What is the biggest question mark surrounding the Rocks right now?

Chemistry
Heath
How will scola adjust to the NBA
Will moutombo replicate he's form of last year.
will yao and mac finally have a healthy year where they'll play 70+ games together?.

For me it's Chemistry. how will Francis, James, Alston co exsist together?.

 

- When is skip skipping town for good?

 

Yao and Tracy's health will again be the determining factor. If those two are healthy, I think we're a guaranteed 50-win team.

Next on my list would be the play of Mike James, Steve Francis, and Bonzi Wells. None of them had good years last year, and most of us fans are expecting them to be much improved this year under Adelman. But for it to really work, they need to be committed to playing within the team concept. They're all volatile personalities who historically need to control the ball to be effective. That's a concern.

I'm feeling pretty good about the PF situation. Scola and Hayes aren't going to blow anyone away, but I think they're solid. I love Battier, and I think between him, Bonzi, Luther, Steve, and Kirk we should have enough depth at SG/SF after T-Mac.

 

I'd say chemistry.
But of the available choices, I think have to go with the power forward situation because Scola is truely an unknown in terms of the NBA.
Even T Mac said he still thinks we need a rebounding 4.

 

Having a PF rotation of an unproven Euro and Chuck Hayes is the biggest concern. Battier is more than serviceable as a SF, Yao has the Center spot locked down, and T-Mac, if his back holds up, is at least top 10 in SGs. At least one of our 4 PGs on the roster should prove to be at least average. It may all come down to how good can Scola be?

 

i voted other because i'm most worried about yao's shoulder. i'm assuming his leg is fine by now. he also looked slow after the leg injury so hopefully that's resolved now as well. i guess i kind of wish he played for the chinese in some tournament so i could get a glimpse of how well he's moving around.

scola's an unknown, as well as james/francis/wells but no one next to t-mac is as important as the big fella. t-mac's back will always be a concern but i guess i'm just used to it now. plus, he really didn't miss many games last year and was a legit mvp candidate. if he's healthy he's in the kobe/lebron/wade group.

 

the PF position along with team chem.

... however gloried his international status i've modest hopes for Scola tempered by his rookie NBA status. blending these guys will be a challenge for any coach.

i'm anxious for the season to begin, GO ROCKS!

 

health

 

TMac's clutchness in the playoffs. Will he continue to stay a virgin? Or will he finally lose it?

 

Good post. All the questions you bring up are legitimate. On paper, this team looks to have gotten much better, but none of the moves are shoe-ins. It'll take a good chunk of the first half of the season before we'll really know what we've got.

Of all the questions, though, the health one doesn't concern me as much as in previous seasons. T-Mac seems to have found the answer to his back problems. And I think with all the offensive additions made to the roster, there's going to be less of physical toll on Yao and T-Mac during the regular seaon this time around, as they won't be asked to carry the team as often.

 

Other

How many days until the season starts?

 

HEALTH

 

It's not so much one question as the totality of the cluster of questions you brought up.....all of them need to be answered. But, health and who plays best in Adelman's system are probably the two biggest. Scola is a question mark, but a lot of us have seen him play and he's so dammed skilled that it's not like he will be a complete stiff out there. People can bring up Stromile Swift, but Swift wasn't really that skilled other than the one or two "sick" dunks that he made a game (which allowed people to ignore the other holes in his game). Bonzi, Francis and James may have question marks personality wise, but they are veterans that have had success in the past. Other than last year, Bonzi has been able to at least produce on the court. Francis just got lost in the shuffle in New York and I still feel ike Francis and James are still way more talented than anything we had at that position last year. I do wonder how Adelman will get in other talents like Brooks and Head who I feel can add other dimensions, especially 3 point shooting without pissing off Francis, James and Bonzi.

With all this surplus of talent, I'm wondering how Adelman will pattern the offense to allow Yao to be dominant in the low post, Tmac to be a dominant scorer, while giving explosive scorers like Bonzi, Francis and James shots and promising talents like Brooks and Head a shot.... Also, with the faster paced offense, how will Adelman maintain the offense at high octane while getting the guys back to cover on defense? I would also love to see what new wrinkles Yao has added to his game, now that he's had Dawson and some other mentors teach him new things. Yao looked incredibly dominant before he hurt his leg.

 

Agree. We need our superstars I mean Yao and T-Mac to be healthly for the whole season and of course it would be breat if all our team would be healthly.

 

Not really.

Part of the reason Battier was unsuccesful at PF last year was that Bonzi was unavailable.

If we can slip Bonzi and Mac into swingman positions, then Battier can be a decent PF. The knock on him last season was that he couldn't rebound or play the post - those duties would be delegated to Bonzi.

So there's nothing sure-fire. But there's a whole bunch of options.

Is rebounding really a problem if your 1/2/3 are Francis/TMac/Bonzi? Throw Chuck and Deke into the mix, it may be one of the greatest rebounding teams we've seen in a while.

Worrying about Scola's success is valid. But only because our standards have been raised so much, and the uncertainty of a first NBA season is our biggest worry. Any other year, we'd be salivating over Scola joining us.

 

Yao.

Can he run the offense? can he make 17 foot jump shots?

 

I think he can make 17-foot jumopers.

 

The big question for me is Stevie's Health, but it's two-fold.

1. Are his knees up to playing regularly? He looked really awful at times in New York.

2. If he can't play, and he's regulated to occasional spot minutes, will he sulk and ruin chemistry? He was a good clubhouse leader in Houston when he was the man. Since then, he's got a reputation of being a bit of a cancer. That's the reason that Portland was willing to pay him big money to leave, instead of taking a chance on him. I've got some hope that even if he can't play much, winning will be contagious, and he'll be a good guy to have around. Even though it was a low financial-risk signing, it really is a high basketball risk move.