How did Phoenix underachieved? No one picked them to get to the playoffs, especially not after trading away kidd. And instead of saying "We'll see what happens w/ the knicks next season" why don't you acknowledge the fact that Marbury turned that team around? Solid is all you need on a team, you don't need special players at every position. Most teams are fine w/ 1 special player and build a solid core of guys around them. Look at the pistons. Look at the Spurs. Look at the Lakers during their championship years. Look at the Bulls during their championship years. They had 1 or 2 special players on each team. That's all it takes.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting RocketLaunch:</div><div class="quote_post">Moving Francis to shooting guard is defensive suicide, of course mostly everyone here seems to think of only offense like the Rockets are as offensively oriented as the Mavericks.</div> Has it ever occured to you that a SG on one team doesn't have to guard the SG of the other team? For example, if we have Eric Snow at PG, he can D up the SG on the other team while Francis D up their PG. I am not worried at all about our backcourt defense. JVG will teach defense even if the player isn't known for his D. Look at Mobley, he wasn't known for his defense pre-JVG, but he did a pretty nice job on Kobe who had 3 inches over him. The reason why most of us think of only offense is because that's where our weakness is at. Come on, even a non-Rockets fan know that defense is not something we need to worry about right now, we're doing pretty damn good there for the amount of talent we have. Offense is a different story.
Nobody picked them for the 2003 playoffs because they stunk it up the year before, but the talent was there... Fine, he turned it around for half a season, we'll see if it continues next season... Please look at the Pistons and see that none of the solid guys would start, only Jackson and Mobley would get any kind of minutes there, and there bench makes the Rocket's bench look like an NBDL bench. Look at the Spurs and you'll see the exact same thing... Ditto the Laker teams as well, maybe not as much but they had the 2 of the top 5 players on that team, they didn't need as much. Don't even mention the Bulls, they were stacked! They usually had the most talent in the league and when they didn't you couldn't name 2 other teams that had more. Name some more PG's that could guard shooting guards. Tell me why Jeff Van Gundy would like a point guard that can't shoot, like Snow can't, if he uses an inside outside offense that's supposed to open up shooters. Mobley was playing good defense the year before Van Gundy got there, they would even show the bad games opposing star SG's had against him during Rocket games. Yeah that's where the weakness is at, and they won't get better until they get more talent, getting a below average pure PG and moving Francis to the 2 doesn't improve the offense. It makes them weaker at both positions on offense, and unless you find an Eric Snow that can shoot, it makes them weaker at both positions on defense. The only position that needs major improvement on the Rockets starting 5 is PF, after that they have to improve that horrible bench.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting RocketLaunch:</div><div class="quote_post">Nobody picked them for the 2003 playoffs because they stunk it up the year before, but the talent was there... Fine, he turned it around for half a season, we'll see if it continues next season... Please look at the Pistons and see that none of the solid guys would start, only Jackson and Mobley would get any kind of minutes there, and there bench makes the Rocket's bench look like an NBDL bench. Look at the Spurs and you'll see the exact same thing... Ditto the Laker teams as well, maybe not as much but they had the 2 of the top 5 players on that team, they didn't need as much. Don't even mention the Bulls, they were stacked! They usually had the most talent in the league and when they didn't you couldn't name 2 other teams that had more. </div> If they stunk it up before w/ talent on that team, who cares, fact is, when marbury got there, he took them to the playoffs. If Jim Jackson played on Detroit, he'd probably start over prince. Mobley would probably start on SA. And Jackson would start on LA as well. If you think the Bulls team was stacked, you're sadly mistaking. John Paxson was not that great of a player, he was able to hit big shots because of Jordan's presence. Who were their centers during the Jordan era? The first run had Cartwright, King, Levingston? The second run had , Longley, Wennington. Come on, those guys are jokes. Buechler was a joke as well, as was Pete Meyers. Kerr was good for nothing but shooting, like Paxson during the first run. Of course they had decent players during their first run in pip and grant. Their second run had a pretty stacked team though w/ Kukoc, Harper, Rodman, and Pippen.
When Marbury got there he turned that team into a joke, the next season they got Stoudamire and then they went to the playoffs... Start him over Prince? I doubt Brown would of started Carmelo Anthony over Prince, Jackson or Anthony don't give the Pistons the defense that Prince gave them. Mobley in SA over Stephen Jackson? Not out of the question, pretty much a toss up... Jackson wouldn't have started on either of the LA teams though, not over Rice, not over Fox, I mean Mitch Richmond didn't start over Fox why would Jackson? That first Bulls team had Horace Grant, All Star at one time and made several ALL NBA defensive teams, Bill Cartwright, All Star at one time, BJ Armstrong, one of the greatest 3 point shooters of all time, and then Jordan and Pippen. All those shooters that would come off the bench made things a lot easier too. They didn't really need centers anyway, even when they were playing against great centers they figured out a way to beat them, swept one of them. The second team was just ridiculous, that back court of Harper, Jordan, and Pippen, man... Off the top of my head I can't remember a better trio, PG, SG, and SF, than those 3, in NBA history. Then they had Toni Kukoc coming off the bench, a 6-10 PG, as their 6th man, just sick!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting magnomonkey:</div><div class="quote_post">We need a PF that can take Taylor's, and some of Mobley's points and combine them with Cato's and some of Jackson's rebounding. I see the Rockets game being played as a team, not like the Lakers, where Shaq will take the first quarter, Kobe the second, and then the second half is Hoopla Free for All. But Yao needs to find something he has over other big men. He has reach, all he should have to do, is raise his arm, and the ball should be there. He shouldnt put the ball on the floor, and the only reason he does is because he gets bad positioning. He should get closer to the basket than the free-throw line, and Sky Hook, or Jump Hook it in. He can do his turn-around when he gets bad positioning, instead of relying on it all the friggin time.</div> 2 things - Yao doesn't have the reach.. whereas Elton Brand is 6'9" with a 7'6" wingspan.. Yao is 7'5" with a 6'9" wingspan... he's got short arms and that's why he doesn't block as many shots as someone his height should. And also, the Rockets just need a physical PF who can shoot the open jumper.. like lets say PJ Brown or Horace Grant (10 years ago). Cato is physical but the only shots he hits are alley-oops. Taylor can hit the open jumper but he's soft and can't rebound well. I think the addition of Juwan Howard is a big improvement in the PF position.
Yao has height, thats what I meant. Thanks for gettin taht though.. I was gonna take that out anyways. We need Antonio Mcdyess, thats who we need, Cato and Taylor added together is what we need. But i dont think Howard can bang with the big guys, cus in the East, there wasnt as many dominant big-men as the West.
Howard can't bang with the big boys, but he'll be better than Cato at keeping up with athletic 4's like Chris Webber, Dirk Nowitzki and KG... that was a big problem last season. I don't know if the Rockets need McDyess.. if they can sign him for the minimum or like 1-2 million max, then great.. if not, kinda risky to put too much investment on a guy with glass knees. i'd like to see the rockets pick up someone like Seattle's Reggie Evans or Chicago's Jerome Williams.. someone who can hustle, board and get all those garbage points.
