RealGM

I know it's early but I think this team has so many problems that I really don't see the need to keep the majority of the players we have now, early on these are the big problems that I think we have and a couple of them are so big that I really don't see our team competing for a playoff spot this year.
1) One dimensional players: Our best offensive players can't play a lick of d and vice versa. K-mart, brooks, and yes YAO are not good defenders. Yao still continues to get beat by smaller players because he refuses to keep his hands up(emeka okafor!), we already no about k-mart and brooks so I think we all get it there. Battier, Jordan Hill, and Chuck Hayes have been our best defenders but what do they do for us offensively>>? I can't think of any team thats best players are so opposite on both sides of the ball that are successful.
2) Athletes/shot blockers: I know you guys on this board seem to be all over these hard nosed defensive guys but athleticism is pretty important in the nba. Last night it pained me to see javale blocking shots, wall leading the break, and al thorton killing us in the post. What do those three have in common, they are all athletic! The wizards are not a good team and their athletes killed us last night on the offensive boards. We have one good athlete on this team thats not a pg and thats bud, we are not going to win in the nba with that kind of roster.
3) No go to wing scorer/closer. Yea yea yea the closer is overrated... but if we had a wing player that could close out games I think we would have a 3-4 record right now rather than 1-6. We could've used a guy LIKE MELLO(who I know you guys hate) in the game against the spurs(ginobili got them to ot), warriors(montae finished us off) hornets and lakers to help use close it out. Kevin martin is not a #1 option nor is he a closer. All of his points come off of 3 point shots and free throws so of course he's efficient. We need a player that we can give the ball to on the wing and can SCORE ON HIS OWN! K-mart is rip hamilton with more range, who used to get the ball at the end of games in detroit, BILLUPS! At best he's a very good SECOND option

The last two big problems I see are pick and roll d and pg play, there is no excuse for players like jason smith from no killing us like he did because our pick and roll defense is so bad. I'm really hoping that we can get a high pick and grab kyrie irving(of course if we can't get harrison barnes or perry jones) and start rebuilding. I'm honestly glad that our team isn't playing well because this team was always and overachieving group of guys. This isn't football, playing hard and overachieving can not help you advance in the playoffs, talent wins in the nba and we need a lot more of it to be successful on BOTH sides of the ball.

You basically said what we've been saying. Kevin Martin hit 3 consecutive shots and he came up with a steal in the 4th yesterday and I was looking forward to seeing him take over. After that he stopped shooting and he disappeared. He needs to at least try to become the go to guy in the 4th because the Rockets don't have anyone else at this point. Scola is a good 4th quarter player, but he doesn't have the talent to take over games.

Okay OP made some good points, but I think every is being blinded by their great expectations of this team. On paper, I can kind of see how some people think we should be doing a lot better than we are now. The most important thing to remember is that no team is perfect. No team has players at every position that can play off and def well. The lakers are the closest to that, but still far from the "perfect" team. So if you wanted, you could go even on the lakers and complain about how fisher isn't a great defender (he always gets killed if the opposing PG is decent), but would the lakers trade him? What about odom who can give you 15/15 one night and have subpar numbers the next (he's fairly inconsistent)? So how do they win so many games and championships? They don't have the best athletes. It comes down to......as with many sports, coaching.

The lakers or phil has a system that works and has players that work, better yet flourish, in that system. Adelman is a bad coach? No, but anyone that remembers the Kings and Blazers knows that his "good" teams had great chemstry. Christie wasn't the best offensive player on that team but he could play some def, Divac wasn't the greatest of athletes, etc, etc. Believe in the system, allow the team to develop some chemistry. All this trade BS is actually counterintuitive to building chemistry. We have some old and new players popping in and out of the lineup, it's just going to take time. When we hit our mid season form, im sure we'll be winning a couple more games than we are now.

Don't be the phoenix suns and throw away what you have b/c you think we should be at some higher echelon.

Do you really think its about the coaching..?

Kevin Martin and Scola can keep us competitive against any teams in the first 3 quarter. If we have a closer(Melo) we'll be good.

I don't really agree with #2. Our team (outside of our 100 year old bigs) is pretty athletic. Agreed on the need for a closer - Yao, KM, and Scola just don't cut it.

^The guards and sfs are athletic. The bigs are either unathletic or undersized.

M4P wrote:I don't really agree with #2. Our team (outside of our 100 year old bigs) is pretty athletic. Agreed on the need for a closer - Yao, KM, and Scola just don't cut it.

Martin: Average to below average for SG

Yao: Maybe the least athletic player in the league

Miller: Maybe the 2nd least athletic player in the league

Scola: Maybe the least athletic PF in the league

Hayes: Below average athlete

Battier: Poor athlete for SF


The only "good" athletes we have that are part of our rotation are Courtney Lee, Jordan Hill and Chase Budinger.

How is Kevin Martin average to below average? He's one of the fastest sgs in the league and his jumping ability is decent as well.

K-Mart isn't LeBron James, but he's by no means a poor, or even below average, athlete.

The team has too much talent to such this much. Yao's minutes ordeal just isn't working. In a close game Adelman needs to be able to use Yao as necessary. He just needs to force the issue so the team's talent can keep games from being close. Having Yao play 24 minutes is creating a team with two separate offenses. They want to run but can't when Yao is in. They want to take turns isolating on the wing while running some half-assed bastardized version of the Princeton. The team needs a single concept to work with and right now there's either too many or none at all.