The goal should still be to develope our players. I wouldn’t add or play veterans to win games. But I would let the young guys compete. Don’t lose on purpose. And I think this team will win perhaps ten mor games than last season…
I think without the tank we would have won another 3-4 games this past season. So reversing that out and adding wins due to greater experience from our youth and the addition of Jabari, I’ll put us at 33 wins. That’s winning 40% of our games. A big step up. Still a top 8 pick in next years draft.
I know that, Sengun is good but I don't view him as an starting center you need to win an nba championship, I view Victor Wembanyama as a center you can win a championship with ... Green, Smith and Wembayama is better core then Green, Smith and Sengun. I don't think you understand how good Victor is he was the best player on the floor against high school seniors and freshman players in college in the World cup for basketball at the age of 16, he shut down chet and team USA had no answers on how to stop him.
Managerially, we need to have a meritocracy in order to preserve competition amongst the players. Best players play. This pushes the young players to improve and the vets to stay sharp. It also preserves chemistry in the locker room.
Insert any type of defensive effort into last year and there would have been 8 more wins. I'm going with 32 wins. And I hope all the bad teams also end up with wins in the high 20s, so that there is a chance for us to win the lottery while improving kind of like the 2018-2019 nba standings. With no Kyrie and a little older age to Durant, Nets also come down to 30+ wins.
We are going to be one of if not THE youngest teams in the league this season. Especially if you factor in who is getting the playing time. I would guess we win somewhere between 0 and 5 more games than last season. Also as much as we crap on Wood, he was our team leader in winshares. That’s not to say that I wanted to keep him, because I don’t think he fits here, but he was a semi productive player.
Still a young team. I'd predict about 5 more wins than last year. Depends if we play/trade Eric Gordon or not. I would like to see more of a pick and roll style offence.
I have a hard time with this poll. Green was not ready to start the season and then had that horrendous stretch in January. How he played the last 25 games or so was fantastic, and it took benching the vets, Nix and Garuba being not quite ready, and Mathews stinking up the joint by going ice cold to keep the Rockets from winning more. If Jabari is like Mobley in that his skills translate quickly, there should be a lot more spacing to start the season. I could see a big jump as possible, but expect some growing pains to keep wins around 26-28. I think Rockets try to add Eason in slowly as Rockets are trying to build cohesion in offense and defense.
You might not, but the team does. He's ahead of where guys like Pao Gasol or Nicola Jokic were at his age and he's a perfect fit next to Smith. As I said, tanking for one player is beyond foolish, there's almost no chance you get your guy. Give it time, you'll come around and realize you sold Sengun VERY short.
There is only so long that you can hold the horses back.....Silas has admitted that he threw out there plain vanilla offense and defense. He says it's because the players were so raw; but the Vipers clean house every year and they throw a majority of the playbook at them and they pick things up just fine. ROCKETS BEEN TANKING!! It cost Jalen Green rookie of the year and greater team success. Now players like Kenyon want out. That was the same case with the 76ets "Trust the Process"......Nerlens Noel, Okafor and others said screw this, I want out. ------------ So not much has changed since our predictions after the season ended. Tate- hopefully working on his 3-ball Jabari- can shoot NBA distance 3's with players in his face. Proficient with left corner 3. Opens up lanes for Thilla, Porter, Sengun, JC. Brings defense. Eason- catch and shoot 3, much like Jabari opens up lanes for others. Brings defense Jalen Green is in the lab getting stronger and is going to dissect teams and their defenses now that teams can't pack the paint with 3 guys. Bari-Tari with their Catch-n-Shoot are going to add assist totals to Porter/Green/Sengun/ JC/Tate. Porter-wont be allowed to dribble the air out of the ball. His 9 dribbles or greater possessions was on the extreme end. Silas will have Porter going 4-6 in the half court and distribute or bench him. All the teams are going that route. But it will make Porter more productive. I see 20 points on less shots (due to better spacing) and 8 assists (due to better shooters around him) on less USG%. J Christopher - hopefully working on his 3-ball. More assists as there will be more open lanes due to improved 3-point shooting on the team. Mathews- learn to shoot drifting right or going right better. I see our offense jumping up to around #9 to #12 with improved 3-point shooting, increased open lanes, finishers having space to finish, better free throw shooting as Wood is gone and hopefully Porter is working on his FT's. Rockets were near the top in 3-pt attempts but near the bottom in 3P%. Silas is going to add more of his Pick-n-Roll, screening, cuts now that Wood is gone and he is scraping the plain vanilla scheme. Not Tanking this year. So as I stated before about 30 wins after the draft........up to 40 wins depending on addition of free agent or multiple free agents. The Wood trade saved TF roughly $4 million according to trade machine. A Mitchell Robinson or Chris Boucher could help out defense become #10 to #12 in the league. --------------- So with an offense around #10 and a defense around #11.....we should be at least near pick #6-9. And I'm targeting any of: Victor Wembanyama ( just find the golden ticket in a wonka bar & win the lottery) SF Cam Whitmore 6'7" PF Jarace Walker 6'8" Wing Ausar Thompson 6'7" SF Dillion Mitchell 6'7" SF Jordan Walsh 6'7" (amazing 7'3" wingspan) Wing Amen Thompson 6'7" SF Leonard Miller 6'10" C Kel'el Ware 7'0" C Dereck Lively 7'1"
I know you don't. But tell it to Jalen Green, Josh Christopher, Porter, Tate, Jabari, Garuba, Sengun who are trying to earn a living based on success and productivity. Some of them have cut throat drive to succeed.
Most of us were too aggressive a year ago with projections (myself included), so I'm trying to temper my expectations a bit. I voted +10, but I think they'll finish in the high 20s. They're still a very young team without a clear identity, a questionable head coach and a too-full roster of young guys without enough minutes for all of them. Plus, you've got one more year of your own lottery pick, so they'll inevitably rest some guys at the end of the season. There will be an improvement, but I'm not expecting a monumental leap. I'm looking to 23-24 for that.
I know everyone is thinking one more season in the dumps…..this draft was so great it may put us on a path to mediocrity next season. I could even see us play in if Jabari is the goods right out of the gate. a whole season of end of the last season Jalen will be a heckuva thing for the league to contend with. Especially since we added the best player in the draft to pair with him. Watch out NBA the future is coming for you!
The Rockets got Jabari because OKC let him slide. If OKC wasn’t all in on Chet, what would Stone do? How did the Rockets get Jabari? We got lucky. Having said that, I predict we win about 7 to 10 more games this year.
Without looking it up my initial guess would be that of all the teams in nba history who finished the regular season top 12 in both offense and defense 99% made the playoffs and most of them won their first round series. No way in hell we end up being that good this season. And if we were that good on both sides of the ball our pick would have no chance of being in the lottery.
I voted about 5 games more. The main unknown is how good/bad the defense will be. We got an upgrade over Wood for sure, but Rockets team defense was not good and that is mostly on coaching. No change in that department. I don't expect a huge improvement in offense. Similar production in a more systematic and reliable way, that you can count on in serious competition. I also think we won a few games more than expected last year.
You looked it up or didn't? I see a Hawks turnaround from 20 wins to 40 wins....that included free agent add on's. I believe that Hawks team made the Playoffs....but they are in the East. Near the All Star break I believe the Rockets were around #13 for a few weeks. Now add Tari-Bari So yeah.....my draft pick range may need adjusting. Being ranked high or near middle of the pack doesn't mean they won't be without mistakes.
I agree to a point - yes it's a meritocracy but with the idea you don't give up on guys easily. In other words, you're not going to bench Green for having a bad shooting month.
