Likely 14th Pick in the 1st Round vs. 1st Round against the Lakers

i accidentally voted for the lottery, but i meant to vote for playoffs. playoffs are always fun to watch, but it makes it that much better when your team is out there competing. i honestly think we can have some luck against the lakers this year with a few bigs on our roster now. not to mention, that bynum might not even play during the playoffs depending on his injury.

you look at position by position, and the rockets have a good chance at pulling off the upset.

derek fisher-aaron brooks
kobe-kevin martin
ron ron-trevor
pau gasol-luis scola
bynum?/mbenga-chuck wagon/jeffries

our bench is easily better than theirs, and we have a high scoring duo in kevin and a.b.

one more thing to think about is, its unlikely, but denver and dallas both have room to catch the lakers for the #1 seed. more likely dallas than denver based on remaining schedule though.

 

Kobe would completely use Martin in a head to head, negating whatever advantages the other matchups bring.

 

Maybe in a different generation, but today, with Morey's ability to find the gems, I'll go with the playoffs (I would probably pick that 10 times out of 10 though).

So lets just bust ass, take names, put fear in the Lakers and let Morey do his thing. (I don't think I have ever been so comfortable with a GM...)

 

Playoffs, of course!

 

Playoffs are always nice

 

Playoffs...not a question in my mind.

When Daryl Morey is at the helm, I trust that whoever he likes at #18 is as good as a mortal man can get at #12. Getting some big-game experience ALWAYS helps, even if your team is a lot more battle-tested than Houston. Even if you say that Battier, Martin, Ariza, and Scola have playoff experience (which is true), they don't have it as a UNIT, and that's much more important to me than the experience of the individuals.

 

Larry Sanders?

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...hl=en&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&tbs=isch:1

 

Haha the fact that ya'll think kevin martin would be matched up w/ kobe bryant is tickling. esp on a team with shane battier, trevor ariza and hell even jarred jeffries.

 

Higher pick please.

But I won't be too upset to cheer for the team in the playoffs.

DD

 

Word! It's just like how the road to the superbowl used to go through NE.

I'd love to see Trevor shut Kobe up in the first round, after that display he put on last year in the 2nd.

 

I don't understand why people choose no. 12-14 pick over playoffs. If it was a top 3 pick, maybe...

 

Morey may be able to take that higher pick, package it with one of the Knicks picks and a young player and maybe get a top 3 pick....

I want what is best for the franchise and gets the team closer to the CHampionship, I think the 8th seed is a losing proposition....

DD

 

No player is guaranteed to be a star no matter how high they are drafted. The difference between a #12 and potential #18 player is not much of a difference. The difference makers are usually between #1-5 historically.

I would like to see us make the playoffs because you never know what is going to happen until they play the games. There is no substitute for experience.

 

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I disagree. Our young guys need playoff experience as individuals and as a unit. Remember how the blazers played last playoffs?!

Hill & CBud need playoffs experience, and Martin also need more experience. Martin only played playoffs in his rookie season. We need to see how he response in playoffs. Is he a regular season player or a playoffs player? Same thing for Hill & CBub. Do you remember luther head? He played really well in regualr season, but couldn't make a shot in playoffs. In fact, AB and Landry showed their ability in their first playoffs, and now they have developed into good players.

Based on playoffs performance, Morey and Adelman will know the best for which players the rockets can depend on in future.

 

I want as high a pick as possible, but I'd still take the playoffs. I think Morey's negotiating position is improved (with FAs and other teams) with a playoff berth by more than a half-dozen slots in the draft. He could -- if we can monetize the benefit for a second -- buy his way back up to the 14th slot with the benefits accrued from making the playoffs.

But, I still don't think it'll happen.

 

Especially if our playoffs pick was going to be 15-17 anyway?

As it stands right now, we have pick 14, and we're 4.5 games away from pick 12. So we can probably assume that won't happen.

If we were to make the playoffs, we would have something like pick 18 (we leapfrog the crappy Leastern conference teams who can't win as many games even though they are "playoff" teams - stupid system!)

So it looks like it is either pick 13-14, OR pick 18 OR get lucky in the lottery and jump into the top3.

Jumping into the top 3 is the least likely scenario.
Playoffs is second least likely
So it looks like we'll get the 13-14th best pick in the draft DESPITE being the 13-14th best team in the league.

It's odd - but I'm not complaining!

 

You guys keep talking about playoff experience. Last years magical 2nd round run wasn't playoff experience? I don't think getting swept out of the first round is going to bring that "experience". Experience for who? Martin and Hill? Artest would break Kevin Martin like a twig. Our Kobe "stopper" (even though he puts up 35 points anyway) in Batter probably won't be 100%. I don't want to bother making the playoffs if its the Lakers. If we could sneak a 7 seed and draw Denver, or even better Utah, I'm game.

Otherwise, I'll cross my fingers and hope the basketball Gods get us a top 5 draft pick.

 

Playoffs.


DM is golden with anything past 20 picks, he will still pick a player that 17 (estimated) teams let slip through the cracks. I am sure the difference of 14 to 18 is not a whole lot to a guy with Morey's skills.

- Plus, a team like the Rockets (without a superstar) making the playoffs is alluring the FA's.

- Plus, I would win my bet from the beginning of the year :grin:

 

go big or go home. get to the playoffs and wreak some havoc