they better be cautious after what happened with tracy and yao. tracy played on that knee more than he should before he was fully healthy and limped too much. yao played for many games on that foot and that worsened it. let him rest all he wants. come back when there is ZERO swelling and he's PAIN-FREE.
I almost totally forgot about this!!! Tracy had knee problems a while ago, before the winning streak (I'm guessing late Dec/early Jan). But at one point, he said something like "I'll have to play through the pain from now till the end of the season, because if I take the time to rest my knee to 100%, we might not make it to the playoffs." I remember it because it was a BIG DEAL that **Tracy** out of all people was playing through pain!!! Since then I haven't heard anything about it, I can safely assume the basketball gods are watching over us
Exactly. This is the top level of professional basketball in the world. There are no easy games. The energy you spend should be the same every game. The phsyical and mental perparation should be the same. What changes is the margin for error. You have a bigger margin for eror agaisnt Atlanta than you do against Los Angeles That's what the Lakers said when they went into Atlanta. They lost
RECAP: Hawks have given us trouble in the past, but we're focused. A team that wins 50 games may not make the playoffs; that's motivation enough to keep their focus. Whenever Tracy or Yao is out and the team comes together and still wins games, we hear stuff about how we should trade one of them. The bottom line is they're the core of our team; they're both immensely talented. Other teams didn't trade out of panic, they were just trying to upgrade their teams. We looked at major deals, but none of them made sense. There was certainly some good fortune involved earlier in the streak (close games). Deke is unbelievable, and as long as he wants a job, we will give him one. Mike Harris gives us good energy. As far as the draft and prospects are concerned, we're more prepared than most to overlook an inch of height in exchange for someone who knows how to play the game and knows how to win (Harris, Hayes, Landry, Brooks). Cutting Green was difficult, but it was a result of the injuries. Mike Harris gives us a lot more right now. Bobby Jackson adds a lot that people don't see. He teaches guys the nuances of the system in practice, and he's a great passer, presence, and steadying force on the floor. Landry is day-to-day. We're monitoring the swelling/pain, it's been getting better. We're having him do strengthening exercises; he could be out for a couple more games. Adelman is perfect at managing this team. His strategic use of Hayes and Novak has been excellent. We know people weren't shooting well early on in the season, but we felt like it was a better bet that they'd return to their career averages than to make big trades. Guys have been really good about minutes, everyone is happy with the minutes they're getting. No one's whining, even Chuck, who had his minutes drastically reduced. Mutombo will play anywhere from 16-25 minutes down the stretch. We'd love to keep giving Brooks minutes. We see him as a future piece. We can't really fit him in this year though... but we have him for 4 years. His role will grow. Yao/Garnett comparisons are dumb. They're completely different players... Yao is a low-post scorer, Garnett is a mobile jump shooter. West for sure has never been this close. This year will see the strongest #9 seed ever. Every round of the playoffs in the west will be tough for every team. We want to play the Celtics in the finals, to avenge the 1980s.
Did he sound sleepy? He did an interview with 1560 the other day and you gotta admire his commitment to give Rockets fans the heads up.
He almost always seems to sound sleepy. I think it's just his demeanor. Kinda like JVG always said he didn't always have bags under his eyes because he was tired... most times it was just because he's ugly.
