HoopsCorner.com Articles: Rockets retouched

H o o p s C o r n e r . c o m

HoopsCorner

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December 12, 2003

Although the building is brand new and pretty finished, you would have thought the players were trying make a custom addition of their own with all the bricks they were throwing up. At the Toyota Center last night, the Rockets and Spurs had a combined 55 points at the half. An NBA record. Who was the worst of these 2 brick layers? The Spurs by a clear margin.

They held a 32 to 40% edge on field goals and a monster 52 to 83% decision on free-throws. But none of those factors directly decide an NBA game. San Antonio took 9 more field goals than the rockets and thanks to their 21 free-throw atttempts (compared to 6 for Houston), they galoped victorious out of Houston. 71-67.

On a day when nothing is going right you wonder how come Yao Ming only takes his usual number of field goal attempts. About 13. He should have been knocking himself out trying to make anything go in. which brings us to our second point.

Ever since Yao Ming came into town many corporate types have tried to cash in on the financial opportunities of his fame. But no one has more stake in him here in the U.S than the Houston Rockets. For them to really make a killing on his fame they need him to be successful. A Ming Dynasty has to take place.

Lets' look at all the indications. The Rockets' new arena's naming rights was bought by a Japanese company, Toyota. Yao is from China, but Toyota is still Asian nonetheless. The Rockets logo since their last title used to be a rocket blasting off. This year their logo is an "R" with a strategically incorporated design of a rocket. The big difference however is the art itself. The new logo is very much Eastern like, and has the same red tone as the Chinese flag.

Welcome to Houston Mr Ming.

Last year then coach Rudy Tomjanovich resigned because of his health condition. True lies. That was an NBA front office spin to relieve a well respected person of their duties. You see, while Tomjanovich was a well liked coach, management (and the NBA) having picking Yao #1 had vested considerable interests in him. Rudy T didn't show enough commitment in him as the front office would have liked. T kept running the Wink and Cat show considerably. He got dealt with. We sure do hope current coach Jeff Van Gundy has been following the team. Well so far they're doing fine. Is that saying much since Memphis has the same number of loses?

Francis, Mobley and Ming all average 17 points a game. Unless you're coaching future hall of famers shouldn't Van Gundy try to control who gets the green light? I mean...Kobe doesn't have a green light. We all know too well how Ray, Big Dog and Sam turned out with the Bucks.

Steve Francis is the point guard but the offense should run through Yao. He has shown before that he can find teammates. This season he's only averaging 2 assists a game. We're not mistaking Yao for the real go-to-guy on the team but during the game Yao should get more touches, and Francis should take over when a "situation" comes up.

While Mobley is a fine and fun offensive player, he should choose his spots. To breed a truly potent team, you need your true stallions, which can only be bread with a good dose of the rock.

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