Morey says Rockets "have something up [their] sleeve"

Wiltjer out here swishing half court bombs

 

So we can return to the dark days of the Hack-a-.

CLANK. THUNK. THUD. WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIFF.

 

Beat Golden State at their own game. Assemble the greatest offensive team in NBA history; play zero defense. First to 200 wins.

 

But GS plays great defense

 

And that is their greatest weakness. We turn the tables on them. Play zero defense. Shock and awe.

 

Could Zhou Qi be Morey's secret weapon? Yes, he still needs to develop, but when he does, he will be very formidable.

 

It's just Morey talking out of his ass. We hear this every offseason. "The Rockets are gonna be big players in free agency." "The Rockets are gonna go get a big name free agent." And maybe they will. But it won't be easy given their cap situation. And even if they do, the Warriors are still in a league of their own and there are very serious concerns that Harden is not mentally built for the playoffs.

 

It shouldn't matter Stephanie will break, durant is crushing cold ones and iggy will be dead in a few years

 

Afraid this team is a shower not a grower. See this team and think it has a lot of potential but reality is it doesn't get better.

 

Tommy John surgery?

 

Morey better have something up his sleeve because his little shoot 50+ threes against GS and try to beat them with variance strategy is not gonna work. What Morey wants is what Cleveland did to GS in game 4, u just hit so many threes that not even GS can keep up or do anything about it. The only problem is u might get a game like that once, but u damn sure aren't gonna get it 4 or 5 times in a 7 game series.

 

Neither of these gifs involve sleeves.

 

Warriors perimeter defense is too good

 

Exactly. How many open 3s did the Rockets miss in the latter part of game 5 during the Spurs series when the game was there for the taking. GS has a hell of a defense when locked in and the Rockets need to get dramatically better on the defensive side of the ball before they could even think of competing against championship caliber teams.

 

They could in a sign and trade. And you could easily see the Clippers being happy with Love. He's a known "draw" in LA given his time at UCLA, and better to get something for Griffin than lose him for nothing.

Not sure the Pacers would want Love. This is really up to PG ultimately anyway. The Pacers aren't getting anything back for PG if he won't commit to long-term deal with the new team.

Odds will absolutely change when offseason moves happen... but I can assure you that oddsmakers are doing their best to factor in what they anticipate might happen.

All teams leak. And the Rockets certainly do as well. Dwight wasn't a "maybe" hope by fans, there were numerous leaks, including some during the prior season, about something brewing.

We see a leak here with CP3 news now. Which is a very strange fit, imo. We see no leaks with Hayward, or Griffin.

Kyrie is one of the best ballhandlers in the league and one of the best finishers in the league. He absolutely can be too ISO heavy, take a few too many contested jumpshots, and doesn't create. But he's a perfect all-star compliment to Lebron. He's much much much less valuable without a Lebron next to him. He can't carry a team.

If you give Lebron KD or Steph, the Cavs would be better, of course. If you replace Kyrie with PG or Jimmy Butler or Bradley Beal or the like the Cavs aren't better.

Love is just Love, indeed. he takes a lot of heat... though as we've seen now, being that 3rd wheel net to Lebron is tough. See Bosh.

Absolutely, which is why the league is so f'd for the next few years. The Warriors have probably the 2 best offensive players in teh league, plus a 3rd guy who can score 60 in 3 quarters without dribbling.

Plus, you still have to have a great defense though.

They "could" beat the Warriors, but would still be a strong underdog. That trio isn't any better on paper then the Cavs trio, and by virtue of that trio having absolutely no one in the same stratosphere as Lebron, they'd be a bigger underdog.

So now you have to get both those guys, and then also surround them with a bunch of solid shooters. So basically, if you do the complete impossible, you MIGHT have a chance to defeat the Warriors

I disagree entirely. I think the mistake is the exact opposite, which is overvaluing Harden because of the "stats". Not all stars or great players are created equal.

Harden is going down the Melo path. He's going down the TMac path. Before you get all upset about those comparisons, where absolutely Harden is the better overall player than those two thus far, the path speaks to the fact that what they lack, becomes so magnified in the playoffs, and become so magnified relative to overall team formation, that it makes building a championship team around them hard.

a. Meaning when you lack defense entirely, and you're the team leader, it's a HUGE problem.
b. Meaning when you turn the ball over nearly 6 times a game, in the playoffs, it's a HUGE problem, unless you have such stellar team defense you can overcome it (eg. the Warriors)... but see point a above.
c. Meaning when you are so ball dominant, and then when you don't get the ball are so completely allergic to off ball movement, it becomes a problem, ESPECIALLY in the playoffs.

Harden has carried his teams in ways TMac and Melo never did. But the flaws above are exactly why he also basically ALWAYS plays worse in the playoffs, and usually has some wtf games.

I mean Curry isn't a great defensive player at all, to the point where it contributed to losing a championship last year... but the dude is always competing, giving it 100% and understands and stresses the importance of defense.

It kind of is about the W/L record. That's kind of the whole point. The Rockets have had very little answer for the Warriors the last 3 years. That's not uncommon - almost no team has. But it's not like the Rockets were "close".

I mean it's not rocket science to say if Harden had more help the team would have had a better shot. Of course. Dwight was supposed to be that guy. But they couldn't get along or fit. and tbf, Dwight was a strange cat that both played well in the playoffs, but also it wasn't clear how/if that impacted the team. But the rest of the team sucked, and Harden did almost will that team to a better series. That was the best we've seen of Harden in his time here. He wasn't hoisting 10 threes a game. He had 5 turnovers game 1 but only 2 game 2. He was playing defense, etc. Of course he then went on to **** the bed in games 3 and 5.

2016? c'mon. are we giving the Rockets a bunch of credit for winning a game, at home, against a Warriors team without their unanimous MVP Curry who was out. Nevermind that they lost the next 2 games, also without Curry, by 27 and 33 points.

And nevermind the fact that these Warriors are better (perhaps much better) then either the 2014/15 or 2015/16 Warriors...

We're talking about degrees of likelihood that are so low, that you might be correct. They are currently a 30-1 odds to win the championship next year. If they sign a big time player, maybe they improve to 15-1... so twice as likely. But still not very likely at all. Besides which, that completely glosses over the "if they land a big name talent" part, which is a long shot to begin with.

As for better positioned teams. Well, the current Vegas odds are pretty on point here. The Cavs, Celtics and Spurs have better odds. Close with the Rockets are the Clippers and Wizards. That seems fair.

But again, I contend the difference between Warriors-Rockets is as big a gulf as the difference between Rockets-Pistons, or Rockets-Mavs. If you watched the Finals at all, you realized that this team, heck both teams, were simply playing a completely different level of basketball. It's like watching the NBA vs. college.

 

This post was both spot-on and summarized by this sentence.

 

You are right, one gets swept by golden state and the other ones are so much better they would help them compete even with a worse roster around them /s on a real note they are different, less experience in the playoffs