Rockets Preview from Sporting News (Blinebury)

found this article on ymm mb.

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=290999






Rockets preview: Can T-Mac and Yao get over the hump?


Posted: October 17, 2007
Fran Blinebury
For Sporting News



If there were such a thing as Underachievers University, the campus would be located inside the Toyota Center in Houston and Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming would both own varsity letter jackets.


For the past three seasons, T-Mac and Yao have made up 40 percent of the Western Conference's starting lineup in the All-Star Game. Both have consistently received All-NBA honors.

All of that has gotten the Rockets exactly zero playoff-series wins. In fact, the postseason drought in Houston is becoming downright Saharan. The last time the Rockets won even a single series was back in 1997, when the roster included Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and Charles Barkley.

Yes, it's been that long.

Just say that it's made the local population more than a little antsy, and that includes team owner Leslie Alexander, who sat in his front-row seat at midcourt and watched the Rockets cough up a Game 7 at home to Utah last spring.

That performance was enough to convince Alexander that it was time for a head-coaching change, despite the fact that Jeff Van Gundy had guided the team into the playoffs three times in four seasons on the job. Was it Van Gundy's dour demeanor? Was it his stultifying offense that brought most games to a halt? Or was it simply the lack of postseason wins?

Probably all of the above.

The fact is, the Rockets won 52 games last year. That was fifth best in the entire NBA. But it ranked them only third best in Texas, and there were few signs that the Rockets were closing the gap between themselves and the Spurs and Mavs.

What was amazing was that the Rockets were able to keep their season together and gain homecourt in the playoffs even though McGrady (back spasms) missed 11 games and Yao (broken foot) 34. Van Gundy did an outstanding job of keeping the team together in the face of those absences. But his short rotation and close-to-the-vest style did nothing to prepare the team for the playoffs and the Rockets were eventually swallowed up by the deeper, more versatile Jazz.

So enter Rick Adelman, who previously guided the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals twice and had the Sacramento Kings regularly on the cusp of greatness. Adelman sat out last season, observed the league from the West Coast and then jumped at the chance to land in Houston.

"We're lucky to get him," Alexander says. "Hopefully, our players will be better in the playoffs, and that will take us farther down the line. That's my expectation."

Adelman has not attached numbers or playoff rounds to his own expectations, but firmly believes he'll win.

"I knew jobs were going to come up," he says. "This was the one that had everything I was looking for: ownership, the city, a team with talent. Everything was there. All the positives were there. If I was going to coach, this was the situation.

"I have to take this group I have here and give them an identity. I really feel confident that over the years we have developed things we can use with whoever we have."

Yao and McGrady, of course, are not just a couple of "whoevers." But neither has been able to establish himself as the kind of leader who can pull a team to the finish line in the playoffs.

McGrady has lost a bit of his explosiveness from his days as the league's scoring leader, and has never won a playoff series in 10 NBA seasons. He can still make drives to the basket and finish plays, but appears much more reluctant to do so consistently.

Yao continues to grow into the image of the 7-6 monster the Rockets had when they drafted him. He's learned to become a solid low-post presence and is probably the best night-in, night-out center in the league. But in five NBA seasons, he, too, has not shined in the playoffs.

"It's unacceptable," Yao said in the aftermath of the most recent playoff setback. "We have a team that has the talent to go far and to compete in the playoffs, but have not been able to do the right things in the playoffs to win. We have to learn to fight harder."

Those words are a faint echo of Olajuwon in the early 1990s, when he was getting bounced consistently in the first round. So perhaps it was natural that Yao would turn to the Houston icon for help. The pair of centers got together for two workout sessions over the summer, and the hope is that those meetings will pay dividends.

"Yao has it all physically," Olajuwon says. "What he needs now is just the attitude. He has to be dominant on offense and especially on defense. He should challenge every shot."

Adelman plans to make the Rockets more of an uptempo offensive bunch -- not running like Phoenix but flowing and moving the ball the way he did in Sacramento.

"I had Vlade Divac there and he's not a speedster," Adelman explains. "But we ran. Watching Yao, it's not how fast you are, it's your intent to get up and down the court."

The Rockets solidified their defense a year ago by adding Shane Battier to the front line. They felt a definite need to upgrade at power forward and did that by acquiring the rights to two-time Spanish League MVP Luis Scola from the Spurs. The 6-9, 230-pound native of Argentina is a smart player who is a good shooter, hustling rebounder and willing defender. You can pencil him into the starting lineup for opening night. He is a significant addition who'll make things easier for Yao and McGrady.

In bringing veteran guard Steve Francis back to the team he began his career with --when he answered to the nickname "Stevie Franchise" -- the Rockets insist they are not just turning back the clock. They see him now as another potential weapon who can break down defenders off the dribble and get to the basket, especially when Yao and McGrady are double-teamed.

"I'm not looking to do the flashy stuff like I used to," Francis says. "That was to get on 'SportsCenter.' Now I'll try to get on 'SportsCenter' [by] winning games. That's what's important."

The Rockets also re-signed undersized forward Chuck Hayes, a supreme hustler who'll be much more suited to coming off the bench.

Bonzi Wells, who had physical problems and a personality clash with Van Gundy, decided to return to play once more under Adelman, who coached him in Portland and Sacramento. That reunion should boost the offense.

Point guard has been a weakness for the past several seasons in Houston, as Rafer Alston and Luther Head have shared duties. Alston is sufficient for limited time but wound up playing the most minutes on the team last season. He could be squeezed out entirely by Francis' return. Head is a willing shooter who has a knack for making big shots late, but he can't run a team. So Houston shipped veteran power forward Juwan Howard to Minnesota for former Rocket playmaker Mike James, while also adding rookie speed-burner Aaron Brooks of Oregon in the draft to a position that has needed a boost.

All in all, it's a lineup that looks impressive, but that seems to be what everyone says about the Rockets of McGrady and Yao each season. You look at them now -- with new parts, a new coach and a new offensive philosophy -- and it would seem there's reason to believe.

But it's time for the Underachievers, Class of 2008, to deliver more than hope.

 

you got that right!