What Are Our Chances This Season? While I am up to date on all Rockets news, I have not watched or read up on much about the rest of the NBA for a long time. Mostly because the quality of the League has fallen and Im just sick of having a handfull of players/teams shoved down my throat by the media.....Thank god the CC.net!!! Anway having looked at the teams in the NBA this season, I cant see any reason why we cant be a very good playoff team this season. Franchise and Cat are incredible guards, and in a League with VERY few good forwards and centers I'd take our guards over any other combination in the League. Sure we lost Taylor, but as I said, the quality of power forwards and centers has fallen badly over the last 6 years that Im sure we'll get by with Cato and Thomas if need be. I also feel the addition of Kevin Willis is a terrific move. What a great player he has been over his career. Also what can we expect from Eddie Griffin? I dont know much about him at all. He's a good sized player but from what I have read he is very athletic too. Will Rudy T bring him along slowly and let him develope more as a player before making him a starter? Also will he end up playing SF or PF? Anyway Im really looking forward to seeing how well we do this season. Im SURE we'll be playing in a number of big playoffs games this season. I dont care at all about the rest of the NBA, but my love for Houston Rockets basketball will never die Christopher
Yeah we can see you havent watch basketball in a while. You think we can get by with Kenny and Cato? Lets name some of the Power Forwards and Centers in the NBA: Brand Duncan Webber Garnett Jamison Shaq Malone Nowitzki Rasheed Divac Fortson Antonio Davis Walker Mourning Ratliff Many more I dont feel like naming because my hands are starting to hurt.
Very few of the players in that list have me shaking in my boots. Only a handfull are complete players. Like I said, I think Cato/Thomas/Willis can do enough to let Franchise and Cat win the games. If we can stay healthy Im sure we'll do very well this season.
Are you on a mission to pick apart my post? What Im saying is that the league is not filled with forwards and centers who are going to light us up every night. Get over it for crying out loud!
Your right about the centers but you are wrong about the forwards. There are more quality power forwards in the game today then at any other time in the history of the game. The forward position of the 00's is stocked like the Center position of the 80's. Malone is still a dominate player heading for the hall of fame. KG is a hall of famer that is in his prime Webber is a hall of famer that is in his prime Duncan is a hall of famer in his prime the next teir includes: Brand is an all star caliber player in any era McDyess is an anuall 20 10 player that can take over every night Rasheed Wallace may be the most tallented and is as dominate as any when he is not getting a technical Those are all dominating Power Forwards that are unstopable when they are on. KT is not on the same level as any of these and Eddie is not ready to play like these players. If you are saying that KT, Cato and Willis give us just enough to beat these teams with the combined contrabutions of Steve, Cat and the rest then I agree with you. Our dominating positions are in the back court and the strength of our team is its depth and athletisism. Steve is turning into an MVP caliber player in my oppinion and Cat is an all star caliber player. All other positions are solid but none are occupied by all star caliber players...yet. At least not until Eddie and TMo mature a little more. While the front court of the Rockets is solid it certainly does not posses any front court players capable of dominating the way many other teams do.
I compair the forwards to the ones that were around when we were winning titles. Malone, Barkley and Kemp were great players that were also the leaders of their team. I think were still a couple of seasons away from Duncan and KG getting to that level. However I would without question put Chris Webber there right now. All our forwards need to do is not lie down for the opposition to dominate. I have to say it is a worry to pin any type of hope on Cato as you never know if he will decide to shut up shop and play at less then 100% effort. As an opposition side I'd hate to have to face the Rockets. Francis is close on the best PG in the leagues....and he's only getting started! Cat will run, run, run all day and seems to have the ability to hit them shots that kills the opposition (You know, the ones he's not supposed to be able to make). You have Rice and Williams who can hit the three, a player like Griffin who is athletic and can do damage on the defensive and...... Like I said, I think we have a very good team right now. It would have been terrific if we could have got Marc Jackson, even better if we have Taylor. But If our forwards/centers can play solid basketball I think our backcourt will do the rest.
Kenny Thomas doesn't have to be a HoF'er or even an All Star for the Rocks to be successful. Cato, Willis, & KT have played well enough to defeat an improved Hawks team which has Ratlif & Abdur-Rahim in the post. The Rocks front court (though not dominant) was also good enough to defeat the Clips. We should be mindful that the Clips were 3-1 against us last year and have added Brand while the Rocks lost Mo T. Can't we have a little "Glass is half-full" here?
