Post by GMGreggor on Apr 19, 2008 10:00:06 GMT -5
Rockets midseason review
The Rockets goals for this year was to play the young guys while hopefully contending for a playoff spot. The Rockets positioned themselves to have 3 lotto picks with the idea of increasing the odds of winning of course.
After winning the lottery and landing the top pick the Rockets took what they hope will be a future star in Dwight Howard. They also landed the 7th pick and took PG-Shaun Livingston and the 10th selection which turned into Anderson Verejao. Before the season opener the Rockets shipped PG-Livingston and PF-Mo Taylor along with 05 Nuggets 1st and 06 Nets 1st to the pacers for C/PF Ben Wallace and PG-Chucky Atkins. The basic reasoning behind the trade was it's an opportunity to pick up an elite player/defender/rebounder and a solid PG for a very raw though promising young PG in Livingston and a couple of probably low 1sts. The Rockets rode that team for awhile playing around .500 ball while making a smaller deal with the Pacers yet again, sending the 10th pick Verajao and Piston's 1st for SG Desmond Mason who has shown the ability to score in the past and play solid D. Houston felt they needed a solid wing more than a rookie PF/C who is probably no more than a solid role player and was getting pretty much no PT with the logjam at C/PF that included Wallace,Illguaskas,Bosh,Howard.
It became apparent though that the Rockets just had too many quality bigs and not an upper tier PG and thus was struggling to stay at .500 ball. Illgauskas was rotting on the bench and while Wallace played well he was just not a good fit due to his lack of offense on a team that was struggling to score as is. A decision was subsequently made that in order to contend the PG position would need to be upgraded. When Dallas came knocking offering an elite PG in Steve Nash for big Ben it did'nt take long to agree to it.
While the Rockets have still struggled finding the right DC their offense has improved to 11th in scoring whereas we were bottom 10. So I'd have to say the trade was a good one. Until Bosh and Howard and Prince etc. mature a little more we will still have our inconsistencies as most young teams do. You sometimes need to step back and look at the team in other than just wins and losses. I think we are a better team with Nash than we were with Ben and no Nash. House is really a nice young backup PG at this point, which is where I can play him now.
Two other trades of note was a couple of smaller deals both involving SF Richard Jefferson. We sent 08 and 10 firsts to the Suns along with role players Nachbar and
Szewczyk for RJ who we were hoping would play great D and improve with Nash getting him the ball. He played solid if unspectacular for us but when a decision was made to play Bosh at SF again he was deemed expendable for a big man which turned into C/PF Samuel Dalembert who I've been very happy with.
His niche looks to be coming off the bench,at least at this point anyway.
The Rockets are 8-2 in our last 10 so hopefully we've turned the corner and will make a little noise in the postseason. If we can hang in there!
The Rockets goals for this year was to play the young guys while hopefully contending for a playoff spot. The Rockets positioned themselves to have 3 lotto picks with the idea of increasing the odds of winning of course.
After winning the lottery and landing the top pick the Rockets took what they hope will be a future star in Dwight Howard. They also landed the 7th pick and took PG-Shaun Livingston and the 10th selection which turned into Anderson Verejao. Before the season opener the Rockets shipped PG-Livingston and PF-Mo Taylor along with 05 Nuggets 1st and 06 Nets 1st to the pacers for C/PF Ben Wallace and PG-Chucky Atkins. The basic reasoning behind the trade was it's an opportunity to pick up an elite player/defender/rebounder and a solid PG for a very raw though promising young PG in Livingston and a couple of probably low 1sts. The Rockets rode that team for awhile playing around .500 ball while making a smaller deal with the Pacers yet again, sending the 10th pick Verajao and Piston's 1st for SG Desmond Mason who has shown the ability to score in the past and play solid D. Houston felt they needed a solid wing more than a rookie PF/C who is probably no more than a solid role player and was getting pretty much no PT with the logjam at C/PF that included Wallace,Illguaskas,Bosh,Howard.
It became apparent though that the Rockets just had too many quality bigs and not an upper tier PG and thus was struggling to stay at .500 ball. Illgauskas was rotting on the bench and while Wallace played well he was just not a good fit due to his lack of offense on a team that was struggling to score as is. A decision was subsequently made that in order to contend the PG position would need to be upgraded. When Dallas came knocking offering an elite PG in Steve Nash for big Ben it did'nt take long to agree to it.
While the Rockets have still struggled finding the right DC their offense has improved to 11th in scoring whereas we were bottom 10. So I'd have to say the trade was a good one. Until Bosh and Howard and Prince etc. mature a little more we will still have our inconsistencies as most young teams do. You sometimes need to step back and look at the team in other than just wins and losses. I think we are a better team with Nash than we were with Ben and no Nash. House is really a nice young backup PG at this point, which is where I can play him now.
Two other trades of note was a couple of smaller deals both involving SF Richard Jefferson. We sent 08 and 10 firsts to the Suns along with role players Nachbar and
Szewczyk for RJ who we were hoping would play great D and improve with Nash getting him the ball. He played solid if unspectacular for us but when a decision was made to play Bosh at SF again he was deemed expendable for a big man which turned into C/PF Samuel Dalembert who I've been very happy with.
His niche looks to be coming off the bench,at least at this point anyway.
The Rockets are 8-2 in our last 10 so hopefully we've turned the corner and will make a little noise in the postseason. If we can hang in there!