the last 2 yrs. the problem was he played too much. if we had mike james last year, i don't think rafer would have played more than 22-23 minutes a game. as a result, we ALL would have loved rafer b/c in limited minutes, i think he's very good. he is unselfish, does not turn the ball over... and as a result, LESS SHOTS for him.

i was pissed as hell everytime rafer shot the ball b/c i know most likely it will be a BRICK, but as a PG, i think he did his job admirably.

he just played too much and thus took too many shots.

the thing that irritated me was he said he worked on his jumper ALL summer and don't know why it didn't pay off. ******* rafer, it's your stroke son.

 

You'll be waiting a long time, Scola isn't a great shotblocker.

 

He may not be a shotblocker, but his constant movement on D is fraustrating

 

Many people don't realize the internal problems between Scola and SA. When the Spurs first tried to but Scola out his club wanted 14 million. No that's not a typo. Obviously that wasn't happening and they ended up with Oberto. Their ended up being bad blood between Scola and SA and SA had to trade him (because he wanted to come to the NBA) because they didn't want to cause problems in signing future foreign players.

Why they traded him here, nobody gets. What they say about Butler is true. If he can ever put it together he can be a plyer. That's still a huge if

For the people who say Scola isn't the answer, he isn't a scrub like VSpan. He hits the boards hard, doesn't take crap from anyone (namely Kobe, Amare and LBJ) and scored 20 pts against two of the best big men in the NBA. Argentina wouldn't have even made the semi finals without him. No, he's not a shot blocker. However, you can't get everything you need. He'll fit in perfectly. A banger who can board, enforce and score around the goal. the only concern is foul trouble. I think a lot of people (not neccessarily on this board but just ones I've spoke to in general) have doubts because VSpan sucked so bad. Scola is 10 times the player he is. Hell, 1000. Trust me

 

rafer is no bench warmer, but he is no pq for a championship team. mike bibby wasn't a pass first guard. also, if we keep rafer, we have 4 pg. thats 2 much. even when he plays limitied minutes, it just means for him, less chance of shooting, which is greater for both him and the team. in liimited minutes, it doesn't mean he plays better, his stamina is quite fine. He just have less missed shots due to less minutes played.

 

that's what i said. that's why i stated he is only good for "LIMITED" minutes. he's a guy better suited to come off the bench for 20 mins a game if he is going to play.

but since we already have francis/james/head, we have no need for him NOW. but i'm saying if we had a better option last yr and rafer was relegated to a LIMITED role, alston would have been much better.

 

Assuming Lucas, Harris, Alston and landry are gone

C Yao 32 minutes /Deke 10 minutes/Butler 6 minutes

PF Scola 28 minutes/Hayes 24 minutes

SF Battier 26 minutes/Bonzi Wells 22 minutes

SG McGrady 30 minute/Head 18 minute

PG Francis 28 minutes/James 24 Minutes

Snyder, Novak and brooks are there incase of an injury.

Depth wise this team is insanely deep at the PG SG and SF. we have a group of players who can kill anyone off the dribble. adelman wants to have alot of players who are capebal of attacking the rim through constant dribble penetration.

Is this team as good as the Mavs or the Spurs depth wise? you bet. however are we better then the spurs as a team?. probaly not yet. however we are probaly better then mavs now.

 

no way tmac and yao play that little minutes. yao at least 34 and tmac at least 35-36. u just can't. that may be the case when we play the bottom dwellers

 

I think Adelman is gonna play it safe with them in the regular season. he dosent wanna burn them out. keep them fresh forthe playoffs. with the unbeliveble amount depth now, we have the luxtuary of keeping yao and tracy fresh for the real season(playoffs)..

 

I should add, Against the elite teams like the spurs tracy and yao will still get there normal 37 and 36 minutes, but in general i think there minutes will gradually get lower this year across the board. if you look at the kings teams he coached, they were just like us, deep as hell and all had balanced attacks with theminutes equally distributed.

 

Now wait a minute, how could this be a gig against us? Remember what JHo did vs Utah in the playoffs? I do a big fat ZERO. Juwan is good but, he warrants maybe the 15-18 min increment, a spot start here and there or even a fill in for a temporary injury replacement but, he does not have enough game to be a significant piece to anyone's puzzle. Least of all, OURS! Once again, SI strikes out with this analysis. Glad they at least gave us an A- for our offseason. I think Morey and Co truly deserved it for all the grief we fans gave him prior to the offseason.

 

I agree. The X factor was we flat out had no answer for Boozer plus, Kirilenko unfortunately got his game together after game 1 but, Boozer gave us fits the WHOLE series! Got to believe that Scola will be much more formidable in matchups with Boozer than JHo or Hayes ever were. He at least has the body to body up with Boozer. The Talking Heads are the Talking Heads bla bla bla. Until T-Mac and Yao and Co get together and win a playoff series it will always be about the "yeah, but ..."

 

i don't think fatigue was the problem for them last yr. tmac avg 35mpg, his lowest ever as a starter. yao didn't avg much either.

tmac avg 41 mpg in 04-05 and played one of his best playoff series EVER.

it's all about how you go into the playoffs as a team and the rhythm that each player has. tmac was vastly inconsistent last yr shooting-wise. yao came back from injury so we can argue his rhythm wasn't there fully either.

as long as they don't play 44-45 minutes daily, i'm sure 35-36 minutes are fine.

 

I guess they are counting the trade that brought him to Houston from Vancouver in the first place?

 

He has already blocked Boozer in international competition so I don't see how it would take a long time to do it in the NBA.

 

It's not just Boozer that is the problem, but the combo of Boozer with Okur. Take Okur off the team, give them a more conventional big man, and the whole matchup advantage falls apart for them because Yao would be able to guard that player. Hayes did a great job the few times he was matched up with Boozer. Watch the tapes (if you havent destroyed them yet).

Yao could not guard either Okur or Boozer, which was our downfall (was it the leg?). Unfortunately, Scola does not really help in this situation defensively, because he will be in all likelihood a worse defender than Hayes. BUT, if we get a decent offense going with the help of Scola, then we can probably just outscore them. They beat us because they could get more easy baskets and contributions from multiple players. Hopefully we'll be able to match that now.