I'm Baaaaaaack! All-Star Break and Nonsense

It's been quite a while since my last post. (About a year and a half) I slipped out of the habit for whatever reason. Like a lot of my posts, this isn't structured very well. I basically just poured my thoughts out. The Rockets are still as irrelevant as they were last time I posted, but at least it's looking like they might make the playoffs this year. A lot has happened since my last post: the hiring of Kevin McHale, the lockout, the Chris Paul trade that wasn't, the Chris Paul trade that was. I'm not sure I've ever been as upset as I was when that trade was nixed. I, like many other Rockets die-hards, had spent hours dreaming of a dominant big man duo of Pau and Nene. I was looking forward to the Rockets being covered by the national media and playing games on national TV again.

I still feel like Morey is going to make a big trade by the deadline. Maybe we get Pau. Maybe we trade Kevin Martin. Apparently Courtney Lee wants to be traded, since the Rockets won't give him an extension(Daryl Morey doesn't give anyone extensions). I want Morey to trade for a consistent post scorer or someone who can create his own shot. This team is sitting pretty at 20-14 and could really make some noise in the playoffs with a good trade.

I think it's a shame that the trade deadline isn't the Wednesday after the All-Star game because of the lockout. There is always a lot of excitement with GMs negotiating with each other during the weekend. The trade rumors are usually more exciting then the game itself. March 15th isn't that far away though. It will be interesting to see if any rumors start this weekend. I'm thinking that Dwight Howard rumors will probably pick up, which will make for a painful and dramatic few weeks from the media.

I'm not sure how excited I am about the actually events of All-Star Weekend. Chase Budinger (who is seeing no playing time) is in the dunk contest, and Chandler Parsons is in the Shooting Stars competition. I've wanted to see Chase Budinger in the dunk contest since he was a rookie. Whoever decided on the dunk contest participants definitely knew what they were doing. I think Bud is the best dunker on the team.

I guess it's nice to see Parsons in the Shooting Stars competition, although he should have been in the Rising Stars game. He's not actually a rising star but neither is Tristan Thompson. It is phenomenal that a white guy drafted late in the 2nd round is an impact starter in his rookie season. Chandler is definitely not a shooter, but he does have a knack for hitting half-court shots. It was kind of his thing at Florida. He actually did hit a beautiful buzzer beater three off a broken play against the Sixers that may or may not have been a fade-away.

The last thing I want to talk about is how much I like Kevin McHale. There have been rumblings that some players are upset with his play selection, because they want to run a few Adelman plays that used to work well, but I think that's normal for this type of coaching change. There were a number of things I disliked about Adelman. The number one thing though was how awful he was with the media. Kevin McHale is fun to watch in interviews and press conferences no matter what mood he's in. He had a great presser last night. I'd talk about it, but I think Rahat Huq did it justice in this post: http://www.red94.net/mchale-perception/9068/ ... I feel like McHale being our head coach just makes our big men better. I can only imagine what he could have done with Pau and Nene.

So that's really all I have to say for now. I'll probably have a post All-Star post(yeah, that sounds stupid). If a trade goes down, I'm sure I'll have plenty to write about it.