The Truth WILL Hurt

I have seen many threads today, mostly negative, some positive. None have really touched on the reality of the past week however. I would just like to shed some light on the reality of the state of our franchise, and where we are headed.


1. You WILL be kicking yourselves by watching how much success Rafer will have in orlando.

Face it, that system in orlando is perfect for Rafer. Rafer's style isn't really throw it down to Yao, and spot up for an open shot. Rafer's style is to run and create things on the fly. His ball handling and passing ability will be utilized to the max, and I think he will almost be an upgrade to Nelson to everything but scoring. He can hit the big shot at the end better than Nelson, but aside from that Nelson brought more to the table to scoring, but to create easier scoring opportunities for his opponents? Rafer does that. The style of the rockets offense (if you call it a style really, we dont have much of one) was swing it back and forth, set, reset with yao, and find the open guy off the double team. Almost no use for a point guard. With the Magic, it will be running, gunning, creating things on the fly, and having a group of athletic guys and a spot up shooter in the wing. He will be able to run very well and although his numbers might not show it, you will see the Magic make a case at being the second best team in the east (behind the celtics) and watch them make a push in the playoffs.



2. We might not make the playoffs.

I am not saying we aren't, and im not saying its highly likely, but with tracy going down and Rafer leaving, it really hurt our chances of having a guaranteed spot. We are only a few games above the 9th place team right now. This has more to do with the rest of the west more than us actually.

First, Lakers, Spurs, Nuggets- they aren't going anywhere.

Second, Suns Jazz and Hornets- are going to be red hot for the next few months. Why?
The suns are running their old offense, it works, they still won't do much in the playoffs, but they are going to win a lot more games in the regular season now.
The Jazz are about to be fully healthy, and they have found a star in millsap, they are going to be very scary the second half of this season.
The Hornets- finally paul is stepping up and showing why he is the best pg in the league, retaining chandler is a blessing in disguise and i think this puts a spark under the hornets team, they won't be as surgent as the jazz or suns, but they will be much improved from the first half.


That leaves us, blazers, and mavs for the last 3 spots. The mavs will be more consistent than us, the blazers have much more talent, so we might be the odd man out.


3. Rick Adelman is not the best choice for OUR team

Do not bring up his past success, because he is having to change his scheme for Yao. Adelman is a solid coach, but not for a slow paced, not much motion offense. Last year we had a mixture of Van Gundys defense and Adelmans altered offense and high emotion running through players. We have little emotion, van gundys defense is a thing of the past, and the altered offense, well its doing exactly what it did last year...not much...


4. Love him or hate him- We needed a healthy McGrady

The only way I saw this year working out, was having everyone healthy. Most importantly McGrady. I am not going to get into all the events of the past week or how he has played this year, lets assume he was injured. So prior to this year, here are some of hte duties he has fufilled for us and they are now vacant with him sitting out.

Who is going to hit the last minute shot?

Who will bring a little swagger to our offense? (whether it be a big dunk over someone, or a clutch shot in someones face, or a few big 3s down the stretch)

Which player is going to step up, and actually have his voice carry weight, when the going gets tough?

What is the one special thing that we would have that not other teams in the nba can match? (his driving ability along with his jump shot, and hitting big shots down the stretch, as well as not being a defensive liability and being able to distribute the ball)


Hate to break it to yall, but prior to this season- he was a main reason why we had a chance every season, not our supporting cast, not yao (who hardly played) it was tracy, im not saying u have to love him, but he was vital to our success.

5. Ron Artest was/is overrated.

Artest averaged decent amount of points on a horrid Kings team, and a below average pacers team, who only had success because they were in a horrid eastern conference.

He is risky on defense, meaning he will come up with the ball more, but also take a risk and get blown by for an easy bucket. (Battier's defense is more valuable due to the fact his goal is to make sure his guy doesnt score, and he does that better than anyoen in the nba, the problem is there isnt a stat to impress all of you with)

He has poor decision making, he doesn't do anything on offensive that is exceptional, he is risky on defense, his leadership...well... thats a different story. And most importantly, he will be gone soon.

6. The biggest reason, which isn't apparent to a lot of you, that we have not had success the past 5 years or so, and won't have success, is staring right at you- It is 7'6- and his name is Yao Ming

First, Offense: He is above average on offense. He shoots very well for a big guy and has a high FG%. The problem? He might create open shots for everyone, but he also stuff the lane for everyone making our team very predictable when he is in the game-and when he is out, we must change our game completely. In order for him to be successful the offense must be run through him. When he misses? fast break for two on the other end. He cannot get back on D unless there is a little break for him to get down the court. He doesn't get offensive rebounds, hes turns the ball over so much, he is a decent athlete for his size, but possibly the worst athlete in the league when compared to the rest of the nba.


Defense: He is a HUGE defensive liability. A team can simply erase his offensive prescence by driving to him in the 1st quarter and getting him in foul trouble. He is not a good shotblocker (although the past few games he has been betteR) he is not good at sticking with his man, and most importantly, any half way decent athlete can blow right by him. Transition defense? absolutely nonexistent.

Overall: He is not built for the NBA. He cripples what the rest of our team can do. He makes every player on his team change their game, against a fast paced team we are playing 4v5. He even admits it (see all star game).



Now if I were to tell you to read number 6, not knowing it was Yao Ming, and to ask you if you wanted him to be our starting center you would laugh and say no. So you might ask, why do we keep him?

If you guessed $$$ your a winner. And that is the sad thing, until he retires, we are stuck with him. Until we are stuck with him, we are stuck with an above average team at best that will never make things interesting in the playoffs. He has great character and I like the guy, but he's a few decades too late for the NBA. David Stern and Les love what he brings to the game- but its more what he brings money wise.

If Yao Ming were american he would not be the rockets starting center. Guaranteed.


7. We are approaching a rebuilding period. A long one.

We are going to try and rebuild around Yao, we will find the same success we have had in the past, one in done, maybe 2nd round, but other than that talented teams in the nba are going to run all over us (read #6). The reason why I say a long one, we will have a mini rebuilding period with Yao, then a true one after Yao leaves.

The next rockets team to play in the finals will not have one player, or coach, from our current roster. Its going to take much time.




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I am a huge rockets fan, have been forever, and will continue to support them. I just wanted to let you all know what I feel like we are about to face. If you have a response, make it an educated response, you can disagree with me, just back it up with some sort of evidence, don't just make a claim like "your negative" or "(enter tracy nickname here) ruined us" or "your an idiot."

I want to talk basketball, I want to talk educated basketball, if you want to talk like a 5 year old, enter any of the other threads dominating this forum.

 

We might make the playoffs yes, but one in done. 2nd round if we are big time overachievers.

Are you really happy with that? Because unless McGrady comes back next healthy (unlikely) and happy wiht us (very unlikely) it is sloping way downhill.

Ron is jumping this sinking ship.

 

I am not being racist- My point is: IF he was american, all the liability (defensively, limiting our offense) wouldn't be worth his cost. The reason why we keep him is the revenue he brings in. And trust me, the Rockets make big time money off Yao.