What I've seen of the team (admittedly, not a lot) makes me think this team performs better without T-Mac.
tmac this season wasn't a healthy tmac. the rockets definitely were better this year without the tmac of this year, but had tmac actually been healthy that would have been a different story. of course, that really makes wondering what would have happened with a healthy tmac irrelevant.
The terms "healthy" and "tmac" haven't been buddies for a while now, and likely won't be on speaking terms for another year at least. Artest brings 80% (average... dude's streaky) of Tmac's offense, and is a good on-ball defender to boot. This team is more than just a "let's hope T-Mac comes back soon" lineup. They're taking it strong, and making a good case for the post-Tmac reality of the future.
tmac of last year would have been enough for the rockets to win 60 games this season. like i said, wasn't there and doesn't matter. and yes, the rockets are better than hoping tmac comes back to the team. i've said it since they got artest. that was the whole point. the team could survive without staying healthy because they had those 3 big time talents. all they needed was two of them and they'd be fine.
It's not about whether Artest is better than T-Mac. Artest would still be getting his minutes. As would Battier. They'd probably just run Artest at PF a lot, or have Artest or Battier come off the bench but play nearly the same minutes (covering both SG and SF). The big difference would be in minutes for guys like Von Wafer and Landry. Wafer had his moments, but if you took his minutes away and gave them to a healthy McGrady, Houston would've been an amazing team.
We lost because Nate had no faith in the players and style of play that won 54 games and HCA. Simple as that.
We only have ourselves to blame. Just one more win and were #2 seed and play #7 Hornets. With that being said, it was a great season and we were co-division champs.
We lost because our regular season style of play does not work in the playoffs and that is all we could play. There are only a few coaches who understand how to coach playoff basketball and Nate is not one of them yet. Next year, I am confident, he will be.
..And? I never said Houston wasn't aggressive and didn't earn fouls. Re-read my post and try again. We are in agreement. Consider this: During the regular season, Houston's opponents averaged 20.7 fouls per game, and Lakers' opponents an even 22. So how the hell in a tightly contested, close, hard-fought game like this do the Rockets get 6 calls more and the Lakers 8 calls less than their respective averages? Even if you don't include the intentional fouls late in the game, that's quite a spread. Just sayin. And for the record, I could care less as to who wins this series. The only team I pull for in the NBA is Portland
