why we overlook the horrible year artest is having

are you serious? he has been our best individual perimeter defender v. dallas, and utah in all 3 series. JVG actually moved battier away many times in the 4th (along with adelman) when we played utah b/c he cna't guard harpring. and you know what tracy did with dirk.

i'm sorry, that's the most inaccurate statements i've heard regarding tracy in a while. his playoff defense has been very good, if not exceptional.

and i won't even bother with the 2nd comment.

 

He was torched by Utah last year.......
Harpring was just killing Mcgrady on every single possesion........ Gundy did not move Tracy over, Jerry Sloan moved Harpring over....lol

Has Tracy ever, ever boxed someone out?

 

i dont think many have seen artest actually play before coming to the rockets so we're not sure what to expect. tmac on the other hand has been a proven super star and everyone has seen his max potential.

secondly, we realize this a new system for artest and he still trying to find his role with his new teammates. so i think most of us are just giving him time and expecting him to play better in the future. if not, then the bashing will come!!

 

i never question his passion or toughness. i've seen this rockets team in the playoffs the past 3 times under the yao-tracy duo. the reason we lose is b/c role players do not make their shots (i showed my examples regarding rafer, luther, bobby jackson...) and they shoot WAY WAY below any standard.

we played utah as well as anybody in terms of keeping them down. we played dallas and kept them down. defense has never been a problem with us.

the problem is nobody outside of tracy and yao can score consistently or create their own shot. ron artest can't even finish layups. he's worse than yao in terms of finishing.

i'm sure ron will play better. nobody can suck this bad (i hope). but i just don't see his ability to take over games if yao or tracy are doubled/tripled or make plays when tracy or yao sit out in stretches. i just don't see that.

we made the trade for artest for OFFENSE. we need a 3rd guy to create. he's failing miserably at that right now.

 

are you serious? adelman moved tracy around basically everybody b/c battier struggled with BOTH ak47 and harpring. hell, tracy moved over to play boozer for 2-3 plays and stopped him.

i don't know what series you saw.

his reg. season defense is pathetic b/c his effort varies. but not the playoffs. are you mistaken?

 

The reason we lose is because we don't have the passion, intensity or toughness to grab a rebound in the 4th quarter................Not our shooting......Our will to win, Fighting in the last moments of the game when all you need is one more rebound (But we never get it, ever). Artest is that guy....

 

I am done, If you think Tracy played great defense against the Jazz then i can't keep going on....... Jeff Van Gundy tried to hide Tracy......

It was one of the most lazy defensive efforts I have ever seen in the playoffs, ever......... He was walking. Everywhere. I am done with this thread.

 

lol. you must not watch our games. if we have better scoring, we wouldn't need a game 7.

if we had more than FOUR guys scoring in a playoff game v. utah in 06-07 (i'm sure more than 4 guys played), we wouldn't need a game 7.

if luther makes ONE shot, we wouldn't need a game 7. if rafer doesn't shoot 30%, we wouldn't need game 7. if bobby jackson didn't shoot 28%, we wouldn't need game 7.

and if ron shoots 35% in the playoffs, we might not even go to game 7.

ask morey why he got ron. his toughness or offense. i guarantee you he'll say offense.

we had toughness lsat year with scola manning up, hayes shutting okur down, landry fighting through a lost tooth, rafer manning up despite an injury, tracy and battier fighting through multiple injuries. this team is tough enough.

we just lack guys who can make shots when it counts (WIDE OPEN SHOTS)

 

Or Yao Ming. Have you seen how many threads there are of those two? Up until today there was none on Artest's bad play on defense or offense. Nobody says a word when his man outplays him for a critical rebound. It's Mac this, Yao that.

Ron Artest is trying to play like a superstar but he's failing. Right now he hasn't consistently shown to be at Mac/Yao's caliber when they are healthy. I wish he would realize that he isn't as good as he thinks he is and start playing off the ball a-la-Bonzi. Maybe being active this way can help improve his play and we can start seeing the player he believes he is. His ball stopping tendencies and bad shot selection are hurting the team.

 

i'm glad you're done, b/c obviously you didn't watch the playoffs. how did JVG try to hide tracy when tracy's usually on the other team's best perimeter player in the 4th quarter of every playoff game? great way to hide him right?

why is it tracy's steals and blocks always go up in the playoffs? yea he must be slacking off.

i'm sure you're frustrated with tracy in the reg. season. but the playoffs brings out a different tracy. i'm sure R2K has all the playoff games. go watch them.

 

Our problem is not defense it is offense.

DD

 

exactly. yao may got blocked today, but artest got blocked like 5-6 times. and yet all we heard is how soft yao is.

at least yao knows his limitations sometimes. artest doesn't.

 

if our role players made more than 30% of their shots, maybe, we didn't need that one rebound to determine our fate.

i mean, holding utah below its reg. season's ppg is not good enough for ya. shutting down boozer is not good enough for ya.

but role players disappearing or shooting 30% is a-ok.

 

shut up, he just means wait till playoffs because he has faith we will get there 1st or 8th. As a fan you just need to hop on the bandwagon, be patient, and help support our team instead of bring it down by negative critisizm. Go away, if you cant help but wine.

 

We went zone towards the end of the game, and with a zone its sometimes hard to get the defensive rebound because you aren't actually guarding anyone. Not getting offensive rebounds in a zone doesn't really say much about what kind of team Houston is.

On the loss in general, we really need to get Artest going. He's had 2 great games this season and thats about it. He's gotten a long for awhile by drawing fouls, which is why he isn't completely worthless.

And we can't blame Artest's sucking on Tmac because he hasn't been in the game for 2 games in a row, and Artest is missing shots he should make anyway.

It seems like he's just in a bad slump right now cause the shots he's been missing are really makable shots for him.

 

Yeah I think the problem might be that all the love Artest is getting from the fans has gone straight to his head, literally. He now thinks he is a superstar that has to lead this team on every possession of every offensive play when he is on the court.

 

they are a team in progress. artest will come around. when battier and mac return (hopefully wednesday) the team as a whole will lift everyone up. you cant expect artest to put up numbers like last year. this rockets team is stacked. its just his shooting that bothers me. he'll come around.

 

the only thing that will solve this is tracy needs to come back healthy and resume his role as the main playmaker.

until then, i think ron will think he has the freedom to do whatever and suck as much as he wants, b/c at the end of the day, it's still tracy's and yao's team. we're not going to get that mad at a role player.

 

before Artest returns to form, we could offer him a slightly less than lucrative contract,

 

We brought Artest in not for his defense. Of course his defense is very good and we welcome it. But we were already a very good defensive team. What we needed was the proverbial third option on OFFENSE who could create for himself.

I have said it many times: too many people here overrate Artest's offense. He has NEVER been a high percentage shooter. He has NEVER been a good creator. Why people suddenly became so fascinated about him being the savior of our offense is beyond me.

That said, the trade was still a great trade mainly because it was a low risk high potential trade. We gave up very little for him. So I am not griping about the trade. If he doesn't work out here, I have confidence that Morey can trade him for something more than what we gave up for him.