poll: your biggest concern for the playoff success?

coaches not playing faried

 

I think the defense gets ratcheted up, and I am hopeful for health so for me the issue is too small of a rotation exhausting the starters and we get San Antonio series James Harden.

 

Chris Paul. You can't have your second best player only average 15 ppg. He needs to take over a game for once and play like last season's cp3.

 

The Warriors.

That’s it.

 

THE MFKING REFS? Really, where's that poll at?

 

Harden clunker(s); Harden after game one of the series
Role players not stepping up
3-point shot doesn't go; live by the 3, die by the 3 (mostly die)

 

If he plays like last season's playoffs, Rockets are winning it all NO CAP

 

1) Game turning very physical, Harden not getting the calls and in turn he stops being aggressive

2) Three point shooting is going to take a hit. Bench players/scrubs will brick more of these with the pressure of the games

3) Thin bench. I am not sold on our bench. Regular season is not the same as playoffs. The shortcomings of players like Rivers, Shumpert, House, etc. are going to be magnified. We dont really have high impact players on this team besides our starters. Faried might be the only one that help here on a consistent basis.

4) ...which leads to Mike D over exhausting our players with a short rotation

5) ..which leads to higher risk of CP injury once again.

6) Rebounding

7) Lack of fighting spirit. One thing Ariza brought was toughness to this team. Him and Tucker combined behind CP and Harden made me feel comfortable in ugly games. I think we are going to miss Ariza of last year in this role. None of our new additions to the team this year provides this.

8) Mike's game/player mismanagement

9) Eric Gordon dribbling the ball or having to make a decisions with the ball. One of the best ways for Rockets to cough up the ball on offense is to let the ball go to Gordon and then force him to make a decision with it. More time than not, thats a turnover.

10) Lack of players that can create their own shot. It's either CP or Harden. Deny one and the other has all the burden to create a shot for himself or another teammate. We have no one else on this team that can generate offense. This team desperately needs a 3rd creator.

 

This. End thread.

 

I voted for 3pts not falling.

0-7 in the 4th last night from anyone not CP3. This is scarily becoming not an idiosyncratic issue. When the other team found effective defensive strategy (getting in front of screens successfully last night in the 4th), we just do not react fast enough to counter those moves (or do we have any counter strategies at all in our books?).

I don't think we can just shrug and comfort ourselves by saying, what are the chances 0-x happens again.

 

Chris Paul.

I love him and he's awesome.

But he's old and injury prone. No one would be shocked to see him get injured in the playoffs.

We rely on him so much. Him going down to injury (which again would not at all be a surprising development) would put us in danger against any team.

 

excellent thread; definitely it's the 3 pt shooting
and i'd add : Gordon is our X factor
when he's hot we're unstoppable, when not we're done especially against elite teams like the Warriors

 

like reaching just game 5 of the WCFs?

for me its CP3 staying on the court

and

the refs

 

Lack of focus.

 

There is not one thing in particular that concerns me. I have never been convinced that this squad is good enough to go all the way to an NBA championship. Harden has taken another big step forward this year, but our defense is weaker and Eric has declined. Ariza and Luc are being missed, despite the addition of Faried, Rivers, House. I like these players, but how far can they step up? The rotations can be better too. Will MDA be bold in making them? He should go with the hot hand and give more minutes to the players who are willing to slug it out. I don't mean that in a physical sense.

I would like to see mental fortitude when the chips are down. That was very noticeable last year for the most part. The Rockets clearly overachieved last year.

Go Rockets!

 

Are you ok man? you might be still hurt by last night game. stay calm, this team is great. stay positive

 

That's a big part of the problem. Lack of self belief is still a problem as a team. We are over relying on Harden and to a certain extent on Chris Paul against tough matchups like OKC.

 

Please change the poll to accept multiple choice.