BSPN forecasts the Rockets to finish 8th in the West

This is just ESPNs way of saying that they aren't going to carry that many Rockets games nationally. If Harden and Howard are truly the best SG and C in the league, respectively, then the Rockets finish with at least the 4th seed. You can't have two of the best players at their positions and finish as the 8th seed regardless of whose coaching the team. Mike freaking Brown took LeBron and and a glorified intramural squad to over 60 wins.

It's still over 2 months before the season anyway, the roster used in the projection will change again once Morey has completed all of his fantasy football draft preparations (I mean wait for the non-guranteed players to become draft eligible).

 

I just don't get the Dallas love. Dirk is old, Chander isnt the same and injury prone, Harris and Felton aren't very good, and the lost Marion and Vince (who was key in crunch time). If Dirk, Chandler, and Parsons (back spams are a likely reoccurring injury) go down for an extended period time, they're not making the playoffs.

 

There's no "Dallas love" coming from ESPN. According to those predictions, if they win 3 less games, they miss the playoffs. The only thing that shows is that ESPN thinks there's a clear top tier (Spurs/Thunder/Clippers) and a clear 2nd tier (Mavs/Blazers/Warriors/Rockets/Grizzlies), and honestly, I don't see how anybody can disagree with that at this point in time.

 

The West is about as stacked as it's ever been, and LeBron has played in the terrible East for the duration of his career. If Mike Brown's Cavaliers were in the West all those years, they wouldn't have even had home court advantage. However, I do agree that 8th is an insult. It's like they completely disregard the Ariza signing simply because we did it as an answer to losing Parsons.

 

What people disagree with is the fact that in within that second tier, they had to squeeze in their disrespect by placing us LAST. Visually, placing us in the 8th spot looks the worst, and you can't tell me ESPN doesn't know that.

 

We are as underrated as last year's Suns

 

It's fine...

Spoiler

May have missed a transaction here or there

Oklahoma City
ADDED: Mitch McGary, Josh Huestis, Semaj Christon, Anthony Morrow, Sebastian Telfair, Sofoklis Schortsanitis
LOST: Thabo Sefolosha, Caron Butler, Derek Fisher, Georgios Printezis
RETAINED: Grant Jerrett

San Antonio
ADDED: Kyle Anderson, Bryce Cotton, JaMychal Green, Nemanja Dangubic
LOST: Damion James
RETAINED: Boris Diaw, Patty Mills, Matt Bonner, Aron Baynes

LA Clippers
ADDED: C.J. Wilcox, Spencer Hawes, Jordan Farmar
LOST: Darren Collison, Danny Granger, Willie Green, Ryan Hollins, Hedo Turkoglu
RETAINED: Glen Davis

Portland
ADDED: Chris Kaman, Steve Blake, James Southerland, Diante Garrett
LOST: Mo Williams, Earl Watson
RETAINED: None

Dallas
ADDED: Chandler Parsons, Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Jameer Nelson, Al-Farouq Aminu, Richard Jefferson, Eric Griffin, Greg Smith, Ivan Johnson, Emir Preldzic
LOST: Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert, Vince Carter, DeJuan Blair, Shawn Marion, Bernard James, Wayne Ellington, Shane Larkin, Tadija Dragicevic
RETAINED: Dirk Nowitzki, Devin Harris

Memphis
ADDED: Vince Carter, Jordan Adams, Jarnell Stokes
LOST: Mike Miller, Ed Davis, James Johnson
RETAINED: Beno Udrih, Zach Randolph, Nick Calathes

Golden State
ADDED: Shaun Livingston, Brandon Rush
LOST: Steve Blake, Hilton Armstrong, Jordan Crawford, Jermaine O'Neal
RETAINED: None

Houston
ADDED: Trevor Ariza, Alonzo Gee, Scotty Hopson, Clint Capela, Nick Johnson, Jeff Adrien, Ish Smith, Joey Dorsey, Kostas Papanikolaou, Sergei Lishchuk
LOST: Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin, Omer Asik, Omri Casspi, Francisco Garcia, Jordan Hamilton
RETAINED: Troy Daniels

Phoenix
ADDED: Isaiah Thomas, Anthony Tolliver, T.J. Warren, Tyler Ennis, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Alec Brown
LOST: Channing Frye, Ish Smith, Dionte Christmas, Alex Oriakhi, Emeka Okafor
RETAINED: P.J. Tucker, Eric Bledsoe

New Orleans
ADDED: Omer Asik, Russ Smith, Jimmer Fredette, Patric Young
LOST: Anthony Morrow, Al-Farouq Aminu, Brian Roberts, Jason Smith, Melvin Ely, Omri Casspi, Alonzo Gee, Scotty Hopson, James Southerland
RETAINED: Darius Miller

Denver
ADDED: Arron Afflalo, Jusuf Nurkic, Gary Harris, Erick Green, Nikola Jokić
LOST: Aaron Brooks, Jan Vesely, Evan Fournier, Anthony Randolph
RETAINED: None

LA Lakers
ADDED: Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Jeremy Lin, Carlos Boozer, Ed Davis
LOST: Pau Gasol, Jodie Meeks, Jordan Farmar, Chris Kaman, Kendall Marshall, Kent Bazemore, Sergei Lishchuk, MarShon Brooks
RETAINED: Jordan Hill, Nick Young, Xavier Henry, Ryan Kelly, Wesley Johnson

Sacramento
ADDED: Nik Stauskas, Darren Collison, Wayne Ellington, Jeremy Tyler, Alex Oriakhi, Omri Casspi, Eric Moreland
LOST: Isaiah Thomas, Aaron Gray, Quincy Acy, Travis Outlaw, Jared Cunningham
RETAINED: None

Utah
ADDED: Dante Exum, Rodney Hood, Trevor Booker, Steve Novak, Carrick Felix, Toure Murry
LOST: Marvin Williams, Brandon Rush, Richard Jefferson, Diante Garrett, John Lucas III, Erick Murphy, Malcolm Thomas
RETAINED: Gordon Hayward

Minnesota
ADDED: Zach LaVine, Glenn Robinson III, Mo Williams, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett
LOST: Kevin Love, A.J. Price, Dante Cunningham, Chris Johnson, Othyus Jeffers
RETAINED: Robbie Hummel

 

Chandler is not the player he was in 2011. Parsons is younger and brings some offense but Marion and Carter were two pieces that played both sides of the court efficiently.

 

I mean, sure, but I guess I just don't care at all about NBA predictions made in August. I don't think it's an absolutely insane prediction, but I certainly don't agree with it. I see us anywhere from 4-6.

If the Rockets want to silence critics like ESPN, they know what they have to do. If Harden plays defense, Howard dominates, and the supporting cast does what they need to do, ESPN won't have a choice but to respect the Rockets.

 

Chandler is not the player he was in 2011, neither is Marion.

I think Chandler > Marion. Parsons > Carter.

PG position is actually pretty solid, as I forgot about Jameer Nelson.

 

So according to 60-70% of you, every player the Mavs signed is old, sucks and is washed up, but every unknown and retread the Rockets signed is going to prove everyone wrong and lead them to a top 4 seed?

You keep saying Parsons is overpaid, but overpaid does not equal bad. He's a significant improvement to Marion whose defense has fallen off a cliff, nay, a mountain over the last two years. And Raymond Felton isn't their backup PG, it's Jameer Nelson. And we saw what he could do when put in a great offense like the Magic had.

I just moved to Houston and am gonna root for the Rox like the rest of you and look forward to hitting up games, but try to be a little more objective.

 

Tyson Chandler is no longer the defensive center he was... he just regressed. Dallas defense will make Houston's defense look like Detroit basketball 2004.

 

Only if we find a good enough defensive ast coach, or fire McHale and get a head coach that can hold players accountable.

 

We will be seed number 4 at the worst...

 

Da fuq? We finished 4th last year and now they're talking 8th? We upgraded with Ariza, no way we slipping.

 

- Ariza's defensive superiority to Chandler Parsons is not a wash! He also shoot's a higher percentage from three.

- Asik only really played decently toward the end of the season, so he hardly contributed to our 4th seed last year.

- Lin was overrated, average ball handler and had a turnover tendency. As we stand now, all of the backup point guards remaining on the roster are all better ball handlers then Jeremy Lin. Each also has a superior skill to Lin, with Canaan you have a better shooter, and Ish Smith a better playmaker.

- As to our bench
---- Canaan and Smith each provide skill set's (Shooting/ Playmaking) that are superior to Lin's.

---- Troy Daniels is better shooter then anyone we had on our bench last year, and it's not even remotely close. We also have a high energy/defensive minded rook in Nick Johnson who possesses elite athleticism for a guard.

---- Kostas Papanikolaou, is a nice young 3 & D player, who plays with balls to the wall effort, and has extremely good pedigree having won multiple championships in the best leagues outside of the NBA. Not to mention we also have a old veteran like Garcia, who can still shoot the ball and play decent defense.

---- Donatas Motiejunas, with him you have a young offensively talented big, that is coming into his own. He's shown improvement in some key areas of weakness (like rebounding) this off-season. Could be a big factor off the bench this upcoming season.

---- Joey Dorsey, Clint Capela, and Jeff Adrien as a collective group bring enough rebounding and rim protection to give Dwight Howard a good breather.

I know these guys aren't house hold names or even recognizable names like Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin. But don't sleep on these guys, cause they can suprise you, just like Parsons did a couple of years ago.

 

Agreed.

 

I honestly feel like we are better without Asik or Lin. They both had more liabilities than assets. How many blown layups between Asik & Lin I wonder? Lin's turnovers. Asik's stupid soft fouls.

And Role Player Parsons is already the most overrated player in the league based on Cuban's idiocy.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>My vote: 1 Spurs 2 Thunder 3 LAC 4 Mavs 5 Grizz 6 Warriors 7 Blazers 8 Rockets 9 Suns 10 Pelis 11 Nuggets 12 LAL 13 Kings 14 Jazz 15 Wolves</p>&mdash; Chad Ford (@chadfordinsider) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadfordinsider/statuses/499333864368533504">August 12, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

lol

He brought nothing but an opinion. A wrong one at that too. Calderon is a big loss.