Dash

Wow huge break for the Pacers. If that call is on Hibbert and you can call it a night.

George Hill!

Another missed free throw from Indiana...

Pacers struggling to score in the 4th but Hibbert back for like 30 seconds and they get 4 points easy up on the board. Barbosa missing those free throws is a huge blow, could end up costing them the game.

Rebound the ball...

Wow another huge three from Steve Blake.

Pau working the offensive glass right now.

3) Kevin McHale 4) Kyle Lowry When Morey said that we would keeping a majority of Adelman's motion offense (part of why we brought up Chris Finch), I didn't think it would nearly be this bad. Mid-March I actually loved Kevin McHale, I supported the decision of hiring of him over Casey and I was impressed how he managed to "improve" this team despite hardly any roster changes when he took over. However, his play calling and in-game adjustments sucks and it eventually caught with him when the Rockets failed so miserably at the end of the season. Honestly I had no idea what Houston was running half the time I was watching, it just seemed like a bunch of Dragic iso's and posting freaking Patrick Patterson up. Anyways back to Martin. McHale has one of the best, if not the best, off-ball player in the league and what does he tell him to do? He makes Martin stand around the perimeter...and do nothing...at all. Seriously I'm dumbfounded how he could misuse Martin so bad, he didn't seem have any sort of liking to him either and obviously favored Courtney Lee even when we were struggling to score and he had a guy capable of scoring 25 points rotting on the bench. Lowry brought Martin down too, I remember one of the first regular season games K-Mart was giving all the credit to his "all-star point guard" for his outstanding performance and yet as the season drew on Lowry would gradually deteriorate Kevin's game. He grew too overconfident and selfish (Aaron Brooks flashbacks) and he would mostly waste the shot clock and then pass it to Martin and force him to chuck up a shot. Martin has not played a single game with Goran Dragic starting and its one of the few things I was hoping to see before the season ended, but McHale would never let Martin off the bench because of his "injury". McHale is a great talker, players love playing for him and he's one of the more talented post players to ever play the game so he's going to be a huge help for our big men prospects when he finally has a chance to work with them over the offseason and training camp. Those are his only qualities, he needs to surround himself with coordinators that make him out to be a better coach than he actually is in order to succeed. Kelvin Sampson did fine as the defensive coordinator but the offense is still a mess. Chris Finch better be worth all this. He's the reason that Adelman is gone and if he doesn't live up to the hype as McHale eventual successor, there is going to be an outrage among the fanbase. Jeff Van Gundy is still an option down the road too, as far as I can tell the Rockets are the only team he may ever bother coming back for any time soon despite being fired by them. Ah I've just read a lot of negatives about him from everywhere I went and the only reason he goes top 5 is apparently because of his "potential", which I agree he likely won't ever live up to but I'm willing to bank on it. I can't really comment on Rivers or any prospect for that matter so I'll have to take your word for it, I rarely watched college ball this year with college but like every year I'll step it up once the combine and workouts begin. I'd say around that time I'll be digging through scouting reports and watching old game tape. I'm only mentioning Rivers because if Houston gets either Drummond/Jones along with Motiejunas then ideally we would want a high potential wing rather than another big man. I don't think there is any way that Lamb will last till the 14th pick but if he does then I'll be jumping backflips.

To be honest my interest in the NBA has dipped significantly and its a huge reason behind my low activity for the past year. The lack of interest has been due to a variety of reasons: 1) College 2) Football 3) The lockout - just turned me off big time. 4) Chris Paul trade veto 5) The Rockets - I'd rather be the Bobcats right now. The semester ends this Tuesday and I haven't had my cable for a few weeks now, so I've mostly had to stream the games and the first round has been a snoozefest for the most part. Should have it back next week so I'll see if I can't post around the gameday threads more often. Stuff like the trade deadline, draft and free agency spark my interest. I think I posted more on the trade deadline than I did all year long. I still love this community though, don't mind the dip in activity as much and I come visit this site nearly every day, its just I tend to lurk more than post these days.

[expletive].

One more week till summertime, might start volunteering down at the hospital in Houston with my friend. I'm supposed to be doing only like 4-5 hours per week but I'll probably do more since I don't plan on doing much during the break. This break is going to suck though, my best friends are going to Pakistan and I won't see them back till July. Really surprised that anyone would want to go there with all the unrest these days...well more than normal, its always been a [expletive]ed up place to live but people are unhappy and the violence has been getting worse.

Problem what that is Dragic wouldn't be able to be traded until midway through the regular season and I don't see him signing if we're pursuing Deron Williams. And we still lack a trade piece that could be the center of a trade for a superstar like Dwight Howard. Don't see any reason for Goran Dragic to come back as the sixth man, he's far and away the best player on this roster. Not a fan of trading Martin at all, I think we need to give him the chance to play beside Dragic before looking to move him because his trade value right now is GARBAGE and we're not going to get anything of value for him. Morey isn't known for selling low on his players and I don't like Beasley for this team either especially at the price of Martin. As for our draft picks, we should be targeting high potential players because in our position we're aren't at the leisure of picking up superstars and frankly I'm sick of drafting above-average talent with the last pick in the lottery. I'd say package Kyle Lowry to the Sacramento Kings for the 5th pick assuming they don't move up, the Kings would get their point guard beside Tyreke Evans and Houston would have the opportunity to draft at the highest position ever in the Daryl Morey era. With that pick I would take Andre Drummond. I'm sure our draft experts like BFT are rolling their eyes over this, I'm honestly not a big Drummond fan either but again Houston is in a tough spot and they have to begin swinging for the fences and taking a chance on high reward prospect like Drummond despite his high bust factor. After the big four (Davis, Beal, Robinson, MKG) I don't see anyone else worth taking with a top 5 draft pick, its why I expect whoever ends up with the 5th/6th pick after the lottery to be dangling it in the trade market right away. Austin Rivers, Perry Jones and Meyers Leonard are other prospects worth taking a look at. If we're going to stand pat and play it safe (highly unlikely) then I'm a fan of drafting Tyler Zeller (might have to move up a few spots for him) and Arnett Moultrie.

Very slim. Dragic wants to go somewhere where he can start and having another point guard on this roster that is very capable of stealing back his spot isn't very promising from his perspective. If there is anything I'm pumped about for next season, its finally seeing Motiejunas in a Rockets uniform. At this point he's the only player we have that has the potential of being an all-star, he's improved tremendously overseas and probably could go in the top 5 in this year's draft.

Well we got nothing else to do until the playoffs are over. What do you guys think needs to happen? Free agents: Goran Dragic, Courtney Lee, Marcus Camby and potentially Samuel Dalembert Draft picks: 14th overall and 16th overall Cap space: roughly $8 million, could expand to the max with renouncements / amnesty / trade.

Dragic, his percentages blow Lowry out of the water and I prefer his playmaking ability over Lowry's. Actually not really a big fan of Lowry, I loved him during the season early on but he quickly began to get further away from that All-Star status that was labelled on him during his impressive 15 game stretch. His defense was great and there were times where we were in desperate need of a basket and Lowry would just pull up and sink a deep three with ease. However, he soon became an inefficient scorer and he's one of the many reasons for the demise of Kevin Martin. He often would just hold onto the ball for the duration of the shot clock and then when he couldn't find anything, he would pass it to the a camping Kevin Martin (yep a player that specializes in coming off screens is standing around the three point line. Wonderful coaching indeed) and then force him to take the shot. If we can bring back Dragic to a reasonable contract, maybe a little overpayment but if he's in the $8 million range then you gotta bring him back and make him the future starting point guard.

Just do SOMETHING to reward teams that don't tank their way to a high pick. For the third straight year the Rockets are the best team in the lottery and yet are the ones getting [expletive]ed over because they actually try to win their games while the ones blatantly tanking are reaping the rewards. I'm sick of the current system.

Count me a fan of the Mercilus pick, our defense just got so much better and we haven't even seen how Sharpton can do as a starter. Great pick, didn't expect him to last all the way to our pick. I was so excited when DeCastro and Reiff kept dropping but then crushed when both were taken back to back, upset we didn't trade up for either one but I'll live. This second round looks DEEP, loads of trades and reaches in the first round causing good talent to drop. I'd love it if we could move up in the 2nd round for one of Coby Fleener, Cordy Glenn or Rueben Randle. Could always stay where we are and simply take Brian Quick although I'm getting the sense that we're gunning for an offensive linemen this round, which is fine by me because they were dropping like flies in the first round so some good talent in that position left.

Lol yeah I love Hightower's talent but you're right that with the signing of James, even if its for depth, makes it highly unlikely that we draft him. Fleener would easily be the best "receiver" available although we should definitely draft an actual wide receiver in the first two rounds, third round at the latest. Veteran or rookie is fine by me as long as we bring in a player to help fill out the depth chart. I'm more of a fan of just taking a rookie quarterback though, he'll be third string for entire regular season likely so why not draft someone to groom along with TJ Yates? True Schaub's health isn't something we can count on but I think its likely that Texans management would sign a veteran QB if Schaub were ever to go down instead of throwing our 2nd project QB to the wolves. As for a NT, hasn't Crick had some nagging injury? I like Alameda Ta'amu but he's 2nd round talent and certainly shouldn't fall out of that round at all. Wolfe is someone I know that the Texans have expressed interest in once or twice in the draft process, if Wade likes him that much then we should definitely scoop him up.

As far as I can tell the James signing was only for depth and Sharpton is far from a sure thing although the brass seems to be very high on him. I actually think that Randle is one of the more "safe" picks in the receiver class so I'm not opposed at all to drafting him. Need vs BPA, Randle is fine but I'm more of a fan of taking the best player available (in my mind its Hightower) and then taking a decent receiver prospect in the 2nd round such as Quick. The problem is that I think Quick is going to be off the board by the mid 2nd round, but there is where the luxury of owning so many compensatory picks next year kicks in because the Texans could easily trade one of their loads of picks in next year's draft along with one this year in order to move up in the draft. Dont'a Hightower/Coby Fleener, Brian Quick and a nose tackle in the 3rd round would be quite the coup by the Houston Texans. I would then look for Kubes to shore up on the offensive line with the 4th and 5th rounders, maybe even pick up on a corner with the departure of Jason Allen although this depends strongly on how Phillips feels about Brandon Harris. The final two picks would just be for depth with one of them very likely being for a punt returner and a third-string quarterback for Kubiak to grom isn't out of the question either considering Schaub's health issues the past few years. Edit: Actually just give me Fleener.

Randle is okay but I still feel like he would be a reach even in the late first round and I don't want any part of Stephen Hill as our first pick either. Coby Fleener and Dont'a Hightower are at the top of my board. Just take a receiver in the 2nd round, fingers crossed that Brian Quick is still on the board.

Knicks pick is 17th right now I think.

Gotcha. I'll be rereading the series myself over the summer once I'm through the books I'm on now. This time I won't make the mistake or reading the 4th book. -_- Speculation is that Osha was going to take over their roles but you and I both know how difficult that would be work out. I was just googling for recent casting news and found this gem: So its possible that we can be seeing them later in the season, possibly even a couple other characters (at least I hope so) that haven't been casted yet. Could just be BS but at least there is some hope.

Time to tank for the 12th/13th pick.

If you think Arya is awesome now, just wait till later. I'm assuming you read all 5 books? I can't really comment on the differences between the book and the show since I haven't watched beyond the first episode yet (even that I haven't gotten through with), but keeping up with the casting and such this was expected. So far I've only noticed the scene with Jaime where he wasn't supposed to be having one yet, but apparently they didn't want the viewers who haven't read the books to forget him so that made sense. They cut out a couple of important characters too with the Blackfish, Edmure, Ramsay, the Reeds, etc. Not sure how its all going to work but I'm still intrigued. Season 2 does take quite a while to set up, it was slower than the first book that set up the entire series but there are so many characters to introduce that it made sense. From the book's standpoint, the first two were interchangeable on which one was better. I've read up on the production of the ending and it sounds like it won't be anything short of fantastic.

Going to be spending my Saturday night at an opera show for a report for my music class (fine arts credit). Then the following day at noon I might be going again for extra credit points. I'd say this weekend could always get worse but the Rockets already got knocked out of the playoffs.