Terrible poll. No 800Lb. Gorillas anywhere on this poll. Injuries, Bad Luck etc. To many if not most we don't consider ourselves in a huge mess. We are in as good a position as anyone to improve through trades and various moves. I don't understand the mentality that *every* problem has to have a scapegoat.
Everyone is saying injuries. I believe the OP is referring to who to blame for this seasons disaster after Morey was saying "This will be a special year and Mr. Alexander is willing to pay the luxury tax". Why would Morey bank on Brad Miller on being a solid back up for Yao? Why would Morey think that Yao would stay healthy without acquiring another 7'0" within 2 freakin years? We have an overstock at PF (Miller, Scola, Hill, Patterson, Hayes). We needed a defensive center behind Yao and Morey hasn't delivered. It is that plain and simple. I was thinking about buying tickets to the Mavs game on Saturday but why should I pay 110 dollars to watch a mediocre team play. Morey has been collecting assets for 2 years now and hasn't delivered. He has assembled the roster with one way players. I will always stand by the Rockets, Texans, and Astros but my patience is running thin with this team and the GMs inability to assemble a competitive roster due to the fact he was banking on YAO to be HEALTHY. That is a stupid strategy and if his back up plan was to have Brad Miller to replace a hurt Yao then shame on him. /rant.
GM puts this team together. Rick can only coach what he is given. He is a decent coach so its not about developing the talent. its not the NFL so his scheme wont win them alot more games if players arent good. So its GM Daryl Moreys failure over these last few years to have a Yao contingency plan or Tmac value being used properly before they fell apart. You did not need crystal balls to know these two were falling apart. The deals he didnt do after and he has done havent helped return us to any semblance of a good team yet. We are regressing somewhat year after year.
Where's Leslie in your poll? Ultimately no major decision is made without his approval. Look, ultimately, the problem with the Rockets in the Yao/Tracy era - aside from their unreliability - was the lack of sufficient role players to support them. In the first few years, they were surrounded by a really piss poor crew - highly drafted rookie knuckleheads who didn't work out (Eddie Griffin, Bostjan Nachbar) lowly drafted knuckleheads (Spanoulis), retread veterans (Howard, Alston), veteran knuckleheads (Wells), and just plain Heads (Luther). What they lacked were the kinds of overachievers they have fielded in recent years, all acquired on the cheap - Landry, Lowry, Scola, Brooks, Artest - all a huge upgrade to the days when John Lucas III, Richie Frahm and Ryan Bowen were in the rotation (the one exception being the role player brigade of 2005 - those guys caught it in a bottle for that one half-season). Basically Morey has done everythign that could possibly be done to upgrade the team around no.s' 1 and 11. Of course, we all know how that ended up. Like Tantalus in Greek mythology, the water receded when we tried to drink it, and the Rockets chances' collapsed in a pile of broken bones and broken dreams. So Morey effectively succeeded at his task of upgrading around the core, but now that there's no core it's hard to assess how much of that is on him. I thought this much was obvious basically by NBA draft 2009, as soon as the word "career ending" and "Yao" were mentioned, in my opinion, the fire sale should have commenced in earnest, if in a subdued fashion. Why that didn't occur is anybody's guess (I suspect it was more Les holding on to Yao-dreams than Morey but maybe I'm biased). Truthfullly, maybe it should have begun before then as the warning signs about Yao were there long before, and even when healthy he was so good but so limited in certain areas it was hard to build around. But that's past. So we've been stuck with the "tread water & hope for luck" strategy, which many (including Morey, though basically he has to state this for both strategic and commercial reasons even if he didn't believe it) will state is superior to "tank & hope for luck" strategy - all I know is that neither is particularly fun to sit through.
Lack of talent at certain positions (C, SF). The players that were supposed to play well this season are playing well with the exception of Brooks.
Yao's handlers who let him play year round for years certainly are culpable. The Rockets physician staff could have done a better job on Yao as well. Other than that, it's the fans' fault for caring.
It all started after we traded Horry and Cassell. Downhill ever since... I have now accepted the Rockets will probably be a mediocre team at least for the next 5-10 years. It would also help if the people who go to those expensive seats in Toyota Center actually enjoyed basketball at least 10% as much as the people in this forum.
I don't expect them to be much better than 24th in the league on D when their center is 6'6". Why do you expect any better?
