Houston Rockets Thread - Preseason vs Spurs (Friday)

angliatzj said:
i have a bad feeling about this season... team isnt deep at all. 

although ish smith looked great last night, pap looked solid.. still worries me that josh ******* powell played even though it is preseason.
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do work son said:
Who's expecting finals though?
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blackxme said:
As of now OKC, S.A., and the Clippers are all clearly better than the Rockets. I don't feel like they'll be any worse than last year. The bench is concerning to me, I don't know who's really going to come off the bench and score consistently. I'm not expecting finals though, we just don't have anyone to match up with the PF's in the west.
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Peep Game said:
That's pretty much how I feel about this team. Its clear that we'll have a definite added bonus of toughness and general defense, but there has to be at minimum 3 guys who consistency produce on the bench. I know Daniels wasn't used much the first game, but I'll be paying attention to him, Nick Johnson, and Pretty Papa. TJones and D-Mo need to elevate themselves even further. Can't have a lot of disappearances and general underwhelming play from them.
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do work son said:
Ariza has been fantastic defensively so far. On and off the ball. Very adept at reading passes cross court and knowing when to gamble. Already has a couple break away steals and dunks this preseason.

Our roster has so many guards it's hard to predict the depth chat but here's my guess

PG
Bev, ish, Canaan.
Out of all the backup guards, ish has looked consistent although I hate his style of play. Too out of control and can't shoot. hopefully Canaan grows into that role

SG
Harden, Daniels, Nick Johnson/JET

SF
Ariza, Kostas
Kostas will see minutes at 2-4 in different lineups because McHale

PF
Jones, DMO, Adrien, Black
Adrien and Black might get minutes here and there for depth, that's about it.

C
Dwight, Dorsey, Black
Pretty self explanatory
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:nerd: :nerd: :nerd:
 
Not sure if it's true or not, but I heard there's a disconnect between Dwight and harden. Harden partying into the wee hours of the night before game 3 and coming out and laying an egg then his game 5 performance won't help either. Stuff like this always seems to come out after tough losses though so I hope it's not true. Sucks losing, but what can you do?

I try to hold everyone accountable. Harden has no excuse for that performance no matter what he did all year. Dwight might lack skill offensively and no be the same defensive player he was a few years ago, but you can't tell me that he didn't play with 110% on both sides of the court every single game this postseason even with how he's officiated against so unfairly. Hurts knowing these are prime years for both guys and we might not necessarily have this team forever. Windows come and go and we failed to take advantage this season.
 
We did better than everyone expected us to this season and better than we, ourselves, expected us to do...but at the end of the day, it was a failed season. Anything less than a championship with this roster is a failure imo and I know that won't be the consensus, but that's just how I feel. We played without 2 starters, but no one can guarantee that won't happen again next season. You've got to find ways to take advantage of opportunities when they're there and the first two games of this series are perfect examples of not taking advantage of those opportunities.
 
Good, no, great season Rockets.

From 7/8 and no playoff predictions to WCF. Hopefully this is a stepping stone and we use this experience to carry us to the Finals next year.
 
Didn't set out on what the original plan was, but I definitely wouldn't call this a "failed season". Some **** just happened, and even with the season ending like it did, we were still right there, with a legit shot. Haven't had that in a long time. Would have liked to see what this team would be like at full strength, but things happen. Along with OKC, we were probably the most injured team in the league, and to make it this far and realistically having a chance at taking multiple games in this series was something to see. Moral victories don't show up in the win column, but I dig this season overall. Going forward though, I wanna see what moves are made. We all need this team needs a steady young PG, along with a PF upgrade. That old post up there I quoted talked about TJones and D-Mo elevating their play and not having underwhelming disappearances....well, both did exactly that. Both took big time strides in development, being everything you'd want in young guys, but they always had games where you didn't even know they were on the court. At this point, you have to make a decision with the two of them. I feel like only one of them will be here next year, I just don't know which one. Both seem to be great at what the other lacks. It's really odd. I'm a little antsy already to see what's gonna happen. This isn't a team where you have to make major changes, cause it's very clear what we need. Overall, this was a great feeling to go this deep in the playoffs after years of 1st round exits, and seasons where we ended up being the best over .500 non-playoff team. Wheels up for next time :pimp: :pimp:
 
Tough way to go out. Was a good season though, hopefully we can add a legit point guard and decent back up center via the draft or free agency.(or further develop Clint) Curious to see what happens to Josh and Corey they both played great for us off the bench. 
 
Jewbacca2 said:
@champssports: The real "Clutch City" is in #GoldenState. @Warriors are about to be Finals bound. http://t.co/zejBVPRP6p
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better team, yes. Using the word clutch here is stupid the warriors were never in a position where they had to hit clutch shots except for that one quarter against the pelicans. They handled their business and got the job done. Coming back from 3-1 is clutch not winning 4-1. 
 
Im just salty we lost 
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Its a lot that went on coaching wise and players that didnt take accountability that im tight about. Being out of DMo and Bev didnt help either but adjustments gotta be made.

Man i love Ariza on this squad. Please keep him.
 
It was a good season. We made a deep run :pimp:

Harden is still very young, and we can still improve this team. The future is bright :pimp:
 
Future is bright, but the window isn't going to be there forever. I think I read that brewer had agreed to not exercise his option to test free agency as part of our agreement to trade for him so we should have him for next season. Not sure what's going to happen with josh though considering we also have dmo and tjones. There's obviously not enough room for all 3 of them and peep I agree that they both excel in what the other lacks.
 
Jewbacca2 said:
@champssports: The real "Clutch City" is in #GoldenState. @Warriors are about to be Finals bound. http://t.co/zejBVPRP6p
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**** is this? i feel like the media doesn't really rock with our squad. i thought it was crazy disrespectful for them to cater to the lil b thing in a real life setting. and we didn't make em pay for it. I really think the solution is simple though. Need a different system. McHale is obviously doing well bringing together superstar personalities, but he's missing out on almost every other mark.

and I think a system change would bode well for helping stave off Harden's high/low game play.
 
Hiring Thibs as DC = Phillips as Texans DC :lol:

Thibs as head coach would mean guys would log in heavy minutes more than they already do :lol:
 
I don't think we'll have much cap room, but even if we did, it would probably still take 4 of our players since people love to low ball us then poach them.
 
Tough way to go out but this team overachieved.

As I've said...the Rockets have enough players...Mchale isn't the best coach but it's who the Rockets have.

Gotta get healthy and stay that way come playoff time.

All that being equal...it's on Harden. He has to take the next step as a player. He played great in the playoffs but he's gotta be the kind of player who is consistently great every night in the postseason for this team to really challenge for a ring
 
JinKazama said:
Tough way to go out but this team overachieved.

As I've said...the Rockets have enough players...Mchale isn't the best coach but it's who the Rockets have.

Gotta get healthy and stay that way come playoff time.

All that being equal...it's on Harden. He has to take the next step as a player. He played great in the playoffs but he's gotta be the kind of player who is consistently great every night in the postseason for this team to really challenge for a ring
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do respect, but I disagree on a few fronts. 1. Our roster after we acquired Brewer/Josh took away the whole concept of over-achieving. Yes DMO/Bev got hurt, but we were/are still very deep. These guys have competed well enough to win a ring multiple times. It's an easy out to say McHale just doesnt have the talent/players but I think that's more or less ludicrous to believe. You got more value on this team that you'd possibly be able to pay for in the long run. He has more than enough talent and a bunch of versatility. Better coaches adjust and coach to their players strengths.

Also, you can't blame a series loss on a guy who's putting up near triple doubles with 34+ points a night in wins. James put up astronomical playoff numbers in 3/5 games and we still lost 2 of them:

59/55/90 percentages averaging 7+ assists

Meanwhile, the Warriors had games where either Curry or Klay were laying duds, if not both of them for heavy stretches.
Meanwhile you also have Lebron giving you 43/18/76 percentages in the playoffs, shooting high volume.

I think its unfair to particularly compare him to Lebron because he's not as good, but I think it's unfair not to heavily consider the systems they're playing in and their team playing styles. Can't deny the critical moment thing will be a sticking point for him to get better, but he's not really doing much more than Lebron has done. Lebron has relied on magic from his teammates multiple times when shooting poorly.

I could go on, but I think Harden doing what he does at 25 has been more than enough to be a playoff option 1 and lead our team, but we really need to get a new system...even if that means getting a new coach. (I think it does)
 
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