With the dawn of the new season upon us, there isn't really that much uncertainty surrounding the Houston Rockets. Pretty much everyone agrees that they will win 35-42 games, that Aaron Brooks and McGrady are the biggest wild cards, and that Clyde will remain as unintelligible as ever. However, one burning question still remains unanswered: Who will be the new whipping boy?As any fan knows, intellectual sports discussion is simply not possible without a designated whipping boy. The Rockets have had a particularly rich legacy in this department with characters spanning from Rafer Alston, to the infamous Kelvin Cato, to Matt Maloney, and even the legendary Kenny Smith.
In trying to assess this year's team, what really troubles me is that no one really jumps out as a strong early candidate to fill Rafer Alston's shoes. Brian Cook would be the obvious favorite, but he's more of a punchline and hopefully won't be seeing the light of day. Some folks will crucify their personal choice of David Anderson, Trevor Ariza, or Aaron Brooks, but that will be on the basis of unwarranted assumptions and I do think reason will prevail in each respective case before the angry mob gains too much steam.
It is absolutely crucial for a sports fan to stay angry about something at all times. That potential void is what makes this season so difficult. Daryl Morey has assembled such a rock solid group of players (at reasonable price tags) that it is hard to foresee anyone sucking badly enough to incur the collective wrath of the fan base. But it's still early. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out.
Posts
7 comments:
Aaron Brooks was the whipping boy last year and I'll guess he'll get the brunt of it this year too.
i think chuck will catch a lot of heat from people who only look at him on the offensive end.
It will be Battier.
i can see aaron brooks taking heat. he has the biggest responsibility on the team as the only real scoring threat. that's rough.
tom: i think most of the smarter fans appreciate what chuck brings by now
I think it'll be Ariza. He's the shiny new toy that we paid good money for, and fans are going to expect him to do more than he should. He's a solid role player but I expect him to struggle quite a bit trying to do more than that this year.
i think it is ariza this year. the fans got pretty hyped about his potential before actually seeing him play... this is the fans own fault, granted, but he now has some unreasonably high expectations for the offensive side of his game. especially with the rockets needing that scoring punch this year... the only way ariza avoids this is if tmac gets back soon and begins scoring in bunches...
Mike/PP - its certainly starting to look that way. i have a post in the works on this very topic
Post a Comment