I still to this day believe that team would have won it all if we didn't run into the Donaghy fix job in the playoffs, and if Juwan didn't have that season ending injury.
This Rockets team is getting blown out by BAD teams...at home. JVG, Adelman had a feature of the offense/defense they could rely on. Right now since Mchale cant rely on Harden(horrible shooting) or Howard(health), he doesnt have something that the team can fall back upon. They lack post play(injuries or lack of depth), they are a poor defensive team, and they cant hit open/contested shots consistently. And they are one of the worst teams post time outs (turnover, bad shot, or easy opponent bucket). They are bad all around and it starts with Mchale.
People have mentioned that the teams I compared were different generations, different players, different coaches etc etc. Its all true. But a bad start is a bad start no matter the team, what we hope for as fans is that the organization we support that has had a bad start finds a solution so that the team can start performing at a level we as fans expect, whether that's through trades, a change of coach or a kicking up the ass. So lets hope the Rockets find that solution Something to take note is the Pelicans record, they are currently 1-9, that team has huge expectations like us, Davis was supposed to take his game to another level and put those Pelicans firmly in the playoff picture. It doesn't look very good for them so far, but as young as the season is they can recover.
I've been thinking about the 2004 team's poor start, but there are two factors that differentiate that group from the 2015 Rockets. That team had a lousy bench thanks to the T-Mac deal and all the horrible signings and draft choices by Rudy. Remember, Van Gundy was only entering his 2nd season as coach, so they were still trying to clean up the mess left behind. When you're relying on the likes of Andre Barrett, Charlie Ward, and Tyronn Lue to win you games early on, you're gonna struggle. Also, that team even during their 6-11 start played some terrific defense. It was just that they couldn't score worth a damn. Keep in mind that in that famous 13 in 35 game against the Spurs, before the Rockets began their comeback, they were down 74-64 with less than a minute to go. That was a microcosm of their early season struggles. They held the Spurs to 74 points through 47 minutes....but could only muster 64 themselves. Juxtapose that with this Rockets team. They have a quality bench. Sure, some guys like Brewer and Bev are stinking up the joint, but McDaniels, Thornton, and Terry are available to McHale as alternatives. Also, they're horrible on the defensive end. Every opponent through 11 games has scored at least 105 points. The 2004 Rockets just needed to make a few trades and figure out how to combine T-Mac and Yao's abilities on offense. This team is broken on both the offensive and defensive end and is showing no signs of improvement(if anything, they're getting worse).
Sure, Donaghy admitted that playoff series was one of the ones that he..umm.. 'influenced'? And maybe if it wasn't for that, we never would have even been in game 7. Who knows. But still, no amount of referee fix job can account for losing game 7 by 40.
this season is not similar to 04-05 at all. tracy mcgrady > james frauden. james frauden is doing MUCH LESS with MUCH MORE. james frauden's supporting cast is 10x better and he's doing absolutely NOTHING.
If the goal of the Rockets is championship, then it doesn't matter whether they beat GSW in the first round or WCF.
Harden is looking more and more like TMac. And the offense is just as predictable. The difference is, that team played defense. This team doesn't.
