DISQUS

john,

i am also glad the rox are doing well and have moved on from the tmac situation.

but i'm not sure if u have moved on from the tmac situation. before every article u have chosen to trash him in one way or another. its become a drag to read that part when what i really wanna read about is how well the rox are doing. just my 2 cents.

of forget that last question, they traded him for scola

I'm elated the Rockets have Scola, but I do think Vassilis had some potential that wasn't tapped appropriately. He played poorly when he had the chance, but I think JVG could have given him a little more leeway to play longer minutes earlier in his Rockets career to get him some confidence. I believe JVG was too strict in always having the best players on the floor playing, but I think you have to bring younger players along in order to succeed over a long season without damaging the team too much in the short term. Rick Adelman played Aaron Brooks more minutes than JVG did Spanoulis, and it seems to have made a difference in Aaron's game.

watching vassilis spanoulis play makes me wonder why JVG never gave this guy a chance. he's a better player than rafer in my opinion, and he certainly coulda played some backup point or shooting guard ahead of luther head 2 years ago. and he can certainly play and help them last year and this coming year in adelman's offense. its too bad JVG's lack of PT for him all but drove him to return to europe.

any thoughts on this john. i know its 2 years ago, but wondering what you thought. not that he will come back, but do the rockets still have his nba rights?

www.nbcolympics.com doesn't work outside US??

i too went thru what john and airchina went thru growin up. pau and the rest of the guys might be good guys. i dont' know them so they might be bad guys too. whether they are racist or not, what they did was ignorant and immature. we've all known shaq to be immature, but this comes from a whole team and not an individual. wasn't pau in the league when shaq got crucified??

i dunno what spanish stereotypes are......but if the chinese team all decided to make big lips before they played the US team, that would be an equivalent of what the spanish team did.

i found out about the controversy after watchin the game. it pisses me even more now that china couldnt' hold onto the lead. i hope we play spain again and beat them in the medal round.

I thought this article was rather silly. Ultimately the decision to play for China AND the Rockets is up to Yao. This article makes it seem as if playin for the rockets should be above playin for China. During the whole time Yao has been in the NBA he has made it clear that playin for CNT and in the Olympics is a great honor.

None of us want Yao to play so much as clearly its worn him down physically. But to say CNT should give Yao a break would be the same thing as saying the Rockets should give Yao half the season off until the all star break. If anything, the NBA season playin 4 games in 5 nights and flyin every two days is way more taxing on the body.

I'm not saying Yao should quit the rockets and play for CNT, as of course the rockets are my favorite team now. Just that these articles that come out every season about Yao quittin CNT or taking time off of CNT only look at it from one side and not the other. People within the US generally think that their league or their country should be most important. These same people probably criticize NBA players who turn down TEAM USA when invited.

john,

i cut and pasted teh box score for you
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/basket...

u must open it up with the + sign.

david

Thanks, David. I see it's finally available! -- John

i think GREEN IS the player to be named later becuz the rox can't trade him until his one month.

mike miller would be a great fit. but then again, we said the same about bonzi and stromile.

yes, the trade definitely stunted brooks' growth. at the time i totally did not get the trade. mike james is basically bobby jackson, but younger and maybe quicker. i did at the time of the trade read in an article that part of the reason was to dump james contract. and i thought, maybe management has their reasons.

about the backup center, i feel deke could play the 10 minutes a nite and landry could shift over to center occasionally while gettin all the backup pf minutes. i think he can have a bigger role with 25-30 min a nite. we all remember how well deke did when he was first inserted into the lineup. maybe he ran outta gas and the rest of the leauge also knew not to challenge him too much. or maybe a younger deke (a guy like desagna diop) could help. we don't really need a scoring center with yao back, and scola is a crafty scorer as well.

I remember when Daryl Morey (GM) said that the Bonzi-for-Bobby trade which also included Mike James had nothing to do with dumping contracts or preparing for the future, but to win now. He responded to that when asked by a caller on a radio talk show if the deal was in line with the Rockets' marketing mantra, "It's time" and winning for today. He said absolutely it was to win in the 2007-08 season. So if that was the case (which it should have been) then they probably made a bad move. I say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I think the Rockets got a little cute in doing this deal, and it backfired. -- John

hey john and everyone,

long time reader, first time poster. Regarding this season, it was a great season despite the first round loss. Of course the 22 game win streak was a big reason why. I never liked the bonzi trade. mike james woulda done the same work bobby jackson did, so it was like givin bonzi away. I guess bonzi never lived up to expectations, just like stromile swift, but i woulda liked to see him with the team....and he was always a spurs killer.

regarding next season. my take on the roster is this. Yao obviously in the middle. Scola and Battier at the forwards. Battier is highly limited on offense, but his 3 pt shootin is always timely, he's a team player and he plays solid D. I do hate when Battier posts. His left handed hook does not seem very accurate. i would like to see TMac paired with Yao for one more season. i really feel Tmac gets a bad rap. yes he takes too many jumpers and doesnt' drive enough. yes his free throw shooting is poor for an elite player. the difference between him and kobe is the accuracy. kobe shoots a higher FG % and FT %. but then how many kobe's are there in the league. if i recall, Tmac also had a huge game 7 last year vs Utah. and i think Tmac also played great in that dallas series. the man can only do so much. the key is i feel yao is much improved from 2 seasons ago. his stats are similar, but its beginning to become more yao's team rather than tmac's. finally alston. i was just like you, wanted alston out. but he has won me over this season. rafer beat out all the guards houston brought in and has time and again proved his doubters wrong. rafer's shootin still needs improvement. lets hope he can continue to play like this and not return to the old rafer. if only him and tmac can both improve there FG % by 3-5% and there FT % by 5-10 %. so the starting 5 shall remain intact.

the backups??
backup point - aaron brooks. give him a chance
backup sg - steve francis. i hope he returns
backup sf - steve novak. why can't he play a kyle korver type role
backup pf - landry. hope he can return to what he was during that 22 game win streak. i think he can do it. utah is a bad matchup for landry cuz they are very physical. landry i feel can get his hustle boards over most west teams. and can get those game changing dunks vs most of them as well. utah does not give up layups so gettin a dunk on them is very hard.
backup center -Deke. we're not askin deke to play 20 -24 min like he was this season near the end. 10-15 min outta deke would be fine. and somtimes we could go small with scola and landry.

luther head needs to go. we've given him plenty of opportunities. i like the guy, but he just can't get it done.
chuck hayes needs to go as well. although, if he's the 11th or 12th guy off the bench, i guess its not so bad.

the team did well this season, but obvioulsy the loss of yao hurt. we never got to see the 22 game win streak team in the playoffs. with scola starting and yao back, why not give this roster another chance. and if stevie franchise can come back and become any semblance of what he was......that may be the secondary playmaker the rockets need.

in closing, thanks for the great work john. you are one dedicated individual. one questoin for you......what are your thoughts about steve francis?? is he returning?? would u like to see him return? do u think he can be productive? everyone mentions the bonzi trade, the yao injury and the rafer injury. but noone really mentions francis.

Hey David, welcome to YaoMingMania and thanks for your first post. I agree with you on the Mike James and Bobby Jackson similarities. They were pretty close, but I guess in their scouting reports Bobby Jack had a slight edge, but probably not significant.

I agree with most of your other comments other than Deke. He can stick around as a 3rd string center as insurance, but IMHO the Rockets are going to need a backup center who can SCORE to take a few more minutes from Yao to save his feet from pounding so he doesn't wear out and get injured again. So maybe Yao plays 30 minutes, a new backup center who takes Loren Woods' roster spot (assuming he's not good enough to stick around) plays 13 and also switches over to backup PF, and Deke plays 5 when needed for defensive purposes, especially late in the season and in the playoffs.

I think the odds of Francis being able to make a contribution are very low. Even when he wasn't hurt, he didn't play that great except for one game. I don't think he has much left in his body, and he reported to camp out-of-shape last season. I'll be very surprised if he makes the team, and if he does, I think he'll get injured again. I think the Rockets will go hard after a scoring SG.

Thanks for the compliment about my work. I appreciate that. -- John