Really? No chemistry with anyone on the team? Did you even watch last year? We had no problems then. But this year, we seem to have locker room problems. What has changed since last year? Ron Artest.
T-mac has created a culture here of non accountability. When the lakers were winning championships in the early 80's guys openly complained about not having the ball enough. Norm nixon told the media that he didn't have the ball enough was why the lakers were struggling and magic shot back and said we are going to buy norm and ball and put his name on it. But these same dudes went on to win the championship that year in 82. I mean look and Shaq and kobe. Those dudes defintely had lockeroom issues but they won 3 championships together. See whats' going on here is guy's don't want to step up and take on leadership and responsibility and people feel like having a lockeroom of non accounatbility is going to win a championship. Everybody wants to blame Ron but look at Yao and his leaked comments of what he was supposed to have said about tracy, but Yao doesn't want to hurt tracy's feeling so he denies that he said whatever he said. Ron is the only one who will say what's on the mind of the coach the GM and Yao himself. Yao believe or not has little bit of Ron in him. Both of those dudes work hard and will fight to the end and this why when tracy doesn't play we see a 25 and 15 Yao instead of a 8 and 6 Yao.
Yo DD, On bored with you on this.... And if some of these guys think that he is throwing T-Mac under bus, just wait until T-Mac is gone... He will DESTROY YAO!!!! Mentally!!!!
Worst case scenario is that the Rockets traded a prospect and a future pick for a nice expiring. It all depends on what we get for Ron in return.
DD, as much as i know you truly love the rockets and I do agree with most of what you say, have you EVER been wrong. It seems as though you post sooo much that you seem to cover your a$$ in case you are wrong. I agree that our biggest need is a PG, but for you to keep repeating that you predicted that the Ron Artest move wouldn't work from the beginning is BS. Someone needs to Archive the "Ron to Rockets" thread from the summer so we can all see how you were behind it. I mean you might be able to find a couple posts saying that you were cautious, but by no means did you flat out say that it wouldn't work. If I remember correctly your first post after getting Ron was somewhere along the lines of " Look out rest of the league", and all your "we need a point" talk was toned down. So, have you ever been wrong about the rockets? Were jumping with joy when we traded for Wesley or Jackson. Again, I have alot of respect for your overall rocket knowledge and value your opinion, when you stick to it.
Of course I am wrong sometimes, see Dan Langhi -probably the exception that proves the DD rule. Here is the thread where we discussed Artest before we got him, everything I said that would happen if we got Artest..happened exactly as I said it would. I had no problem at the end picking him up for nothing, it was a low risk move, because I knew that if it turned out he didn't fit...as I said...the team would have an expiring contract to trade. Well, that is where we are now. Of course I liked the trade, because we got Ron for peanuts, and I was praying that my read of him as a player and person was wrong, and he would come in and fit right in...unfortunatly, I was right about him, and he did not fit in, and came into a harmonious locker room breaking up the chemistry. I do post a lot, and as such it may seem my position changes, and sometimes it does if the situation changes. Most of the time, though if it is apples to apples and in proper context, I am completely consistent. And for the record, I hated the Jim Jackson and Boki for David Wesley trade, still do.... DD
still do? Wasn't Jackson out of the league shortly afterwards, and Barry was everything (except a little D) we could have wanted out of Boki. Nobody was happy at the time but i thought it was understood by Feb 05 that the trade was solid. Wesley was on fire for the rest of the season, then went ice-cold for the playoffs.
My take on that trade was that the Rockets were not really contenders and Boki needed to be developed, and in a couple of years they would be better off with him over an aging Wesley. I am not a big believer of bringing in nearly washed up talent over talented youngsters.....I think you need to develop some players from within...ala Manu and Tony Parker in San Antonio. You take your lumps, but at the end of the day, when your core is ready, they will excel....I think the Rockets panic too often. Of course there are times to trade or tweak the roster, right now, our PG position is a serious weakness....if we can upgrade there to a player in his prime I am all for it....and honestly we have very few players that need to develop...Brooks, Landry....and that is about it. Which does not bode well for the Rocket's future... DD PS. Did you look at the thread about Artest.
