As dawn broke on Tuesday morning area sports fans were greeted with the news that the Houston Rockets had lost again and Astro pitcher Wandy Rodriguez was going to have to hear the weaknesses in his game as told by representatives of his own team in a salary arbitration hearing.
Neither news item is good news.
For the Rockets who certainly in January have looked like their fuel supply is running out the 102-95 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Houston's home court was very discouraging. To many, including coach Rick Adelman it appeared the club had definitely fallen from orbit.
Still, this should not be a surprise. For most of the season the Rockets had been one of the surprise teams in the NBA. Bereft of a real established "star" player the team had survived on hustle and team work. Now, with the season past the half way point the grind of playing so hard every night is showing.
No longer are the Rockets the aggressive, pesty, all over the ball defensive team. Their lack of real size inside is showing. Teams are shooting for high percentages every night.
The Rockets, on the other hand, are shooting poorly. Their fast break has been cut down. They are not moving the ball with the same quickness and unselfishness as they demonstrated in November and December.
It all adds up to a 4-7 January and falling out of the top eight teams--the playoff teams--in the Western Conference.
There is still plenty of time to turn things around. Will GM Dale Morey have to make a personnel move or two for that to happen? Stay tuned.
WANDY WANTS IT ALL
On the Astro front the club that will report to spring training next month is virtually assembled. Most of the players are under contract. One notable is not. Pitcher Wandy Rodriguez is rolling the dice in arbitration and will be the subject of a hearing in which the arbitrator will be presented a number of facts and statistics from both sides and then decide whether the Astros will pay Wandy $5-million or $7-million for 2010.
Rodriguez doesn't lose no matter what the decision is. He made about $2.6 million in 2010. No wonder an awful lot of baseball owners rue the day they agreed to arbitration to settle contract disputes. The players always win. The owners offer raises-in Wandy's case almost doubling his salary--but may have to pay even more if the arbitrator rules such.
The scoreboard may show the owners "winning" a decent percentage of the actual arbitrator's decisions, but they still pay out more money than they had the year before.
BIG COLLEGE HOOPS TUESDAY
I am off to Waco today for tonight's Baylor-Kansas State men's basketball telecast on the FSN regionals in Texas. This should be a dandy. Both teams are ranked in the top 25 and highly in the Big 12. The game should be a contrast in styles, too. Baylor is a deadly three point shooting team that does not attack the basket that often. Kansas State attacks everything. They foul and are fouled frequently. The game starts at 7:05. Jim Haller will join me for the call.
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