A New Chapter Begins

Recapping the Rockets' Media Day

Jason Friedman
Rockets.com Staff Writer

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO FROM ALL THE MEDIA DAY PRESS CONFERENCES

Houston - Sometimes media days turn into a circus. Others are so tame they border on boring. But the Rockets eschewed both extremes Monday, going about their business in a manner befitting a club filled with players and personnel known for their relaxed, calm demeanor.

Setting the tone was none other than head coach Rick Adelman, as the Rockets’ bench boss spoke freely and easily while tackling a wide range of topics. If Adelman was disturbed by an off-season filled with pundits picking the Rockets to plummet in the Western Conference standings, he certainly didn’t show it. He didn’t deny that life will be tougher without the services of All-Star big man Yao Ming, but he also showed genuine excitement and enthusiasm for the opportunity to coach a roster laden with hard-working, team-oriented gym rats. And lest one surmise that’s merely code for saying this team isn’t talented, think again – Adelman believes his club has the potential to open up a lot of eyes around the league.

“I think this is a unique group,” he said. “They will bust their tails and we have some really good people in the locker room and they’re going to give it everything. I can’t worry about what people expect, I can only worry about trying to reach our potential.

“I’ve seen this before when I was in Portland. I had young guys in Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey and Kevin Duckworth who grew huge amounts every year and that’s what we have to have from Aaron, Trevor and Luis. We have some extremely good players and now it’s their opportunity. I say it’s an opportunity for everybody to show what they can do and come together. If we don’t do it as a team, then we’re not going to do it.”

Part of Houston’s strategy to compensate for the loss of Yao is centered on pushing the pace and taking advantage of the speed, quickness and athleticism GM Daryl Morey has added to the roster over the last two years. But Adelman also took time to clarify exactly how he intends to employ that up-tempo style of play.

“I’ve read a lot of things and heard things about how we’re going to be this ultra fast break team,” he said. “In my years, I haven’t seen very many all-out fast break teams. (The NBA) is too well-coached and too well-scouted (for that to be successful). But you can be a very good up-tempo transition team and that’s what we want to do. We want to get the ball up the court quicker than we have in the past. We don’t want to walk it up. More times than not, we want to get four guys past the half-court line early so we can get into our offense earlier and get the defense on their heels so that this group – and we are very active and we have guys who play very hard – if we can get guys up the court and attack the defense before they’re set, then we’ll make things happen and be successful.”

Of course, the truly big news of the day centered around Tracy McGrady’s return to Houston. The Rockets announced that T-Mac will resume his rehab in Houston after having spent the previous seven months in Chicago recovering from microfracture surgery on his left knee. McGrady will then undergo an MRI on November 23 before he and the team formulate their next move. Monday, a smiling, confident and trimmed-down T-Mac addressed the Houston media and answered questions about his impending return to action.

“I’m not going to make the same mistake I made last year,” he said. “I already feel a lot better now than I did all of last year. Right now I’m far ahead of schedule and that’s a good thing. I’m running, jumping and I wasn’t supposed to be doing that until the seven or eight month mark – right now I’m at seven months – but I’ve been doing those things for the last couple months.

“(This rehab) is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. Not only the physical side but the mental aspect of it is challenging, knowing that what I went through last year wasn’t me out there. Knowing that I had to push myself to a level I hadn’t pushed myself (in order to) get back to the player I want to be. I had to push myself to exhaustion. I’m here to prove to myself that I’m still capable of coming back and being the type of player I want to be.”

McGrady also revealed that his miserable experience last season, while incredibly taxing both physically and mentally, has also ensured that he will never be lacking in the motivation department during his comeback campaign.

“I think going through last year made me re-focus. Going through that injury and everything about last season, I got frustrated. When you have to deal with injuries like that, it’s hard to love the game of basketball and hard to get up in the morning to play the game because you can’t be yourself. And that’s how it was last year: it was hard for me to come here knowing that I can’t be me. That was the toughest thing about it. I knew I was better than that. I know everybody thought I was washed up but I had just came off the all-NBA team. I was hurt. So this summer was about getting re-focused and getting back to being me and that’s what I did. I had to get away from it and that’s why I stayed in Chicago for seven months and busted my (butt).”

In many ways, McGrady’s plight is no different than that of his team. Both have been counted out for one reason or the other. Both draw motivation from the naysayers. And both have big plans to rise up once more and shock the basketball world. Or, as newcomer Trevor Ariza put it: “I think our team feels as if we’re the underdog. Underdogs fight and we’ll fight, too.”

In other words, perhaps it’s best to consider the Rockets’ relaxed demeanor as simply the calm before the storm.

And 1’s: As with any media day, there was such a smorgasbord of information that it proved impossible to fit it all into one column. Here are a few more notable nuggets from today’s session:

Trevor Ariza on Luis Scola: “I love Luis Scola’s game. He’s one of those players where if you’re not on his team you hate him (laughs). But when you’re on his team you love him so I’m looking forward (to playing with him).”

Speaking of Scola, the Argentinean power forward likes what he’s seen out on the Rockets’ practice court ever seen returning from his homeland.

“We have a lot of athletic players,” he said, “a lot of guys who can jump really high – a lot higher than me, of course (laughs). I’m excited. I got a chance to play with almost everybody and I see all of them willing to do whatever it takes to make the team win. I think we’ve got the pieces we need to put it together and be a winning team and a team that competes. Now it’s on us to put it together.”

Meanwhile, Aaron Brooks is clearly pumped about the prospect of heading into the new season as the club’s starting point guard. The third-year pro says he spent a lot of time watching film this summer in an attempt to ensure that he makes the most of that opportunity.

“I try to borrow from everybody,” he said. “I try to take stuff from everybody’s game. You know, we’re going to be running a lot this year so who better to take from than Steve Nash - just what he’s done the last couple years as far as running the ball, pushing it, getting it up the court a little bit faster to see what you can get in transition. Steve Nash is not the fastest guy and probably not the best shooter, but it seems like he’s unstoppable at times so I’ve just been trying to put some of that in my game.”

And finally, it’s no secret that the Rockets will require everyone to step up their games offensively in order to make up for the absence of Yao Ming. When a reporter asked Shane Battier if he was prepared to do that, the Duke-product responded in classic Battier fashion.

“I’m going to do what it takes to help us win games,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’m not going to throw out a number of how many points I’m going to score or shots I’m going to take. That’s never been my game. I’m just going to do whatever I can to help this team win ballgames. If that means I need to score more, that’s what I’ll do.

“I look forward to seeing this team come together. I don’t know what the identity is yet – no one does. But it’s going to be a fun process to watch it come together. It might not always be pretty, it might be ugly sometimes, but I believe in the process and I believe in our coaches and management.”

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