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

I can answer these already. We've seen all we need to know Yao's strength and weeknesses.

No. He double-clutches and telegraphs his passes. He always has, and increased motion will make it worse.

Yes. He'll hit > 45% from the high post area.

 

chemistry and defense.

 

you should have put chemistry

 

You just can not put health as a question mark as every team can do it because NBA is a sport, it could happen to everyone, every team. To me, the PF postion is still a question mark, we still do not know who can slow Duncan down to get a champ. We are talking the NBA champ, not a playoff win, then we need pass the Spurs, or Dallas. On other hand, Scola can guard the soft Dirk. not a big concern.

 

Hopefully, Scola at least makes Duncan have to play defense. Watching Scola's offensive repertoire, Duncan will at least have to expend a lot of energy on the defensive end rather than relaxing a bit when we had just Hayes and Howard. Also, Scola might get some of the Spurs to pick up fouls. One person might not stop him, but we can use team defense to at least make it harder for Duncan.

 

actually we know what Scola will bring to us, which is hustle play and unselfish play. He can score and he play very physical.

What we do not know is how will our PG plays. With rafer at least we know that he will be a steady player, keeping turnover low, feeding the ball to right players, and sometimes makes his 3s. But that is with no competition for his position, how will he plays if he plays only 10-20min per game, or with the knowledge that someone will always come in and take his place if he is not playing well. With SF3 he recover from injury, and we do not know his state of mine if he is only playing 20 min per game. Same goes for MJ who expect starter min. And AB is still a rookie, lets just hope he can learn and be a Rox starters for years to come.

So for me, the q mark is about the whoever that plays PG.

 

Other: When will Rafer be gone?

 

Word!

 

zong, let's not start getting too ahead of ourselves here. For one thing, judging by the types of players than Dirk faces night in and night out, it's probably safe to say that Scola will not be able to guard Dirk. Historically, the best way to guard Dirk is to put a long, rangy defender on him who's also strong enough to bump him around. Enter Tracy McGrady, Bruce Bowen and even Ryan Bowen. Guys who can fluster him with their reach and constant motion on defense. Traditionally, the worse kind of mismatch in Dirk's favour is guarding him with a traditional PF, especially one with only average height such as Scola, and who isn't fast enough to keep up with him, nor tall enough to bother his shots.

Duncan is a whole 'nother issue. My take on him is that when push comes to shove, you CANNOT stop Tim Duncan. The guy is just too fundamentally sound. He's as close to Hakeem as you can get in this era of big men. Duncan is one guy who I can safely say has a few counters to all his moves, plus a counter for his counter-move. You can't stop him when he wants to put his team on his shoulders. The key to beating the Spurs is to shut everyone else down, especially Tony Parker's dribble penetration, and keeping a man on Manu all the time, and then pray that the guy guarding Duncan slows him down enough, or that he decides to keep trusting his teammates when he should be the one dominating.

As for the topic, I think the biggest question mark is undoubtedly Steve Francis. I'm less worried about Mike James, cuz for all his ego and deficiencies, you know that when it comes down to it, Mike James will play his game and play it hard. He's never been known as a locker-room cancer. A little selfish maybe, but he gives his all every time. Francis is different. He might not be selfish per se, but the big question mark about him has always been whether or not he can keep up with the mental part of the game. Throughout his career, he hasn't shown that he can do that while still being productive. And when he's not productive, he hurts the team more than James or Bonzi Wells does. Given the size of his ego and his previous status on this team, it'll be interesting to see how things work out. I'm just hoping his presence in the locker room won't cause the team to implode if things don't go his way.

 

Wasn'y he hitting three's in Shanghai?

 

Between Dirk's deceptive athleticism (looks like a bumbling fool, but actually has some decent moves), his really high release point, and his great shooting, even when challenged, he's exceptionally hard to guard. Scola's offense can expose Dirk's soft defense, but Scola won't be able to stop Dirk or even slow him much on the other end.

 

I guess it falls under T-Mac's back, Yao's legs.

 

Health in time for the playoffs is always an issue, but to me, we have so much depth this year that it might actually benefit the club to get some other players more looks in midseason (Butler, Snyder, etc).

To me, the Rockets will have no ceiling if we can straighten out our PG situation. Regardless of who ends up playing, we will have to be able to hold our own against the Chris Pauls, Deron Williamses, Steve Nashes, and Tony Parkers of the league. That is what did it in for us last year, and if we can close the sieve at the one then we could be champions this year.

 

I see our interior defense/rebounding needing to be upgraded.

 

I agree with some of the guys here that the guards are where we have the greatest uncertainty. Scola will probably make one of the most dramatic differences, but we at least know somewhat where he's going to be....at the very least, he's not a scrub.....he'll hustle and be very skilled in the post, passing, high post, fast break and shooting. The biggest uncertainties are probably Francis and Bonzi. Not that they will be terrible....but the dramatic difference between when they are "on" and when they are at their lowest point. I think its because both are emotional players and they play on confidence. Francis may never admit it, but his confidence was been taken away quite a bit....first by the traumatic trade of his best friend Cuttino away from Orlando, then being put in the unforgiving New York stage with a very dysfunctional group of combo guards....with Marbury, Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson.....it's like the entire team is full of black holes on offense (once you pass the ball, it doesn't come back). Bonzi's confidence was shaken by his losing out on the huge contract and then the tiff with JVG. At his most confident phase, Francis was an athletic freak who would dunk on guys left and right, score 20 points a game, grab 6-7 rebounds, pass 6-7 assists and be a 3 time all-star. At his best, Bonzi is overpowering the Spurs guards and forcing them to change their defense to stop him, looking like a borderline all-star. There such a big difference between their highs and lows for Francis and Bonzi, that if they were to reach our expectations or close to, the Rockets would suddenly be in a different stratosphere. The team is already better for adding Scola, James and Brooks.....but for Francis and Bonzi to play up to their potential....this team would be dynamic.


As to whether Scola can guard Dirk...I think Scola can give him some trouble. Scola is physical and Dirk is not faster than Scola. Dirk does not like it when you get physcial with him and Scola comes out to challenge everything. The most dramatic difference is on the other end.....seeing how bad Dirk is on defense, I don't think he can contain Scola. If we have Yao and Scola on the floor, it's going to force Dirk to have to guard Scola. Though the best defender to put on Dirk is a tall wing player....the reason for this is that Dirk likes it on the perimeter...if you crowd him and disrupt him by trying to steal the ball, bumping him, etc....it really throws him off. We can throw an array of Battier, Tmac, Scola and Hayes.

For Duncan, we should take a page out of the 2000-2003 Lakers. It's not so much focusing on Duncan as cutting off his support system. The Lakers would pack the paint and hammeer Parker every time he got in the lane, which made Parker settle for outside shots rather than his point blank layups. Without a pentrating Parker, Parker wouldn't be able to draw attention away from Duncan. They would also just try to disrupt Duncan and make him shoot a lesser field goal percentage. I also remember Duncan having to expend alot of energy on the defensive end because the Lakers kept attacking the rim. So, we can have Scola make Duncan work. Yao in the low post. Tmac, Francis, Bonzi and Brooks penetrate the rim and make Duncan have to play a lot of help defense and hopefully get some fouls.

 

Where's Kelvin Cato this days? If we can't get Foster....why not sign Cato for cheap. He is 6'11 and strong. When given minutes he was pretty solid shotblocker and rebounder.....and a pretty solid 3rd string power forward/center.

 

I agree but thet's on the 2nd spot. Yao is good but he can't rebound...

 

Yeah Yao averaged 9.53 and 10.19 rebounds in the last two seasons and he can't rebound. Are you one of the fools on the ESPN board who keep saying that a 7'6" should average 15 rebounds by default?

 

The biggest question mark is which team will take on Rafer Alston for little to no compensation in return.