This is the newer Rockets fan group. I was one of the first 6 originial members of the first one but the admin is long gone and have never updated. Funny, after I created this group, the other group's leader actually updated their pic and have a crap load of members there. Oh well, will be here as much as I can to update and make this group and cohesive and interesting one. Oh yea, GO ROCKETS!!! :D

Special shoutout to all of the members from the Clutch BBS Boards, all you gals/guys ROCK!!!

I FINALLY UPDATED :) 2007 OFFSEASON REVIEW

Yea... so another season, another off season passes, and I am finally updating this group. Since we already know what happened during the 2007 NBA Playoffs, and the fact that I don't really want to talk about it, lefts look forward.....

Days after the Jazz advanced, the media and fans around were discussing JVG's future. JVG has given us 4 productive seasons and 1 Stromile/injury riddled seas, which well, forgive him for that. Out of the those 3 productive seasons, were 3 first round exits in which 2 of them we had a 2-0 advantage. At first, JVG said he needed "time" to ponder his future. Well, some like the newly crowned GM Daryl Morey, and longtime owner Leslie Alexander, made the decision for him, and just canned him. Rumors swirled who would be next. Fans favored for vaious candidates, some wanted new blood, some wanted past Rockets Connections, other wanted a proven head coach. Apparently Les' decision was based on Clyde Drexler's fondness for his former coach. Les and fans got what we all wanted, an offensive minded coach after witnessing Jvg's "boring" offensive strategies, or lack of.

In mid-June, the finals hasn't even finished yet, but the Rockets already made the first off season move before the Spurs wrapped up the Larry O'Brian trophy. It was rumored ever since the trade deadline back in February, and was finally completed where the return of Mike James kicked off the off season before it even started and all we did was give up Juwan Howard. Steal? kinda of, James has a pretty lofty contract, and Howard's is an expiring contract, but after what we all witness in the playoffs, we needed another scoring punch from somewhere, and James fits the bill. After a contract year with the Raptors, he had a rather disappointing first season it the Wolves, after rookie Randy Foye took over his starting job. He was just in a situation where he wasn't happy, they weren't winning, and well, they were losing. Howard departure was sad for me, he was the glue of the team when Yao was out. We can only imagine what would've happen if he wasn't there.

One gap filled, now to fill another, power forward, Since Howard left, all we had was Chuck Hayes, who was a Restricted FA, so technically we did not have any power forwards at all. End of June came, and we had the 26th pick of the draft and who did we get? Aaron Brooks from Oregon, WHO? Minutes after he was picked, many of us thought he was going to be traded for maybe a veteran. As the draft went on and found out that we were keeping him. Huh? We just got Mike James, need a freaking PF, and people compared Brooks as a poor man's John Lucas III. Morey's explanation of the pick? There wasn't any PF out there to pick, so they picked the best player available. Once Summer Camp came around, the media, and scouts praised Morey for maybe getting the "steal" of the draft. Brooks went on to become the "best rookie" in the Las Vegas Summer League, and was picked on a scrimmage squad to play against the USA team competing for the Championship of the Americas. Stars such as Kobe and Jason Kidd praised Brooks for his quickness and accuracy of his 3 point treys. Looks like we may have another late first round steal on our hands :)

So, its July, free agency window is open to get our PF right? Who's left? Joe Smith signed with the Bulls, Rashard Lewis (like we had a chance) went to Orlando, well, that was about all that was offered. So, who can we trade to get the assets we needed and who were we going to trade for? After Vassilis Spanoulis bitched about getting out of his contract after butting heads with JVG and well, we asked him to stay along with our 20 other PGs, we manage to steal what has been said, the best foriegn player out there not playing in the NBA, Luis Scola from the IN STATE/DIVISION San Antonio Spurs. How? Did Morey do some mind tricks to the Spurs? Really, literally, one of the best PFs in the game outside of the NBA falls into our laps for a whinny greek guard, who was later waived by the Spurs. SA said it was a cap move, who cares. The Rockets ended up signing Scola for like $3mil/per for 3 years, again another Morey move, low risk, high reward move on his part. Scola showed his talent later in the summer by being MVP of the FIBA Tournament of the Americas after leading the Argentina to a silver medal, just short of the US for the gold. As for his skills? Solid outside shooter, hits the boards, phenomenal passer in the post, and just all around glue guy, the PF version of Shane Battier.

Now if that wasn't enough, a week after obtaining Scola, and a week of speculation, Steve Francis came back home. The buzz was mixed, but I for one, WAS FREAKING ECSTATIC. Franchise was one of my favorite Rockets players of all time and to have him back playing with TMac/Yao is out of this world. The setback? We have a total of FIVE PGs on this team, with Rafer Alston looking like the odd man out, Bob Sura finally looking like he is calling it quits, and who knows if John Lucas III will just be waived or traded for scraps.

On lighter off season notes, Bonzi Wells choose to stick with the Rockets after Adelman's arrival, Carl Landry was drafted in the second round and was just now recently signed, and Jackie Butler/Justin Reed also came on board within the trades posted above.

With a sad report to pass along, farewell to former Rocket Eddie Griffin as he died on impact in a car accident in Houston. That dude had so much potential it wasn't even funny. Was instantly a favorite of mine when he came to the league, because was one of the first that was close to my age, loved his game, an outside shooter, block shot specialist, and had an inside game that wasn't exposed enough.


With Media day coming up, and the training camp/preseason upon us, where did the times go by since May 5th? Who cares, the season about to start and "ITS TIME"