Starters & Bench Performance

STARTERS: What can I say about the starters?  Unfortunately, Barkley missed most of the season.  He was really a good influence on the court for our young players.  Hakeem started slow, but was beginning to show signs of turning it around, when he aggravated an abdominal injury and had to have surgery.  He came back, but complained of unusual fatigue.  He then missed the last three weeks of the season at the urging of team doctors.  Steve Francis showed us flashes of greatness, but then he also reminded us that this was his rookie season with his turnover problems (3.97 per game).  Shandon Anderson was quiet but consistent for most of the year.  I don't mind, as long as both Hakeem and Barkley are there.  But they weren't, so he needed to step up his game, which he did in the last quarter of the year.  Kelvin Cato was a mystery to many Rocket fans.  The guy can come out slobbering at the mouth in one game, then the next he plays 10 minutes and gets 2 boards.  He really needs to be more consistent, and start earning some of that $45 million.  The small forward position was the Achilles Heel for the Rockets for most of the year.  They just couldn't find a consistent contributor.

BENCH: The bench was quite a suprise this season, especially considering many of them got starters minutes at one point or another due to the myriad of injuries we suffered.  A few suprises have been Carlos Rogers, Kenny Thomas, Pig Miller, and Bryce Drew.  I like what I saw from Moochie Norris too.  He will most likely end up being our backup PG next season.  Walt Williams made a strong late season surge, but he really isn't starter material.  Unfortunately, he has a starter's contract, and that will most likely lead to him being included in some sort of trade to lessen our salary cap woes.  I don't regard Devin Gray very highly at all.  This guy is just plain terrible.  He seems to exert a lot of energy, but he just doesn't have enough talent.