Excuse me please refrain from that kind of language... This is a family board! Unless of course you are referring to Jeff Van Dummy! Than stupid idiotic moron is more than acceptable!
You know, the "talent gap" between the championship Lakers and the Kings, Spurs, Blazers, etc. was huge.
w/o depth, we can't even compete with the Mavs or Suns, muchless the Pistons/Spurs. The Mavs' bench consists of Devin Harris, Jerry Stackhouse, Erik Dampier, Marquis Daniels. Besides Yao/Mac(rafer is a possibility, too), everyone of these guys are better than our players.
u have a great point solid.. I was thinking the same way after watching a couple games for phoenix, Detroit, and others.. but dont forget that we had great talent in 04-05 season.. but in the 05-06 season, we made some huge mistakes regarding the roster and injuries made things even worse.. I mean, the Alston-James thing, the Derek-for-Nothing trade, Jon Barry's injury& retirement, Bobby's injury, all of these summed up to a major loss in our back court, and I believe that the back-court is a major contributer to the team and everything starts from there.. all of these things not mentioning the injuries of T-mac and Yao.. sO I think we should do major changes in the team ( Yeah, first of all, GET RID OF ALSTON)
The Rockets had a crap squad left after the TMac trade. BY ALL ACCOUNTS this past summer, CD/JVG did a great job unloading the likes of MoT, Moochie, etc for anything at all. Now Tmac and Yao get hurt and suddenly they did a crap job? Sometimes things just don't work out. Yao/TMac have the ability to be the most dominant two-some in the league. Get everybody healthy and let the chips fall where they may.
I dont really think that we have a crap squad left after Tmac's trade ..we actually unloaded 2 overrated players and a scrub for a great superstar and a scrub.. it was actually a good trade, and we had great talent in 04-05, I know it's not like the Spurs' deep bench or anything, but we had a good team and we reached the playoffs with an "undeveloped Yet" Yao... the stuff that JVG and CD did in 05-06 and all the injuries messed up the team.. I mean, I still dont get it, Alston for James ??????
I agree, If your two superstars are out majority of the season then your pretty much bound to have a season like we did. The Rockets being w/o McGrady and Yao is > than the spurs being without Parker/Duncan, Mavs without Dirk/Terry, Heat w/o Shaq/Wade, Pistons w/o Billups/B. Wallace etc etc. One could say the difference is those teams I mentioned above have a deeper better bench and all that is true and I'm not saying the Rockets dont need any work by any means but I'd rather be in the position we are in, building around your 2 great superstars as opposed to being deep but not having that great of superstars/leaders ie Kings, Bulls, Nuggets, Grizzlies . I feel as though we just need a 3rd legit scorer/well rounded player and we should be good to go. Someone else mentioned a Michael Finley, Jerry Stackhouse type of player and I agree thats what we need only younger. We are only a Cuttino Mobley, Corey Maggette, Larry Hughes, Antonio Daniels (maybe) away from really being contendors granted we get something decent in the draft. Kind of gearing off subject and dreaming but does anyone else think Ben Gordon would be the perfect 3rd option? I don't know his status and I know he's going to get paid but I'm sure hes not going to be getting Max money. Everything he does is perfect for what we need. 3rd scorer, hard nosed defender, backcourt help, can shoot 3's, athletic, most importantly has BALLS! He's like a younger Bob Sura with more skills.
The trade was good. The remaining squad was overpaid and/or crappy. The moves CD made were brilliant considering what we had to offer. Opening Lineup 04: TMac Yao Charlie Ward Tyronne Lue Mo Taylor Jim Jackson Nachbar Motumbo Juwan Howard Clarence Weatherspoon Ryan Bowen Padgett How is that "great talent?" At least how is that significantly better than what we have now? CD managed to dispose of: Charlie Ward, Tyronne Lue, Mo Taylor, Jim Jackson (MAYBE questionable), Nachbar and Clarence Weatherspoon. Which ones of those do you disagree with? At the time, those were ALL great moves considering what we had to offer. Only the Jim Jackson move was even margionally contraversial and everybody forgot about that when we started playing 800 ball after JJ was gone. That's the ONLY trade (other than JJ) that was questionable. But that is only hindsight 20/20. James had a career best year. Had we known that, we would have kept him. Not knowing that, Sura got hurt and we needed a true PG. I'm willing to give that trade one more year before I make my final decision on it. If next year James signs a big-ol contract and plays crappy while Alston plays great, then the universe will have corrected itself. You can't blame this crappy year on CD's trades. The trades were as good or better than what we could have wanted ...at the time. What hurt the team is crappy deals like signing MoT, Cato, Moochie which strapped the Rockets for years afterwards. Once strapped, CD did a good job last year digging out.
first, I think u really have some great points in your post krosfyah, it is reasonable and well thought, thank u for sharing it.. well, that was at the beginning of the year, but after that, we traded for Wesley, Barry, got rid of Boki, got rid of MOTay (he sucked so bad)..and then we got Sura back.. it wasn't the best team u can find, but it's certainly not bad.. . I actully agree with all of these moves.. I think CD is a great manager and he made very good choices.. I've had absolutely no problem with the man in his whole career as a manager until the 05-06, He made good moves at the beginning by bringing Derek, Chucky, ( before we waived him, that was in the preseason), and Baxter.. but then he screwed up everything by the James-Alston trade and then everything went downhill.. Derek-for-nothing.. and all fo these stupid moves PLUS the injuries made the season horrible.. actually, those were ALL great moves including the Jim Jackson thing.. I thought it was a great move and Wesley IS A BETTER PLAYER THAN JJ... first of all, this is not a questionable trade.. It is actually a STUPID TRADE AND ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES IN THE HISTORY OF BASKETBALL.. and I am not one of these people who watched James' stats this season and went crazy saying that we should've kept him, I was against the trade from the beginning, that is simply because James was a great fit for us and he is exactly what we need (NOT A TRUE PG LIKE EVERYBODY SAYS, this whole "true PG" thing came from the media and it is not based on facts... we dont need a distributer, we need a "get it up the court, give it to T or Yao, stand behind the 3 and hit it" type of player)...now I wasn't a James-lover neither.. I thought he was " alright" and he was good at backup PG, I actually got annoyed by the fact that he started missing shots at the end of that season..but I never thought of him as a ballhog or selfish or anything, that's all worthless crap and it's intended to fix the picture of JVG to not appear stupid by doing this trade.. I've said before in this post, I dont blame it on CD... like u said, he did a good job by digging us out of the whole we were in.. but u cant deny it, I dont know who the heck did this trade, Alston for James and derek for nothing ARE just STUPID and WRONG..
we shoudl draft anyone left who have talent, and dont even bother to trade swift unless we can get a solid third option back(youger than 28 years old). As someone said before, this team has so many holes to fill..
We've had enough Alston-James debates so this thread shouldn't digress into another one. So to broaden it, in sports there are gillions of trades. CD was on a roll with a number of good ones. If every trade he made was perfect when judged 1 year later, then we'd probably be champions for 20 straight years. Since no team has done that, just step back and look at CD's total body of work rather than getting bogged down on a meaningless Derek Anderson and a contraversial Mike James trade. You win some and you lose some. If you are a fan, you hope you win more than you lose. As trades go recently, I'd say that is the case. Too bad it hasn't translated to wins.
baller: This is in no way meant to belittle your post or degrade your knowledge of BBall. That said, you are not paid 5mil/year to know who to hire and who not to hire. JVG is solely responsible for the basketball product we are forced to watch. CD is gone, replaced by a very curious candidate for GM. I look every day hoping that JVG is going. And, I don't care who replaces him.
I agree there is a sizeable gap, but I have said it before and still stand by it. Healthy McGrady + Yao = Playoff Team Every Year Would have happened this year, quite easily.
Our problem is deeper than having not enough talent. Our weak talents doesn't fit into our need for championship role players as well. Alston has not much mental composure. Stromile Swift is a "cooler", the kind of guy who dwells in misery that his sole presence dispels any luck of a gambler in a casino. SS does not dwell in misery but he is so laid back on and off the court his demeanor brings the commitment of the whole team down. DA had a fragile ego. The failure of these three signings don't have just to do with their talent but also mentality. None of them show any signs that they are winners. I can give Alston half a season to redeem himselg before suggesting trade him. I have no patienece with SS though, why do you think the Logo let him go for free? SS has talent but not the brain, and his mentality spells loser. He can be a 15/10 player if he can get his mind straight, but he doesn't possess the mental prowess. It's the same tragedy of Steve Francis, so much athleticism, but so little brain on defense. They don't have it and it can't be helped. SS's presence is contagious to the team, which is IMO why he didn't get much playing time despite the season was already over. JVG has given up on him. Forget about his moderate salary and highlight dunks, Stromile Swift is a mental midget. Get rid of him for fair return.
The more I look at our Roster, the more I think our role players suck compare to other teams. Look at the Cavs, Spurs, Pistons, NJ, Heat, Mavs, suns, they all have better role players. Our role players are either inexperience or too old. We got to stock up on talent this coming draft and Free agency.
Our role players suck compared to other teams, but our 2 superstars are better than any player most of them have, especially in their ability to create mismatches resulting in opportunities for other teammates. People like Wesley and Howard are spot up shooters, they can't produce when they are asked to create... which is what happened when Yao and McGrady went down. Everything looks alot better when you have a healthy Yao and TMac on the court, we just need to plug in the holes this offseason (perimeter defense, shooting).
The more I watch playoff, the more I feel we are far behind. Outside of Yao and Tmac, we don't have anyone who can play 6th man (or even 7th man) for Spurs, Mavs, Pistons, Clippers, and Suns. This is ridiculous.
Putting the ball inthe basket is the name of the game! Yao Ming 51.9% Tracy Mc Grady 40.6% Guards CIRCA 38% Forwards CIRCA 39%.....JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!
I don't get it. I am one of the most negative of Rockets fans and I think we are going to take a big step this summer. Starting with the draft, we have a chance for the first time in a long time to pick a quality player who will not be expected to carry the team. A player like Roy or Carney would come in and play significant minuted from day 1. If we get lucky, maybe we pick up an impact player like Thomas, Aldridge, or the Italian guy (if he turns out to be legit). That second pick could end up making the team too. Obviously we are not going to be players in free agency, but we probably will make some noise on the trade front. Not to mention that we have got to be looking at trading Swift or Howard. If VSpan doesn't come over then maybe we could pick up somebody decent willing to play ont he cheap. The only problem I see with this team is the coach. JVG needs to develop an offense that fits into todays NBA. Obviously Yao does need to get a lot of half court touches, but we have got to run a whole lot more. I thinkt hat Alston would be a much better pg in the open floor and Tracy and Carney would be very effective weapons on the break. I think that this team, if it can avoid injury, has a very god chance of making a real playoff run and taking that next step towards getting a title. Alston/Sura/VSpan Carney/Head/Gansey McGrady/Bogans/Carney Howard/Swift/Hayes Yao/Deke
