All the teams above us or strong in the east have something in common. Utah has it SA has it Dallas has it So does Phoenix Toronto has it Detroit has it. Even Miami has it What do all these teams have in common???? Answer: A point guard who shots a higher percentage and gets more assists. Hmmmm.....makes ya think!
okkk??? and do any of them have a better 1 2 punch like we do???? hmmmm??? ... im sorry alston is our point guard for the rest of the year and he does a good job of runnin our offense... shure he misses alot but hes a true point guard that helps our offense rolll
Enough with the reductionist arguments. We have the second best play making guard in the NBA in Tracy McGrady. We have the best center in the league in Yao Ming. You want to give up on them? If you have already quit on a team that is going to win 50 games without having a healthy line-up for most of the year just as Yao Ming is coming back then I don't know what to say. It makes me think that you follow the team in bad faith. Maybe I'm wrong, but it sure seems like you start way too many threads where you trash the Rockets. It's almost as if you get pleasure in being the BBS "realist" when it really is commentary about your need for attention around here. You definitely overrate the 1994 team. I was there. I watched every game. This roster is better than that one. I'll address your ideas anyway. If you can't understand why the roster is composed the way it is around Yao *and* McGrady then you are being willfully obtuse. These "scrubs" you keep griping about like Chuck Hayes and Luther Head thrive when Yao and Tracy are on the court. It's documented. You can look it up. They are complimentary players. Hayes is nimble enough to get a lot of boards and garbage points around the basket with Yao taking up space in the middle and Head has even better shots available for him outside. They work with Yao and Tracy. Just like Battier is a complimentary player. None of these guys can create their own shots and none of them are players you build around. But, they work perfectly with this roster. When Yao and Tracy play the Rockets win at a pace that would make them a top two or three team in the league. I'll take that and see what happens in the playoffs.
I don't mind constructive criticism of the team, but you only seem capable of belittling our players. You're comfortable dishing it out but can't take it? And don't flatter yourself... you're not an 'average' fan.
You mean - you watched every game of that 15 game opening season win-streak? And you mean, you watched them win a championship ring. Something this team won't do with Rafer Alston leading the point. There is no way Rafer Alston is a championship point guard. It will not happen. Until we plug the weakness at the one, we can not beat teams with all-star point guards.
Well, why don't you propose how we can get a CHAMPIONSHIP CALIBER pg without giving up Yao or Tmac. With 2 max players, u have to give up multiple quality players/1st round picks for one "championship caliber" pg in return. I think if there was a possible deal, CD would have gotten it done already. Everyone knows Rafer isn't the best pg, but he's the best we got, so we have to live with it. Have a little faith, like tmac says, "impossible is nothing".
how little we have learned.... you know what? chemistry wins! (granted, talent is part of that equation) we have enough "talent" to win, regardless of having more scrubs than some other teams. but if you look back... dallas was more talented and lost to the heat. detroit was not as talented as the lakers, i mean they were almost a hall of fame starting 5, but they had terrible chemistry and lost to lesser team. do you remember when we signed STRO to be the ANSWER @ PF for years to come? yah... talent means squat. we could draft oden and it wouldn't guarantee ****. we could trade for garnett and it wouldn't mean ****. (ok maybe it would but still you get my point- damn that would be SICK) anyways, stromile swift taught me a lesson... talent doesn't win, heart does. Yao has the heart of a lion dude. tmac? not sure yet... but i think he's got it. laugh if you will, but deke has heart. and you know what? i think luther and battier have heart. i just don't agree with your philosophy of: "when we get more talent... then we will compete for a championship..." what good is coaching then? if talent is the only thin that wins? and you can't tell me that the rockets in 93-95 were the most talented team in the league. we won with scrubs, but it was the right mix. oh and yah... one more thing... bonzi... yeah, he's no scrub, but wow some missing piece he's turned out to be...
Sac-town is rebuilding - they are shopping Mike Bibby around. He's perfect for us. He fits into the mold of a JVG player. Hard-nose. Win first attitude. Having an off year but will rebound. Only 30 or so. Has four years left. Great passer, solid shooter, and works hard at both ends. Lots of playoff experience. He's the guy we need. Perfect for the Rockets, and other teams will be chasing younger pgs. Older teams already are set at point. We trade Kirk Synder and Luther Head for Biiby. Maybe even through in an expiring contract to sweeten the deal. Sac-town will bite. They are desperately shopping the guy. So you get: T-mac Yao Shane Bibby Hayes Off the bench: Alston Wells Deke Howard if he doesn't have to be traded. There. That's your playoff Roster. Wells backs up T-mac at the two, Alston backs up Bibby. This also makes room for guys like JL3 to get some minutes. I think this would be a team that has a shot at a ring. We'd miss Head's 3-point shooting, but I really think with T-mac and Shane, we'd have enough from beyond the arc. And Rafer actually shoots ok from beyond the arc and I can accept him as a back up pg.
When we signed stro and everyone said how great we were, i was the only one who said - I don't think he's make us a contender in anyway. I got ripped apart then. I get ripped apart now. Look, it's my opinion great. You guys can think i don't know basketball. Well, i'm not a coach or a scout, but at least I played organized basketball. Sure, I was a bench player for a weak Division one school - but I know a thing or two about this game I love so much. And I know we ain't got it right now. Not even close. Yao and T-mac can't do it alone. Every great players had the role players. The Lakers could get away with it with Shaq and Kobe. You know why? BEcause they had guys like Robert Horry and Rick Fox. But once those guys started feeling thier age, the Lakers where done. Doesn't matter how good of a 1-2 punch you got. Not even MJ could lead Shane, Rafer, Howard, Deke, Head, and Hayes to a ring. Give him those guys and he's first round fodder. T-mac and Yao need a third guy who can punish defenses. We need someone who can thrive off of T-mac beyond just hitting 3's. That model doesn't work. Other teams know it. We need another passer. T-mac can't do everything. We need a Mike Bibby type to punish teams for double teaming and Mike Bibby would have a feild day passing to Yao and T-mac. They could never double Bibby. Because if you double Bibby - you guarantee that either T-mac or either Yao is going to get some really open look. That's champsionship ball folks! That's how you get it done. Rafer is wide-open prancing around with the ball out there getting the lowest number of assists and the worst fg% of any pg for a so called contener. I mean, think about this. Really think about this. One more time. Rafer Alston lowest fg% of any pg lowest assist total of any pg on a contending team. And he has T-mac and Yao to pass to, and he has those two to attack double teams. I mean, rafer is that bad taking open shots. The guy doesn't have a hard life on the court. Imagine what a GOOD pg could do out there. Mike Bibby would go nuts. The guy would make freakin Hayes a star. If we had Mike Bibby - we'd be a contender.
Yes Kenny Smith may have scored just 11pts per game or 10 pts per game at that time but look at his field goal percentage as compared to Alston's. Kenny Smith was shooting at 48% fg and 40% from the three at 93 and 94 and 48%fg and 43% from three Sam Cassell's numbers weren't great at the three but he was clutch and his fg% was still at 43 or 44%. I mean he was our main pg off the bench. If you want to discuss about Chemistry.... Heck are you saying the Sun's don't have chemistry? Do the Mavs not have chemistry? Do the Spurs not have Chemistry? These guys have chemistry, Defense, experience in the playoffs and they can score. Their players execute their task beautifully. I truly hope we can make it deep in the playoffs but to put a sure bet on it I will not. We do have some glaring holes that need to be filled and mostly at the point. The Suns game on monday will definitely show us where we are.
compared to dallas and phx, our role players are not consistant enough at times like last night game against celtics they were great! but than games like against cavs tmac and yao didnt get much help! until our role players shoot consistantly we will have trouble against dallas or phx in playoffs!
I completely agree! I am definitely up for getting bibby! Heck even Damon Stoudamire... If Miami can resurge careers so can we. We brought Deke JHoward back we did it with Sura when he could and Barry. A chance at a ring, a new team may give them just what they needed.
