Look at the Heat and Mavericks. Imagine how they feel, when we blew them out of the water. If you are judging them by the first 12 games, they won't go deep into the playoffs either. They are playoff contenders. The championship will have to be taken from the Heat. Championship teams have losing streaks, too. The Heat will be fine.
It's really good to know that there are still lots of people on this BBS with their heads screwed on straight. I had started to avoid the BBS for days just to avoid the negativity -- it really makes me wonder what miserable lives some people must live when their team is winning games and all they can do is complain. Anyways -- Here's my offering of thanksgiving, Rockets style: Thank you Lord, for giving us our favorite team, the Houston Rockets. Thank you Lord, for giving us one of the best wingmen in the league, Tracy McGrady. Thank you Lord, for giving us the best center in the world, Yao Ming. Thank you Lord, for giving us a great coach, Jeff Van Gundy. Forgive us for being such a bunch of whiners, but we look at the current crop of coaches around the league, and we know we are blessed to have a great coach who knows how to play defense and win games. Thank you Lord, for giving us a generous owner with a passion for the game, Les Alexander. Thank you Lord, for giving Les the wisdom to hire front office personnel with brains - Carroll Dawson and Darryl Morey. Thank you Lord, for the many blessings of talented and intelligent late round draft picks - Luther Head, Vassilis Spanoulis, and Steve Novak. Thank you Lord, for in the midst of our sufferings last year, you sent us the league's best undersized power forward, an undrafted gem out Kentucky, our most beloved Chuck Hayes. Thank you Lord, for preserving Chuck's knee in that collision with Shaq, and thank you for healing him so quickly. Thank you Lord, for such a great 2006 offseason, blessing us with new and awesome teammates like Shane Battier and Kirk Snyder. Thank you Lord, for helping us to get Bonzi Wells at such a bargain price. We admit our frustration at him not producing for us yet, but we know all things will work out in good time. Thank you Lord, for 8-4, our best start to a season since what seems like a really long time. Thank you Lord, for healing our perimeter shooting woes and giving us cold-blooded clutch three point shooters like Luther Head. Thank you Lord, for giving us the best shooter in the league, Steve Novak. Thank you Lord, for the multiple championships you have laid up in store for us. Thank you Lord, for ClutchFans.NET, the best fan site in the world. Thank you Lord, for giving us the fortitude to enjoy this web site and not be overwhelmed by the agents of negativity on it. Thank you Lord, for Thanksgiving Day!
The Heat will NOT be fine. They will make playoff and maybe get out first round, but it is ONLY because they are playing in the Jr. league. Seriously, East conference is like the NBDL now. West is having a record of around .700 against East. Pathetic!
Its in the nature of internet discussion boards and call in shows for their to be a lot of negativity and criticism. I agree most of its unwarranted and garbage, but part of critical thinking is being critical. As I've said before this forum would be really dull if all it was was posts "Rockets are doing good", "JVG doing great", "Everything OK", and etc.. You take the good with the bad like the nth "Fire Gundy" thread and learn to skim and ignore.
Yeah, the true measure for us are the games against Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, NOK, and Utah. But we are 8-4, there is really not anything to complain about that even some of the teams we beat werent at their best forms. You can point out the negative. But dont forget about the positve that Jeff mentioned. Also we are showing a sign of as a real good team. The games we lost this year, except for Utah in which we were actually close in the end and that was their home opener and proved to the dark horse of the west, we all had lead at some point in the game, and played quality basketball at streches. Have some faith that this team will correct the neagtives and improve on the positive as the season progress. This is the best team I have seen at the beginning of the season since JVG was the coach.
Great post and good to see there are Rockets' fans out there still in touch with reality. I have avoided the Rockets portion of this forum lately as well b/c of the continued negativity at the smallest of things. Seems like there hasn't been so much hating and negativity in this forum since all the Stevie bashing a few years ago. Happy Thanksgiving. Go Rockets!!!
Exactly. People forget, this team is still trying to find their identity and develop team chemistry. It's going to take a few months before this team hits its full stride. Taking into account we're not a full health yet, it's VERY impressive what this team isdoing! Especially against a brutal schedule that could have easily buried them early.
overall, great post Jeff.. but I would have to disagree on the "zero losses to teams we should beat" part.. we lost to New Orleans, doesn't it count?? that's not mentioning blowing leads against mediocre teams like Washington, NY, Milwaukee and an average team like the Bulls... you are right, we shouldn't be whining about the team right now because it's just doing fine... but blowing 21 and 19 point leads in the 3rd quarter is a sign of a bigger problem that needs to be addressed immedietly.. our wins against Chicago, NY, Washington, and Milwaukee could've all gone the other way easily... if we didn't get lucky like that, we would be at 4-8 right now and calling for firing JVG.. but we are not gonna always be lucky; Rafer Alston wont hit a three in the end of EVERY close game, the ball will not always bounce off the rim and go straight to Luther Head in the final 3 seconds of a close game... Bill Worrell said the other day that if we are going to be a serious contender, we should have the ability to close out games and maintain our big leads...
agreed BUT If there was some rational thought to go into alot of the whining posts, maybe a discussion could be had. and to be fair...there are still a few of the pessimistic posters ( I dont call them whiners since they normally have made a reasonable case for their concerns) but the ones who base their posts mainly on their own feelings and unsubstantiated rumors and when you call them on it they become combative ( a nice way of saying they say stupid sh*t and call you names) this doesnt lead towards a reasonable discussion at all (which this board had always been known for) which in return drives away the reasonable posters who gave this place its rep and continue to do so to this day. I love this thread I love that the ones that didnt *get* Jeff's post are the ones whose posts I normally skim these days since its always the same whiny crap in every thread....so my mind fills in their point without really reading them anymore. and I love that Thanksgiving is OVER!! hope all you guys (even the ones I call whiners) had a great holiday.
Good thread. And Happy Thanksgiving everyone (its still Thanksgiving on the West Coast at least). A critique thats an actual concern of the team, pointing out a problematic trend that can be detrimental to the teams wins and losses - nothing wrong with that. Its the darn WHIIINEY tone that's annoying and much too plentiful at times. Not its expected that this forum should be full of experts though...anyways hope to have more sensible posts as the season moves forward
nice post jeff I think people will still have complaints even if we were on a last season Piston Like start
JVG threw Bonzi under the bus? Bonzi threw Bonzi under the bus. He's his own worst enemy. He has been given/gets a legitimate chance to thrive to dispel all notions of he being a team player and he has done what BTW? He has the opportunity to work with T-Mac and Yao whom are arguably a top 5 combo tandem in the NBA and he has done what with this opportunity? I find it amazing that a grown man who potentially rakes 7 figures or better for his performance on the court but yet is not accountable for himself, his training, his discipline. The last time I checked the NBA is a professional organization, meaning people who are playing in the NBA are professionals. That means they should not need GM's and head coaches to play "daddy" every time they make a mess. Bonzi's a man not a boy so he needs to GTFU and stop his b****ing and let his play do the talking for once. Oh yeah, better call Jenny Craig on his ass because he looks 3 months pregnant with a permanent 15# butterball attached to his midsection. This is quickly becoming the most pathetic storyline in the NBA for this season. Dont blame JVG and CD for this, they arent babysitters they are trying to do things to best position the Rockets for the season and on into the postseason. A properly motivated Bonzi would greatly help achieve this team's goals but, I guess Bonzi just doesnt care ... how pathetic!!!
