Barring major injuries the Rockets will finish top 6 in the WC. OKC Spurs Clips Mavs Rockets Suns Blazers NOP, Memphis, Denver, and LAL may compete for 8th seed. I would say that the top 3 are pretty for-sure unless the Sterling drama continues to hang over their head. Rivers said he wouldn't coach if Sterling owned the team so there's clearly drama. I think the Mavs and Rockets will fight for 4th seed. Suns and Blazers for 6. Those four teams will battle for the final spot. I give the Mavs the benefit of the doubt because at this point their bench is better than ours and I think that will matter later on in the season. Our starting 5 is better, but mainly because they're frontcourt is old/injured. If Tyson and Dirk are healthy, then their 5 may be better. I haven't done much research on the other teams in the WC, so don't flame me for my prediction.
We have pretty much thesame team as last year I'll even say we will be better. Ariza brings us something we didn't have and that's D. Jones, Bev, Daniels, and Dmo all had another offseason to get better. And our team chemistry should improve a lot. I really like some of the moves we have made this year. Especially Ariza and Adrien
Hasn't Dallas lost the majority of its players who contributed last year on D? I'm not sold on them. Chandler is washed up, felton is felton and aminu can't shoot a lick. Parsons to me was their only good move
Asik backed up Howard in the D as rim protector. Lin backed up Harden as the rim attacker and could produce points like he did against the Spurs. He also made good number of assists. Both backups now gone and no one can step in their shoes or have proven that they can. So if either or both are injured for 10-15 games, a good chunk of that may be in the loss column. We didn't have a great cushion last season with every body. So it is worrisome indeed.
By your logic, if there's a 15% chance of us missing the playoffs then I think you've already answered your question. Right now I'm kind of hating on the Rockets from the crappy off season based on the moves and events that have happened so far. Rockets are public enemy #1 now - we better win to shut everyone up.
Did you really watch last season... such an oblivious post. Asik missed so much of last season and when he did play it wasn't much... Lin was the most inconsistent player we had and his weaknesses outweighed his strengths.. addition by subtraction there... Bev also missed 26 games with some freak injuries... Harden missed his share of games also... so we definitely didn't have "EVERYBODY"... yet still won 54 games(taking some of the last ones off)... We can definitely do better than last season.
Unlikely to miss the playoffs, I say. Too much talent. But it we do (cos the West is TOUGH, tougher this year than last with the Pelicans coming up), this place will blow up.
We had two first year starters in Bev and Jones and a first year Rocket start in Dwight... Unless you think those players will not improve or that chemistry will not improve, I'd say we are pretty safe.
Cause only our young players will improve and the young players on other teams will remain dormant right? Every single team in the west has talented young players that are still improving and or stars who are looking to make the jump to superstardom. I think 50 wins will be the magic number just to get in. We have way too many holes and unknowns to be a lock to get in. If no other moves are made I predict 7th seed as best case scenario and 10th as worst.
As useless, incompetent and clueless that the possible worst coach in the NBA McHale is, even this may seem a step too far for his inadequacies. Rockets should make the playoffs easily and still have home court but don't udnerestimate the ineptness that is Kevin McHale.
I'm almost positive we won't miss, but it could happen because the West is so freaking deep. If we had won 5 fewer games, the Mavs one more, and the Suns 2 more, we would have missed last season. Spurs and Thieves are a virtual lock. So are the Clippers unless the team boycotts over Sterling. The Grizz will be better with a healthy Gasol all season and will be difficult to overtake for a top 4 seed. The Warriors figure to be better with a coach with an actual offensive scheme and could land Love. The Blazers will be as good as last year although I don't think they'll start out so hot. The Mavs will be better with their superstar pretty boy and Rick Carlisle and will certainly be in the Playoff mix. There's still Phoenix who just missed out last year. I'm curious to see how Thomas fits on that team and if Bledsoe resigns. Nuggets, Kings, Lakers, and Jazz are trash. The Wolves could be better if they can actually close out tight games, but while dumping a disinterested Adleman is a positive, I don't think that Flip is the man to coach them to the promised land. That's assuming they keep Love. The only other dark horse team is the Pelicans. Their front court defense is scary, but I see that team being an offensive mess. They might sniff 500, but I can't see them overtaking the Rockets. That's 8 solid teams who could all overtake us and 2 other teams with a very small chance of being decent. If Harden or Howard (or maybe Beverly depending on how the backup spot shakes out) have to miss significant time, we could be in a very tight race. Magic Numbers should be fun as the season winds down in the very stacked Western Conference.
On paper we should make it, but dig a little deeper and I'd say we can easily miss the playoffs. I don't think we reach 54 wins this season. Parsons, Lin, Asik absence will be missed dearly. Bev, will be exposed as the worst starting PG in the league. Howard is going to play crazy minutes because we have no quality backup center.
Injuries are not outta the question because we have absolutely no bench. Starters will have to literally play 40 minutes a game
