I've been wondering about this recently. When I look at the team in isolation, I feel like we've lost a little bit of talent (if we don't make anymore deals). I figure the biggest loss was Parsons, and Ariza will make up at least most of that production. I feel like Lin is a better player but Canaan is a better fit. I feel like 82 games of Dorsey may trump 50 games of Asik. D-Mo and Jones should be slightly better. But then I look at the Western conference. We finished just 6 games ahead of the 9th placed Suns. 6 games is not a lot. A young team can make up 5 games by just staying together and working hard in the offseason - according to our GM. Parsons and Asik went to Dallas and New Orleans - both of whom play in our division, which doubles the impact on us because we play teams from our division most often. I can't see any of the top 3 sliding. Dallas improved. Portland and Golden State didn't change much, and they have young cores which could get better. Phoenix, if they re-sign Bledsoe, looked very good in the second half and have added more talent and will have better chemistry. New Orleans might suddenly become of the best defensive teams in the league, while Anthony Davis continues to flourish. It's a bit worrisome. We could get really unlucky. Other teams could get lucky. Right now, I would say our chances of missing the playoffs are 15%. On the face of it, if everything unfolds in a predictable manner, I can't see us missing the playoffs. But what if Anthony Davis becomes Tim Duncan and Alex Len becomes Brooke Lopez? What do you guys think? Is there cause for concern here if we don't make any more major additions?
don't even need season ending injuries. If they miss 10-15 games next season (Howard played 71, Harden 73 last season) a playoff spot is not guaranteed.
6 games IS a lot. 6 more wins and we are a 60 win team. 2nd best to the spurs. Injuries are the only thing that can keep Houston out of the playoffs.
Injuries are the only chance. The Rockets had a tough offseason, but are still easily, EASILY, one of the 8 best teams in the West.
There's only 3 teams that are locks.. Spurs, OKC and Clippers. 4-8 is a toss up and everyone is going to beat each other up in the west. It's definitely possible we could miss it.
I'm not even sure the Clippers are a lock for a top 3 seed. If they have the Sterling cloud hanging over them, there's going to be some affect on the team. Additionally, people are downplaying the 6 wins. For one, as another poster mentioned above, 6 wins is quite significant. Aside from that, we took the last 10(something like that) games pretty easy as we had the 4th seed pretty much locked. Our record could have been much better without coasting the last few games resting key players.
if the bench ends up being portland 2012 bad, then we could miss the playoffs with 48 wins. west is going to be stack with 50 win teams.
If even if one of Harden or Howard gets injured, I still think we make the playoffs. Championship, though...
Rockets play in the west and have McFail as their coach so anything could happen. But on the surface, the Rockets really have not lost much this offseason. Rocks have basically traded Parsons for Ariza and flexibility. Lin was up and down (mostly down) all season. We moved Asik but he missed like 50 games pouting last year. Seriously, some of you guys need to step away from the keyboard. The Rockets are in great shape to be as good or better this season.
I hope Morey is working on getting Kevin Love. I mean, Kevin Mchale and Kevin Love has been in great relationship.
We'll be okay barring injury. However, I think we'll have a better understanding of our team's capabilities towards the start of the season when we have our final and complete roster.
Harden played way less minutes than chandler in his 3rd year and still managed to average close to the same stats as chandler **** him and his brother #entitledbitch
You never know what injuries might do to a team (bad memories of the Yao/T-Mac years...) but barring a significant injury, there would be 0% chance that we don't make the playoffs next year. Zero.
Losing Asik and Lin are the biggest hits to the roster. When Harden and Beverley were out, Lin stepped in without much of a drop off. The same for Asik, who, even with his pouting and "injuries", came in during a stretch of games were the Rockets took care of business against some really good teams.
If Harden stays healthy _ we're in... If Harden misses a significant amount of time _ we're in trouble.
I'd say we make it, but there is a chance we won't. Last year we were only 6 games away from missing the playoffs. If someone has an injury (knock on wood) for a few games that could be it. That's how scary the West is.
