# Is this a better squad than our 05' playoff team?



## debarge (Nov 13, 2005)

I think that its a fair question? Our playoff team featured: Sura, Wesley, Barry, McG, Howard, Yao, Bowen, Dke, Padgett. Now we have Alston, Snyder, Spanoli, McG, Battier, Howard, Yao, Dke, Novak, Head, Lucas, Hayes Bowen

IMO this Squad has the potential to eventually be better than the 05' team. How long that will take is anybody's guess though. We have do have a nice mix of youth and solid vets. The thing that concerns me is the number of un-proven guys we've got. (Snyder, Spanoli, Lucas, Head, Novak, Hayes) they are all solid guys in some way, but how much can we depend on them? Will Jeff even play them? I think thats something that may be an 'issue' is Jeff's coaching yet again. He needs to be innovative and let Tmac adjust his game now, more post-ups, pick/n/pops, with Novak/Battier now Mac can post up when Yao sits down. 

Rafer's gotta just shoot better, that's his only issue frankly, so they need to quit tripping on Clutchfans.net. This is Jeff's year to coach better, no more excuses about he doesn't have players, or injuries. Cry baby. :biggrin:


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## Dream Hakeem (Apr 20, 2006)

Bob Sura>Half the guys we have now


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## Dean the Master (Feb 19, 2006)

Dream Hakeem said:


> Bob Sura>Half the guys we have now


You meant 05' Sura right?
I think this year's Rockets are better. 
We have Novak who can drain the tons of 3s(if he shoots as sharp as his days in Marquette), Head (better version of 05' DW), V-Span, our energizer. Hayes, we all know what he is here for - lots of rebounds. Snyder, IDK, ball-dunker? Battier is a huge addition. Yao, well, huge improvement. 

The only degrade would be Deke, too old to be what he used to. 
T-mac, uncertain. Mayber worse, or maybe the same as he claims. 

Ry-Bo is just Ry-Bo. 

Overall, as debarge said, we have potential. On the paper, we look better, but we need to see them in action first before making real judgment.


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Put an 05 sura on this squad, and we got a damn good team.

Man i miss Sura


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## PFortyy (May 31, 2006)

u shood of kept rudy gay and swift and not even thought about battier.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

i have to say our old team when Sura was playing good and Jon Barry and Deke am i the only that thought Barry was so important/good?


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

Rockets with Battier should be better than the 05 squad.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

The old supporting cast was better. Sura, Barry, Wesley and Mutombo were are very valuable to us that season. Looking at the current supporting cast, we have no idea whether Lucas, Spanoulis or Novak will contribute significantly. Snyder is OK, but he's got attitude problems. Alston and Howard kind of suck. Head has to improve considerably to be as good as Barry or Wesley from '05. Only Battier is a big improvement.

However, Yao is now a monster. So I'd take the current squad.


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## jdiggidy (Jun 21, 2003)

> u shood of kept rudy gay and swift and not even thought about battier.


Battier is an Olympian now. Can't say at this point whether or not Gay will ever be an olympian but, I can definitely say that Swift will never be.

Scoring is not the problem with this team. Gay was not the solution. I do think as everyone else has suggested that we did not get enough in return on the Gay/Swift - Battier deal.


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## reno2000 (Aug 23, 2005)

Its hard to pick because that 05 squad became a very cohesive unit after the initial early season problems subsided. Most of this group have never played together and there are alot of untested guys on the squad. But in saying that, on paper this team is better with more depth. I think you have to give it till about December before we can make any proper conclusions about this years team.


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## Hakeem (Aug 12, 2004)

reno2000 said:


> Its hard to pick because that 05 squad became a very cohesive unit after the initial early season problems subsided. Most of this group have never played together and there are alot of untested guys on the squad. But in saying that, on paper this team is better with more depth. I think you have to give it till about December before we can make any proper conclusions about this years team.


The '05 squad didn't take a while to come together. The team struggled at the start of the season because it was fielding Tyronn Lue, Charlie Ward, Maurice Taylor, Jim Jackson, Bostjan Nachbar and Reece Gaines. James, Wesley, Barry and Sura weren't there. As soon as those guys started playing, we started winning. The results were immediate. Our record was 38-15 with Barry in the lineup, despite having the toughest post-All-Star break schedule of any team.


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## crazyfan (Dec 9, 2005)

Well, the team is full of unproven players at the nba level.

Lucas, Novak and Spanoli not matter how talented they are, have never suited up for a nba game.

Since then, Deke is another couple of years older. TMAC's back has deteroriated and we still have Ryan Bowen in our team.

The 05 squad was much better.


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## CrackerJack (Jul 2, 2005)

crazyfan said:


> Well, the team is full of unproven players at the nba level.
> 
> Lucas, Novak and Spanoli not matter how talented they are, have never suited up for a nba game.
> 
> ...


Lucas suited up for 13 last year


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

crazyfan said:


> Well, the team is full of unproven players at the nba level.
> 
> Lucas, Novak and Spanoli not matter how talented they are, have never suited up for a nba game.
> 
> ...


True, like i said above, a healthy sura on this team would be better on paper. But you are right, we are going to have to see how they actually do on the court.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

jdiggidy said:


> Battier is an Olympian now. Can't say at this point whether or not Gay will ever be an olympian but, I can definitely say that Swift will never be.
> 
> *Scoring * is not the problem with this team. Gay was not the solution. I do think as everyone else has suggested that we did not get enough in return on the Gay/Swift - Battier deal.



hold on there i think the biggest problem last season other then injury was *SCORING* no one was consestant even when they were open defense is less a problem to us if you look it up we didn't give up 100 points that much and like the stats said last year if we could score over 90 then we had more then 80% chance of winning BUT we couldn't


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## K-Dub (Jun 26, 2005)

Dean the Master said:


> You meant 05' Sura right?
> I think this year's Rockets are better.
> We have Novak who can drain the tons of 3s(if he shoots as sharp as his days in Marquette),* Head (better version of 05' DW), * V-Span, our energizer. Hayes, we all know what he is here for - lots of rebounds. Snyder, IDK, ball-dunker? Battier is a huge addition. Yao, well, huge improvement.
> 
> ...


'05 Wesley was damn good for this team. A good shooter and defender. You're selling him short there. I'd love for Luther to give us what Wesley did in '05, but I don't know if he's gonna improve that much, especially defensively.


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## bronx43 (Dec 9, 2005)

lingi1206 said:


> hold on there i think the biggest problem last season other then injury was *SCORING* no one was consestant even when they were open defense is less a problem to us if you look it up we didn't give up 100 points that much and like the stats said last year if we could score over 90 then we had more then 80% chance of winning BUT we couldn't


With a healthy Tracy and Yao, scoring ISN'T the problem. Especially with JVG as the coach of this team, scoring will always be lower than the average but that is an illusion created by the team's system. With Yao and Tracy back, I rather have a proven veteran who can give you the intangibles than a young rookie who can jack up shots but is defensively raw.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

bronx43 said:


> With a healthy Tracy and Yao, scoring ISN'T the problem. Especially with JVG as the coach of this team, scoring will always be lower than the average but that is an illusion created by the team's system. With Yao and Tracy back, I rather have a proven veteran who can give you the intangibles than a young rookie who can jack up shots but is defensively raw.


yea like you said JVG is the coach then defensively ISN'T our main problem WE COULDN'T score we can't just rely on two guys to score everything we are more of a team defence team when our main players went down last year no one on the team was consistent (the closets was our rookie) SCORING is more of a problem then defence we are a defensive team, last year we lost games becuase of Injury and NO one was consistant on the scoring end


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## Dream Hakeem (Apr 20, 2006)

I dunno for some reason Jon Berry became a fav to me when he fell out of the chair when tmac dunked on bradley.

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vr5QRezOFso"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Vr5QRezOFso" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>


omg thats hilarious


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## reno2000 (Aug 23, 2005)

HAHAHHAHA....Barry...wat a legend...not sounding racist or anything, but that is what you would expect a black person to do...not some stiff white guy like barry.

Instant respect.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

reno2000 said:


> HAHAHHAHA....Barry...wat a legend...not sounding racist or anything, but that is what you would expect a black person to do...not some stiff white guy like barry.
> 
> Instant respect.



HAHA


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## bronx43 (Dec 9, 2005)

lingi1206 said:


> yea like you said JVG is the coach then defensively ISN'T our main problem WE COULDN'T score we can't just rely on two guys to score everything we are more of a team defence team when our main players went down last year no one on the team was consistent (the closets was our rookie) SCORING is more of a problem then defence we are a defensive team, last year we lost games becuase of Injury and NO one was consistant on the scoring end


We are fine when we have our two superstars healthy. Everyone else must learn to play off of them. What this means is that we don't need a guy who needs the ball to score. Instead, we need role players who can hit their open shots, run the fast break when allowed, and play good, smart defense. Shane Battier provides all these aspects of the game without the basketball in his hands. Rudy Gay is talented, but he doesn't provide the intangible qualities that Shane Battier gives you. His development will be based upon how often he gets to touch the ball. That doesn't make him a bad player, it just makes him a player unsuited for the Rockets' needs. Last year, our problem was that no one could hit their open shots. If Rafer, Wesley, Bogans, etc all shot as well as Luther Head did, we would have been in the playoffs.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

bronx43 said:


> We are fine when we have our two superstars healthy. Everyone else must learn to play off of them. What this means is that we don't need a guy who needs the ball to score. Instead, we need role players who can hit their open shots, run the fast break when allowed, and play good, smart defense. Shane Battier provides all these aspects of the game without the basketball in his hands. Rudy Gay is talented, but he doesn't provide the intangible qualities that Shane Battier gives you. His development will be based upon how often he gets to touch the ball. That doesn't make him a bad player, it just makes him a player unsuited for the Rockets' needs. Last year, our problem was that no one could hit their open shots. If Rafer, Wesley, Bogans, etc all shot as well as Luther Head did, we would have been in the playoffs.


thats right we don;t need a guy other then Yao and T-mac to have the ball and score but we didn't have anyone to hit when open and the rudy thing is behind me all i am saying is we need guys that can score when but we couldn;t and Battier doesn't solve everything what we need is shooters defense will work itself out since like you said we have JVG SCORING is more of a problem then defense that is all i am saying on this team


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## bronx43 (Dec 9, 2005)

lingi1206 said:


> thats right we don;t need a guy other then Yao and T-mac to have the ball and score but we didn't have anyone to hit when open and the rudy thing is behind me all i am saying is we need guys that can score when but we couldn;t and Battier doesn't solve everything what we need is shooters defense will work itself out since like you said we have JVG SCORING is more of a problem then defense that is all i am saying on this team


Obviously Shane does not solve EVERYTHING that we need, but he does provide ALOT of what we need. His 3 pt percentage is solid, and he provides the small hustle plays that add up at the end of the game. I hope we have covered our shooting woes with Battier, Novak, Head, and Tmac. Hopefully Spanoulis will be a decent shooter and Rafer is getting better this summer.


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## HayesFan (Feb 16, 2006)

I think its good that all our "scrubs" as you all call them are working together in the off season. Yes they need to be ready to play around T-mac and Yao, but with them spending a lot of time working together now they can build a comraderie that will help when games get tough.

We all know that is going to happen... so its good to know the guys are working hard to improve individually and as a group.

I am just really excited for the season to start so that we can see this group work together. And hopefully succeed together.


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## lingi1206 (Jun 2, 2006)

bronx43 said:


> Obviously Shane does not solve EVERYTHING that we need, but he does provide ALOT of what we need. His 3 pt percentage is solid, and he provides the small hustle plays that add up at the end of the game. I hope we have covered our shooting woes with Battier, Novak, Head, and Tmac. Hopefully Spanoulis will be a decent shooter and Rafer is getting better this summer.


i have nothing against any of our guys, ALL i am saying from the start is that SCORING is more of an problem then our D THATS ALL iam saying, we couldn't shoot *last year *


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## debarge (Nov 13, 2005)

HayesFan said:


> I think its good that all our "scrubs" as you all call them are working together in the off season. Yes they need to be ready to play around T-mac and Yao, but with them spending a lot of time working together now they can build a comraderie that will help when games get tough.
> 
> We all know that is going to happen... so its good to know the guys are working hard to improve individually and as a group.
> 
> I am just really excited for the season to start so that we can see this group work together. And hopefully succeed together.


I really feel like we'll win 47-52 games depending on health, and the development of chemistry. That will be really vital to this team's success. We finally have a mix of solid veterans and youth at the same time. Your vets: Yao/Battier/Mac/Howard/Alston very good set IMO to teach team play. Youth: Snyder/Novak/Lucas/Spanolis/Head/Hayes. IMO Snyder Novak and Spanolis are the real keys to whether the chemistry develops the way it needs to. I see them getting more PT than Luther/Lucas/Hayes, its not that I don't think they can play, its that their skills might not be utilized very often next year. Lucas hopefully will be getting/earning more time, and could possibly be the 'pg of the future'. Spanoli/Snyder skills translate more into points/scoring alongside the vets. Head better be on his game right from the start. He's an undersized 2 that doesn't handle the rock too well, and his shooting though we know should be more consistent. If he hits a drought early, he may end up being moved somehow to get 'something' else. Chuck will be playing behind Battier/Howard and competing with Novak for time. Competing against a legit 3pt threat off the bench, tough competition. He only has a one yr deal, again could be moved w/ Head for 'something, along with Bowen whose contract is up next yr. 3 guys with tradeable deals near the deadline if they don't produce the rewards Jeff wants from them. The organization knows the window in the West isn't open but a crack for us. I don't see them waiting on guys 'to get it', if we start slow looks for moves to made, even a shocker like DWEs was for Jimmy Jackson, I never thought Jeff would trade 'his best guy'. So I doubt anyone job is 'Safe; not named Yao/or Tracy.


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## Yao Mania (Aug 4, 2003)

For me, the big question mark is T-Mac, and whether or not he's still able to take over games like he did back in the days. Personally I really like the team coming into this season with the added youth and improved Yao, but without veterans on the court like Wesley and Barry I do expect our team to make boneheaded plays every now and then.

Not to jump on the V-Span bandwagon now, but I think he'll be getting a lot of attention this season.


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## garnett (May 13, 2003)

From a Bulls fan, I think this is a better team. McGrady going back to SG is an even bigger mismatch then he is at SF, and as if he wasn't enough of one already. This is depending on his health of course. This along with an improved Yao and supporting cast means that this is a team that nobody will look forward to facing.


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## FanOfAll8472 (Jun 28, 2003)

I think this year's supporting cast is better. But T-Mac has back injuries that make his return to prominence questionable, while Howard and Deke are older and even slower. Yao is an improved player, so it's a tough question, but I'd give the '05 team a slight edge with a healthy McGrady.


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## bronx43 (Dec 9, 2005)

Our '05 team was good because our wing players went on a hot shooting streak during the second half of the season and the playoffs. David Wesley was on an absolute tear. If our role players can reproduce even half of that hot streak, we will be in good shape next season.


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