Shane Battier's Impression and Outlook of the New Rockets & the New Season

pryuen · Oct 14, 2007

I originally wanted to post this into the dedicated thread of Shane Battier's sina.com blog.

But ever since the crash of the Clutchfans.net database, the search function had been stopped, and I could not search/find the original thread.

Anyway, Shane's latest entry on his personal blog on sina.com about the new season and his impression of the new Rockets.....

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b2b253e01000buc.html

The season has finally started! I know you have all anxiously anticipated the start of the NBA season, so have we. The Rockets have just returned from Austin, Texas at the University of Texas, where we had a week of training camp. For every NBA player, training camp is a double edged sword: we all miss the game and are excited to play with our teammates, but we don't miss the soreness and aches, pains, bumps, and bruises that every player gets during training camp. There is nothing a player can do to simulate the workload and intensity of training camp during the summer. After the first day of camp, we all walk around the hotel like 60-year-old men! You would never guess that we were NBA stars by the way we looked when we walked because we are so sore.

Obviously, if you follow the Rockets at all, you know that we have a number of changes to our team. We have a brand new coach, Rick Adelman, who brings a free flow offense to our team. Last year under Jeff Van Gundy, our offense was often slow and predictable. Under our new system, each player must read and react to the defense in order to run the offense effectively. It is a completely different mindset. We will be an up-tempo team that uses the passing skills of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady to score baskets. It is a very fun way to play and I know all of our fans in China will enjoy watching us play. While we have a new offense, we must still keep the principles of defense that we used last year. Jeff Van Gundy was a very good defensive coach and we will use many of the same philosophies. Hopefully with the new philosophies on offense and the old philosophies on defense, we can do even better this year!

We have also added many new players to the team this year. I know many of our Chinese friends were happy that the Rockets returned Steve Francis to the team. He has a very good bond with Yao and hopefully he can add some backcourt depth to our team. We have also added Mike James from the Minnesota Timberwolves to help address help at the point guard position. Mike is a great shooter and he has shown a good grasp of the offense already. Luis Scola joins us from Europe this year. Luis is a very skilled and intelligent basketball player and was arguably the best power forward in Europe over the last few years. He plays hard and will help our team. The rookies on the team Carly Landry and Aaron Brooks are great young players who play hard and compete every day. As they gain maturity and knowledge, they will help our team.

Optimism is high for our team this year. We have new players and a new system. We are confident that if we can stay healthy and come together as a team, that we can be a force in the Western Conference. Hopefully we can continue to improve our team so that by the time April rolls around, we will be a team that no one wants to play in the playoffs!

Stay tuned!

I will be back in a few days with another update on the preseason,

Welcome back to the NBA season,

Shane
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Shane Battier's Impression and Outlook of the New Rockets & the New Season

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