[SI.com] Marty Burns-Rocket Boost

It is nice to see that we are shaking things up in people's minds. I hope the expectations off paper live up to the results on court.

 

Yea the rockets have been the most talked about team in the NBA this season. Even more than the celtics who have just recently acquired Garnett.

On the other side of the coin, has anyone heard anything about the dallas shockers, i mean mavericks.

 

I cant edit but i meant this *offseason*

 

I'm interested in how the bench will be managed.
Hayes and possibly Mutombo?
Either Francis or James, whoever isn't starting.
Bonzi will probably play, and I think Head can provide us with a good 3 point shooter, but is there enough time for both of them? What about Snyder?

 

The last two years have been so dissapointing that I cannot get excited about the team looking good on paper anymore.

I cannot wait till the season starts, but even though the team looks so much better, I am scared of getting too excited once again. It is going to be horrible to wait until April just to see if we get to Round 2. If we do...

 

Same here. I want the season to start.

 

i am really excited to have steve back the other additions i am really happy that the front office is making moves for the team to get better but i will wait for the season to begin before getting too too excited

but the change that actually has me the most pumped about the upcoming season is the coaching change to adeleman. Adeleman's teams have always been successful and fun to watch. It was hard on me to see JVG not give some of the younger guys a decent chance and keep changing the roster around constantly. Also defense ultimately wins rings, but some offense is required. jvg defense was a thing of beauty to watch but it was hard at times watching games saying "man if we can only get to 90 we'll have this game" when we have a former 2 time scoring champ and the best center in the league. i am hoping the players can keep a lot of what jvg taught them over the past few season(s) and also incorporate rick's system.
this is the third coach the rockets have had in the past 13-14 years so its not that often the team changes its style. thats why it feels maybe to a lot of people around here that we're gonna see a whole different/new rocket team this year

 

Really? A talent gap? So that stuff about our old roster being a 60-win team was ... what?

Didn't Jeff Van Gundy get fired in part for believing what Morey is now admitting?

Don't get me wrong. I think what Morey is now saying is the truth. It's just a shame that it's only admitted when it serves the current regime.

 

Well i suppose if Stromile worked out he would have been the PF we needed that year. Could have been. The word talent is pretty farcial.

 

Bless Rocket.
Wishing have a effulgent future！

 

Instant nominee for post of the year.

 

I like Burns and his stuff, but I hate this kind of all or nothing pronouncement. It is exactly the kind of thing that feeds expectations. The reality is that the Rockets will probably in between "the next step" and the end of the honeymoon.

 

Before you start feeling sorry for JVG remember that he played a part in putting himself in this position. We get Stromile Swift suddenly he is in JVG's doghouse. We get Bonzi, suddenly he is in JVG's doghouse. We get Mike James and he is traded to get a "pass first" PG. Steve Francis gets into Van Gundy's doghouse and is gone, though it was for McGrady. But if we still had JVG Francis never would have come back. JVG never plays the bench. JVG barely develops the young players, already giving up on V-Span before he even shows up in Rockets camp. He barely plays Mutombo in the playoffs even though his defense and rebounding helped get the Rockets back into the game in Game 7 because he intimidated Boozer. So maybe part of the reason we had a talent gap is because so many players were "incompatible" with JVG's personality and is forced out.

 

Who's 'my way or the highway,' anyway?

 

I always thought that offseason articles aren't worth a thing since everybody already knows what this team is capable or not capable of. Burns just wrote what everybody already knows anyway. But still, nice to know some people in the media acknowledge the Rockets.

 

I guess he could have meant both-- the team could have won 60 but there remained a talent gap.

If Yao and Tracy were both healthy nearly 82 games, they might have won close to 60, but that was only the result of Van Gundy squeezing as much out of guys like Juwan Howard, Mutombo, Rafer, etc. as humanly possible.

As for the "shot" he took at Van Gundy... I'm not sure that's much of a shot, just a description of how the guy was. He was a good coach, but he was a "play the right way" guy like Larry Brown.

Adelman is a whole different beast... the guy got a ton out of Bonzi and Artest when most coaches can't even handle one of them. Just look at how that team fell apart right after he left.

 

Outside of John Hollinger, I don't think anyone on the national spectrum is paying attention to the Rockets. The Rockets are the same as the Astros and the Texans; no national sports reporter will ever give a Houston franchise any credence except for occasional blips on the radar ('94,'95, Craig Biggio's 3000) and one big extenuating circumstance (Roger Clemens). As evidenced by Ric Bucher's T-Mac comment which has started its huge thread, NBA analysts will say whatever one-line quip they can muster up to write the Rockets off because that's what sells. ESPN fans don't want to read about the Rockets, they want Lakers, Knicks, Celtics BS so all you ever hear are trade rumors from those dumb chatwraps. Celtics signing Reggie Miller, the Knicks Allan Houston?! Artest to the Knicks, O'Neal to the Lakers?! What's the scoop from the latest cell phone video of Kobe quitting on his team?! Paul Pierce's niece's friend's stepmother gave birth to an albino kid?! Nothing of substance whatsoever. So just give up looking for praise from the mass media conglomerate of the northeast and accept the fact that no fans outside of Houston will see us coming. That's just the way we want it.