Comments on: It Was Earth All Along http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2009/12/18/it-was-earth/ Unbiased opinions from extremely biased people Thu, 24 May 2012 01:33:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Thoughts on Mavs – Rockets | Red94 | essays and musings on the nba & houston rockets http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2009/12/18/it-was-earth/comment-page-1/#comment-42039 Thoughts on Mavs – Rockets | Red94 | essays and musings on the nba & houston rockets Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:33:39 +0000 http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/?p=4963#comment-42039 [...] Note: Rob Mahoney eloquently writes, in Hardwood Paroxysm: “It stands testament to just how good of a coach Rick Adelman is, and just how far pure [...] [...] Note: Rob Mahoney eloquently writes, in Hardwood Paroxysm: “It stands testament to just how good of a coach Rick Adelman is, and just how far pure [...]

]]> By: khandor http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2009/12/18/it-was-earth/comment-page-1/#comment-34019 khandor Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:09:34 +0000 http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/?p=4963#comment-34019 Rob, Please make sure to exclude, both, me and David Berri from a list of NBA "pundits and bloggers", etc., who you believe may opined this past summer that this year's Houston Rockets would be destined for the 2010 Draft Lottery. As I observed, at the time, the Rockets' roster is vastly under-rated by all manner of supposed observers who simply do not properly comprehend what it takes to be an effective NBA player, at a specific position, regardless of someone's individual Draft Number in a particular class/yr. If you do a SWOT Analysis for Houston's key personnel: PG, Aaron Brooks OG, Trevor Ariza SF, Shane Battier PF, Luis Scola C, Chuck Hayes [has difficulty scoring in the low-post] =================== PG, Kyle Lowry OG-SF, Chase Budinger PF, Carl Landry C, David Andersen =================== PG-OG, Jermaine Taylor PF, Joey Dorsey PF-C, Brian Cook =================== OG-SF, Tracy McGrady C, Yao Ming =================== HC, Rick Adelman =================== GM, Daryl Morey you should be able to see that their weaknesses are, in fact, quite minimal, and more than made up for by their multiple strengths [e.g. Defense, Rebounding, FG%, 3FG%, Ast:TO, St:TO, etc.]. Rob,

Please make sure to exclude, both, me and David Berri from a list of NBA “pundits and bloggers”, etc., who you believe may opined this past summer that this year’s Houston Rockets would be destined for the 2010 Draft Lottery.

As I observed, at the time, the Rockets’ roster is vastly under-rated by all manner of supposed observers who simply do not properly comprehend what it takes to be an effective NBA player, at a specific position, regardless of someone’s individual Draft Number in a particular class/yr.

If you do a SWOT Analysis for Houston’s key personnel:

PG, Aaron Brooks
OG, Trevor Ariza
SF, Shane Battier
PF, Luis Scola
C, Chuck Hayes [has difficulty scoring in the low-post]
===================
PG, Kyle Lowry
OG-SF, Chase Budinger
PF, Carl Landry
C, David Andersen
===================
PG-OG, Jermaine Taylor
PF, Joey Dorsey
PF-C, Brian Cook
===================
OG-SF, Tracy McGrady
C, Yao Ming
===================
HC, Rick Adelman
===================
GM, Daryl Morey

you should be able to see that their weaknesses are, in fact, quite minimal, and more than made up for by their multiple strengths [e.g. Defense, Rebounding, FG%, 3FG%, Ast:TO, St:TO, etc.].

]]> By: WildYams http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2009/12/18/it-was-earth/comment-page-1/#comment-33683 WildYams Sat, 19 Dec 2009 08:54:37 +0000 http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/?p=4963#comment-33683 Well, keep in mind the Rockets had Yao for all of last regular season, and they had McGrady for about half of it (though in retrospect that didn't turn out to be such a good thing for Houston). I think people expected Houston to continue to be scrappy, but people felt that missing Yao was gonna hurt a lot. So really when you say that other than swapping Artest for Ariza "the only significant difference between last year’s playoff team and this year’s would-be playoff time is the (occasionally bad) shot creating abilities of Artest" that's not totally accurate. Yao was still there for a round and a half of the two playoff rounds Houston played last year. The final four games Houston played without him were 1) a pretty small sample size to begin with, and 2) wildly inconsistent, as they consisted of two blowout wins at home and two blowout losses on the road. I don't know if anyone really could be expected to ascertain much from those four Yao-less games. Well, keep in mind the Rockets had Yao for all of last regular season, and they had McGrady for about half of it (though in retrospect that didn’t turn out to be such a good thing for Houston). I think people expected Houston to continue to be scrappy, but people felt that missing Yao was gonna hurt a lot.

So really when you say that other than swapping Artest for Ariza “the only significant difference between last year’s playoff team and this year’s would-be playoff time is the (occasionally bad) shot creating abilities of Artest” that’s not totally accurate. Yao was still there for a round and a half of the two playoff rounds Houston played last year. The final four games Houston played without him were 1) a pretty small sample size to begin with, and 2) wildly inconsistent, as they consisted of two blowout wins at home and two blowout losses on the road. I don’t know if anyone really could be expected to ascertain much from those four Yao-less games.

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