Why are you guys doubting the strength of the Rockets?

Well I wouldn't mind a backcourt of DA and James in the game as a combo....DA is a pretty good slasher and can run the point.


EDIT: Duncan only really had 2 good games during the Finals....SA's 3 point shooting is what really killed the Pistons (Sheed running off a Horry in Game 5)

But Trip I do agree that SA would be a tough matchup for the rockets or anybody for that matter.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rock4life:</div><div class="quote_post">
Sura- Parker (Parker)
Anderson-Bowen (Anderson because he's better all around)
Ginobli-Tmac (C'mon )
Swift/ Howard-Duncan (easily Duncan)
Yao-Mohammed (easily Yao)

The benches are pretty even. You'll either have Swift coming off the bench or Howard. You have Mutumbo, Barry, James, Baxter (most likely), Wesley, and a fresh Head to provide some hustle. It's going to be a dog fight this year. Your right about us losing our cool, but with the game on the line, it's hard to bet against Tmac.</div>
Don't you get this yet? Bowen plays small forward and will be guarding McGrady. Thus, it will hold his efficiency level down and overall, slow down the offense of our team. I admit, McGrady will get his twenty points nonetheless, but the difference would be that he would be taking more shots and missing more as well. When you compare matchups, you also need to weigh in what the players are out there to do as well. It doesn't matter that Andersen's better all around because if Bowen was guarding him, which he won't, Andersen would be held to low points and low efficiency. When you're comparing these two teams, I think it would do more justice to see it in a more broad view.

The Spurs are actually a solid team, with or without Duncan on court. If you may remember, the last stretches of games where Duncan was out- Ginobli, Parker, and the role players did a nice job carrying the team without him. When the games on the line, they also have Ginobli, Parker, and Horry as well as far as clutch goes.

 

Parker always seems to choke under pressure.....Rob is there clutch guy without a doubt

 

Ok, nevermind about Parker then. I just thought that a player like him could easily drive into lanes in clutch moments to lay it in for two. But I guess not. Still, that leaves Ginobli, who can bang it in down low with those acrobatic moves or shoot threes, and Horry while we've basically just got McGrady. By the way, is McGrady really that clutch of a scorer? Because I honestly don't know, the only instance of him ever being the man during pressure time was the San Antonio Miracle.

 

THE DREAM: And how did San Antonio get so many open looks at threes? Duncan was being double-teamed because the Pistons feared a good performance from him.

I also don't know if you consider Game 7 a bad game, but Duncan performed very well. His shot wasn't on but he was able to make them when they counted and still drew a lot of attention to allow Ginobili, Barry and Parker to drive to the basket.

It all revolves around Duncan. If you shut him down, you can win. If not, you won't. The Rockets don't have anyone to make Duncan work on offense.

AznxBaller, McGrady's game-winning shot in Game 2 of the series against Dallas also serves as a made shot under pressure, although I don't remember much else either. In my impressions of McGrady with the Magic, I've always thought of him as someone who talks big but never comes up on his promises.
(Eg. against Hornets in 01-02, and Pistons in 02-03.)

 

Well trip we'll have to agree to disagree on the pistons doubling Duncan (I thought they were doing a fine job on him straight up), but yeah Ginobolli plays alright down the stretch....Parker on the other hand has always had a knack of dissapearing when it counts, the last 5 games of the Finals,he didn't even show up, luckily Rob stepped it up for SA or otherwise we'd be talking about the Pistons being defending champions........but there were plenty of times last year where McGrady came up big for us down the stretch (both post-season and regular)

 

Duncan was carrying the whole load through most of the finals. Parker was never there, and ginobli started hot, but most of the series he was off. HE didnt take good shots, couldnt convert on his layups, and wasnt clutch. He gave the ball to robert horry on accident, and he probably would have missed a three or done a bad layup if horry wasnt open. IF you can hold him, i think you can beat the spurs.

I think the rockets are probably the 3rd best team in the nba right now. It would really help if we could get a third scoring option and a better point gaurd. Thats about it, one more piece to the puzzle and we would be complete. As of now, i doubt it. Unless yao comes up big next season, who knows what we could do then.

 

bplld, who do you consider to be the best two teams in the league? I think that the Heat, Spurs, Pistons and Pacers are all better than us, and there are teams like the Suns, Mavericks, Kings and Cavaliers who could all be better than Houston.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I think that the Heat, Spurs, Pistons and Pacers are all better than us</div>
Pacers? Thats stretching it a bit there. Although they have a very well run system, I honestly doubt that they would fair that well against us. Outside of Jackson, Artest, and O'Neil, Indiana really doesn't have any legitimate offensive threats. With the addition of Andersen, Jackson's size won't effect us as much. Plus, with Swift as an athletic post player guarding O'Neil, I doubt Jermaine would be able to hit us hard. In addition to that, they really have no answer for Yao so we should be able to attack them consistently at the center position. Also, we have deeper bench and our role players matchup up well. I honestly don't understand how you see that Indiana is a better team than us.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">Don't you get this yet? Bowen plays small forward and will be guarding McGrady. Thus, it will hold his efficiency level down and overall, slow down the offense of our team. I admit, McGrady will get his twenty points nonetheless, but the difference would be that he would be taking more shots and missing more as well..</div>
I don't know if you watched the Spurs-Rockets games very closley last year, because Mcgrady toy'd with Bowen. Bowen is a good defender, but Mcgrady is unstoppable. The only person that can contain Tmac is Tmac. I think Mcgrady is the difference that could give us the edge over the Spurs. His passion and willingness not to lose is only matched by Kobe. If the Spurs beat us, they'll have to blow us out. With the game on the line, the odds are always in our favor.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rock4life:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't know if you watched the Spurs-Rockets games very closley last year, because Mcgrady toy'd with Bowen. Bowen is a good defender, but Mcgrady is unstoppable. The only person that can contain Tmac is Tmac. I think Mcgrady is the difference that could give us the edge over the Spurs. His passion and willingness not to lose is only matched by Kobe. If the Spurs beat us, they'll have to blow us out. With the game on the line, the odds are always in our favor.</div>
Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. That made no sense whatsoever. Anyways, McGrady shot .414, .357, .333, and .440. Only the last game would I actually say was a respectable percentage. Still, I really don't think this matters. I think Rockets need to find a third option, fast, before they make a serious push for a championship. Honestly, teams will start figuring out that all they have to do to defeat a dynamic duo is to shut down the role players and the offense is basically screwed. I think in the last game of the Dallas series, the Mavericks figured this out. So did Detroit against the Kobe and Shaq feud year.

 

My bad, i meant to say conference, i accidentally said nba.

Now that i think about it though, we could be one of the top in the nba. We are even with the heat right now. Shaq is the biggest weapon they have, but against yao, he isnt that great. The matchups are real even. The pacers, like aznxballer said, they dont have anything great on us. Dont really know about detroit, they have a small edge on us. Suns dropped their value below us this offseason, the only reason the mavs beat us was the PF spot really, kings are taking a real gamble, i doubt their lineup is gonna turn out all that good, and i dont have to explain the cavs. Spurs, yes they can beat us.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post"> Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. That made no sense whatsoever. Anyways, McGrady shot .414, .357, .333, and .440. Only the last game would I actually say was a respectable percentage. Still, I really don't think this matters. I think Rockets need to find a third option, fast, before they make a serious push for a championship. Honestly, teams will start figuring out that all they have to do to defeat a dynamic duo is to shut down the role players and the offense is basically screwed. I think in the last game of the Dallas series, the Mavericks figured this out. So did Detroit against the Kobe and Shaq feud year.</div>
Uuum........Talk about making no sense. That's the whole reason we got Derek Anderson, and Stormile. Not only do we have a legitimate 3rd option, we also have a 4th and 5th option. If Derek Anderson isn't a good 3rd option, then who is? We're not going to get a superstar. I don't know how realistic your expectations are, but are offseason has been near perfect. Ok maybe Tmac didn't shoot that well, but it wasn't because of Bowen. I watched the games, and Bowen was in foul trouble most of the time.

 

Houston Rockets, 2005 - 2006 Champions, Aint <font size="7">NO ONE</font> stoping them...

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Holla

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^^^^It's nice to see an unbiased opinion....LOL

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AznxBaller:</div><div class="quote_post">Pacers? Thats stretching it a bit there. Although they have a very well run system, I honestly doubt that they would fair that well against us. Outside of Jackson, Artest, and O'Neil, Indiana really doesn't have any legitimate offensive threats. With the addition of Andersen, Jackson's size won't effect us as much. Plus, with Swift as an athletic post player guarding O'Neil, I doubt Jermaine would be able to hit us hard. In addition to that, they really have no answer for Yao so we should be able to attack them consistently at the center position. Also, we have deeper bench and our role players matchup up well. I honestly don't understand how you see that Indiana is a better team than us.</div>Artest is the best wing defender in the league, and if anyone can shut McGrady down, it's him. Jackson is also a great defender in his own right and will move around on the court looking for a chance to shoot the three. He is also a great post up player. Jermaine O'Neal is someone who can be counted on for 20/12/3 a night, and he has the ability to draw whoever is guarding him to the outside where he can hit the jumper. Swift is also a mediocre defender so guarding O'Neal will definitely be hard. Jamaal Tinsley also proved last season that he is a valid scorer in the NBA and has the quickness that only James can keep up with. Jeff Foster has given Yao trouble in the past with his smart and gritty defense, and his offensive rebounding will be exploited against our team with Yao and Swift, two mediocre rebounders, guarding the rim. Off the bench, they also have Fred Jones, Jonathon Bender, Danny Granger, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Austin Croshere and David Harrison, all of whom are young and their speed could be something we might find it hard to stay with. If this team is fully healthy and Artest doesn't go berserk again, I believe that the Pacers are the better team, or we're at least evenly matched.

Also, the Cavs have a starting five of Ilgauskas, Marshall, James, Hughes and Snow. They would also have Gooden off the bench and whoever they bring in with the rest of their offseason money. Although they aren't deep and haven't had much winning experience, Cleveland would be my dark-horse pick for contenders this season.

 

I doubt anyone could "shutdown" McGrady....but the Pacers and Rockets are about evenly matched, but I give us the slighter edge, because I think our players are just flat out better........I'd probably have to say that on paper that we are the 4th best team in the league behind SA,Detroit, and maybe Miami....of course we can speculate all we want, but we won't know for sure until the season starts.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Trip:</div><div class="quote_post">Artest is the best wing defender in the league, and if anyone can shut McGrady down, it's him. Jackson is also a great defender in his own right and will move around on the court looking for a chance to shoot the three. He is also a great post up player. Jermaine O'Neal is someone who can be counted on for 20/12/3 a night, and he has the ability to draw whoever is guarding him to the outside where he can hit the jumper. Swift is also a mediocre defender so guarding O'Neal will definitely be hard. Jamaal Tinsley also proved last season that he is a valid scorer in the NBA and has the quickness that only James can keep up with. Jeff Foster has given Yao trouble in the past with his smart and gritty defense, and his offensive rebounding will be exploited against our team with Yao and Swift, two mediocre rebounders, guarding the rim. Off the bench, they also have Fred Jones, Jonathon Bender, Danny Granger, Sarunas Jasikevicius, Austin Croshere and David Harrison, all of whom are young and their speed could be something we might find it hard to stay with. If this team is fully healthy and Artest doesn't go berserk again, I believe that the Pacers are the better team, or we're at least evenly matched.</div>
I like the Pacers, so it's hard to disagree. But a couple things. Jermaine O'neal is just as mediocore at rebounding than Yao and Swift are. He has averaged just 8 rebounds his whole career, the exact same as Yao. Jamal Tinsley isn't that much more of a scoring threat than Sura or James, matter fact I would give that advantage to us on that one. Jeff Foster has had good games against Yao, but so did Steven Hunter, and Yao dropped like 40-something on him one year. As far as the bench, we have a slight advantage. Bender, Granger, Jasikevicius, Croshere and Harrison aren't as solid as Mutumbo (clog the middle), Swift, James, Wesley, Barry, and maybe Spree. I agree they have more speed, but I think we've gotten fast enough to contain it. The teams are very evenly matched, and I wouldn't argue somebody who thought the Pacers were better. It's something we'll have to wait and see.