It depends on what aspect of the team you are using that adjective to describe. You may have a point on over-all record, but team talent and past records in the West could easily be described as mediocre. Also, what does it say about a team when fans are in a debate over whether or not the term above average, as opposed to mediocre is the best descriptor for their team? Just for the record I consider us slightly above average.
Seems like some here are splitting hairs on definitions. We are slightly above average if you draw a sharp line at 50% given we are in the west and play a bit tougher schedule compared to the east. We are very average if you take the middle 33% of teams as average. ------------------------------------- We are 8-9 in the west and 6-2 vs the east. That pretty much tells it imo. Mediocre, average, whatever.
It comes down to this for me. There are a lot of downers on ClutchFans. Guys who go around calling the Rockets "mediocre" seem like glass is half empty people who are no fun to be around (durvasa you aren't really like this so I'm not directing it at you). It's basically spinning toward the negative so that you can make the Rockets seem worse. It's not like it's an outright lie I guess. But it's definitely looking at reality in a negative light. Or else just plain being ignorant about the connotation of the word. I think it is perfectly reasonable to call the Rockets solid, average, above average, anything in that range. But as a fan I'm tired of all the negativity around here. The Astros community I frequent isn't even as negative as ClutchFans, and the Astros have had three consecutive losing seasons and had the worst record in baseball last year. That should tell you something about how people behave around here.
Let put it in another way then. The only team that really matters any year is the one that wins the title. The No. 1 team, the top 3% if you were. So the Rockets are definitely NOT the No. 1 team and will definitely not be there soon. We are with everyone else in the 97%. Does that help?
Orem, it's not that the Rockets aren't winning, but that they aren't LOSING either. The Astros had the worst record? I'm sure that will help them in their upcoming draft in an effort to rebuild. We are not bad enough to rebuild, but not good enough to win. If the glass is half full, we are average, and the water is not rising or dropping. If the water was rising, great, we are winning. If the water is dropping, then great, we are going to be refilled soon. Half full though? Frustrating.
Road wins against Denver and Portland...nothing mediocre about that. They can compete with every team in the West except OKC and LAL in a 7 game series....assuming everyone is healthy.
yes nothing mediocre about getting 2 road wins against 2 playoff teams. You know if the season ended today the rockets would be playing dallas in the first round of the playoffs. You have to think can this mediocre team beat them in 7 after past playoff disappointments.
I am here. They still have mediocre to above average talent... time to upgrade to good to very good level Player development and thru trades
maybe even fourth.... HC advantage over Dallas right now.... still we need an upgrade..... Three 09ers too much.... give a place to Adrien, Lin or someone who deserves the spot......other than those well fed lottery picks
It's a bit rich to say 'likely' a third coming up. What is more 'likely' is that we make the playoffs (or you could check the 'playoff odds' if you like?) If we do happen to fall into the lottery from here, that is the more "unlikely" scenario based on what we've seen so far this season.
Don't get hung up on technicalities. Mediocrity is not just a 0.500 record. It's a W-L range. [1st-4th] - Power Elite [5th-8th] - Contenders [9th-12th] - Ones to watch [13th-16th] - Dark Horses (Mediocre playoff fodder) [17th-20th] - NBA Purgatory (Eternal damnation without hope for salvation) [21st-25th] - Please God make it stop [26th-30th] - David Stern's welfare state Last couple years it's fairly obvious we fell into the lower Dark Horse category in terms of comparative team strength, but fell one category below due to being in the WC.
So we're AVERAGE, not mediocre. We're saved people! No more tanking, no more b****in' about Morey not doing his stuff right, we're right where we wanna be! Not mediocre, but average!
Who Cares? Mediocre, Average, Above Average... why does this even matter? It's the middle of the season and our standing in the western conference changes by 2-3 spots per day. We currently have the same record as the defending NBA champions, we're ranked one above the Lakers, and we have the same number of wins as the Clippers; who can honestly accurately classify us in any category right now? All this bickering over semantics is completely useless. If the Rockets are truly classified as a "below-average" team, would that really affect your fanhood? If you don't want to be a fan of a mediocre team then go be a Bulls or Heat fan. Stop talking about this meaningless crap that has no clear definition and wouldn't matter even if it does.
