This season so far has been absolutely tough to stomach. With such lofty expectations placed on this team and the results we have seen so far, it has been dissapointing and frustrating. And it's not just the record I'm referring to, but everything. The injuries to Sura and, more importantly, T-Mac, the early struggles of Swift and Rafer to fit into the system, the shooting struggles of the backcourt, the lack of chemistry, the lack of offense, the lack of effort, and yes, the 3-8 record. Then you take a look at the teams we've faced so far; a combined record of 62-46. That's pretty damn good. The team had a 5-game road trip with a back-to-back, and has to play Minnesota, SA, Detroit, Indiana and Dallas, all in a row. That is absolutely brutal. We've had to face every upper-echelon team in the first freakin' month, and without T-Mac. To expect this team to have a winning record under these circumstances is probably expecting to much. Now here's the positive sign. With the exception of the blowout loss to Boston, this team has more or less fought and clawed to stay close in every game. Sure they haven't been operating at full strength, their has been a lack of focus and chemistry and offensive woes, but they've been within striking distance. Imagine what we would have done with a healthy T-Mac. I'm willing to bet we could be at 7-4 or perhaps 8-3. Bottom line, no team can win (and against the elite no less) without their superstar and the Rockets are no different. Reason for hope: the December schedule. The team faces - from now to the end of December - teams with a combined record of 84-99. That's drastically different from this previous month. I look at the teams we're facing, and every single one of them I see as winnable. You got NO/OK, Toronto, Atlanta, Utah, LAL, Chicago, Portland, Seattle. And yeah there's the Clippers and the Nuggets and the Warriors. Don't look at win-loss record though. This Rocket team is better than those teams and are more than capable of pulling out victories against them. It seems like our shooters are starting to find their range again and hopefully this rest will bring back a healthier T-Mac. Point being, we've gotten through quite possibly the most difficult schedule of the season. While our record isn't that great, our upcoming schedule presents a great opportunity to turn things around. This season has not begun the way anybody expected or wished, but be glad we have the ability to put the toughest part of the schedule and (hopefully) the inuries behind us. If there was ever a time to struggle, the beginning of the season is it. Imagine had all these issues crept up at the end of the season. This team can rebound from it's slow start. They got the talent, the depth, the coach and the stars. I gotta believe...because they ain't nothing else to do.
At this moment, as long as the progress and efforts are there, i can deal with a loss, just like tonight's game. GO ROCKETS!!
I really feel this team will take off once we get TMAC back and healthy. It's slowly starting to come around. We played Dallas, Detroit, and Indiana all pretty tough without two of our starters. I'm still not passing any judgment on this team until I see a healthy TMAC play with the rest of these guys, and that includes Alston.
well you managed to cheer me up but i'm not quite at the point where i believe everything will be ok. i think we can win most of the games in Dec. infact i would bet that we will be over .500 by the end fo the month. from then on we can just push foward. if we can win 51 games after starting 6-11 last year, we can do it again. of course we would have to go 3-3 to reach that record. the main problems are still there, even with a great schedule on the horizon for next month. we still have burried ourselves in the conference. we may still make the playoffs but will we make 4th as hoped? will we even be able to make 5th like last year? we still have no perimeter D. once our shooters get going and tmac gets back it won't look like a big problem anymore but we still can't guard the perimeter at all. a trade has to happen. all in all, the season is not nearly done yet. i love how we faught against the best teams without tmac. we have a lot of basketball left and we will probably have a similar season to last years...with a first round upset of course.
Well, that and the Rockets high council has discovered Luther's midichlorian level is the highest of any rookie since Cassell. Truly he is the one prophesized to bring balance to the backcourt.
The only hope I see if Tmac comes back and the performance of Head last night was very promising. I don't look at our opponents, they are all good and a lot better than rockets without Tmac.
Thank You. I needed that. Hopefully when tmac comes back things will change and maybe something good can come out of his injuries ya kno?
The team opened up this and last season with a bad record but the difference is last year we played bad during our easier part of the schedule. This year however we started with a very tough month, so things should be better down the road. The only two losses I am really upset with are NO/OKL and Orlando, we should have won those regardless if T-mac played or not. Lets see we already played Miami and Indiana on the road, and once with Detriot. SA, Dallas, and Minnestoa on the road. That is one less road game there. With Phoenix tonight, we got all the top teams out of the way early for now.
just so he comes back . .healthy He should not come back and 'play through the pain' and have this go on all year Rocket River
