NBA team profile: 2007/2008 Houston Rockets
Overveiw: The Houston Rockets were a team in flux, and after 3 trips to the playoffs in 4 years, 2 50-plus win seasons and 3 first round playoff exits the Rockets on May 18, announced that the Rockets decided to part ways with Jeff Van Gundy. Five days later the team named Rick Adelman as the 11th head coach in team history. Rick Adelman, who has recorded the sixth most wins among active NBA coaches, was considered a good coach who came close to going to the NBA Finals with Sacramento and Portland including 2 trips the NBA Finals
Starters: The Rockets lost 127 games to injuries to various players witch was the least amount they have lost in over 4 years, problem is that half the All-Stars on this team lost 99 of them Ming with 27 and Francis with 72.
C- Yao Ming; averaged 22.0 points, 10.8 rebounds 2.3 assists and 2.02 blocks (all but points are career high)
Yao started all 55 games he played in this year before his injury. We will never know how far the Rockets winning streak would have stretched if not for Yao going down with a stress fracture in the tarsal navicular bone in his left foot. Yao had posted 33 double-doubles, which was tied for sixth among NBA leaders before his season-ending injury and made his sixth consecutive All-Star game in only 6 years he has moved past Robert Reid (3,606) into sixth place in Rockets history for total rebounds. Yao should be 100% by the start of next season
PF- Luis Scola; averaged 10.3 points and 6.4 rebounds
Scola started 39 games and played in all 82 games and he was the only Rockets player to see action in all 82 games. In his 39 starts he recorded nine 20-point games and 10 double-doubles only Yao Ming with 33 had more double-doubles on the Rockets during the season. Luis was the only rookie to qualify among NBA league leaders in field goal percentage (.515, 19th in NBA)
SF- Shane Battier; 9.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, 0.96 steals and 1.13 blocks per game
Shane started 78 of the 80 games he played this year. Battier missed to games due to an ankle injury and was held on the bench to mirror Manu Ginobili of the Spurs for 2 games. Shane was third in voting for the 2007-08 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Shane had 1 double-double
SG- Tracy McGrady; averaged 21.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.03 steal per game
T-Mac started 62 games of the 66 games he played. Tracy ranked 15th in the NBA in scoring and had four 40-point outings and 15 30-point performances. Tracy is a seven-time NBA All-Star selection.
PG- Steve Francis; 5.5points, 3.0 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game
Steve started 3 of the 10 games he played in but was hindered by a quad injury before having surgery on his torn quadricep tendon in his right knee on Feb. 26. Francis is a former three-time NBA All-Star selection.
Dikembe Mutombo 3.0 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game
Mutombo stands second on the NBA's all-time blocked shots list, moving past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar into second all-time. Mutombo also surpassed Charles Oakley (12,205) into 17th place on the NBA's all-time rebounding chart
The Big news in Houston, other than the 1st round playoff loss was the 22 game winning streaks. Houston won 22 in a row- the 2nd longest streak in NBA history. Houston won the final 10 games of the streak without Yao Ming in the lineup. Unfortunately, Houston could not turn the winning streak into playoff success, losing in the first round again. Houston actually won 35 of its final 43 games, including a run of 15 consecutive victories at Toyota Center. Houston was first in the NBA in total rebounds per game, and out-rebounded their opponent in 51 of 82 games this season, which included 21 times by a
double-digit margin. The Rockets were only out-rebounded 5 times by a double digits.
Outlook:
The Rockets have a question to ask themselves for this upcoming season; do they continue on with Ming, T-Mac and Steve Francis? They only have the 25th and 54th pick, but there is just not a lot of Talent around them- but Ming is untraceable as they could not get anywhere NEAR what he means to the team either on or off the court, same as T-Mac and Francis seems to have run out of GM's willing to take his salary or his attitude.