Author Topic: Rockets- team to beat?  (Read 4559 times)

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Rockets- team to beat?
« on: July 18, 2010, 06:19:44 AM »

Offline DavorCroatiaFan

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ESPN "Expert" named Lakers, Mavs and Thunder as 3 best team in West. But i think that if Yao stays healthy Rockets have the most talented and deepest roster in West:
PG: Aaron Brooks/Kyle Lowry
SG: Kevin Martin/Shane Battier/Chase Budinger
SF: Trevor Ariza/Shane Battier/Chase Budinger
PF: Louis Scola/Jarred Jeffries/Jordan Hill
C: Ming Yao/Brad Miller/Chuck Hayes/David Andersen
Great coach in Rick Adelman...
Baring injuries Western Conference champs?
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Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #1 on: July 18, 2010, 08:52:48 AM »

Offline wdleehi

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It really depends on Yao.


If he is healthy, he becomes the best big man in the West and the team is dangerous.


If not, it is a playoff team, but not a title threat.

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #2 on: July 18, 2010, 09:03:43 AM »

Offline footey

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Good point, OP, and TP.  They are good, and very deep. Agree with wdleehi, though, it comes down to Yao's health.  They need to really limit his minutes in regular season. He has too much weight on those legs. 

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #3 on: July 18, 2010, 09:25:14 AM »

Offline DavorCroatiaFan

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And i forgot Patrick Patterson. Man, those Rockets are loaded.
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Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #4 on: July 18, 2010, 09:28:45 AM »

Offline wdleehi

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I also think Portland is a true contender if they could stay healthy.




But until teams like this prove they are healthy, how do you put them at the top?

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #5 on: July 18, 2010, 09:29:23 AM »

Offline Birdbrain

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I'm all for any team taking out LA and not making their road to Finals a cakewalk.  But even if Yao stays healthy I question a defensive capabilities of a team consisting of Brooks, Martin, and Scola in your starting line up but, I suppose one could make the point that Yao could cover up a lot of the defensive lapses that are sure to plague that starting back court.
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Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2010, 09:37:41 AM »

Offline banty19

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It really depends on Yao.

Sums up their whole season. They're deep at every other position except maybe PF but Scola doesn't have Yao's injury problems.

One other variable is their ability to make trades. They have Jeffries', Battier's, and Yao's expiring contract plus lots of cheap, solid players so they could definitely make a run at anybody on the trading block.

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2010, 10:28:20 AM »

Offline Who

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I'm looking forward to seeing whether Kevin Martin is a liability or not against LA defensively.

They'll probably put Ariza/Battier on Kobe Bryant and Kevin Martin on Ron Artest. Does LA attack that matchup? If so, does it take them out of their offense and hurt them? Or does it give them another weapon to exploit? Or does LA avoid that matchup altogether and just stick to their normal offense?

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #8 on: July 18, 2010, 10:57:59 AM »

Offline pearljammer10

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Yea not very many people talk about the Rockets as being a legit team, but that lineup on paper is certainly pretty talented and very deep.

Brooks is a great PG and Lowry is good enough to start on most teams in the league.

Martin is a great number one scoring option and can hit the deep ball.

Ariza is a great role playing sf and having Battier back him up makes for a deadly combo at that position.

Scola is the only one im not sold on. Ive never really liked his game and I think he was overpaid. They are a little weak at the power forward spot with Scola then Jarred Jefferies backing him up.

If Yao Ming is healthy, then this is a crazy good team. Ming has been unnoticed as the best big man in the league for many years. If he can come back and play his game then this team is dangerous. Add Brad Miller off the bench and thats a pretty good starting 5 and a pretty good bench as well.

They've always struggled with injuries so I hope this year they can stay healthy. I still think they need more depth at the PF spot but this team does damage on its own.

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #9 on: July 18, 2010, 11:34:51 AM »

Offline Junkyard Dawg

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the rockets are pretty good, possibly good enough to make the west finals but a sure bet to win the west?  not even close...

the thing the last few years have taught me is that there aren't so much "good" or "bad" teams in the nba, but teams with the abiliity to win a championship and teams without that ability.  Until proven otherwise (and barring injury) it's the Lakers and the C's, and then a bunch of pretenders.

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #10 on: July 18, 2010, 11:40:29 AM »

Offline Jon

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I don't know.  Yao's never been the guy to take a team on his shoulders and win a tough playoff game.  And while Martin can score, is he that guy in the playoffs that will go shot for shot with Kobe?  I'm not so sure. 

They'd probably kick some butt in a video game, but I'm not sure they have that elite player to take the team on his back and beat another team with an elite star. 

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #11 on: July 18, 2010, 12:48:59 PM »

Offline indeedproceed

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Scola is the only one im not sold on. Ive never really liked his game and I think he was overpaid. They are a little weak at the power forward spot with Scola then Jarred Jefferies backing him up.

I think Scola is a better power forward than Kevin Martin is a shooting guard.

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Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #12 on: July 18, 2010, 12:52:22 PM »

Offline Mike-Dub

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It all depends on Yao's health.  In '09 I thought that the Rockets were going to beat the Lakers and that Yao was the best center in the league then better than Howard.  If Yao can get back to that, which we don't know yet and it'll be tough, then the Rockets can be contenders, even though I still don't know if they have what it takes to beat the Lakers, who IMO are defintely better than they were in '09.
« Last Edit: July 18, 2010, 01:01:45 PM by Mike-Dub »
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Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #13 on: July 18, 2010, 12:56:53 PM »

Offline Who

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Houston are not the team to beat but they're definitely in the mix.

Re: Rockets- team to beat?
« Reply #14 on: July 18, 2010, 01:03:44 PM »

Offline manl_lui

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Yao is one of the best centers right now, i would say top 3...

he can shoot, rebound, and block shots...in a way offensively hes better than Dwight because he has more than one move...

Defensively, hes up there near Dwight, if only Yao had more muscle and hops =\