Rockets top 4 team in west, you add to it. But we really have not done anything because... 1) Daryl Morey losses in the Jimmy Butler Chase 2) He is Happy that Golden State Wings have been damaged. Klay is out for year, and Durant is in the East. No Iggy. 3) He thinks the new super teams are just chasing him, as they were put together to beat houston and Golden state. So when it comes down to it you stay low. When the final round is around, you play your old hand... Good Morey is keeping his roster the same, and not messing with his Hand... (Poker Reference ) Hes got 2 Kings in Harden and Paul...
Problem is as it stands we're not top 4 in the west going into next season. Are you sure we are better than these teams if we stand pat? 1. Clippers 2. Lakers 3. Jazz 4. Nuggets 5. Blazers
Im going to say they dont have James Harden, so yes atleast we are 2nd seed. Thats if this chemistry picks up from last season. Knowing they dont have Warriors to go thru. I mean this team will be up , its just the clippers who are the unknown. They are obviously the new warriors. lol
1) we haven't won sh#t 2) It's not clear where in the top 7 the rockets sit in the newly stacked western conference 3) what are we going to do about our defense? we lost our defensive guru and haven't added any defensive players. Remember the first part of last season? 4) we haven't added to our team at all. we haven't added a single impact player. we are just a year older. we may be playing with a good hand, but it's not a winning hand ...yet. and it's not likely to be unless we improve our team.
Vegas and some early projections have us easily in the top 4 of the West. Still early, but it really does appear that from the outside looking in things look a lot better than many of the fans who have been disappointed the last two years are making things out to be.
Even Championship winning teams make subtle additions and tweaks to the roster to address certain weaknesses. So far we have done nothing and we are not even a Championship team Don't be fooled by what Morey and Tilman say publicly
you are making a lot of assumptions about this team coming together after that loss clearly caused some turmoil in the locker room. also that another year is not going to decline cp3 and PJ tucker even more. klay thompson is not out for the year. they have made some great moves to make sure they will still be in the conversation when the playoffs start. there are about 6 teams in the west that have as much talent or more right now. no one is chasing the rockets, we havent won a damn thing, and have not been able to make a single move. our only hope is father time holds off on cp3 a little longer, the rockets can regain some of that hunger and fire they once had, danuel house makes a leap and becomes an eric gordon tier player, and they can find someone kind of size for a minimum contract..... even then its a long shot. its more likely harden demands a trade then the rockets beat the likes of GS, Clippers, Lakers, Jazz, Philly en route to a title with this roster as is.
To use the poker reference. Rockets have two Kings but there’s an Ace, Queen, Ten on the flop. We don’t know if we’re beat right now. Could be but we’ve got a strong hand. We still have chips to use to see if another King or Jack hits the turn or river. Or maybe as is we have everyone else beat. I think we’re top 3 imo.
Golden State is adding DLo, Cauley Stein & Alec Burks and subtracting Iguoldola and Jerebko to a team that eliminated us. Keep this roster or only add one minor bench player and you get your a** beat again by them
We are one piece away from being favorites... So I would argue that still puts us firmly in the top 4 out west.
We will finish as the number 1 seed in the West. PG apparently has 0 heathly shoulders Lakers will be worse defensively than last years Lakers. I am not terribly worried. I feel the Jazz may have gotten worse with their moves. Harden averaged 47.5 ppg against Conley last year (the Grizz were still a Top-5 defense). Ed Davis is a great rebounder and positional defender, but he's not the offensive threat Favors was. We will ISO the hell out of Bojan. We own the Nuggets. Blazers also got worse this offseason. They wont have Nurk for a fairly long time and Whiteside isn't that great. They also have no one to guard Harden.
