The Rockets...

[Court_vision]

These guys deserve their own thread...to be singled out.

What the hell is going on? They are terrible.

How does a team with T-Mac, Yao and Ron lose to the Spurs without Parker and Manu?

T-Mac has been terrible this season in most games. Injured?

What's going on................

[ex carrabba fan]

Re: The Rockets...

Tmac is injured.. he's going to struggle to be able to carry the team alone.. he still needs surgery in the Summer.

As far as Artest, from the games I've watched, he's been horrible offensively [pun intended]. He's shooting 31% I just checked. Flat out terrible.

As far as tonight I didn't watch the game so I have no comment, I see they only lost by 2.

[Fiasco West]

Re: The Rockets...

They just don't play hard every night. The team that wants to win will win a good percent of the time...they pretty much had the game won up by 14 and I turned to watch the Celts game...turn back Rockets up by 1, Tmac forces up two shots...Spurs up by one...they go on to win it.

I mean they are not terrible. So far IMO they have lost two games they should have won...against the Blazers, and tonight...the other two losses against the Lakers and Celts. Still see them as a top 4 team in the west, they just started off with a tough schedule and hopefully later down the road when their schedule eases up, they will win the games their supposed to. That is all it really comes down to.

[Court_vision]

Re: The Rockets...

They just don't play hard every night. .

That's what I don't understand. They should be humiliated losing to this Spurs team.

I am still not sold on Ron being on the team. In theory, he's the perfect fit.

In reality...he's a volcano waiting to erupt. As Carrabba says, his offense has been woeful...but Mac and Yao are not natural leaders and you wonder if there's anyone on the team who will be able to tell him so / keep him under controlf if (when) he goes off mentally.

[TMagic]

Re: The Rockets...

I don't know man. I don't know.

As a Rockets fan, it is frustrating as hell.

I think one of the biggest things is that our three stars have been way too inconsistent so far.

With other teams' stars, you almost know that they're going to bring it. You know Kobe is gonna do his thing. You know Paul is gonna bring it game in and game out. You know LeBron is going to punish.

But, with our stars, you just don't know. T-Mac can go for 30+ points then go for 10. Same with Yao. And same with Artest. You just don't know if they are going to have a good game or not. You can't predict at all how well they are going to play.

You just never know what you are going to get out of ANY of them from game to game. Our top players, our stars, are too damn inconsistent. That makes the team inconsistent as a whole.

With other teams, they know what they are going to get from their star, and the teams success is mostly contingent on the play of those around them. The play of their role players.

It's not like that with the Rockets at all.

[Fiasco West]

Re: The Rockets...

That's what I don't understand. They should be humiliated losing to this Spurs team.

I am still not sold on Ron being on the team. In theory, he's the perfect fit.

In reality...he's a volcano waiting to erupt. As Carrabba says, his offense has been woeful...but Mac and Yao are not natural leaders and you wonder if there's anyone on the team who will be able to tell him so / keep him under controlf if (when) he goes off mentally.

You're right man. I'm pissed honestly that we lost. I don't even understand it...I turned to the Celts game thinkgin "Well, expected i'll turn back to see the last few mins..." I don't have no idea how we let a lead like that go, only thing I'm guessing is Spurs wanted it more.

They should have beat both the Blazers and Spurs. No disrespect to the Blazers, good young team with TONS of potential and the Spurs are just hurt now...but we lost both of these games by a combined 3 points, we should be 7-2 right now, I just feel that if our guys played 4qtrs we would be 7-2 with no disrespect to the other teams.

The only reason I say we're sleeping on teams and underestimating teams is because...we played the Thunder and Grizz close until mid 4th qtr... yet we turn around and beat teams like the Suns and played the Celts tough.

So we are right now 3-2 against teams we should beat. These teams are Thunder,Grizz,Clips, Blazers, and Spurs w/o Manu and Parker.

2-2 against teams that are tough matchups, which include Mavs, Celts, Lakers, and Suns.

To me it's just a lack of effort man. I think we go in against these teams and underestimate them. If we play the Hornets close 2morrow, it just goes to my theory that we do underestimate teams.

Also IDK why Tmac was trying to take those shots when we were down 1, as the commentators mentioned...he was cold that night so why is he forcing crucial clutch shots...especially when Ron had it going in the 2nd half, 14 pts in the 2nd half and showed no signs of slowing down. IDK why we just didn't get Ron going to the rim, instead we have Tmac taking shots against Bowen in crucial minutes of the game.

[23]

Re: The Rockets...

LOL CV you start one of these every year.

Ive said it before and will again, even though its early.

Its time to seperate Yao and Tmac. They don't play well together... other than the pick and roll, they dont play off of eachother well. I just dont see it, and Ron hasnt done jack since the game in Dallas.

Tmac is still recovering from knee surgery, so its understandable to a degree that he doesnt have his lift or anything, and so is Yao but he gets punked by midgets, and looks like he could care less about grabbing a rebound.

Ron is in a funk. I know its still early but i dont like the makeup of this team.

No athletic players, undersized big men, the same streetball PG that they cant seem to replace even though he's terrible, and no real backup for tmac.

That = tmac and yao playing too many minutes night in and out, overused, too many inefficient games, and basically the team trusts in too many scrub players like Chuck Hayes and one dimensional players who choke under pressure like Luther Head.

[Court_vision]

Re: The Rockets...

LOL CV you start one of these every year.

Ive said it before and will again, even though its early.

Its time to seperate Yao and Tmac. They don't play well together... other than the pick and roll, they dont play off of eachother well. I just dont see it, and Ron hasnt done jack since the game in Dallas.

Tmac is still recovering from knee surgery, so its understandable to a degree that he doesnt have his lift or anything, and so is Yao but he gets punked by midgets, and looks like he could care less about grabbing a rebound.

Ron is in a funk. I know its still early but i dont like the makeup of this team.

No athletic players, undersized big men, the same streetball PG that they cant seem to replace even though he's terrible, and no real backup for tmac.

That = tmac and yao playing too many minutes night in and out, overused, too many inefficient games, and basically the team trusts in too many scrub players like Chuck Hayes and one dimensional players who choke under pressure like Luther Head.

These guys seem to underperform for large stretches every year...that's why I post I guess I am still caught up in the whole Rudy T / Dream "Heart of a champion" era...where the team was famous for playing against the odds all the time.

I agree Yao and Mac don't seem to balance. I don't know the answer. Yao would have amazing trade value, especially if sent to the EC.

Mac likely doesn't have much value due to his injuries / back problems. It would be the biggest risk in franchise history if they traded Yao.

[fsulw]

Re: The Rockets...

You don't trade Yao. They should have traded T-Mac a long time ago. He has no backbone he is not a superstar that is going to take you anywhere. You can't win when 2 of your top players are soft as hell and fragile to go with it. That is why Artest is here for this year to add toughness to the team. Yao is a great center but he needs a better player than T-mac to play with. T-mac has no trade value so we are stuck with him.

[Fiasco West]

Re: The Rockets...

Yeah...we are not trading Yao. Main reason is the NBA is still a business.

But, it's still way too early to say this is the same old rockets team. This is a team that will be judged in the playoffs and not the regular season.

Don't get me wrong they should be playing better but comeon now. Pacers whooped the Celts and every night you have a team that should win a game on paper but doesn't. If teams won eveyr game they should, you'd have a lot of 62+ win teams throughout the history of the NBA. Just some nights, the better team comes out expecting the lesser team to roll over and that doesn't happen.

The Rockets should have known better to underestimate the heart of a champion though...i'm sure that quote is somewhere in their lockeroom.

I mean you really learn about a team when their back is against the wall, this team is 2.5 games out of first. So we don't know much about it and a lot of Rox fans are already hitting the panic button.

Sure you go through the years and some people say they choke in the playoffs...but I remember the 2 playoff series they even had a chance at winning went to 7 games, last season their back was against the wall and they pulled out 22 wins in row.

[Court_vision]

Re: The Rockets...

Agree that it's way too early to panic.

This team needs a top 4 finish though IMO...so I expect a bit more urgency.

[Streets]

Re: The Rockets...

The two problems have been stated perfectly.

1. No consistency. Who's the go-to guy? Do you give the ball to Mac and let him make the decisions, always feed Yao in the post for the best shot, feed the hot hand, etc. The problem is, no one knows what they are doing on offense, people haven't figured out their roles. T-Mac doesn't know what to do without the ball, same for Ron. Yao is getting much better at hitting the offensive glass, I'll give him that. And why don't T-Mac and Yao do their pick and roll anymore?? That was an unstoppable play that they rarely go to this season.

On defense, the guards get blown past thinking that Yao will cover up their mistakes, but even though he's big, he sucks on defense. You can't gamble like you have a KG or in-his-prime Shaq back there, but even elite-defender Artest does this a lot.

2. No effort. T-Mac is not aggressive, settling way too much for jumpers, and pretty much standing around when he doesn't have the ball. Yao gets out-muscled on the glass, gets his stuff blocked by people half his size, misses easy shots that should be dunks, etc. Rafer, Mac and Artest all have poor shot selection. And honestly, they don't go 100% every play. They take plays off because they think that they can conserve energy and turn it on late. Or they think they can rest because another star will take over. There is no sense of urgency, and while Houston may have the talent, they won't win if they slack on D, put up bad shots, make careless mistakes, etc. The Phoenix game was the only exception to their laziness and it came right after Artest held a players-only veterans meeting. I thought they addressed this issue in that meeting but apparently, the team has regressed to their old ways after just one game. I expect us to get trounced tonight especially since Alston is out and we have CP3 to contend with.

[Cebby]

Re: The Rockets...

This is real life and not a video game.

In videogames, Yao and TMac are gods. In real life, they're lower tier top players or top tier "good" players. The people who hype up the Rockets every year are the first to bury the Spurs whenever they start losing.

[dossier]

Re: The Rockets...

Every Rocket game I have gotten to see, Ron Artest is trying to do way to much on offense and ruins the flow of their game.

It would be best if they brough T-Mac from the bench and started Battier.

[TMagic]

Re: The Rockets...

The two problems have been stated perfectly.

1. No consistency. Who's the go-to guy? Do you give the ball to Mac and let him make the decisions, always feed Yao in the post for the best shot, feed the hot hand, etc. The problem is, no one knows what they are doing on offense, people haven't figured out their roles. T-Mac doesn't know what to do without the ball, same for Ron. Yao is getting much better at hitting the offensive glass, I'll give him that. And why don't T-Mac and Yao do their pick and roll anymore?? That was an unstoppable play that they rarely go to this season.

2. No effort. T-Mac is not aggressive, settling way too much for jumpers, and pretty much standing around when he doesn't have the ball. Yao gets out-muscled on the glass, gets his stuff blocked by people half his size, misses easy shots that should be dunks, etc. Rafer, Mac and Artest all have poor shot selection. And honestly, they don't go 100% every play. They take plays off because they think that they can conserve energy and turn it on late. Or they think they can rest because another star will take over. There is no sense of urgency, and while Houston may have the talent, they won't win if they slack on D, put up bad shots, make careless mistakes, etc.

Totally agree.

If you look at all the other offenses around the league, you know what they are going to do game in and game out. They also typically will have the offense go through one guy.

I don't think that it is because T-Mac and Yao don't work well together. It's just that the coaching is not doing a very good job in utilizing the two effectively.

There needs to be only ONE guy who is going to be the man on offense. That needs to be settled first. Once that gets accomplished, I think they will have a much more effecient offense.

As it stands, what I see is three guys not sure if it's "their turn" or not.

I've noticed that when they run their offense through one player for a certain amount of time, that player will typically deliver on a more consistent basis and the team plays better as a whole.

Like in the Phoenix game, the ball kept coming to T-Mac and he kept delivering. I notice that a lot with McGrady actually. There will be spurts where the offense is just being ran for him. He's coming off of screens for easy jumpers, bigs are coming up and giving him picks, they have him posting up on the block. That's always when he plays his best. When this happens, he usually plays well, makes plays, and shoots the ball well.

When Yao was out last year, T-Mac was who they ran their offense through and it looked much better than when Yao was there. Same with when T-Mac is out and Yao is who they run their offense through. The offense is just much better. I've noticed when Artest is having the offense run through him, he is much better and looks good. He takes much better shots.

I noticed last year too that when one of them was out, analysts would mention how much better the offense looks when one of them is not playing. That's because the offense is being ran through one guy. And the other players all know it and play off the one guy.

That's why I say that they need to designate one guy as "The Man" and the other as the sidekick or the guy who is going to be the man to go to when the other guy is resting.

Right now, all three defer to each other far too often. It's like they take turns on offense at times. This doesn't let any of them get into any type of rhythm. And I think that plays aren't being set up for really one man, and this makes it harder for them each to score individually.

One of them has to be the go-to-guy on offense. While the other two play off of the one guy. Once this happens, they will be a much better team.

And while I think it would be better to have one guy be the man for the entire season, I think it would also be effective to designate one guy as the man for certain games if he has the advantage on a team. Think Yao or Artest against smaller teams or McGrady against a team with poor perimeter D.

I expect us to get trounced tonight especially since Alston is out and we have CP3 to contend with

There goes that pessimistic attitude of yours Streets.