I like this team because of the composition: Starters Yao - big clumsy half deaf oaf Scola - no hop and no left hand Battier - no box score numbers Artest - a man with a screw loose AB - too short and too skinny Bench Landry - undersized Wafer - no shot, no defense Lowry - short PG; couldn't even be the starter on a lottery team Barry - too old Hayes - no offense, undersized We have a team of players that have a lot of detractors. We have no real "superstars." But you know what? I love this team because they care and they hustle. Win or lose, I like watching this team play. They generally share the ball, run the break, and play hard defense. Yes, they make mistakes. Yes, they are physically limited. Yes, they have scoring droughts and meltdowns. But they don't give up and they fight through a lot of problems. Furthermore, the Rockets current brand of basketball is much more fun to watch. Will they make the playoffs? Thanks to the Suns' meltdown, almost definitely yes. Will they get home court advantage? Probably not. Will they get out of the first round? No, they may not. But at least I know they gave it their all. My attitude is: Let's see how far this team that gets no respect goes. The farther they go, the more doubters they prove wrong.
I agree with the spirit of your post, but you're probably not giving enough credit where credit is due. Most of the deficiencies you describe are accurate enough (I take exception to your description of Lowry, as the Grizzlies had two young prospects in Mayo and Conley that have a fair amount more potential than Lowry). But the positives FAR outweigh the negatives with the likes of Yao, Scola, Artest, Brooks, Lowry and Landry. You're probably right about the rest though.
I was getting ready to throw some bricks at you when i started reading this.. at first i was like then i was like good post
I agree too much negativity when we lose one game...but when we win, it all turns into positivity People need to relax
I love this team. They are a bunch more fun to watch than the JVG crew. They get up and down and are willing to play to win instead of playing not to lose.
I love this team too because of their hustle and hard work, but unless Yao suddenly wakes up and turn a corner in term of sealing his defender better, being more determined （I did not use "aggressive") and dominate, this team is not going anywhere soon as long as him being our go to guy.
+1 I have read tons of threads stating the same things, who is undersized, who is unathletic, who cant shoot, etc etc. But when it comes down to it, you can find an obvious negative for 99% of all NBA players. Other than Lebron, Kobe, and maybe 1 or 2 others, you can easily say what the weak parts of their game is.
I like a balanced team better than a team that is centered around a superstar, the rockets just need to get a real PG and they would be title contenders every year. Brooks would be fine as a backup PG. and they HAVE to resign ron, they seriously absolutely have to. any free agent PGs coming up this off season?
lol, that's far too distant a memory to have any relevance, isn't it. the cyclical nature of popular sentiment is so predictable it should be considered a truth. it's particularly amusing as a long time fan. 96 onward, sportsbeat was ablaze with calls bemoaning the apparent lack of effort in the team, the fact they almost always lost to the very top teams, and for the most part underachieved despite being legit contenders. fast forward to the early days of the francis-mobley era and the only talk was about how refreshing it was to see a team of young guys play their hearts out despite not being very good. well the sucking got old real quick despite the fact that cat and steve still played their asses off every night, the same virtue that won fans over in the first place. skip ahead to yao-grady and everyone again is chirping about how great it is to finally be in contention again. but the fans soured on those teams when they underachieved in the postseason and didn't get it done. we're back to a group of role players playing their asses off every night (even though former teams did too), but all the raves are about how great it is to see a group of guys overacheive by playing hard, seemingly in an effort to juxtapose against the last group of guys. it's ok that they aren't in contention. i love this team too, but my guess is that this will get old pretty fast as well as more 4th quarter collapses pile up, and the mob will then crave for a superstar and turn its attention towards actually competing for a title. EDIT: my post was not directed towards the OP. i completely agree and love this group of guys and think Morey is doing one hell of a job. it's directed towards the people on this board who feel some incessant need to belittle the efforts of our past teams just to justify their approval of the current team.
I like this post, too. The Rockets are extremely unathletic when compared to the rest of the league. Yet, they play smart and live and die through their defense. On-The-Court Intelligence > Athleticism
Yeah.. I like your post, this was similar to last season too when we had players like Mike Harris and Justin Williams.
The basketball "talking heads" think we're done without TMac. They point to the deficiencies in all our other players as I've listed above. They also claim that every team needs a "superstar" for any post-season success. I say, let's prove them wrong with our collection of "bad news bears."
no no no . . .I heard TMAC and THE TMAC APOLOGIST Last year they were just INFERIOR but If TMAC was with them THIS YEAR . .with their SUPERIOR TALENT WHEW!! SKIES THE LIMIT!1 Rocket River
I love this team too. Sure, I'll probably feel differently if we ONCE AGAIN fail to get out of the first round. But as of right now, I really do like this team for the same reasons the OP likes it. My wife was asking me the other night after the lakers loss why I wasn't as pissed as I usually am after we lose. It's all about effort. Losing a close one at home to the best team in the league isn't really the same as having your star player give up as you are TORCHED by the Toronto Raptors. Yes, they are both losses, but not the same at all. That Toronto loss seems like it was years ago. Not to pile on, but this is a totally different team since you-know-who called it a season. Win, lose, or draw, it's just more fun to watch.
Well you can make any team's lineup look like garbage when you break it down like that. Yes, our guys play hard, but we also have one of the most talented teams in the league, even without McGrady. Most of those guys, regardless of the faults you pointed out, are DAMN good players with very strong specialties. So while I like the idea you had with this thread, I disagree with the premise. We are good enough to do a lot of the things you said we couldn't do. We're a lock for the playoffs regardless of the Sunflowers' collapse. We are a very talented team capable of beating anyone.
