Where Do the Rockets Go from Here?

Sometimes it isn’t fun being right. I did pick the Houston Rockets to beat the Utah Jazz in 6 games, but I have to admit that was a homer call, not my gut feeling. Before the series I expressed my concern that the Rockets would not be able to guard Deron Williams or Carlos Boozer. Sometimes it isn’t fun being right. But what was not necessarily expected was the fall out after the Rockets loss in Game 7.

No I am not talking about Tracy McGrady’s best impression of Andrei Kirilenko during the post-game press conference. I am talking about the unexpected departure of Coach Jeff Van Gundy. I hope everyone in Houston realizes what a blow this is to the Rocket’s cause. Van Gundy is a heck of a coach. Just look at what he was able to accomplish this year with so many things stacked against him. First, Yao Ming goes down for over 35 games with a broken leg. Not only do they lose the best center in the NBA, but they have to replace him with the combination of Dikembe Mutombo, Juwan Howard and Chuck Hayes. Two of them seem like they have been in the league for a combined 50 years and the other is an undrafted free agent that has already been cut twice by the Rockets in his young career.

Van Gundy was working all season with essentially no good options at point guard. He had one who couldn’t penetrate or play defense, in Rafer Alston. And the backup Luther Head only possessed a three-point shot that disappeared in the playoffs. Luther was not a legitimate back up point guard. He couldn’t dribble, pass or defend. So Alston was forced to log more minutes than any Rockets player this season.

Simply put, the Rockets had too many veteran players and were too slow to keep up with the Jazz and the pace of the playoffs. Who did Van Gundy have as options to put on Boozer? Juwan and Yao are too slow and Chuck Hayes is just not a great post defender. Rafer and Luther had no chance against Deron Williams. And when the rest of your line up consists of Shane Battier and Tracy McGrady, it just doesn’t stack up to the likes of Boozer, Kirilenko, Gordon Giricek, Matt Harpring, Williams, Paul Millsap, Derek Fisher and Mehmet Okur. Those guys are just so much younger, faster and crisper, there was just no way the Rockets could keep counting on them missing shots all series. Eventually the shots fell and so did Houston.

Van Gundy has not been without some criticism. Many felt his pick and roll offense has always bee too slow and predictable. His teams have never been break away and scoring teams and in the age of Steve Nash, the Phoenix Suns, Baron Davis and Golden State fast, scoring teams with strong point guard play seems to be the current style of play. When you have lumbering players and stagnant offense, you just can’t keep up.

But it seems like the situation was a product of the tension between Van Gundy and team president Les Alexander. Apparently Alexander laid most of the blame for last year’s 31 win season on Van Gundy. Despite the fact that the Rockets were decimated with injuries to Yao and McGrady all year, Van Gundy took the heat. This didn’t seem to sit to well with the coach. So when the Rockets had healthy players and the team was doing well this year, Van Gundy turned down two invitations by Alexander to renegotiate a new contract. Apparently his feelings were hurt, and probably rightly so. And Alexander is not blind. He has been watching the success of today’s speed teams and wants one for himself. That is probably not going to happen with Van Gundy at the helm.

In my opinion this will be a huge loss for the Rockets (depending on the replacement). But, despite his old-school style, Van Gundy is a great coach. He got every single thing out of his Rockets teams that he could. Alexander did not give him all the pieces to succeed, but its not like Alexander is going to fire himself, so Van Gundy is the fall guy for the disappointing finish to the year.

Hopefully the Rockets do no think this is the final solution to their problems. There needs to be wholesale changes to next years team. Alston needs a back up or needs to be a back up at point guard. There needs to be a more consistent 2 guard that can run and play defense and a power forward that can combine the shooting of Juwan Howard and the hustle of Chuck Hayes. Yao will get better, but will he be able to integrate into a speed offense? This is where a back up center would be nice. Tracy will be Tracy. He will fall in love with his jump shot and forget that taking it to the hoop works every time. But he is a great player and I am convinced that if he is surrounded by a better cast, he can lead the Rockets well past the first round.

Houston has some catching up to do with the league and they better do it fast because they will be doing it without a great coach. I am going to miss the depressing and comical Van Gundy press conferences. But few other coaches would have had the success Van Gundy did with the teams he has coached. Alexander better pull a great coach out of his hat. Because he is sure not going to find that will fight for his players like Jeff Van Gundy.

Houston Voted America's Least Offense-ive City

Take off your party hats and hold that last verse of Auld Lang Syne, Houstonians. This is the not the honor you may think it is. Houston has received this dubious award for fielding the worst team offenses in the three combined major sports franchises: Rockets, Astros and Texans. The offenses of the Astros and Texans have been brutal to watch the past few years but, in the true spirit of civic pride, the Rockets have joined this fraternity of futility (the anti-Phi Slamma Jamma) thus far in the 2007 NBA Playoffs.

HOUSTON TEXANS

The saga of the Houston Texans has been well documented (and quite lamented). Right form the start, through the expansion draft, the Texans chose lineman Tony Boselli to be the first player in franchises’ history. I would give you his stats, but Mr. Boselli never played a single game for the Texans due to injury. Sweet. So how did the Texans manage to top this? By drafting David Carr as the first pick in their very first draft. Sigh… At least with Boselli, he didn’t cost you any games. The same cannot be said for Carr. In 2006, the Texans finished 28^th in total offense. But hey, that is actually an improvement from a 30^th place offensive finish in 2005. At least they had a 19^th place finish in 2004 to get them over that 31^st place showing in 2003. If nothing else, the Texans can say they were the penultimate offense in 2003. That at least makes it sound like they were good, right?

HOUSTON ASTROS

Would it be wrong of me to wish for the days when Jeff Bagwell’s jersey was a little less… cough, cough…“baggy?” (Not that I am implying anything). The Astros offense was not that great in 2006. They were ranked 25^th in runs scored, 30^th in batting average and total bases (Penultimate!!!). Not to mention the painful chore of watching Brad Ausmus and Adam Everett ground into double play after inning ending double play all season.

So you may ask: what does giving Carlos Lee $100 million do for your team offense? Answer: 20^th in runs scored and 26^th in team batting average! Hooray! Oh, and I am going to point out that the team directly behind the Astros in team batting average is the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yes, this is the same Pirates team that the Astros are currently 0-6 against this year, and who have made the pitchers Jonah Bayliss, Zach Duke, Paul Maholm, and Ian Snell look like the second comings of Sandy Koufax. In the six games played against the Pirates this year, the Astros have put up 14 runs. And in the last 2 game have left a staggering 31 men on base. Just to put it in perspective, Craig Biggio may be the best batter on this team right now. I am just gonna let you sit back and let that one soak in for a while.

HOUSTON ROCKETS

Not to be outdone by their fellow Houstonians, the Rockets have decided to throw their hats into this prestigious ring (probably going to miss). Thus far, in their opening round playoff series against the Jazz, the Rockets have apparently given up on the idea of “field goal percentage” as an important goal. In Game 1, the Rockets blistered their way to 39% shooting from the floor. They followed that up with an impressive 36% performance in Game 2 (and 16% from 3-pt land). Then the Rockets stood up and proclaimed, “No! Indeed, we can shoot worse!” And they did in Game 3, going 32.8% in the game. Will the Rockets try to go all series without shooting over 40%? I don’t know for sure, but I bet they give it their damnedest.

But fear not Rockets fans, the team did set a few records in the midst of Game 3’s futility. The Rockets had a total of 4 players score on Thursday. FOUR! I could count that high on one hand, even if a freakin’ bear had bitten my thumb off! Team playoff record lows were set for points in a game (67), fewest field goals (21) and fewest points in a half (25). Again, to put this in perspective, Kobe just hit 15 shots in Game 3 of the Lakers/Suns Series.

I leave you with one lasting image that really sums up this whole situation, I give you this photo… Words just cannot describe… My brain hurts.

Rockets Up 2-0, Headed to Utah

The Houston Rockets did what they were supposed to do: win at home. Houston kept their home court advantage by taking both games in Houston. The Rockets now enjoy a 2-0 lead and are headed to Utah for the next two games. However, the Rockets have definitely not been playing “great” basketball. I guess this lends itself to a glass half full or empty argument: Should Rockets fans be glad they were able to win without playing their best or should they be worried that their luck will run out and the Jazz will finally start hitting their shots? So lets go ahead and look at the positives and negatives of the first 2 games. We are going to start with the negatives, so we can end on a positive note…

Negatives:

1- Carlos Boozer v. Rockets “Defense”: As was expected the Rocket defense has been utterly unable to guard Carlos Boozer anywhere on the court. He has hit outside shot and taken it to the rack in a dominant manner. Boozer has 52 points so far (41 on Tuesday). But it seems the Jazz have figured out no one on the court can stop him. Van Gundy tried Yao and Boozer blew by him. They tried several others and Boozer shot over them. So if the Jazz keep finding ways to get Boozer the ball on offense and he continues to hit the mid-range jumper, the Rockets should expect about 35 points a night the rest of the way.

2- T-Mac’s Inconstant Shooting: Tracy McGrady started the series with a 1-11 shooting half. Not the best way to get the playoff “monkey” off your back. McGrady did respond with a monster 2^nd half, but that start was concerning. And ever though, he ended up with a nice point total on Tuesday, T-Mac shot 9-29 from the field. Yeah….that’s not a good percentage. Fact is Tracy can shoot well, but has been inconsistent thus far. But what has been nice to see is that he will hit a big shot when it matters. So here’s hoping that there will be less hit and (mostly less) miss out to McGrady’s shooting in Utah.

3- Where did Battier Go?: 6 pts and 2 rbs in game 1, 10pts and 2 rbs in game 2. While his production in game two was more in line with his season stats, it just doesn’t seem like Battier has come up with the huge shots and affected the game as he did in the regular season. I guess everyone is still waiting for that well-timed three-pointer or hustle play that really gets the team going. Good thing Chuck Hayes has taken that role so far (will be discussed later).

Positives

1- A 2-0 Lead in the Series: Hey, when it comes down to it, winning is all that matters. I don’t care how pretty it is, winning both your home games and taking a 2-0 lead is never a bad thing. I am going to go ahead and be positive and be glad the Rockets pulled out wins with less than dominant performances. Pulling out just one win in Utah might seal up the series win for the Rockets and ensure the franchises first series win in 10 years

2- Andrei Kirilenko has been Reduced to Tears: You heard me right. Apparently Tom Hanks needs to make an appearance in the Jazz locker room and let Linky know that the no crying rule in baseball also applies to this particular sport. Upset about his game 1 performance and playing time, Andrei lost it with reporters and had to mop up a few tears. It was an uncomfortable situation for everyone. Well, how did Kirilenko buck up and recover his manhood? By going out in Game 2 and going 0-3 from the floor, with 3 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 5 fouls and ZERO points in only 18 minutes of play. I really started feeling bad for him after a while. He looked like he was tearing up after every miss and foul. I hope Deron Williams was able to dish out a few hankies on the plane ride home.

3- Chuck Hayes: What can you say about Chuck Hayes' performance in Game 2? Well, he had 12 points on 5-5 shooting with 12 rebounds (7 offensive) and hustled all over the court. Oh yeah… He created life too! Chuck Hayes also became a father before the game and he definitely made his Baby Mama happy with his effort. Hayes really set the tone early in the game with his hard play on both ends of the court. He rebounded offensively and did a serviceable job guarding Mehmet Okur in the post. If Hayes keeps up this somewhat unexpected production, the Rockets will be a much stronger rebounding and a much deeper team this series. And he has his own fan website. ChuckHayesFans.net