30 Quotes by Carroll Dawson

After a decade of starring in this league, Dikembe established himself as one of the league's top reserves last season. Deke gives us rebounding and defense off the bench and he also serves as a personal mentor to Yao Ming. He is a valuable contributor as well as a great teammate.

It's great to have Ryan back with the Rockets. Ryan is one of those high-energy players that all coaches like to have on their roster.

These types of moves are never easy, ... We really appreciate what Clarence did for the organization the past two seasons. This decision was made in order to give us more financial flexibility under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement.

This is a very intimate arena where the stands come right down to the floor and I like that. It's going to be very loud and we have great crowds that have supported us over the years. I think it gives us a home court advantage.

Around Olajuwon, all our guys were spot shooters. Now that we have two guys require double teams (Yao and McGrady), we want people to do the same things. To build around superstars, you have to have players that fit in the system you're playing. Their game creates a big advantage.

I'm optimistic about it because I just know how tough he is, and from what the doctors say, he's still got some miles left in that knee.

I know he hurt his knee last year and he had it cleaned out this summer, ... I think there's a small tear in the back, from what the doctors tell me, that we're going to have taken care of (Thursday). They don't think it'll be more than a week, as far as slowing him down, and he'll be back going at it again.

I just think (Alston) fits. We've watched a lot of film because we didn't know where Bob Sura was going to be or how long it's going to be (before he can play again after last week's knee surgery). We had done our work to where we really feel comfortable with this guy. He really runs the ball up the court every time. With the athletes we have now ... I think he fits just perfect.

Charlie and Bob give us valuable veteran leadership in the backcourt, ... We can rely on them to offer both effort and consistency. We are delighted to have hard-working role players like Charlie and Bob to provide support to our All-Star nucleus of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.