Why do the Rockets suck now?

pr0wler · Post #1 » by **pr0wler** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:13 am

I don't mean this as an insult. I'm a diehard Sonic fan but for some reason the Rockets have grown on me and they're probably my favourite team at the moment. Aaron Brooks graduated from Oregon, my brother's alma mater, and he also grew up in Seattle. This team gives it 110% no matter how many of their guys are injured and always find a way to make a playoffs and become a competitive force. The past couple months haven't been the same.

Houston is now 28-28 and quickly falling out of the playoff race. I know the absence of Yao is a big one, but still...what's wrong? Last year they had a 22 game win streak, a large majority of which was without Ming and now with the edition of Kevin Martin they've gone 0-3. I love the young talent on the roster, including Brooks and Budinger. But something isn't right...

Tomas_11 · Post #2 » by **Tomas_11** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:36 am

The 22 game winning streak was from the 07-08 season, not last. And Yao was relatively healthy last season. The team is in transition, and trying to incorporate new players. Plus the injury to Lowry and no go to guy on the bench like Landry really hurts.

dunleavyjr · Post #3 » by **dunleavyjr** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:42 am

look at the starting lineup:

1. aaron brooks (like cuttino mobley, a fast gunner with no ball-handling skill)
2. kevin martin (a pure shooting guard who can't shoot)
3. chuck hayes (zero offense. nobody guards him)
4. shane battier (a bruce bowen who can't knock down shots)
5. luis scola (has offense, lacking defense. soft)

you can't win games with this stupid line up

pr0wler · Post #4 » by **pr0wler** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:52 am

dunleavyjr wrote:look at the starting lineup:

1. aaron brooks (like cuttino mobley, a fast gunner with no ball-handling skill)
2. kevin martin (a pure shooting guard who can't shoot)
3. chuck hayes (zero offense. nobody guards him)
4. shane battier (a bruce bowen who can't knock down shots)
5. luis scola (has offense, lacking defense. soft)

you can't win games with this stupid line up

Aaron Brooks can't handle the ball? What?

Kevin Martin has gotten off to a slow start this year but normally he's an amazing shooter.

Chuck Hayes sucks, I agree.

Battier is slightly better offensively than Bowen, regardless of how pedestrian his shooting may be.

Luis Scola, I agree.

kam_soluusar · Post #5 » by **kam_soluusar** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:40 am

No Carl Landry, pure and simple.

Trading him away was the dumbest move Morey has ever made, period.

So we are now 0-3 after the trade. Yep, a real smart move for the Rox.

dartherus · Post #6 » by **dartherus** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:08 pm

kam_soluusar wrote:No Carl Landry, pure and simple.

Trading him away was the dumbest move Morey has ever made, period.

So we are now 0-3 after the trade. Yep, a real smart move for the Rox.

Rockets started to suck BEFORE the departure of Landry, who had already lowered his numbers....IMO, it started more noticeably when Lowry got injured and no PG with at least decent court vision can't be found in the whole roster...

moofs · Post #7 » by **moofs** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 3:14 pm

Battier's offense has definitely been disappointing this year.

Chuck's output has improved to his best ever though, even though his percentages aren't tops. He's doing things he never looked able to do before on offense.

Brooks is really not doing too bad scoringwise, but the ball movement has stalled from earlier in the year. Badly.

This losing streak has coincided with the loss of Lowry, and been emphasized by the loss of Ariza, and we're incorporating 3-4 new players. This team has been a no-margin-for-error squad all year, which is going to magnify any losses, however seemingly minor.

Rendezvous · Post #8 » by **Rendezvous** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 4:04 pm

Chemistry issues, Landry leaving..... Injuries

I wish that injury bug would go away..

old rem · Post #9 » by **old rem** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 5:05 pm

pr0wler wrote:
dunleavyjr wrote:look at the starting lineup:

1. aaron brooks (like cuttino mobley, a fast gunner with no ball-handling skill)
2. kevin martin (a pure shooting guard who can't shoot)
3. chuck hayes (zero offense. nobody guards him)
4. shane battier (a bruce bowen who can't knock down shots)
5. luis scola (has offense, lacking defense. soft)

you can't win games with this stupid line up

Aaron Brooks can't handle the ball? What?

Kevin Martin has gotten off to a slow start this year but normally he's an amazing shooter.

Chuck Hayes sucks, I agree.

Battier is slightly better offensively than Bowen, regardless of how pedestrian his shooting may be.

Luis Scola, I agree.

It's pretty amazing to me the Rocks have done as well as they have. Until the Martin deal, the "scorers"...by default were Brooks and Scola who were 4th option types who had to step up.
Hayes,Battier,Ariza,are good "role" guys,usually would be 6th man. Martin CAN score,is a volume scorer/perimeter shooter. Nobody claims he's even average on D. So......with a weak link-new guy on D,that puts more load on Hayes to be a goalie,and at 6-6,he can't do that. Once Martin is blended in, he probably adds to the offense,but the Rocks were overachieving,and that suggests CHEMISTRY. Maybe the chemistry comes back. Maybe not.

KiDdFrESh · Post #10 » by **KiDdFrESh** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:31 pm

Its simple. At the beggining of the year we came out of nowhere. Teams were writing us off before the year even started. We attacked early and played tenacious defense for 48 minutes.

Come January, teams begin to scout the Rockets and shut us down offensively. Are defense became lackluster as well.

Rockets were 20-13 after beating Dallas on the 31st. Since then the Rockets are 8-15. So to say we suck because we traded Landry is simply not true. We've been sucking it up. Landry was at fault too. He hadn't produced as regulary as he did early in the season. Teams began to double him in the 4th and he couldn't handle it. He turned the ball over and would get shut down regularly.

Moreyball · Post #11 » by **Moreyball** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 6:58 pm

kam_soluusar wrote:No Carl Landry, pure and simple.

Trading him away was the dumbest move Morey has ever made, period.

So we are now 0-3 after the trade. Yep, a real smart move for the Rox.

And we'd probably be 0-3 with Landry.

It's going to be tough watching this team for the rest of the year but with Yao and a lottery pick (a.k.a. Carl Landry's upgrade) this team will be great next year.

rocketsballin · Post #12 » by **rocketsballin** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:14 pm

imo rockets were good in the first 2 months cuz the league is less competitive in the first 2 months. teams are trying to figure out rotations, who should be traded, getting into game shape, early injuries, etc. i dunno the correct term but teams are getting accustomed to the league. starting january is when the league gets tougher.

Post #13 » by **Vator** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 8:41 pm

KiDdFrESh wrote:Its simple. At the beggining of the year we came out of nowhere. Teams were writing us off before the year even started. We attacked early and played tenacious defense for 48 minutes.

Come January, teams begin to scout the Rockets and shut us down offensively. Are defense became lackluster as well.

Rockets were 20-13 after beating Dallas on the 31st. Since then the Rockets are 8-15. So to say we suck because we traded Landry is simply not true. We've been sucking it up. Landry was at fault too. He hadn't produced as regulary as he did early in the season. Teams began to double him in the 4th and he couldn't handle it. He turned the ball over and would get shut down regularly.

This

I'm not a fan of how they have looked the past three games, but lets be honest, they were looking quite pitiful prior to the trade. The Miami game ring a bell? The Rockets haven't been good in quite some time. It's funny how some people have only taken notice since the trade went down. They finished January 1-4 and were only 1-3 in the four games prior to the trade with the only win being the game right before the trade went down. I guess that blowout of the Bucks is fresh in people's minds rather than the three game losing streak that came before it.

Also, look at Landry's stats without Kyle Lowry and you will see he was far less effective when Lowry was out the lineup. He put up very pedestrian numbers and has been very inconsistent as of late. I'm a Carl Landry fan also, but I'm realistic. One could argue that Kyle's value superseds anything Landry brought to the table. That said, I hate to see him go. Hopefull they can replace some of the blue collar stuff that he brought to the table this offseason. That is what they plan to do. Morey has said as much in nearly every interview he gives. He felt that it would be easier to get a guy to fill Carl's role than to get what he calls a "championship quality 2 guard"

PocketRockets · Post #14 » by **PocketRockets** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:24 pm

It's the law of averages my friend. I said we'd be lucky to get close to 40 wins before the season started and I continued to say it during our "winning" period. You can't possibly expect this team without their two best players and a core of relatively young (inexperienced) players to make the playoffs in the western conference.

We show streaks of goodness, but overall we still make crucial mistakes at points in the game that kill our chances of winning. Stupid turnovers early in the game, poor shot selection in the final minutes of games. If we got more experienced in those two areas alone, we'd definitely have a handful of more wins.

Jaykoolzboy · Post #15 » by **Jaykoolzboy** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:50 pm

I dun really care about this season anymore for these reasons.

1. What's the point to make to the playoffs when we have to face the Lakers in the first round (4-0)
2. We need to gather as many assets as possible for the up coming off season (higher lottery pick are welcomed in this case)
3. We just made a blockbuster trade, those new players and coach needs to adjust to the system, I'm assuming Martin is a keeper, the last 30 games going to be the perfect time for him to adjust.

If we make to the playoffs, I am happy, but if we don't, I don't really think it's a bad thing at all, I dun wanan see us getting swept by the Fakers whatsoever.

LarsV8 · Post #16 » by **LarsV8** » Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:54 pm

We got scouted, we dont have enough talent.

When Yao comes back next year, things will be vastly different.

grond · Post #17 » by **grond** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 12:27 am

because the regular season is 50 games too long?

kam_soluusar · Post #18 » by **kam_soluusar** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:34 am

Maybe I see a lot of things in landry that others don't so I will expand on my comments.

Landry was starting to force double teams, that spread the court better, and left one of our snipers, (Brooks, Battier, Budinger or Ariza) more open to punish from range. Scola is in my opinion, one of the best weak side PF's in the league, and is IMO underrated as a rebounder. I know that Scola will never be a 20 boards a game player, (In fact the only two players I am seeing do this regularly is D.Howard, and A.Bogut!) but he is as solid an "off the Ball PF" as you will find in this league.

People argue that Landry was going to suck once Yao was back. I don't think this is true. Landry would have slipped back into the role we saw more of last year, playing off the ball, (Like Scola) and would have been an integral part of our second unit. Landry worked really well with Lowry on the court, the true "pass first" PG. I think, that if we had have retained Landry, we would have almost had "lines" like you see in Ice Hockey. our starting 5, an up tempo, bust still predominate "half court" lineup, and our second line, run and gun with Landry and Hayes at PF and C respectively. Unfortunately, timing is everything in the NBA, and I guess the Landry trade was too good an oppurtunity to pass up, (In Moron's opinion!) Our team is going to be slower next year, and whilst our rebounding, and defensive numbers are sure to increase, our offensive numbers are going to go down. Besides which, Yao is going to be more limited in minutes next season. So expect to see a lot of variable lineups, (also dictated by matchups) next season.

tisbee · Post #19 » by **tisbee** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 3:59 am

It's all on McGrady. After the big meeting he hired a VooDoo priestess to put a curse on the Rockets

Seriously,is Landry going to get much better? He still can't adequately defend starting PFs and his rebounding numbers on defensive side are not exactly stellar. He still collects bad fouls by the handful in his third yr in the League. And you know he's going to want to get paid next summer. It's one thing to pay $3mil for a back-up PF,but quite another to pay $5-6mil.

Teckon · Post #20 » by **Teckon** » Fri Feb 26, 2010 4:12 am

Simple reasons:
1.INJURY
2.Change in team chemistry with new players in mid-season trade (confusion over roles and experimenting line up/combo)

Just take a look at how many games did Rockets lost when Lowry is out due to injury. 5 out of 8 games he had missed so far:

lost to Magic 92-110 (Ariza missing due to injury)
lost to Hornets 94-102
lost to Pacer 115-125 (after trade)
win against Bucks 127-99 (Rockets were shooting extremely well in this game)
lost to Jazz 95-104 (after allstar break)
lost to Heat 66-99 (Rockets' worse game of the season before allstar break)
win against Griz 101-83
win against Warriors 119-97