JVG said u need knife fighters. I see the flash and transition of La and people want a guy like Miller, but what it really tells me is the rox don't have enough guys want to win at all cost like Boston. They have toughness, grit, and talent to tie it all in. Its not about 3pt shooters and stuff like that. Its about finishing strong, battling for rebounds and loose balls to the whistle and not b****ing or wilting when the physicality increases.. They play hard, but the sense of urgency to finish plays has to be addressed.
history indicates ------ 3 max = everything best record of regular season, unbelievable winning streak, sweep in the 1st round, maybe final champion We already have T-Mac and Yao, what we need is obviously.
Without the 3 max guys, none of those other guys would have signed on. Yea I'm splitting hairs but it is what it is. They got defense; they got chemistry; they got fire. But it means nothing if they didn't get Garnett to seal the deal.
The hilarious part is you just described Shane Battier to a T, the guy you've been b!tching about since the trade.
When Boston win it, this will be the 1st time a team has won with 3 max players. Its not just 3 max players. How many max players did the spurs,pistons, lakers of the 90's, heat, or any team since max contracts have had 3?
You know its funny that people start saying that PP is so much better than Tmac now. I always thought he was a little underrated but did anyone think he might just look a little better with KG and Jesus spreading the court...seriously. The biggest thing is that you can't rotate away from anyone on a team like the celtics (accept for rondo) everyone else can either dunk on you down low or make the outside shot. I don't feel like the celtics would be any better than us with just PP/KG and a less effective bench (mostly ring hoes that came after their big 3 got their).
That the West is there for the taking. That we're not that far from being a legit contender (see sig). Unfortunately, that "third option" has proven rather elusive over the years. It's a shame, too, because this Rockets team is really built to win it all, and the window of opportunity is closing fast. Of course, injuries/lack of durability of our stars is and will always remain an issue, you can call it bad luck but it is what it is.
Maybe I made the statement too general the first go around and I thought people would get what I was saying. Max player, to me, is an all-star level talent...as it should be. Couldn't you say Ginobili/Parker/Duncan is a trio of all-star level talent? Didn't the Pistons send 4 starters to the All-Star game one year (and Billups and Wallace are all-star level players in their very own right with Rip and Tayshaun pretty damn close). What you claim to be "missing" from the Rockets isn't missing at all. The Rockets play defense. They hustle for the most part. They play that grind it out style. They have the chemisty. They got guys that want to win as badly as anyone on the Celtics roster. What's missing is that third guy...or how I "mistakenly" called a max player. Garnett can have an off night and Ray Allen and Pierce can carry the team. Allen goes off the radar and Garnett/Pierce picks the team up. That's a luxury that the Rockets don't have and need.
That's not the point. You obviously don't HAVE to have three max players to win a championship (though the Showtime Lakers had Magic, Kareem, and Worthy, and SA has Duncan, Manu, and Parker). But, it certainly helps.
they probably meant 3 max caliber players which is a big deal. If you're team has the talent level of 3 max caliber players you have a chance. The spurs have that, the Kobe/Shaq combo were both top 5 players (top 3?), the pistons had 4 all-stars and 1 guy who probably should have made it too. I don't think it should be a knock on Tmac/Yao that we haven't gotten far. They may both be top 10 talent (maybe?), but what do they have around them. They don't have anything close to a Tony Parker/Lamar Odom/Ray Allen type of player on the team to help them. If they had that maybe they could get the ring hoe type role players that alot of the recent championship teams had.
