I want to be optimistic, but don't you think that's a bit premature considering the schedule we've face the last month? Things can turn south really easily in the next month, particularly if one or two star players on the team go down with another injury.
No, I don't because I think the team is learning how to play together no matter whom they play. They have beaten some good teams this year, San Antonio twice, GS once, Utah, Phoeix, the Lakers, the Cavs, the Pistons pretty much everyone but New Orleans and Dallas. And that was while the chemistry was building....I think as they move forward and gain even more confidence, they will win their fair share of the tough games too....not every one...but enough to get them a decent playoff seeding. I remember saying they would win all 4 of the home games before the all star break and I honestly believe they can win all of the rest of their home games....will they? Probably not, but they certainly will be favored in most...if not all of them. This team is getting it...they have the weapons, they have the talent, and the chemistry is coming..... Believe it ! DD
Forget all that schedule junk,you can say that about Boston,portland,Dallas,phoniex who only beat eastern conference teams and many others around the league.They all had weak schedules, especially the traiblazers and everyone was calling nate mcmilian coach of the year and how the blazers are back and blah blah blah. We had a ruff schedule early on but we still beat a number of good teams through injuries,new coach and new system. Bottomline we have a good winning streak going we are playing better and everyone seems to be getting the system and playing within their roles on teh team.
........................oh, great stats Sam. Original too. Glad to see you come up with sumth'n. Just kidd'n. It's hard to refrain from taking a free shot.
The Rockets had a pretty good streak wins going last Spring as well, racking up wins against mediocre teams with T-Mac and Yao both in the lineup. It turned out to be fool's gold. Their sub-par record against Western Conference playoffs teams showed in their loss to the Jazz. I want to see us play consistently well against good teams before I get my hopes too high.
we only judge the team based on its postseason achievements. we all know JVG would also do a great job with this team during the reg. season. and JVG never had the talent like adelman has at his disposal right now. with JVG, maybe we would be MUCH better b/c our defense woudl be better. but we wouldn't know if bonzi and the other newcomers would be given tons of minutes by him. again, it's all about the playoffs for this team. adelman will also have his 3 yrs. if we keep struggling in the playoffs, he'll be bounced too, along with some star player(s).
usually u give a coach 3 years. the first year, it's about adjustments. we've seen how it took the role players a while to get it. same with yao. now tmac is struggling to get it. even if we struggle this yr in the playoffs, i think les will give this team ONE last chance next yr. but idk. i never felt firing JVG was the way to go. we lost simply b/c we didn't have the pieces at PF and yao had to guard boozer. i truly believe scola would have gotten playing time b/c he hustles and doesn't complain like vspan did. but i don't know about wells or brooks though.
But the point was that so many people were giving up on this team BEFORE the season was even half over. Yes, it was frustrating, but if you stepped back for a moment you would see that the team had major changes from the coaching staff to the rotational players. It was always going to take some time....actually Jeff was the rightest of eveyrone, he always said it would take until roughly the all star break for the team to gel. I thought it would be sooner......but Jeff was right. DD
I am with you Durvasa, their sub-par record against Western Conference playoffs teams showed against the Jazz, last season. That's the great thing about this season. They have wins against the Spurs, Warriors, Jazz, Suns, Lakers, and Nuggets. Last year, they were very poor against these teams.
JVG was definitely a better defensive coach than Rick. It seems to me that Adelman has slacked off on Yao covering the pick and roll and Yao has loss some weight...It was because of JVG that Yao was being badgered to strengthen up and maybe, just maybe Yao would do a better job getting low post positioning if he dedicated time in the weight room.........T.Mac has been slouching on defense and although he never was a defensive specialist, he has shown the ability to not hustle on transition defense and has been disinterested at times....Battier has been consistent and I know many of you think we should have kept Rudy Gay, but for our team, we need Battier.....Rafer's defense in my opinion has actually improved this year and is it me, he hasn't really been torched by an opposing point guard outside the name of Chris Paul and this is mainly beacuse of poor pick and roll defense...
Van Gundy definitely would play Scola. Juwan Howard was a Gundy fave and Scola is like a more scrappy Juwan. Landry would get some run but not like he is now. Wells, forget about it. He wouldnt have even come back probably. No on Brooks either, wouldnt have even drafted him cuz he was an Adelman influenced pick. Van Gundy would have been comfortable playing Mike James, who would have fit his philosophy better than Brooks. I was neither here nor there with firing Van Gundy but totally understood you cant have 3 1st round exits on your resume and expect many chances. Adelman's growing on me though. Couldnt really tell at first but you can see he's into the games and doesnt have to shout and gyrate to get his point across. He's more Phil Jackson in approach than Jerry Sloan
That maybe true, but I think he is also taking less shots making that percentage skewed.....I think he should take advantage of strength training because the Rockets are now having him as the main focus on the offensive end....Yao also does not box out well on defensive rebounds and this can due to a strength issue....
Gloating? Maybe a tad but really I just want to see if anyone feels any different today? Sam can get hornery for sure.....but what was really shocking was some people like Rhester and MadMax had basically given up on the team already....and I could not believe it. I would like to see how they feel now... DD
Yeah, He is taking 1.6 fewer shots. So we can say maybe 1.5 fewer shots inside the paint, since he has 3% total of shots more inside this year. His defensive rebounds are up this year. Even if you look at a per minute basis, it's the same. I don't see this strength issue. Yao's physical conditioning seems better this year. He doesn't seem as winded as last year. He is taking fewer rest breaks and is still rebounding at about the same rate. We can see that in the games and by his career high rebounding this year.
Current rocket numbers from NBA power rankings... Look way better now. Off: 106.7 (17), Def: 103.5 (2)
We lost in the final minutes to a team that went on to play in the WCF...losing to the defending champs! It's not like we got stomped... are records were close and they won head to head match-ups...we were evenly matched teams with Utah have a slight match up advantage...result...they win in game 7 in the final frame. This team has overcome adversity, from injuries, to a new system, to players not panning out, to a hard beginning schedule...and we are still here...we are still in the playoff race...we beat the Spurs twice and in the one lost we kept it a close ball game without our star player. We have a hell of a ball club and we are only going to improve. -V
several weeks ago knickerblogger stopped updating for some reason and had the same numbers up for weeks, i stopped checking and haven't checked it lately for that reason.
Fair enough, what about your thoughts on the Rockets now? They are on basically the same pace as last year......in a much tougher conference. DD
