If you're still making these excuses...you're obviously not watching. And while some of these excuses may have been valid at one point, they're all now overshadowed by the fact that there is absolutely no consistent effort, this team's best player WITHOUT A DOUBT QUIT ON HIS TEAM.
Hey I want to be optimistic as much as the next guy but I just don't see it. How do we get better with what we are doing. There is no motion with Tmac and Yao on the court together. We are 22 games in and doesn't look like it's going to any better. Yao is an inside out center and Tmac is a one on one player who creates when doubled. We are so far from motion that it is just a dream right now. Get Tmac and Yao out and you can see the team running the offense so much better. I don't know what they can do. And my guess is Adelman is scratching his head too. Coming into the season things looked promising. I saw the tough schedule and thought we would be hardpressed to be .500 by December. But I also thought things would only get better from there on out. I looked at this road trip as a chance to get 3 easy wins expecting NJ to be the toughest. So now we are 500 with 3 tough games ahead of us and a team that looks lost. Francis is so far from being the point we need James isn't better. Tmac looks like he wants to do it on his own. ANd yao is regressing to prefoot injury Yao. Maybe Rafer is so important that the team falls apart without him. But if that's the case we are worst off than I thought.
THE SKY IS FALLING! THE SKY IS FALLING! I agree things aren't great but no reason to panic now. We have problems but nothing that can't be worked through and there still is a lot of season left. I mean we won't finish first in the WC but it was unrealistic to think that we would to start with. There is still a lot of time to work on this team and I will wait until after the All Star break before hitting the panic button.
I guess we could say look on the bright side, we are not the Knicks. I mean could you imagine being a Knicks fan with the highest payroll and not a chance at getting better and your coach and GM is charged with sexual harrassment and has to let a player back on the team who quit on him and was voted by his teammates not to be let back. But the GM/Coach ignores the rest of the team because Marbury the primadonna has dirt on him. Did I mention they are a zillion dollars over the luxury tax. Wow it really sucks to be a Knicks fan. That just made me feel better. We have it so much better... there is hope in Rocketville. Let's Go...(clap,clap) Rockets!
I'm past the panic mode. I'm in resistance is futile mode. I have always been an optimist but the 'punch in the gut' feeling after losing game 7 last year and the coaching change left me with a desire for the organization to prove it on the court. I didn't trust that Adelman was the right choice before the season started and he hasn't shown any semblance of coaching these past 22 games that would change it. The ugly we saw these past two games, I never thought I would see so transparently in a Houston Rocket uniform. Tracy McGrady broke my heart yesterday and it will take a long time for me to see him as before. Seeing McGrady quit on this team was a real blow to my hopes for this team to do something in the postseason. Someone needs to have a heart to heart with Yao Ming and tell him he needs to stop feeling sorry for himself, take the bull by the horns, stop hesitating, and lead this team because we're not going anywhere with him playing second fiddle behind someone who quits when the going gets tough. I want to see the 06-07 pre-injury aggressive Yao again. Can he find it under Adelman? Can the team get the three point shooters to space the floor? Can we fix the defense? I'm tired of the limbo status the team is in.
Your post reminds me Tracy's smiling when Rox is down. Self-confidence vs carelessness. Should we start to chant in Toyota center: Hakuna Matata ?
I am on record as saying that we need an upgrade over Rafer and Chuck Hayes since they first started. And we needed bench depth. I don't think any of this is on anyone but Les Alexander, I personally think it was a mistake to lose Van Gundy. I do not feel panic, I feel frustration. WHY? Because I am pretty sure this thing can go either way and the thought of us taking a big dive this season sickens me when we had come pretty far. I remember the lottery days and the draft mistakes of the past and I know we have a pretty short window of opportunity with Tracy and Yao together. Anytime you make extensive changes with a team you run a risk of disaster. It isn't the record that bothers me at all- it is the way we are playing. The offense looks wrong for the personnel and the defense looks pretty wimpy, except for a few early season flashbacks on defense I am seeing more and more lackluster effort on that end of the court. We risk losing the defensive intensity and mindset that Van Gundy instilled. We risk keeping Yao out of rythmn because we are not forcing the offense through the post. We risk bad chemistry and a sour lockerroom because there doesn't seem to be the same leadership that there was last season. Let Adelman right the ship and I am going to shout and sing Glory Hallejulah! Until then I am upset.
I support this thread. Its too early to panic. I think the Rockets will settle in and everything will be fine. They need to find the groove, somthing has gone astray but they can get it back on track. To many people overreacting on this board, calling for Adleman to get fired before he is even halfway through his first season. I bet these were the same jokers who called for JVG head also, now they want him back. The Rockets WILL go to the playoffs. What matter is what we do in the playoffs, so I support Adleman while he tries to find the winning combination. And I support Yao and TMac, though I would like to see them play better.
I agree. RA sent us a warning shot when he basically said he didn't care how we were playing in November. We should have expected a tough start, and that's what we're getting. I admit though, seeing the Rockets play without any intensity is maddening. The other thing about the Rockets is that they have ALWAYS played to the level of their competition. Even in the Hakeem days we had a tendency to lose to bad teams, but we always gave good teams a dogfight. This upcoming 3 game stretch will tell us alot about the character this team has. Way to early to hit the panic button...
I will worry about these losses in March. I am worried about the players calling each other out in the media at this point. I am not going to talk about the coaching situation... I understand why JVG lost his job but I still we downgraded the coaching situation as a whole but that is not here nor there at this point. So my concerns that we need to address. 1.) Shooting the Ball. Bonzi Wells .403 Mike James .368 Rafer Alston .377 Shane Battier .408 Steve Francis .367 Even if you give Shane a pass for shooting .370 from three land that will not get it done. Rafer is more then likley not going to improve much but the rest of them need to be above where they are. .420 2.) Scola, Snyder, Head need minutes. Sit Mike James down for a while, I love Mike James I love the passion he brings but. Scola needs 20 minutes a night. Luther will bring you space sure he is not a great defender, sure he is small and can not play point, but Space is very important. I like snyder as well mostly cause he will get dirty and get things done at times. 3.) Get to the Free Throw Line. Dwight Howard 156-257 Yao Ming 132-150
Two reasons: Little rest, relatively speaking, and lots of road trips (more than any team in the league, in fact). Every single one of the losses you mentioned were on the road. It's not an excuse, really, as we should at least be able to win more of those games, but it is something valid to consider.
Alot of road trips means little practice as well. This is a new system isn't it? Given the majority of our games being road trips how much time has Adelman had to drill in his stuff? Even in the preaseason we were trying alot of things. Actually even now his trying stuff. I think when our schedule settles a little bit it'll be better
At the end of each season there's that one team that suddenly catches fire and looks indestructible, this year it'll be the Rockets.
