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Eye popping stat, trends and How Good can this Team be?

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by crash5179, Nov 28, 2012.

  1. CXbby

    CXbby Member

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    The magnitude of our inexperience is definitely eye popping. However, where these stats get deceptive is how many, both in the national media as well as on here, equated inexperience to inability before the start of the season.

    This is where some deductive reasoning comes to play, as oppose to judging based on blind faith in numbers.

    The idea was that because young teams usually struggle, and since the Rockets are the youngest team in the NBA, the Rockets will struggle.

    The problem with that line of thinking is, no one asked why young teams typically struggle. Sure, young teams struggle in part because young players have yet to adjust to the NBA, the physicality, the speed, the inexperience etc. And to some extent the Rockets are dealing with this now. But most importantly, young teams struggle because young players typically are simply not very good.

    For most rookies entering the league, it takes up to 3 years for them to get up to speed and start to meaningfully contribute to winning basketball. Before that, they are just bad players. For most, but not all. The difference for the Rockets is that the core that we have built around, while young, have all demonstrated on the NBA level that they are actually good, or in Harden's case, potentially elite.

    The question facing our team was always could these players maintain a level they have already reached, rather than for a typical young team, who are trying to reach something they have never been. Assuming the answer to that question is "yes", there is no reason why a team of good to very good players cannot become good to very good, simply because of their age.
     
  2. Freik

    Freik Contributing Member

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    Another eye popping stat 1-6 against WC teams...
     
  3. CXbby

    CXbby Member

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    Another thing people who thought we would be a bottom 5 team hung onto before the season was how many(5) rookies we had on the roster at the time. And how no way a team playing that many rookies would be any good.

    Well, the number of rookies in our current rotation? 0.

    Guys like Jones will only breakthrough when they learn how to contribute to winning basketball, hopefully in the second half of the season. Like how Landry, Brooks, Patterson had to.
     
  4. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    Being a 500 team with a bunch of young kids is different than being a 500 team with a bunch of vets. You assume kids will get better as they get older, so we should be better next year even if we don't spend the max cap room that we have.

    Last years team was as good as they were going to get. I'm super excited about this years squad. All we need now is a low post presence that demands a double team. I'm hoping Morris, Jones or Dmo develop into that or we get one with our caproom and assets next year.
     
  5. wfeebs

    wfeebs Member

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    This thread shows that it is too early to say "he now is what he'll always be....this team is too young and too new together to say that!! Especially PPat, yes he has deficiencies that he needs to work on, but I am all for keeping this team together and grow together. No one in the starting lineup is close to their potential, let's just see this out and enjoy the ride!!

    Age of our starting lineup - 24,23,24,23,26. Holy crap we WILL be really good
     
  6. torocan

    torocan Member

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    Not really THAT eye popping considering that Harden joined the team 2 days before the start of the season and missed the Entire training camp.

    We should mention that the West is MUCH tougher than the East, and several of those teams are legitimate playoff contenders (LAL, Memphis, Denver, Utah), and the games we lost to Most of those teams (including Portland x 2) were narrow losses or in the case of Portland, OT losses that could have swung either way.

    Early in the season and the team is improving before our eyes.

    Just think about Asik in the first 5 games and what he's doing now offensively, or how much smoother our offense is now looking (5 players in double digits vs Lin/Harden in the first 2 games vs Detroit and Atlanta) versus the first 7 games.

    Way too early in the season to use our record as an accurate measuring stick of how we'll eventually stack up in the West. What we can say is that being .500 with the one of the youngest and LEAST experienced teams in the NBA is nothing to scoff at, and does leave the window open for the possibility of significant upside potential.
     
  7. Cautiously_Op

    Cautiously_Op Member

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    Had to catch a flight and missed the second half of last night's game. I'm glad they kept another big lead for another win. It was against a bad team, but these are the games they gotta win. If the team can keep building on these games and solidify a better team identity and style of play, they'll be much better in the second half of the season.

    It was good to watch Lowry play again, but Lin might have a bigger upside... time will tell. I watched the hightlights and saw Lin dunking on a steal and fast break with two minutes left in the game. Another good flash from the past. If he gets more comfortable and keeps developing into this new role without disgarding his natural abilities that he displayed last year, this team's backcourt will be solid.

    Looking forward to tonight's game, which will be a test to how they hold up against a good team. Win or lose I hope they keep composure and intensity the whole game!
     
  8. D-rock

    D-rock Member

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    I agree. The Rockets are no longer the grinders, guys who suprise teams with their tenacity and hustle. Rockets still have the tenacity and hustle, but the core is YOUNG, active and the chemistry is downright crazy good.

    Rockets are definitely fun to watch, even for non Rocket fans. My buds could not believe how unselfish and smooth the Rockets looked moving the ball and breaking after a rebound. This group of guys did not have any off season at all to build this chemistry, it is almost innate due the great group of guys on this team.
     
    1 person likes this.
  9. OlajuwonFan81

    OlajuwonFan81 Member

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    Valid points, and overall good thread but you are a bit overly optimistic for my taste.

    At least you bring evidence which is nice to see.
     
  10. jocar

    jocar Member

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    [​IMG]
     
  11. leebigez

    leebigez Contributing Member

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    I look at it this way, how many all star caliber talents do they have? Of those playing,I really only see 1 and that's harden. Even then,he's not the type of player who can carry a team,but he's a good foundation piece. Everyone else who is playing are just solid players without any special talents. Until someone out the bunch jumps up and gets to that all star type ,they will be a 35-44 type of team.
     
  12. durvasa

    durvasa Contributing Member

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    At least they're young, and some of their young players have room to grow. Even if not one of them quite gets to all-star level, if two of them develop into solid starters we could trade them for a player with all-star level talent since they all have very moveable contracts.
     
  13. crash5179

    crash5179 Contributing Member

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    I don't really know how I can put a pessimistic spin on this team.

    - James Harden is clearly an all-star player at this point. He is only 23 and has started a total of 22 regular season games as of last night. This is the 1st time he has ever been the lead dog or the focus of opposing teams defensive game plan. He is currently the 5th leading scorer in the league and has a great all around game. It is certainly possible that he will never get any better, but at his young age I have a hard time believing that he is through improving. Most stars including; Dream, MJ, Magic, Kobe, LBJ etc.... Continued to improve deep into their careers. LBJ finally added a post game (a great post game) to his already great all-around game last season. Dream clearly had has most skilled and peak years after he turned 30, MJ had a suspect outside shot when he came into the league etc...

    - Omer Asik is an old man on this team at only 26 years of age and he only has a total of 17 starts as of last nights game. He has already proven to be one of the absolute best rebounders and defenders in the game today. I don't think any of us anticipated his passing and offense to be where they are at this point after what he was with the Bulls. If Asik was able to improve this much after just a couple of months in the summer with CD, how good will he be next season after a full season as a starter and a full off-season with CD. We saw Hakeem get better and better into his 30s so their is no reason to think Asik is through improving. We can see his improvements in his free throw shooting, it's still streaky but he is no longer a realistic candidate for the hack-a-Shaq strategy. Karl Malone is a perfect example of a player that could not hit a free throw when he first came into the league but turned into a very good free throw shooter.

    - Chandler Parsons is the real vet on this team at 24 years of age. He has more NBA starts than anyone else on the team by more than double. The scary part of that fact is that he still does not have an entire season worth of starts and will not have a seasons worth of starts until around Christmas time. Last year he was basically a defensive specialist with a flair for the put back jam and the ability to hit the occasional 3pt shot. Not bad for a second round pick. This year he has added very real offense to his game. His 3pt shot looks absolutely deadly this season, when teams try to chase him off of the line he has shown the ability to but the ball on the floor and he still loves to take the ball hard to the basket. If the last ten games are any indication (and we will find out of the course of the season) then Chandler has turned himself into a 17 to 20 PPG effeciant scorer. Couple that with his all around game, defense and the way he fills up the stat sheet and that is all-star (not superstar) caliber. When the Rockets either acquire or develop another player that makes Chander the 3rd or 4th offensive option on the team then we wll know the Rockets are good.

    - The Power Forward postion. Patrick Patterson is averaging about about 20 ppg at about .570 FG% and while he does not shoot a lot of 3pt shots, the ones he is shooting are starting to drop as is indicated by the his 3pt% over the last 5 games of over 50%. He still seems to be alergic to rebounds and his defense while solid and not a liability is still only average. Pat is playing well right now and appears to be looking for his own shot more and more which is a good thing. Having said that, I don't think many of us think of Pat as the long term answer for this team at the power forward spot. I think most will agree that both DMo and TJones have a much higher ceiling than Pat for a veriety of reasons. If Pat continues to score 20 ppg with over .500 FG% or better he will make a very good case for himself but I think the eventual starter will be between DMo, TJones or someone who is not on the team as of yet.

    - Certainly the Point Guard position is still a bit question mark but JLin has shown signs of getting his outside shot to drop and if that happens I think it will elevate his entire game. Marcus Morris is showing very real signs of turning into a player worthy of being selected in the lottery. The Rockets are currently tied fot the eighth best recored in the West and with such a young and inexperienced team it's hard to imagine that they will not be better in the second half of the year than they are right now. The team has max free agent cap room and for next summer.

    I have a real hard time being pessimistic about this team. As of right now they are play-off contenders and IMO one all-star acquisition away from being real contenders.
     
  14. Man

    Man Contributing Member

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    crash, I agree with your original post, which is why I think we need to bring in some veterans as models; otherwise, they may develop bad habits and miss out on valuable (and sometimes simple/basic) knowledge/technique/tactics transfer.

    I also think that our coaching staff is doing a good job of working with them in the player development sense; you can tell that they are improving individually and figuring things out as a team by the game. Frustrating to watch at times, but exciting as well with tremendous long-term potential.
     

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