Do you feel confident building around T-Mac and Yao?

next year is the last year. if they are injured for an extended amount of time, trade both of them.

the reason i want one more year is the growth of the role players. IF they stay healthy, no doubt we'll go far in the playoffs.

 

I think that we have a real shot to win it all if they stay healthy and we keep Landry and sign another free agent with the MLE

In Morey I trust

 

I'm absolutely confident that with the two of them together and even if our roster doesn't get any big makeovers, we'll be able to wreck shop next season.

Reasons:

1. Scola next to Yao is gonna be great next year. Lots of garbage buckets and hustle rebounds. As a guy that we ran plays for in the playoffs he wasn't very efficient, but with the offense running through Yao I expect his efficiency will go up dramatically

2. Landry will be healthy and will give us what he was doing pre-injury

3. I think Alston can continue his current level of play. IMO he went from not good enough last year to good enough this year. But he needs a quality back-up. That said I'd take Calderon in a heartbeat if we could get him.

4. I think TMac showed that he's got plenty left in the tank.

5. I expect that Brooks can turn into a Leandro Barbosa type player


I think Landry, Brooks, and Scola can all combine to be the 3rd scoring option we need so desperately.

Still, it would be nice to get a quality upgrade over Luther Head. It would be icing on the cake if Francis can come back and play some quality ball, but at this point, I'm not holding my breath.

So the real question is, do the basketball gods hate the Rockets enough to kill the team with injuries again next year, or will the punishment finally end?

 

Of course they could be successful with the team they have now if they actually played together.

Rockets start hot 6-1 beating some very difficult teams. McGrady goes down, Rockets go into a horrible losing skid.

Start to get used to not having McGrady learn to play better as a team.

McGrady comes back and helps us beat teams like Spurs go into a 12 game win streak that eventually goes to 22 without Yao.

Team puts up 3 close games, 2 semi close games, and 1 Utah Blowout vs. a full strength Utah team while we're hobbled.

Pretty much the summary of the season, no? I imagine we'd go 60 wins+ if McGrady and Yao never go down. If they have the same injury problems next year trade them, however they need to play them less minutes or it's bound to reoccur.

 

No. Not at all. Or atleast not nearly to the degree I was 4 years ago. Not even taking their injury problems into consideration (which is the greatest reason to not have confidence in them), they both have severe flaws which keep them from being the alpha male on a 2 star championship team.

Yao is too slow and can too easily be taken out of games. McGrady fades when it counts and can't attack the basket at as consistent of a rate as the great swingmen of all time. Then there's the injuries. The Shaq-Kobe duel superstar model is out the window. This team can only win a title if they add more weapons around these two, because they alone are not good enough. Then there's the injuries.

I don't have confidence in them, but we have no choice. Trying to add more peices around them is a better option than rebuilding.

 

I am glad you did this poll, because I was going to. Les is a businessman, not a basketball man. The same could be said for Morey. What may be an acceptable business decision may not be a really appealing basketball decision. Yao is numbers wise, the most marketable product in the NBA. He stays, no matter what. TMac may not be as hard to trade as people think, and I hope Morey tests the waters. Bottomline, I don't think this organization is REALLY committed to post season success. Don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. Basketball wise, the Yao/TMac foundation is way too fragile to build a contender around. I think Les is happy with regular season success and always rising expectations, but not committed to winning it all. Look at the last thirteen seasons. They speak volumes.

 

I agree with everything except your last line. I'd prefer to cut losses now and take whatever short term bumps we need to for a better team in the long run. It's clear we're going nowhere as is, no need to get our hearts broken any more than necessary.

I was looking at the playoff success of other duos... Stockton and Malone had reached the second round by their third year together (at ages 25 and 24, respectively). Jordan and Pippen made it out of the first round their first year together (24 and 22), and Shaq and Kobe were a perfect 8/8 together (even if you disregard Kobe's first two years as a bench player, they are still 6 for 6)... Not that it necessarily means anything either way, just interesting to look at...

 

Depends on 2 factors.

1) How T-Mac comes out next season. If he comes out in the shape he was in circa '05 then sure.

2) We know what to expect from Yao. The only question is whether he will stay healthy.

 

Well we have no other choice.

Any trade involving them will make us a worse team. If all the chips fall our way, we have a shot at the Championship. If not, we just have to ride it out till their contracts expire (2 more years).

 

Only if they stop getting injured it is the only way we will be successful

 

Confident?

No, but only because of injury history.

But, we are committed to it, so as a fan of the Rockets I want to ride it out and hope for the best.

DD

 

I don't feel too confident but i think there is still a possibility for us to go far. It has been a known fact that Tracy is injury prone and has been steadily declining but i think Yao might be becoming the same type of player. Yao was very healthy earlier in his career but the last 3 years show a different story.

I always thought the idea was that Yao would be peaking as Tmac was declining so they would maintain a high level of effectiveness the same way the Kobe/Shaq duo was supposed to work out. Yao being injury prone would change that and decreases their window of opportunity.

 

I personally would trade both of them for draft picks and young players and completely rebuild. However, Les will never trade Yao. So the question is basically whether you would trade McGrady and I don't think it's worthwhile. Anything you get in return won't be at market value, won't be good enough in the immediate present to improve us, or if it's young talent, won't develop before Yao's prime is over.

Our best bet is basically to ride out McGrady's contract these next 2 years and let the experiment die a natural death.

 

yea sure why not if only they can play like how they did during the 22winning streak.

 

One more year to see!

 

How does a player deserve the fans' confidence when he plays only 30 games a season?

 

I agree atm. We shouldn't be risky like Phoenix or Dallas and blow up the team on a whim, but if the stars are aligned then we should take it and don't look back.

I would probably be foaming at the mouth to blow up the team if CD was still at the helm. The way Morey handled this season reassures me that he'll find the right pieces.

 

If Yao and TMac were mostly injury free next season, I think we have a good chance to be a contender like New Orleans.

Can we beat the Lakers? I doubt an injury-free team would put us over that hump.