Unrealistic expectations? To answer that we really have to take a look at who is in the top four and how are we going to compete. I have been able to get a preview of part of the planned strategies for both Dallas and Sacramento. Here is the Kings. The Italic is from the King media. Kings' athleticism is providing flexibility It's conceivable no NBA coach will have more flexibility and versatility at his disposal than Rick Adelman….. At times, Adelman might even have more options than he can manage…… With the signing of free-agent forward/center Keon Clark and the continued improvement of swingman Gerald Wallace, Adelman will have the opportunity to use the most athletic five on the court in Sacramento history. Consider center Vlade Divac, power forward Chris Webber, small forward Peja Stojakovic, shooting guard Doug Christie and point guard Mike Bibby the starting five. For the sake of projection, the primary backups are Scot Pollard at center, Clark at power forward, Hedo Turkoglu at small forward, Gerald Wallace at shooting guard and Bobby Jackson at point guard. For the Rockets, consider center Yao Ming, power forward Maurice Taylor, small forward Kenny Thomas, shooting guard Mobley and point guard Steve Francis the starting five. For the sake of projection, the primary backups are Cato at center, Griffin at power forward, Rice at small forward, Oscar Torres at shooting guard and Moochie Norris at point guard. Rocket Matchup advantage: Ming, Mobley, Cato, Griffin, Torres Kings Matchup advantage: Webber, Even: Thomas, Francis, Norris, Rice "I've got to try and play guys in different spots," Adelman said. "I think we need to put a lot of different combinations together to see what guys can do. I think you'll hit situations during the season where you have foul trouble or guys are hurt or whatever. We've got to be able to see what guys can do. Bibby, Jackson, Christie and Cleaves all have run the Kings' offense, and Turkoglu is a candidate to get some of that duty this season. "I want to give Hedo a chance to handle the ball some," Adelman said. By the way Bobby can run and the way he comes off screens and everything, a lot of times Hedo can bring it down the floor. You get two guys like Bobby and Gerald on the floor and let them get out and run and let Hedo bring it, that's pretty good, I think. "Hedo is very good in the open court at making decisions, and (if) you get two guys who run out ahead of him, that opens the whole court for him. He told me he played a lot of point guard with the Turkish national team. But he's got to be assertive -- that's probably the biggest thing I've been talking to him about -- if he's going to handle the ball. "If someone gets into him (defensively), he can't get cautious and turn his back. He's got to have the confidence to get to a spot without having to do that and walk it up the court." For the rockets, Francis, Mobley, Norris, and Brown do most of the running of the offense. Webber is salivating at the prospect of increased athleticism. "We have our starting lineup, we have our bench, and then we have our athletic lineup," Webber said. "Myself, Keon, Bobby, Hedo and Mike ... or Peja and Hedo ... or Peja and Gerald, or any combination of all of those. We are going to have some great athletic lineups on the floor. I see our defensive intensity going up this year." For the rockets our athletic lineup would be Ming Griffin, Thomas, Mobely and Francis….or Morris and Boki … or Torres and Moochie or Brown or any combination of all of those. I do not see us having to take a back seat athletically. As should Adelman's willingness to use different players in different combinations, particularly during the regular season. He has six players who easily can play shooting guard, seven who can play small forward, including Clark, Webber and Lawrence Funderburke in a pinch, and seven who can play power forward, including Turkoglu, Stojakovic and Pollard. What?! Well using these standards, let’s see what the rockets have. Players who can play shooting guard (6): Francis, Mobley, Torres, Tito, Boki, and Rice; small forward (8): Rice, Mobley, Thomas, Griffin, Boki, Morris, Taylor, Torres ; and power forward (7): Thomas, Taylor, Griffin, Ming, Morris, Boki, Cato. That is how I see it.
It's not just the players, it's the system they play in as well. The Kings are great at what they do. What does are team do? Sloppy offense and sloppy defense. Even with the new offense it will still take a while to really run it smoothly.
Agreed. But don't you get the sense that we could take advantage of them down low. I mean that is how the LAL beat them last year and while we do not have Shaq we can bring a lot of size at the 4 and 5 which they should struggle with. Clark will help but I think we could really mess them up with Ming and Cato on Vladi.
I think the Kings are the ones to beat this year. They can do it all and are so deep. The Lakers with Shaq and the Mavs are right there too. I think San Antonio rounds out the upper echelon. We are right there with anyone else for the next spots, and depending on development could conceivably be right there with the Mavs and the Spurs.
I agree with everything in the initial post. The only exception I would make is where Dear Rock has Bibby and Francis cancelling each other out. Francis is waaaaay ahead of Bibby in overall game IMO. The only difference is Bibby got traded to a contender, Francis is having to build his team into a contender. If Bibby were still in Memphis, he would never have recieved that phat contract the Kings gave him. Other than that, Great Post!!
Fever, I agree with you really. I was just being a bit conservative and wanted to recognized that Bibby has delivered in the most heated environment which Steve has not shown yet. It is not that he cannot do it if he had the chance but you just do not know. I was really impressed with Bibby in those series.
Vlade vs. Yao Vlade has the advantage in 1st year (experience) C-Web vs. MoT C-Web clear advantage Stoy vs KT I love KT but Stoy is better at SF Christie vs Cat PUSH- Christie better on D, Cat on O Bibby vs Stevie Stevie Pollard vs Cato PUSH Pollard plays harder but Cato has more "P" Clark vs Griff Clark has the advantage now, Griff will be better Turko vs. Rice PUSH Turko played well in plyoffs last year, Rice is deadly if healthy Wallace vs. Torres PUSH I don't expect eitehr one to make significan contributions Jackson vs Moochie Jackson has the advantage, use to playing in crunch time Guess I see it different with Sacramento having 5 advantages, Houston having 1, and pushing 4. However in the future (maybe end of this year, maybe next, maybe 2 years) Griff and Yao will make it even in my book 3-3-4 but for now Griff is still learning and Yao is adjusting to the NBA. Yao may overtake Divac quickly but Divac has played this game for awhile and can hold his own against anyone (except the brute strength of Shaq)
I think by year end Yao will advantage Divac. Our 3 position may be by commitee and that could help nullify some of their advantage. Overall though, the Kings are the top team I think. But, you still have to go through the chumps, I mean champs...
4Chuckie, at the starting SF spot I thought KT's defense and rebounding gave him the edge since Peja is the closest thing there is to a one dimensional player. It is the same thing with Vlade. Yao's defense, rebounding, height advantage in the post and speed, I thought, made up for the difference in experience.
I think you guys also have to factor in the fact that head to head matchups do not determine the top 4 spots (or the next 4 after that either). The Rockets could beat the Kings in every matchup this year, and still end up a lower seed than the Kings. Unless the Rockets have a better record than Lakers, Mavs, Kings, or Spurs they won't finish with a higher seed than these teams. Overall records are more important than head to head matchups when it comes to seeds.
saying the rockets will be in the top 4 this year MAY be a push....next year i think we have a chance at it but i hope im wrong.. i hope we do make it in the top 4 we will make the playoffs though no more lottery 4 us!!
That entire analysis is a load of BS. The Rockets (at this point) with a healthy team and the addition of Ming are no where near the level of the Kings. If the Rockets were in a best of 7 series with the Kings, they would lose in 5 or 6. Furthermore, it is not how you matchup with a particular team, its how you play ight in and night out as they need to concern themself with the 78 games vs other competition. Also, just being realistic, I think it is a stretch until proven otherwise to think that Thomas will be able to effectively play the 3. The 3 & 2 are going to typically be the position that has the most offensive prodution and Cat has a lot to prove on D and as for KT, well he has proven himself as a good post defender, but how will he fair versus the Finley, Lewis, Stojakovic, McGrady, Pierce, Garnett, Rose, and Marion's of the league remains to be seen. KT has excellent footwork, but speed and technique are greatly different when playing D on the perimeter.
I totally agree with you. I thinks its classic case of homer syndrom to think that the Rockets are going to be better than Sacramento, LA, Dallas, or S.A. The person that said we could take advantage of Sac. down low is way off. Its not just Vlade anymore, there is Keon Clark, who probably will be starting at some point this season. Keon Clark is no Duncan, but hes not a bad center. Therefore, I would take Vlade/Clark/Webber vs. Yao/Cato/Griffin every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Same thing with San Antonio. It would take a season where every thing goes perfect for the Rockets and San Antonio is hit with injuries to Duncan/Rose/Robinson for us to overtake them. We have the edge in the backcourt, but titles are won with a great 4 or 5. I think we match up best with Dallas. Our personel are similar. But Dallas has played together for a few years. Its not fair to say that although we have talent, we are going to be in the top 4 in the west or even the top 8! It takes a while for a team to gel. I also think that its unfair to say Francis vs. Bibby is a mismatch or that Francis would kill him. In past years, even when Bibby was with Vancouver, it was often a push when they matched up. And after seeing what Bibby did in the playoffs, you would find alot of GMs in this league that would rather have him running their team at crunch time until Francis proves that he has what it takes to lead us to playoff victory.
First, I don't think the Rockets are in the Laker-Kings-Mavs range - yet! They can possibly run with the Spurs... But, on one hand you say they are no where near the Kings, then say they could win one or two games against them in a 7 game playoff. That's not that far away... which is it? I tend to agree. We aren't far from Dallas talent wise, we need time just like they did.
I dont think its fair to say we can run with the Spurs. They won over 60 games last year and have two former MVPs on their front line. Their team is the same as last year whereas weve added two rookies who havent ever played pro ball in the US. If Yao puts up rookie of the year numbers and Nachbar has a solid first year playing a scoring role off the bench, then we might gain some ground.
Horns, the analysis was not meant to be for matchups. It was more a reflection of how the talent compare. That way, if ESPN can project 62 wins for the Kings, I cannot see why we cannot be penciled in for 54-55. Also, keep in mind that the team two years ago swept the Central Division. Stop thinking of the rockets as a bunch of little kids. I cannot see how a reasonable expectation for us is the same number of victories we had two years ago. Relative to the rest of the league, we are better than we were two years ago.
I agree with you somewhat. However, every time I think the Rockets can win 55 games this year, I remember that they only won 28 last year, which means they would have to improve by 27 games and I do believe that would be an NBA record for a one season improvement. Thats a tough task considering we have two unproven rookies and two players coming off major injuries. I think 45-48 games is more realistic.
Codell, focus on the team using two years ago as your reference point, not last year. Do you think it is for the Kings that Dallas is trying to resurrect Bradley or to keep up with the Rockets? Don Nelson is once again promising the utilization of his “Big-Big’’ lineup. And the reason he might finally make good on his pledge? Dirk Nowitzki has gone “small-small.’’ “Dirk’s too skinny!’’ jokes Nellie. “Boy, does he look good! He’s gotten thinner. I don’t know why. Nobody asked him to. But it’s going to help his quickness. It’s going to help him play the 3.’’ The UberMan better equipped than ever to play the 3? Raef LaFrentz sliding over to the 4? It’s all made possible if Shawn Bradley is ready to play the 5 the way God meant him to play it. Nellie on how Dirk fits the concept: “I’d like to try to go with a big lineup, although I have been saying that for a while. But Dirk, I always thought his body was perfect for basketball, and it’s even better now. … He's just been a pleasure to watch. He's truly made the next step in stardom." Nellie on how Shawn fits the concept: “It’s not like we didn’t try every trick we knew to get him going last year. He went from his best-ever year to his worst year. You never see anything like that. But he’s having the best practices he’s had in a year. So this year might be different. …’’ Clearly, Nellie is still exasperated at the memory of Shawn’s awful 2001-02 season. So is Shawn. Responds Bradley: “Maybe my problem last year was that it was teaching an old dog new tricks. The new rules read one way on paper, but it becomes all about adjusting once you get on the court. But if we do it right, if I do it right, this can really be a benefit to us.’’ The way Nellie breaks it down in his mind: “Bradley and Eschmeyer at center, Raef at the 4 backed up by Popeye, Dirk at the 3, backed up by Eddie and Griff. Griff also backing up Finley at the 2, along with this Raja Bell kid. And Nash and Nick at the point guard, with Avery Johnson behind them, with Tariq Abdul-Wahad also available as a 2-3.’’ What it all means, from the bottom on up to the “Big-Big’’:
I correst myself. The record for single season improvement in wins is 35 by the 1989-1990 Spurs. If we tie that record, that gives us 63 wins. I still think its a pipe dream with all the competiion in the west.
The Kings did not get Clark as gravy; they desperately needed him. I remember when he was available I suggested that we get him just to prevent the Kings from getting him. This is a major acquisition else the Kings may have fallen back a bit this year. Similarly another top 4 team, the Spurs, desperately run to get Willis and Meng to shore that supposedly strong frontline. Again had we not been more that all set we could have had those players. The point is we did not need them and they did. So I do not see the need to be scared of those players.
