Are the Rockets as good as their record indicates?

Honestly does it matter? If you win 65 games in the season, you can argue that you aren't as good as a 65 win team, BUT YOU STILL WON 65 GAMES. I don't care if we are better or worse than our record. I just care about what our record is because it puts us in a good or bad position for the playoffs.

 

Oh my God, 70% of posters think we should be winning 8 of 9 games regularly. It's going to be so ugly when our record starts averaging out.

I think we can get home court, and I think that if we acquire one or two pieces to bolster our bench we could be competing for top seed with the Clippers. OKC and Spurs are still more dangerous come playoff time, but I can see us ending up with more regular season wins with them if we acquire a good piece before the deadline.

 

Need reinforcements long before trade deadline in order to stay a top four seed, and no legit backup big man could drop the Rockets out of the top eight if Dwight misses significant time.

I understand what Morey is doing, trade deadline vulture, 2015 cap, 2016 cap, blah, blah, blah, but this season looks special and maybe the Rockets should just ####ing go for it and make a move now. There are realistic options that won't kill 2016 cap, so a lesser deal now, instead of a bigger deal in 2015 offseason, is a better way to go.

 

You don't go 8-1 just because. Of course they are as good as their record indicates, and probably better since 2 starters are missing.

 

If harden misses that layup I wonder if this thread wouldn't be completely different.

 

Bottom line is that the Rockets are doing what the are supposed to be doing; winning games they are supposed to win. If we were 5-4 now or worst, I would have concerns. The schedule right now is pretty favorable so anything less that 6-3 would have been disappointing, I think.

Keep in mind that missing 2/5 of the starting lineup is huge for this team since those are are weakest positions and we don't have the depth. It takes a toll on everyone when you're missing players for stretches of games.

But like a poster said above, we are in a great position. 8-1 is nothing to scoff at.

 

If the Rockets were 5-4, like the Kings, instead of 8-1, they'd be out of the top eight. Obviously, there is a huge difference between those two records, but they came very close to ending up 7-2, and that's only a two game lead. Boom, if Harden or Dwight missed even ten games - that could cost them the playoffs. Without even having their own 2015 draft pick, either. Help needs to arrive a lot sooner than Jan. A lot sooner.

 

Until April. Have you seen the schedule for that month? I hope we've got our playoff seeding locked up(and preferably a high seed), cuz there are some tough opponents lined up for us then. And considering this team always fades late in the season under McHale, I'm doubly concerned.

 

if dwight could hit 60% of his freebies, we'd be unbeeetabol. Howard is playing like vintage 2008 howard. I would get upset when they'd say he was better than yao. never thought he was, but now he is.

 

*their

 

Honestly, not even close. They have had the weakest schedule you could possible imagine to start the season (it's great that they're winning these easy games though). The next two weeks should show us what they're really made of (Grizzlies twice, Mavs, Kings, & Clippers).

 

Canaan and d mo have done serviceable in jones and Beverley's absence, but eventually the cracks were gonna show, and we saw it against the 76ers. That's why these guys are intended to come off our bench, their play is simply too inconsistent at this point to be nba starting caliber. However, these minutes will do wonders for d mo and Canaan because what they lacked in confidence is being washed away with this playing time. 8-1 with meaningful playing time for our young bench unit is as fantastic as you could hope for.

 

We r better than record, should be invincible.

 

Even if we have all our starters back the next game, it will take some time for them to get back into playing shape. We probably won't know what we have till 25 games into the season.

 

The perfect post.

 

Missing two starters and beating the teams we are suppose to beat.......questioning how good the Rockets are.

Nice logic OP

 

You must have missed the concerns about depth, either watching the Rockets free fall because Dwight or Harden miss significant time or watching the Rockets be out of gas, in the playoffs, due to playing starters heavy minutes.

 

Any team losing two starters is going to hurt depth wise. Harden and Howard's minutes have been fine so far this season. Last night was really the only game where they played heavy minutes. Maybe the Rockets can trade a couple of those second round picks for a backup center or guard, but they look alright right now.

 

The four seed? The four seed? Get real.

 

I want 60 wins bad.