Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Hollinger's predictions are based on some formula, which is better than most experts' predictions. But you don't need Hollinger to see that the Rockets have a better team.

What were their weaknesses last year? Scoring, the PF & PG spot, and their bench. They pretty much fixed most of their weaknesses. With Adelman, they'll finally have some scoring punch. Bonzi plays well in the system, so there's some points & rebounding off the bench (don't forget how he torched the Spurs 2 years ago). Scola looked good in the summer. The guy is a hustler like Chuck Hayes, but he has a knack for getting buckets & has good vision w/o giving up any defense. He comes across as a smart player to me. This means Hayes's production goes to the bench. Mutombo is still one of the best defensive centers. Add in their billion PG's, at least one should provide some punch, and you have a very good 9-man crew.

They won 50 games last year, w/ Yao missing 40 or so games. What's not to like about them? Maybe their starting PG, but that's it.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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You guys are way underestimating Scola. They are fine at PF. They don't need another dominant post scorer since they have Yao. Yes Scola may seem weak compared to so many other great PFs, but those great PFs probably have a role player at center...its just reversed for Houston.

Their problem is PG. They have a lot of marginal players. Their best hope is that Brooks turns into a solid player and is starting by the end of the year. Alston looks like he performed the best in preseason and won the job.

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Scola is good, but he's 6'9... they need a guy closer to seven feet who's a better rebounder/defensive player to make the next step... and i think they can get it by trading some of their pg's/draft picks

edit: and ya i know they don't need another post scorer..scolas scoring ability should be more than enough

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LOL, there's almost no difference between 6'9" and 6'11" and you know that. The media strikes again!

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

first off art dogg they added scola, chuck hays was their PF last year... they also add bonzi because he didn't play last year and francis...to say mike james is all they added is nuts

the height isn't the main thing, i jus meant a bigger bodied more physical defensive minded kind of guy, VERAJO, old school bo outlaw etc.

seriously boozer dirk duncan amare... verajo type would help them out so much against these guys.... besides verajo what other players are like this that would be available for trade?

alston +hayes +draft picks for cruddy sg and verajo type... there has to be a deal like this out there for 'em

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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They won 50 games last year, w/ Yao missing 40 or so games. What's not to like about them? Maybe their starting PG, but that's it.

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Maybe I'm biased as a Suns homer, but that last sentence reads to me "what's not to like about that car, except that it has no engine?"

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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They won 50 games last year, w/ Yao missing 40 or so games. What's not to like about them? Maybe their starting PG, but that's it.

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Maybe I'm biased as a Suns homer, but that last sentence reads to me "what's not to like about that car, except that it has no engine?"

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k they won 50 games with yao and tmac being injured... they improved via free agency as well... they should easily win 50 again

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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They won 50 games last year, w/ Yao missing 40 or so games. What's not to like about them? Maybe their starting PG, but that's it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe I'm biased as a Suns homer, but that last sentence reads to me "what's not to like about that car, except that it has no engine?"

[/ QUOTE ]
<3 tuq

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

lol tuq, not even a broken engine can prevent them from being very good.

Enough of me praising the Rockets, it's not like I'm picking them to win the West. I just think they've joined the ranks of the big 3. In a best of 7, I'd still go w/ the Spurs & the Suns over the Rockets, but I think they can beat Dallas.

As far as regular season, I think they'll be #3, with the Mavs & Suns at 1 & 2.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

oddly i think the rockets match up v well against the spurs, but v badly against mavs and suns. one of the few teams that fits this description.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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oddly i think the rockets match up v well against the spurs, but v badly against mavs and suns. one of the few teams that fits this description.

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they don't have anyone to guard ginobli, mcgrady isn't fast enough

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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If they stay healthy all year (probably wont) I would say they have a 30% chance to win the most games this year

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LOL, this is ridiculous.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

no one matches up well w/ the spurs+refs

against the mavs, i have visions of that series a couple years ago, when TMac went off.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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If they stay healthy all year (probably wont) I would say they have a 30% chance to win the most games this year

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LOL, this is ridiculous.

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LOL I feel stupid, b/c I'm not sure if it's ridiculous that 30% is too high or low.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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no one matches up well w/ the spurs+refs

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finally starting to love this forum again

onlinebeg,

I didnt say he was the only addition, I just said he's the only one I think can have a big impact. I guess Bonzi could too, but he's a big unknown to me right now since I haven't seen him have a ton of success on the Rockets. Maybe Adelman will help a lot here considering he was the coach of the Sactown team, but the teams were/are built a lot differently.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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If they stay healthy all year (probably wont) I would say they have a 30% chance to win the most games this year

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LOL, this is ridiculous.

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LOL I feel stupid, b/c I'm not sure if it's ridiculous that 30% is too high or low.

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maybe because it isn't ridiculous at all

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

quick note... i am referring to most wins ijn the west, i did not account for eastern confrence teams, maybe thats why theres some confusion from assani?? otherwise he's jus bein silly

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

The only people who don't like Hollinger are people who either lack reading comprehension or aren't logical. There is no excuse, really.

lol @ some guy earlier in this thread talking about how the Rockets weren't even that good last year. Um, plz read:

"And it's not as if Houston was chopped liver a season ago. The Rockets won 52 games, and actually were much better than their record. One would expect a team with their scoring differential to win 57.4, and as those of you who've read me for a while know, differences between real and "expected" wins are almost pure luck.

That came with McGrady and Yao combining to miss 45 games, Wells going in the tank, Snyder missing half the season and the head coach working on his exit strategy.

So what happens if you take that team and add Wells (essentially), Francis, James, Brooks, Scola, and Butler, and give it a coach who wants to be there? It's scary to think, but a gang that had 57-win talent a season ago may also be the league's most improved team."

and to everyone talking about how unlikely it would be for the Rockets to lead the league in wins, do you know what probability is? Baseball Prospectus has to this point been wrong on their playoff odds in every playoff series. Your results-oriented thinking would suggest the playoff odds are no good.

That's why it's odds? He projects the Rockets with two more wins than the Spurs and three more wins than the Mavs (and seven more than the Suns). Someone who's good at math tell me how likely it is that the Rockets WOULDN'T finish with the best record simply going by that projection; I bet it's mathematically more likely they don't even by Hollinger's projection simply because there's this thing called variance.

"PER? OK fine, Yao has the best projected PER, but what would he be picked in a mock draft by NBA GMs, 6th or worse? Then he was nutriding the Spurs all last year and I think he got lucky on that one (could just as easily have been the Mavs or Suns that won the title)."

Too bad Hollinger doesn't claim PER is the only stat in the world worth judging who is the best player in the NBA? Wtf?

All he said was that the Spurs were underrated, their underlying non-luck-based indicators suggested they were the best team in the NBA, and he put them as SLIGHT favorites over the Mavs, who were slight favorites over the Suns. Duh it could've just as easily been the Mavs or Suns winning; again, you act like there is 0 variance in basketball.

It'd be one thing if you bashed Hollinger legitimately after understanding where he's coming from, but when you warp his words and projections into your own strawman, of course you're not going to like him.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Vyse,

I would consider giving your points some merit if you weren't constantly trolling this forum. You should have PMed them to someone else.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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Vyse,

I would consider giving your points some merit if you weren't constantly trolling this forum. You should have PMed them to someone else.

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Fortunately my entertainment value is not derived how you or anyone judges my points.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

vyse, The Mavs were a bad start away from winning 70 games. The Suns were a bad start and a Nash injury from winning 70 games. The Spurs are flaming homosexuals. So the Rockets will win 61 games if they are completely healthy and everything goes well for them, wow Hollinger is a genius. I suppose he'll have to explain why he has this Suns team, technically the best to date, winning the same amount of games as the gimp squad they marched out there in 05-06. Hell, even that team would have won more games if they werent locked into their seed a couple weeks before the season ended. I dont care where he's coming from, that projection blows.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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So the Rockets will win 61 games if they are completely healthy and everything goes well for them

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Stop changing other people's arguments into what you THINK they're saying.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

what a crazy ending last night

yao looks like he hadded a baby hook shot and has improved again over this offseason... MVP baby

francis got no minutes

couldn't get a read on scola

raefer alston sucks

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Mike James and a happy Bonzi Wells are immense additions to the team. Mike can get easy fast break buckets and Bonzi can take a lot of rebounding pressure off Yao.

Prospects for this season: CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Was at the game last night and they looked really good. I was really impressed with Scola. His impact might not have shown up on the statsheet, but the guy moves really well laterally for someone 6'9". It also looks like he's got pretty good vision and anticipation. At times he looked a little rigid and I think he made one bad pass out of bounds but this guy is gonna be a great addition off the bench. He's got tree trunks for calves, too. Similar to Yao...great sign for a big guy.

For teh last 5 minutes everyone was chanting "We want Steve!" which I thought was really stupid and lame. Francis blows; they should just cut the bum.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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quick note... i am referring to most wins ijn the west, i did not account for eastern confrence teams, maybe thats why theres some confusion from assani?? otherwise he's jus bein silly

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Well eliminating 1/2 the league does indeed make a differece. Even still I think thats simply too high for them. Please lay out the %s for every team in your opinion of having the best record.

101,959 and counting

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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He's got tree trunks for calves, too. Similar to Yao...great sign for a big guy.



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I've never heard this before...why exactly is this a good thing?

101,958 and counting

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Just read this whole thing, some real gems in here. I'm glad that I'll be posting in NBA threads now so that I can interact more with tuq [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

First of all I hate Rafer Alston, the only thing he iscapable of is dribbling the ball. He's a defensive liability, can't create a shot for anyone, and even when he gets by his man he can't finish. He shot 36% from 3 last year, yay!. His FG% was 38% last year [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img].

I'm saying start Mike James. When he played 35+ mpg for the raptors he was putting up 20ppg/6apg. Last year he was only playing 25mpg and still getting 10/4. Someone started talking about he defensive skills in this thread. I wasn't aware he had any, am I being leveled? A 6`2" defensive PG is useless anyways IMO (hello Rajon Rondo).

There's a lot of hype (for a role player) around Luis Scola. If this dude can just put up something like 10/8ish numbers every night, I'll be ecstatic.

The Steve Francis deal is meh, he's a nonfactor.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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quick note... i am referring to most wins ijn the west, i did not account for eastern confrence teams, maybe thats why theres some confusion from assani?? otherwise he's jus bein silly

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Well eliminating 1/2 the league does indeed make a differece. Even still I think thats simply too high for them. Please lay out the %s for every team in your opinion of having the best record.

101,959 and counting

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the whole thing is if healthy... the odds of that are low

IF healthy what do you put the rockets at for most wins in reg. season

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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When he played 35+ mpg for the raptors he was putting up 20ppg/6apg.

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Remember when Vin Baker was good, too? Yeah, me neither.

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Last year he was only playing 25mpg and still getting 10/4.

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And why was he only playing 25 mpg? Oh yeah, because he was horrible and was losing his job on a horrendous team.

James is a backup. As a starter he's proved he's lol worthy.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Alston is [censored] garbage.

Vyse, I <3 your posts

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Verajo is holding out and is probably available for trade

kurt thomas should have been signed to be a backup PF/C but I think a move for him mid season is still possible

Mike Bibby... Is that possible? what other PG's could be available?

There a championship caliver team falling short at PG and that needs just a little more depth at PF....they don't need a stud point guard... I'm just gonna have to hope they man up and make some moves

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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Verajo is holding out and is probably available for trade

kurt thomas should have been signed to be a backup PF/C but I think a move for him mid season is still possible

Mike Bibby... Is that possible? what other PG's could be available?

There a championship caliver team falling short at PG and that needs just a little more depth at PF....they don't need a stud point guard... I'm just gonna have to hope they man up and make some moves

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Doesn't Verajo want like 5years for 50mil or something though?

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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When he played 35+ mpg for the raptors he was putting up 20ppg/6apg.

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Remember when Vin Baker was good, too? Yeah, me neither.

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Last year he was only playing 25mpg and still getting 10/4.

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And why was he only playing 25 mpg? Oh yeah, because he was horrible and was losing his job on a horrendous team.

James is a backup. As a starter he's proved he's lol worthy.

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[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Vyse, Im glad Ill be seeing more of you since its nba season now.

All Im saying is that I know what Alston can do on a nightly basis (nothing). How many Twolves games did you honestly watch last year? Im not saying James is a great player, but I think hes better than Alston. Id bet he'll be playing the most minutes at PG for the rockets (barring a PG trade) by mid season, JMO. Im sure youll quote this if Im wrong.

Maybe the season with the Raptors 2 years ago with the raptors was an abberation, but Alston has never put up those numbers.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

Why the [censored] do the rockets want Varaejo anyways? We got Scola, might as well see if he pans out before way overpaying for a roleplayer? 5yrs/50mil is lol for him IMO.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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Why the [censored] do the rockets want Varaejo anyways? We got Scola, might as well see if he pans out before way overpaying for a roleplayer? 5yrs/50mil is lol for him IMO.

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i didn't realiz he wanted that much... i agree then, wait and see for scola

what about kurt thomas tho

bibby

they're so close tobeing an elite team.. they're missing such minor pieces... lets just hope they get it done

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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When he played 35+ mpg for the raptors he was putting up 20ppg/6apg.

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Remember when Vin Baker was good, too? Yeah, me neither.

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Last year he was only playing 25mpg and still getting 10/4.

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And why was he only playing 25 mpg? Oh yeah, because he was horrible and was losing his job on a horrendous team.

James is a backup. As a starter he's proved he's lol worthy.

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[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Vyse, Im glad Ill be seeing more of you since its nba season now.

All Im saying is that I know what Alston can do on a nightly basis (nothing). How many Twolves games did you honestly watch last year? Im not saying James is a great player, but I think hes better than Alston. Id bet he'll be playing the most minutes at PG for the rockets (barring a PG trade) by mid season, JMO. Im sure youll quote this if Im wrong.

Maybe the season with the Raptors 2 years ago with the raptors was an abberation, but Alston has never put up those numbers.

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Well I agree 100% Rafer Alston sucks hard. Either way you cut it you're going to have some suck on the floor. My post was simply meant to imply a straight split of 24/24 would be better because James is outclassed if his role grows too large, so if you just gave James the vast majority of Alston's minutes, you'd still run into a similar problem.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

I think the Alston/James combo isn't as bad as people think. Also, I think everyone is forgetting they have Aaron Brooks on the bench who could, with time, be a good starter.

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

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I think the Alston/James combo isn't as bad as people think. Also, I think everyone is forgetting they have Aaron Brooks on the bench who could, with time, be a good starter.

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By april?

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

What about about that weird lookin alien guy who plays for the clippers?

sam cassel/mike james/luther head combo....raefer would probably have more value to the clippers and cassel more to the rockets

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

So I'm hearing the Rockets announcers for the first time ever that I can remember tonight....OMG they are huge homers when it comes to complaining about the refs. Almost ruins the game for me.

100,916 and counting

Re: ***ROCKETS 07-08***
 

assani,

watch a celtics broadcast sometime.