With a healthy team I do believe we'd be in the playoffs. I think this due to an interesting fact I read the other day. Yao and Tmac were together for only 31 games this season and in those games they were 21 and 10. If they could stay healthy and keep up that pace we'd have a team with 55 wins being discussed instead of "who's going at #8?".
Well my thoughts on CD and threst of so-called "talent evaluators" are well known. In the 10 years since their last championship I've watched this team become mired in mediocrity under his tenure. They have gone from being a competative team to a lottery team and for me that's is simply unacceptable but not really a big mystery. When you waste 1st round draft picks and draft poorly with the ones you actually use, spend years picking up marginal players from the end of other teams benches, give big contracts to players that don't deserve those contracts and make mistake after mistake on free agents then after a period of years you find yourself facing the type of talent gap the Rockets now face in their division and the rest of the Western Conference. And that gap is very real and is growing everyday - witness the progress made by former sad-sack franchises like Dallas, Denver, Memphis and New Orleans/OKC. Hell, even the Clippers have finally found a clue! For those who aren't keeping score, the major objective of this franchise should be to win a championship - not merely to sneak into the playoffs as a lower seed and be gone after the first round. But doing so requires a level of commitment that is missing (and has been missing) from this organization for quite sometime. And that commitment starts at the top with the owner who has been willing to tolerate mediocre to inept performances from members of his organization. Living in Dallas, I get an up close dose of Mark Cuban and while I think he's a rich flake who acts more like a fan than an NBA team owner, the ONE thing I have never questioned is his commitment to bringing a championship to Dallas and his total willingness to do whatever it takes to make that happen. Sadly, I really can't say the same thing about Uncle Les and therein lies the heart of what's wrong in Houston. An organization dedicated to winning would have fired Dawson a long time ago especially after the Eddie Griffin draft debacle. If you can throw overboard the only coach to bring you two championships, then your general manager who started channeling Wes Unseld (the GM not the player) should have been the next butt out of the door yet Uncle Les gives him a contract extension. Five years later, this team is back in the lottery and is, in reality, no closer to contending than it was 5 years ago. All they have managed to do is spin their wheels while the years and the rest of their competition slowly pass them by.
In a year like this year the James for Alston trade seemed really lopsided. However, with a healthy TMAC Alston is the better fit for the team. He knows how to get TMAC easier looks at the basket, while James is more of a scorer. Ideally this year he would have helped us win a few more games, but building on the future, TMAC is gonna lead us to the championship not Rafer or Mike James. I remember last year when TMAC got hot against the Mavs and hit a few threes. Then Mike James took it upon himself to shoot the next couple of shots. I just hated that because a hot TMAC is by far better than anyone in the league. See San Antonio game. Therefore we can't really judge on the trade until next season when Rafer and Tmac get to play together for a more extended period of time.
I agree with everything you say. I like RA he just has to improve his shot. What I believe is that James would have been better for us this year because of all the injuries. His scoring would have helped alot. I think if RA could only improve his shot and we can bring over Spanoulis and possibly draft a PG or sign a decent one, we could have a pretty good combination.
I believe you thoughts are spot on. In spite of acquiring Yao and then TMac we are still not up to 10 years ago. It is not easy to replace an Olajuwon (sp?), but we have not replaced the role players that made that team champions. Two of them were traded away in a frantic attempt to get back to the Championship. They have never been replaced, many people would like them back at the twilight of their careers. The others drifted into announcing and color commentary. In fact our role group doesn't approach what we had then. Unfortunately, although Juwan may have taken us off the cap a bit, I don't think we can rebuild this team unless we re-arrange the team. I'll stop there to forego the haters.
What an interesting irony. We're trumping up the benefits of how well Rafer "fits" in a thread about TALENT. It blows my mind to think that people actually rationalize "fit" as a counterbalance to less talent. I don't need next season. I've already seen Tony Parker, Jason Terry & Chris Paul blasting past Alston on their way to the basket or a foul on Yao. Or stronger guards like Bibby, Dre Miller or Cassell posting him up. Or that Alston is terrible at pushing transition for easier baskets. Or that he's a poor 1 on 1 defender which really hurts in transition. He gives up an 10-14+ ppg to the Parker's of the world as he gets Yao 2 or 3 extra shots but doesn't do anything to stretch defenses with his shooting and he can't create or finish in half court or a fast break to save his life.... But oh, boy!!!!!!! What a great "fit". What will we get to see next season? We'll get to see V-Span put Alston's butt on the bench. Gee...V-Span (and Sura) don't fit....they're not "true" PG's.
The talent gap is so large that the only way we can get deep into the playoffs is two years (next year is impossible) is to get lucky or spend over the cap. We might have overpayed for Tracy when you consider losing three useful rotation players plus the additional huge cost of taking on the huge burden of the untradeable Juwan Howard. Possiblities. 1) Strike gold with two rotation players in this year's draft, who are ready to contribute in the third year. or number 8 is a real stud and a solid starter. 2) Strike gold with a free agent or two. They must be immediate contending type top 8 role players. 3) Les opens the check book and buys some talent, any real talent, especially offensive talent, whether it "fits" or not. It can be traded later for fit. Like the Mavericks did. This requires luck also. 4) Trade a superstar for at least three talents and hopefully get rid of a Stro, Howard type. Yao is young enough to start over with some good young talent and would be the leader, which is a role he could be ready for.
That's a 68% winning percentage, good enough for the 3rd place in the whole league only behind the Pistons and the Spurs. And also keep in mind that these two guys played with a supporting cast which everyone could see was inferior to 95% of the teams in the league. That's why we should be very optimistic about the future of this team, if only our two superstars will stay healthy.
has Shaq improved his FT shooting ?? has Ostertag learned how to play basketball ?? has Bradley learned the rules of the game and understood how tall he is ??? the answer is NO.. and I am pretty sure it will be the same answer for Alston and his shot... he cant shoot, I'm gonna say it straight up, the dude has a weakness in shooting and his whole mechanic is WRONG & UGLY.. terrible release.. I think he is a good PG though, I like his passes, I like his drives, his handles, his moves.. he would be successful with a "running-style" team like Phoenix, but not with the Rockets.. the Rockets need a "get it up the court, pass to T or Yao, stand behind the 3pts line and hit ur shot" type of player, kinda like the guards in the old "hakeem" period...MIKE JAMES would be great, but too bad we traded him.. .. oops, my bad, I dont wanna mention Mike James anymore...
What were the opponents' record during that stretch? I don't remember them beating a lot of quality teams. The Rocket's role players are too old and slow for this team to be real contenders. We need a great draft and free agent signing. Our starting backcourt needs to be replaced. Howard is also a problem at the 4, but the team can be still improve with him starting if the guards are upgraded.
If Yao and McGrady are healthy and playing their best ball the Rockets can win the West. Alston, Wesley, Howard, Swfit, Bogans and Head are all role players to be sure, but it is amazing how much more effective they are when they have wide open shots and have protection in the front court with Yao (and Mutumbo) clogging up the middle. The playoffs are about defensive stops and getting off big shots down the stretch. I am not worried about the talent as much as I am about the health of the big two.
I agree that the health of our two stars is more important than the talent of role players. The two sides aren't seperate though. In regualr season with better role players we can play just enough to be in playoff race with either Yao or T-Mac out for a long stretch. In the playoffs, to win the ring we must play 16 games if we sweep all the opponents. As it is now, if one of our stars goes out for a couple of game on a minor injury, 9/10 we'd be screwed in a series. With better role players, it's possible to hang on and pull upsets until the injured star come back. Sure, luck is part of the game, the point is the difference between talent levels decide how far this team can go. Isn't that basic? Take a look at the the championship Lakers, as good as Kobe and Shaq were, they still needed good role players to pull it out. Horry, Harper, Fisher, Glen Rice, Rick Fox, Horace Grant to name a few. We need ice in the vein shooters who isn't 4 inches shorter than the opponent. Maybe Head can become a one for us, but we need to wait and see. The fact is right now we don't have a single one. The rest of the role players don't inspire confidence in me either. Aside from their lack of talent, which role player on the roster can you say being as tough as a nail? No talent, no swagger = no rings. At our sf position, the bench players on the elite teams are better than our starter. At our pg position, Paker, Billups, Nash, Cassel and Terry will make our pgs look like CBAers. As it stands now, when starters play we'd eat their lunch at two positions, sg and C, and they'd eat our lunch at the other three positions. When it's the bench player's time, we will eat dust like a vacuum machine. The most important thing is, I don't feel much chemistry among these guys after a season. The usual lack of input on offence makes it harder to believe this current team can advance far into the playoffs. We can't afford further screw ups, aside from hoping Head pans out, we must draft wise and sign wise. Trade Swift and others for fair returns. With some luck we can have a significant upgrade in this offseason. The last year's offseason was a disaster, this year is gonna be the final straw for me.
HOW CAN YOU SAY THIS ABOUT PADGETT-FANS THINK THAT HE WOULD HAVE BEEN GREAT ON OUR TEAM BUT HE IN REALITY IS NOTHING MORE THAN ANOTHER SCRUB LIKE THE ONES WE MUST GET RID OF , SCOTT PADGET IS A 37.9% 3 point shooter- NOTHING GREAT!!
I completely agree with that.. Padgett is WAAAAAAAAAY overrated.. he had this one good game when he hit 5 threes, and since that game, everybody thought he is the next Larry Bird..
To add to this Stromile in lots of peoples eyes looked rally bad, but if you consider a really good team like Dallas is paying Dampier 12mil a year for his production, Stro is not so bad with his contract going up to 6.2 in three years. Stro still has a lot of value to teams that run like Phoenix and New Jersey. If we were able to draft Sheldon Williams and trade Juwan Howard for a solid two I am sure that Houston would take that route rather than trade Stro, but that being said they will likely trade Stro because teams want him and are willing to give up a good player to get him. Also one of the reasons why Stro looked so bad is because Jeff did not use him correctly most os the time Stro should score facing the basket off the dribble and on the run. Houston does not run and with juwan Howard on the floor who is a better post player than Stro, Jeff would put Stro in the post. This is one of the areas where I am disappointed with Jeff Van Gundy. Yao got better offensively but with no direction from the coach. Jeff was still complaining about his defense all season, Stro did not improve much because he needs direction and this is where Jeff and Patrick Ewing should have really put som focus on once Yao was hurt the first time.
If Yao and McGrady are healthy and playing their best ball the Rockets can win the West. But they are not healthy. We can pencill in missing next year games for both right now. What this teams need is a solid 3rd scoring option (for when Yoa and TMac are healthy) and a 4th scoring option (when they are not). This would make for a more balanced offensive attack, during the regular season at least.
Can I suggest a comforting metaphor about our defunct role players? Auto racing. When we traded young guys for old guys that might break down, that was the equivalent of skipping a pit stop and hoping we wouldn't run out of gas. Well, we ran out of gas, and now we're back in the pit, and we got passed by a bunch of teams. Let's gas up and get back out there.
