Rockets the Supposedly new Powerhouse in the West is off to a slow start

[yeahone]

well before the season Houston was being pimped up to win 62-65 wins..they off to be a slow start and as previous years their offense relies to heavily on TMAC

[yeahone]

Sorry Wrong Forum

[Bruno]

A 9-9 start isn't that bad when you consider that they have had a difficult schedule with 11 games on the road, 7 @ home and quality opponents. Rockets have also a new offensive system to learn.

Saying that, there are 9 teams in the west with a playoff level : Spurs, Suns, Mavs, Rockets, Nuggets, Hornets, Lakers, Warriors and Jazz. A quality team won't make the playoffs, it's rockets for the moment but I don't think it will be the case at the end of the season.

[yeahone]

A 9-9 start isn't that bad when you consider that they have had a difficult schedule with 11 games on the road, 7 @ home and quality opponents. Rockets have also a new offensive system to learn.

Saying that, there are 9 teams in the west with a playoff level : Spurs, Suns, Mavs, Rockets, Nuggets, Hornets, Lakers, Warriors and Jazz. A quality team won't make the playoffs, it's rockets for the moment but I don't think it will be the case at the end of the season.

diffcult schedule i understand...but at times they played bad basketball and their offense have no flow to it...TMAC scored 40 points or more twice ofr the season and is team still lose

[FromWayDowntown]

They are 2-4 against the Spurs, Mavericks, and Suns; so 1/3 of their 18 games to this point are against the 3 West megapowers.

[SpursIndonesia]

Still, this particular team beat Phoenix & Utah @their homecourt, so the potential is there. Their biggest problem is disfunctional role players outside Yao & MacGrady right now, while their defense is slipping -it's Adelman coached team, what do you expect ?- and their offense is confused/broken.

[boutons_]

Last night typifies the Rockets problems, not enough people involved and producing on offense, with Tracy and Yao scoring 69 of 99 pts, taking 45 of 82 shots, while no other Rockets in double figures.

btw, Beno has another solid game.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=271201023

[BeerIsGood!]

The Rockets probably won't be as great as everybody thought at the beginning of the year, and especially if TMac or Yao misses significant time as TMac has already missed a little bit of time in these few games. Still a good playoff team, maybe a 1 round winner, but not what most of the overreactors were pimping in the preseason.

[Indazone]

We need a reliable pt guard. Alston/James/Wells/Head suck big balls. If I were Adleman I'd stick Francis in immediately, tell Morey to get me a good pt guard and start playing the rookie Brooks.

[wildbill2u]

well before the season Houston was being pimped up to win 62-65 wins..they off to be a slow start and as previous years their offense relies to heavily on TMAC
It's still the Yao-TMAC show. Last night yao had 29 and T-Mac 37 and they still sucked. So far no one else has stepped up to help.

[Dex]

If Spurs were 9-9, this forum would transform into FirePopTalk.com

[td4mvp21]

It's amazing how many people here count other good teams out just because they start off slow. If it were the Spurs, everyone would be saying completely different things. It wouldn't be that big of a stretch to realize that other teams can start off slow and still finish strong. Like the Mavs and Suns last year maybe?

[itzsoweezee]

adelman is a horrible coach. still, i think the rockets can do well in spite of him. they've had the toughest schedule of any team in the league so far and they've had injuries. they still have the potential to be the number 3 team in the west.

[timmy21_4rings]

Scola could not fit with T-Mac and Yao so far. Is this something Spurs management envisioned when they sent Scola to them? RC might have thought as good as Scola is, he is useless for me and for Rockets too...l

[exstatic]

The Spurs would get more slack if they were 9-9 (and rightfully so) because of team continuity. This is the 6th season of Tim, Manu, Tony, and Bruce together. It's Barry's 4th season with that core group, Finley and Fab's 3rd, and a ton of player's second. You know they're going to be in the thick of it at the end and during the playoffs.

The Rockets seem to be in a constant state of flux, and adding a new coach and system won't help that at all.

[Kill_Bill_Pana]

We need a reliable pt guard. Alston/James/Wells/Head suck big balls. If I were Adleman I'd stick Francis in immediately, tell Morey to get me a good pt guard and start playing the rookie Brooks.

Your Gm is CRAZY like no other and coaches too.


Only two point guards that are good Spanoulis and Francis rides bench for CRAPS shiets players like Alston, Head, James???

Something really crazy with how Rocket team use point guard players.

[barbacoataco]

The Rockets have a bunch of point guards, but none of them are any good. Also the Rockets defensive scheme is different than last year, with a lot of soft double teams that lead to pass-outs and open jump shots. Battier has been a waste. Aldeman is a terrible coach.

Despite all of this, I think the Rockets match up well with certain teams, the Spurs being one of them.

[The Truth #6]

The Rockets season is only going to get worse when on of the Big 2 eventually gets injured. Their expectations were overhyped, just like Denver.

[ludda]

every year before the season, theres hype over the rockets on how this is their breakout year, understandably this year there was even more hype...

I think its b/c with two stars, people expect more w/o realizing that its essentially a team of two, who both are not dominant in crunch time. Rockets still the 3rd best team in Texas this year, IMO.

[mystargtr34]

They will get better... the team has a lot fo new pieces to mix in including the coach and a new system... if Yao and Mcgrady play 70 games each they will get a 4-6 seed IMO.

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

I think people expected Scola to step in and be an immediate impact-type player but he's having to adjust to the NBA just like nearly every euro has.

That being said, I still the the Rockets as a potentially very dangerous playoff team depending on the matchups they get in the seedings.

[Rummpd]

Two Words - Rick Adelman that ensure that Rockets will never win a title.

[Indazone]

Rockets will be ok if Francis starts instead of Alston. James he sucks more every day. Bonzi Wells sucks, Luther Head sucks, Alston sucks, Kirk Snyder sucks but he's still better than all the ones before him. Brooks and Francis are the only two that can really ball. Any idiot can see that. I have no idea why Adleman keeps playing all the scrubs in front of Brooks and Francis.

[Indazone]

Brooks, c'mon he's like Monta Ellis and he was selected to the TEAM USA team to play against the likes of Jason Kidd, Kobe and Lebron. All those guys said the kid could play and he was going to be very very good. So why is he riding the pine??? :rolleyes

[Indazone]

I guarantee Morey is gonna trade some of this deadwood after Dec 15th. Rockets need more depth at Center and Power Forward.

[Sense]

Everyone overrated them before the season started... they wont win more than 60 games.. I thought it was pretty funny..

[Capt Bringdown]

I'm not convinced TMAC is a winner. More of a stats guy I reckon.