Source: Forum B&G I thought you might get a kick out of how Laker fans viewed the Rockets this upcoming season. Here's more fuel to the fire The past few seasons I can't think of a more exciting regular season match-up than Lakers vs. Rockets. All the games have been entertaining and hard fought.
I really like what the Rockets have assembled this year. Their defense has the chance to be one of the best in the league and their offense should be more than adequate, especially if TMac comes back to form. The only question for them is health. Yao has played a full season in what, 2 or 3 years? Keeping him healthy has to be a point of interest for the Rockets all season, and hopefully for them, no more freak ankle injuries show up. Also, they have to find a way to keep TMac on the court too. He's constantly having issues with back spasms, and if those crop up again this year, he might be missing another 15 games or so. But, again, if you stay healthy, the sky is the limit for this team.
Here's Hollinger's Outlook My outlook, I think the Rockets are going to be disappointing this season. They're not going to win 22 games in a row again and four of their starters are ailing already. Adelman is going to need time to figure out his rotations and without strong point guard play it's going to be difficult. I also noticed there's a lot of redundancy on their roster. The Rockets neve seem to live up to early pre-season hype and this year they're expected to get deep in the playoffs and possibly contend for a title.
Thanks. That's a fair assessment of our team. It's interesting that he's single out Luther Head as one of our talented bench players. I would say most Rockets fans are pretty much fed up with Head at this point, and it seems likely that he'll be traded midseason. And I didn't know that Phil Jackson and the Lakers were against the advanced stats ... though it makes some sense given his personality (almost diametrically opposed to JVG's, who was apparently a fan of the statistical approach). This should definitely be a good matchup. But outside of Yao, the Rockets will be at a real size disadvantage in the front court. On the other end, who would the Lakers use to guard Artest AND McGrady? A lot of attention is given to Artest's defensive prowess, but just as important on our team is his ability to draw double teams from the opponent when in the post. ^ And Shape, while we can't count on another 22-game win streak, there are some other things in our favor this year outside the obvious additions of Artest and Barry. The Rockets should be more comfortable with Adelman's system, and they plan to implement more of his offensive sets. If things work out, this can be a significantly improved offensive team. Also the Rockets dealt with myriad injuries last year. And while we should expect similar health woes through the year again, this team is more capable to sustain them given the improved depth.
thanks shape! And I agree the rockets and laker matchups are always entertaining. Like everyone keeps saying "health" is the real issue with this team. I know we will get banged up throughout the year, but if we're relatively healthy come playoff time, then I like our chances.... I agree. I think a lot of outsiders have a positive outlook on Luther, because of the fact that he's a good 3 point shooter. What they don't see is his dissapearances in the post season, his lack of ball handling abilitly, etc.....
