[for the fwiw bin] Rox 1 of 5 teams with winning records against Top 10

It's exciting that we're 5th!!

But then again, we're 5th... and 4th in the West. It's kind of like we're worse than our 4th overall and 3rd in the West indicates.

 

Throw in the Thunder, Hawks, and Pacers, which are all playoff seeds and the only other teams above .500 and we are 12-14.

We are 12-14 against teams that are above .500.

We are 31-5 against teams at or below .500.

 

He knows Eastern Conference wins don't really count.
That's why we don't care about losing games to those teams.

 

Will be interesting to see how GS's record slips with Durant out. Matt Barnes is quite the drop-off from Durant's production. Especially in the rim protection department.

 

Maury put us 3rd because that's the only number he knows

Shoot moar 3's, even moar 3's

"We have the 3rd most winningest record in the regular season in the last 10 years"

 

Just to further illustrate where we stand among the league's teams with a winning record, below are the record of each team with a record above .500 against each other:

GSW 18-6
SAS 14-6
CLE 13-9
MEM 13-13
BOS 13-14
WAS 12-13
ATL 9-10
HOU 12-14
TOR 11-13
LAC 12-15
OKC 12-16
IND 9-13
UTA 9-15

Once again, This is each winning teams record against the other teams above .500.

 

That seems abought right. Three true title contenders and then a bunch of teams with varying levels of competitiveness. The difference with the Rockets is that we have such high variance night to night that we can actually beat a great team on any given night or series.

 

So beat Memphis Saturday and we are tied for the 4th best record among .500 teams, behind only the 3 recent championship teams. Perfectly in line with Morey's point about top-10 teams. Right?

 

You can "spin" it a lot of ways. Morey obviously just spun this a certain way. And you're right. A game or two here or there and we're top 4. But also a game or two and we could be bottom 4 here.

But one thing should be very clear looking at either Morey's or my records here. There are three teams at the top, the Warriors, Spurs, and Cavs........then there is a clear gap down to the next tier of teams, which includes us.

 

Yes. And the other side of that variance is.....?

 

Obvious? We shoot poorly, defend poorly and get smoked out of a playoff series.

I think we all know that.

 

Not perfectly. The insinuation is top 4 is as good as top 3. Not the case here. There is a considerable gap between the top 3 and everybody else. Being fourth does not put us in the same realm as the top 3. It simply means we're at the top of the also-rans.

 

You forgot one word. Early. If variance goes against us we're done early.

 

Jesus, man. What is your point? That we aren't as good as the Warriors, Cavs, and Spurs? No sh**. This is a team that was picked to be at the bottom of the conference at the beginning of the year. It has one all-star versus 4 for GSW and 3 each for SA and CLE. Of course, it isn't as good as those three. So Morey has decided on a strategy that leads to high upside, though it comes with high risk. And it is working more often than not.

Rather than applaud the creativity and over-achievement, you just keep pissing and moaning that the Rockets haven't agreed with you that "a more creative and efficient playmaker" than the guy leading the league in assists is the key to our problems. Oh, and Thon Maker.

The Rockets are flawed. No one is arguing that. Your solution is ridiculous. Only you argue that. The real solution is another star player at the 3, 4, or 5. Morey is clearly trying, but hasn't gotten one yet. In the meantime he, Alexander, D'Antoni and the staff have built a system that is probably the only one outside of the top 3 capable of beating the top 3 if things break right.

Get off of your (undeserved) high horse, present your (normally well-reasoned) speculation as the speculation it is rather than as the facts and dictates from God-on-high that it is not, and enjoy the ride.

 

I prefer keeping it real. The rest of that mess you wrote ain't worth comment.

 

If you are going to be pedantic, do it honestly.

I said 4th. 4th does not imply (or insinuate) that top 4 is as good as top 3.

See my prior post. Your shtick is tiring, and you have no idea of the credentials of the people to whom you are condescending. The best thing to do in that case is to adopt even a modicum of humility. It might serve you well and have people actually respond to what are normally good points (though not in this case, given that you took a simple fact that "we would be fourth" to mean "you are saying fourth is as good as third.").