Would you want to compete with about 2% chance of winning a championship?

Here are all the games against LA last season:
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4

They were all close games, explain to me why adding Yao won't put us over the top?

 

regular season games do not concern me, admiral.

 

madmax im not trying to be rude but your "slogan" at the end of your posts sometimes contradict your posts. your slogan makes you look like a very optimistic person. again im not trying to be rude.

 

i'm not about to tell you what to do. just giving my opinion.

 

not rude at all.

i'm very optmistic. i don't consider the NBA when i consider the quote in my sig. i tend to think about it being advice to my children on much loftier issues.

 

Max, I have always freely admitted to being an eternal optimist prior to a Rockets season. I can't help it. I think a lot of it has to do with our history of having arguably (no argument from me, but from others) the best center in the game and, in Hakeem, the best player in the game, in my opinion. Once we drafted Hakeem in 1984, we never had a losing record until the 1998-99 season. That's a stretch of about 15 years where the worst record we had was even, and the record goes back further to Moses and the '78-'79 season, with only the season right after the Rockets dumped him, at 28-54 (because they were cheap and stupid), Sampson's first year, being a perfect storm of horrific play and full tank mode. Twenty years of not losing, excepting that one year. Making the playoffs (bounced in the first round by the hated Jazz) Dream's first season, with an amazingly deep team that just hadn't gelled. Being contenders and bouncing the defending champs, the Showtime Lakers, on our way to the Finals in his second year. That's contending.

After that? As you know, years of winning, but not contending. Years of having the best center on the planet and a lousy team surrounding him. Still, because you had Olajuwon, there was always a chance. At least I always thought we had a chance. In 1994, we broke through. My point? Smart or not (certainly subject to opinion), the Rockets have been trying to build another championship team around Yao since they drafted him. With Morey and Adelman working together, they've constantly tried to surround Yao with pieces complimentary both to him and to Adelman's system. In my opinion, Morey, as we saw in '08, has built a team that fits that system and gives us a good chance to win and hopefully contend if the big guy is healthy.

Management continues to work towards each season as if Yao will be healthy and, if not (as in this past season), to add pieces to compliment Yao and the system for when he is healthy, the whole time building what they consider to be a team with a chance of contending with Yao at his peak. You believe Yao will continue to be cursed. Given his history, it's an understandable stance. I prefer to believe he will make it back this season, with him being in full Yao mode in time for the playoffs, with players that fit Adelman's system, with time for them to learn it and gell. Players who are intelligent. Players who have motors that never quit, with those remaining who are seen not to fit being gone by the deadline. Players surrounding Yao that, if healthy, a big if, will create a team that will contend.

Is that smart? I understand those who think Morey is nuts to keep hanging his hopes on a healthy Yao, for building a team that will compliment him, when we just don't know if he'll be there when it counts. But what else can he do? This summer, he tried to get Bosh to not only compliment Yao and the system, which he would have done beautifully, but give us a superstar to take over from Yao as the top dog when he starts to decline, or has to hang them up due to injury. That didn't work out, but I don't doubt that he'll keep making to attempt for a similar impact player until he nabs him, whoever he is.

Meanwhile, what do we do? We have a Yao centered team. We have players who fit what Adelman believes is the way to win in today's league. We have holes, still, but that is being worked on. In general, we have a team in the conversation when it comes to being contenders, if Yao is fully back and the team has gelled around him. Short of blowing up the team by giving up on Yao, what other choice do we have? If Yao's fully back, I think we have a decent chance to win the Western Conference with what we have. I really believe that. If he's not fully back and appears to never again be completely healthy and effective in the role expected of him, then it's another conversation, conversations we've already had here many times. We just have to wait and see if the Gods of Health smile on us this year. If they do and it looks like what we were able to accomplish in '08 was essentially a fluke, that we can't contend with a healthy big fella and a team built to compliment him within the system, then we need to go back to the drawing board. Then I'll probably lean your way. Not giving this team, healthy, a chance before the season has begun is, in my opinion, lunacy.

But then, I'm that eternal optimist, remember?

 

you're talking to the wrong dude...i'll be right there rooting them on. they'll win a big game at some point and i'll overestimate their abilities and tell you all how i wrong i was...that this is a championship squad or at least a real player for it....

but if you asked me to bet on it, i wouldn't. i don't THINK this is that kind of team. i want them to be, though.

 

I just had to say something here. You were taking "the high road?"

"Look, I am talking about our first championship team...going back to before the year...I was about 28 years old and can remember it pretty clearly.

Maybe you don't ....judging by the above post.

DD"

That was an insult. Get off your own high horse and stop asking for an apology from a guy who was insulted first, like you said nothing to deserve a crack from Max, who's been a fan of the Rockets at least as long as you have.

Sheesh!

 

Rockets screwed up last year by trying to win. With no yao, they should have tanked for john wall.

 

Best answer is when you can't get past the 1st round and your starting center is Kelvin Cato w/ a 10+ million/year contract.

 

disagree...i'll never fault a team for trying to win.

 

I could have saved myself a lot of trouble by just posting the last sentence before, again, declaring myself an eternal optimist.

 

If you're going to miss the playoffs anyways, I'd rather tank for a high draft pick. Whether you miss the playoffs by 1 game or 20 games, both teams go home at the same time, except 1 team gets to load up on talent more easily.

 

no..it was good stuff. i don't really disagree with any of it.

 

if you knew the outcome was you were going to miss the playoffs, then sure. but we didn't know that going in. you have to try.

 

I agree with you about the "if's" . There have been alot of if's when the Rockets are mentioned. Still for you to say that this team can not compare to any of the championship teams(mainly the 1st one) is a little shortsided. As far as the first ring is concerned, we now have a better supporting cast in place than then. For you to not see the huge potential that they have is unbeleivable.

 

What? How is insuinuating that I might remember something a bit more clearly because I am older an insult?

It just means I am OLDER.....

I mean the post I was quoting had Clyde and Otis in it, and those guys were never on the same team.

Clearly Max and I were not arguing from the same rules, he was thinking both championships, and I was mostly talking about the first.....and then including the 2nd because it was a 6th seed, made for a complete mix up.

Max and I have worked it out, why don't you start minding your own business?

SHEESH !

DD

 

cleverly disguised, "Are you a quitter?" thread.

 

i do not see any valid comparison heading into this season to heading into the 93/94 season. sorry.

maybe i'd feel that way if Yao just tore up the league the way Hakeem did 92/93.

maybe i'd feel that way if they had just ripped off 55 games, won their division and made it to OT of Game 7 in the semifinals.

maybe i'd feel that way if we weren't entering the season already talking about how we can limit the minutes of our best player.

this supporting cast is lots of fun to watch...but they need an alpha dog to be a true championship contender in my view....and they don't have one. i think management knew that and hoped Bosh could be that.

 

to be clear here...i was talking about championship squadS. i said that a few times.