The problem was/is too many injuries to too many players. If you're talking about all of these doomsday threads, I agree w/ you.
There were only four players on this team that would have made a difference had they not been injured, traded, or not resigned (except TMac and Ming) and they were Sura, Barry, Padgett and James. Without them, the supporting cast of players here are either too young, inexperienced, or untalented. Ming and TMac have to "carry" them when they are healthy. The supporting cast of the team needs to be rebuilt, but given the Rockets ten year record of poor personnel decisions (contracts, trades, drafts, etc.), this will be difficult. And we need some fresh faces to do it. Injuries or not, the lack of supporting talent on this team should be obvious to any serious basketball observer. Tom Legler and others have mentioned it several times on national television.
That is it in a nut shell I'm sorry but any NBA player should be able to hit a WIDE OPEN JUMPER Three Ptr . . maybe maybe not. . but d*mn STEP IN and Hit a 20 Ftr I was looking at our shooting numbers from last night and it was disgusting Rocket River SHOT THE ROCK
^^to be honest Barry and Hayes have no place being on a championship calibre roster. You know I have never ripped on Van Gundy becuase he has delivered results in the past. But at this point I don't care what happens, and actually I would love a coach change just to get some more exciting games. It has been very hard just to watch these high 70 low 80 point games all season. I mean I lose interest in the games because of no creativity and no action. I want to see a basketball game not a grind it grind it grind it and not try to lose game. I wonder what it would be like to have back to back 100 point games much less average around 100. With coaches like JVG the game is getting boring.
If somebody could hit an open shot, I guarantee you wouldn't find the Rockets boring. Everybody rips JVG, but he can't use his jedi mind powers to make the freaking ball go through the hoop. As long as nobody can shoot, the team is going to suck. Period. Yao and Tracy can only do so much.
I agree, but I do think we rely too much on 'hitting the open shot' instead of driving to the basket. You have to go with the higher percentage shots. The inside-outside game turned Hakeem into a superstar and it could very well do the same thing with Yao.. But... Hakeem had shooters like Kenny Smith, Mario Elie, Robert Horry and Sam Cassell surrounding him. Yao doesn't. Maybe it's time to scrap the inside-outside game in favor of a more movement-oriented offense where we could get more easy buckets. Yao is one of the best passing big-men in the game, if not the best. But you never see it. This team still can't execute the pick and roll. But that's OK, because we can't stop it either, so that kind of cancels it out.
not Jon Barry and Chuck Hayes nor Ryan Bowen. Maybe I should have made it a little clearer considering every team needs for fill IL spots and the 12th man. These players should NOT be in any contending teams rotation.
Any 'basketball observer', serious or not, can see that we win games with a healthy squad. The national analysts have all gone on and on about how bad we were when 6 of our top 8 players were injured including TMac and Yao...well DUH. Do they get my respect? None. As for your 'analysis' of our roster...how about the Bulls first MJ-era championship team (1991): Michael Jordan Scottie Pippen Horace Grant Bill Cartwright B.J. Armstrong John Paxson Stacey King Craig Hodges Cliff Levingston Will Perdue Dennis Hopson Scott Williams AGAIN, it's simple. Try to speciously deconstruct all you want, our team wins when healthy. Period.
His point is simply that over the past 19 games, Mike James has averaged: 23.5PPG and 6.1APG while shooting 48.5% on FGs overall and over 40% from 3-point land. His physical mental toughness, in addition to his shooting and scoring, ever have helped this year. All year we've needed a '3rd scorer'....and with injuries many times we've needed a '2nd scorer'.
The James-Alston trade debate has no answer to who was the winner in this trade. MJ is having a sensational year and RA certainly is the pass first PG we have wanted/needed on this team. Only way to solve this is to bring MJ back for MLE and see what happens when you have both the shooter and PG on the same team.
Man I wish the lottery was as predictable as this board.....lol If you guys are so freakin' smart you would easily realize two things... 1. chuck hayes is at max a backup pf, and we already have a guy in swift as our primary backup pf, which all you same posters would be complaining if swift didn't get any minutes. he cannot guard the sf position as he is not quick enough and is severly undersized at the pf spot so it usually boils down to matchups. 2. ryan bowen for all his offensive inneptitudes is a pretty good defender, he causes mayhen on the court and is quick enough and long enough to guard the pf and/or sf position.
with better talent this year and james' putting up huge numbers, toronto is losing more this year than last year? could it be because james' is shooting too much? its about the w's
LOL! Technically we've been doing it for the last 2 and a half years and that's been part of the problem.
I believe you are serious, but I am surprised you are. Are you saying that the 1991 Bull's supporting cast were not any better than the 2006 Rockets supporting cast? Surely not, because that group without Jordan and Pippen was, in my opinion, much better than what TMac and Ming have to work with. We could argue this all day, but it is "historical" speculation, and, ultimately fruitless. My point is simply this, a healthy Sura would have made a difference, a healthy Barry would have made a difference, Mike James would have made a difference, and Scott Padgett would have made a difference. Now put a healthy TMac (which we haven't seen all year), Ming, and the Rockets role players: Alston, Wesley, Howard, Head, etc. on the floor and on a given night they can beat about half to two-thirds of the NBA teams. They have proven that they can also lose to these teams. But they can't beat the "playoff" teams with any consistency. They are not a contender. They CAN'T SHOOT! THE ROCKETS OUTSIDE SHOOTING IS HORRIBLE! This should be no mystery. The Rockets have one of the weakest, if not the weakest supporting casts in the league, healthy or not. When Ming and TMac were out together, they did not win one game. What is hard to see; what are we arguing about?. This is not deconstruction, this is the present reality. I am sorry you don't see it. And if the Rockets don't seriously RECONSTRUCT the supporting cast, we are all in for another disappointing season next year.
I say there is offensive talent out there. If they are not "JVG type" players, then he will need to grow or be shown the door.
We have 2 superstars and 13 "NBA players". The question is, how can we possibly pick up better players? The only option is trading one of our superstars, which I do NOT want to do. The draft and FA list can only get you so much. I think it's not smart to hope/rely on a draft or a FA pickup to bring this team the supporting cast it needs. There is no way we're getting good players for the players we have now not named Yao or T-Mac. Some would argue that we don't need a better suppporting cast because we were fine when McGrady and Yao were healthy. I did some thinking on this subject and I realized that doesn't work because by the end of the season you're going to have 2 tired superstars leading this team. We don't need a better supporting cast to win regular season games. We need a better supporting cast to be a championship calibre team, that is for sure. Rafer Alston doesn't cut it in the clutch and he's a defensive (and offensive) liability. David Wesley is too short and is therefore a defensive liability. Juwan Howard is the essence of inconsistency...need I say more? Swift is getting better by the game, but has yet to prove himself IMO. Keith Bogans is OK, but I don't see how he could be a championship starting SG. The list goes on... I agree, other than Yao and T-Mac, solidly, it's time to dismantle this team. Now before you accuse me of talking on behalf of an injury plagued season, look at the reason above: It doesn't take a championship supporting cast to help win regular season games, but it does take a championship supporting cast to win the championship. Yao and T-Mac can't beat a championship team on their own...and I don't want to see them carry this team through the whole season on their own either. That's all I'm saying.
