Let's get the prediction in before the playoffs: do you believe smallball will survive the playoffs

It all depends on the matchups, we will struggle with teams that can hit the 3 ball effectively because of our defensive scheme of helping on the drive

 

I mean Dallas couldn't miss, plus Burke had a great night.

I'm all in, hopefully we do better game 2.

 

people act like the Rockets weren’t looking incredibly suspect with Capela who CF clowned every postseason and loved to call soft

fact of the matter is the Rockets desperately needed a player like Covington

if it doesn’t work out, they can focus on getting a big in the offseason

 

No. It will be our Achilles heel in the playoffs. The theory/modeling that Morey bet on with the Covington for Capela trade will get exposed hard in the playoffs, specifically with our rebounding deficiencies.

Its a harsh reality that I don't want to believe but just my opinion if I'm being honest about it.

 

The Rockets won’t win the championship. But I wouldn’t say it means small ball doesn’t work.
We just don’t have enough. Harden is the man. But teams can force us to have Russ, RoCo, House, PJ, Ben, Green, Rivers to beat them. That’s not a Finals team. Look at that second quarter. EG would have to come back as Klay Thompson for us to stand a chance of beating LA, then LA, then god help us if it’s Milwaukee.

 

It looks like any playstyle will have a substantial chance at success in this bubble. I couldn't believe how many lead switches I witnessed in this game, the Lakers/Clips game, and the Jazz/Pels game. The games in this bubble will be a toss up and you won't be able to truly say who will pull out the W. Mavs almost took this one had it not been for that miracle play by Roco.

 

No but it’s less the small ball than the defense and rebounding.

 

Don’t play any defense and can’t get rebounds. Winning a playoff series is going to be a challenge.

 

i think we would play better vs fakers, their 3s ain't that good

 

it isn't really small ball...........i have seen 6-6 centres before

 

whether small ball is good enough, it doesn't really matter. they've been playing small ball a ton of minutes for years now. What's absolutely true is that team with Capela prior to the RoCo trade was worse than this one. That team was a 1st round exit waiting to happen, just a horrible fit in so many ways that made harden's life miserable. RoCo's fit/impact outweighs CC's by far. This team actually maximizes the pieces you have in place and that's all you can ask for. They have their identity and they're sticking to it.

The notion that you can just stick a traditional 6'10 center out there and it instantly makes the rockets better is nonsense. If you can get an AD type person out there then yeah obviously that fits. last i checked those guys aren't exactly walking in at minimum price. Other than that, its going to look awful with this specific team

 

if harden wins the title with this roster, you have to put him over durant and curry all-time

 

I want to say no, just because the philosophy is too extreme, but the good news is this - in the Western playoff picture, only the Lakers are capable of really punishing us in the paint, and we've at least shown we can give them problems.

Clippers: 19th in paint FGA
Nuggets: 18th
Thunder: 22nd
Jazz: 23rd
Mavs: 29th

I feel like a guy like Giannis, who's considerably bigger than anyone on our team, and can still get into the paint on his own, is our worst matchup. LeBron fits this mold as well, but he's playing PG first and foremost for a Laker team lacking great guard-play otherwise.

 

It’s the defense that will be the downfall. LAC are basically a better version of the Rockets with far superior perimeter defense.

 

Define “survive”.

 

I believe we win it all this season.

 

So what makes them not a 1st round exit waiting to happen? They still play zero defense only now it’s worse because CC isn’t here to help clean up some of that. We are also significantly worse on the boards. We might score more points and it might look prettier than with CC but at the end of the day this team still can’t play defense and still struggles on the glass. A 1st round exit wouldn’t be a shock at all.

 

A better fitting team makes them not a first round exit. Most of cf’s have overlooked that for the longest time and continue to do so

 

I think they for sure thought when they got Covington they were going to get Deandre Jordan too on a buyout or something and now that they missed out they’re just having to make small ball work. Without a healthy Gordon defending and hitting 3s I don’t think their small ball will work against the best teams. They need Gordon back and effective for it to work.