Here is where this David Aldridge piece gets confusing. On one hand, he says this: But on the other hand, he says this: While I completely agree the continuity matters in basketball a lot, how can he then turn around and say that he is ranking how much a team improved from last season? How can he say that the question he is trying to answer is "is the team better now than at the end of last season?" He has Golden State ranked #9. Golden State added Chris Babb, Jason Thompson and Kevon Looney. Cleveland is ranked #2. They added Mo Williams and the skeleton of Richard Jefferson. Granted, neither Golden State or Cleveland needed to get much better- they were two of the very best teams last year, even with Cleveland's injuries. But how can you look at Chris Babb, Kevon Looney, and the skeleton of Richard Jefferson and say those moves made those teams significantly better than last season?
I'll give you Beverly, since he was re-signed, but injuries are a part of the game. But really he doesnt count, he was on the team last year and remains on the team this year. Hopefully he plays like he did 2 years ago. Is he going to give OKC credit for Durant not being injured anymore? If he was they would be #1 on this list, no questions asked. No other move made this off season would compare to a team getting Durant, and if I remember correctly they were in the middle 10.
Here's the thing. He essentially gives San Antonio number one because the got LA, yet doesn't take into account the loss of depth from that. He gives the Cavs and warriors tops because of what? They retained their players. So how can you rank a team as better since their last game because you retained a player. Yet, dump Houston to the bottom because we didn't retain josh smith and we traded end of the bench guys for a starting pg. No this isn't analysis, it's click bait garbage because there was no real analysis at all. He picked the teams he liked in the top and the teams he didn't in the bottom. Houston is one of only three teams on the bottom ten that made the playoffs. I can understand when a team loses not only on a free agent but core players as well and the other loses it's best player as well as losing core players. Houston didn't lose any core players, the projected starting line up from last year is still here. Every team in the top ten made the playoffs, see the trend?
No kidding. That's what stuck out when I read his writeup. I guess if you think the Lawson acquisition is a complete bust, you wouldn't feel too good about the Rockets offseason. But even then, 24th? Even if you dismiss the addition of Lawson(and I sure as hell wouldn't), the Rockets still resigned Bev, Brewer, and McDaniels. They drafted Dekker and Harrell. They signed Thornton. And they're getting D-Mo back and will have Capela the entire season as the backup center instead of the likes of Joey Dorsey.
I'd laugh if I wasn't so damned tired of the Rockets being disrespected by "major sports media" like ESPN. "Major sports media" as in a major crock of journalistic crap put out by a running joke named ESPN.
Yeah, I read another ranking that also had the Rockets tied with the Mavs for offseason grade. It's baffling. They acquired a borderline All-Star for practically free, and retained all the other permanent pieces of a conference finalist (Smith was great, but an obvious temporary injury plug). Hell, call Ty Lawson our new backup PG if you really think he's that flaky. Still a huge upgrade in the spot most in need of it. Usually if a top 5 team fills its biggest need, they get even more praise than an average team would signing the same player for the same role. But if it's Dwight Howard and Daryl Morey's team, screw 'em. They're overrated and will definitely fail.
The impact a healthy Lawson could have on the Rockets should make him one of the most significant off-season moves any team had.
He's an LA reporter. Typical LA hate. Still salty about dwight. Irrelevant and should be ignored. One rung above Ramona Shelbourne and Cari Champion
They'll never shut up. If the Rockets do win a championship, they'll just move the goal posts again, say they got lucky or something.
If we had resigned Terry (catalyst behind our WCF appearance) already instead of being cheap penny pinching, we would be top 5 in DA rankings. So no complaint from me.
I saw this on reddit a couple of hours ago and was waiting for it to be brought up. Abridge really doesn't look at Houston in a favorable light these days. If I recall correctly, he was pretty nice to us in the T-Mac/Yao days and maybe even the first year we got Harden but after signing Howard, he has turned notably sour towards us. This offseason he was pretty low on the Dekker pick even though most experts had him going in the 11-15 range, citing he wasn't sure about Dekker's 3 point shot consistency and fit on the Rockets. Which is understandable, I guess but even then, Dekker was a good pick at 18. He was "meh" about the Harrell pick even though draft experts had him as a definite 1st round talent/pick. Then when we got Lawson, he was the first to say he didn't really like the pick up even though it fixes our biggest need and we gave up so little to get him. Most everyone was extremely high on Morey getting Lawson for that price but not Aldridge. Putting us ranked 24th is seriously a joke, though. People around the internet have been saying that the Rockets/Morey did very well (even the best) this offseason, given that we solved our biggest weakness and kept our important role players to very fair and reasonable contracts while everyone else was splurging big money to limited role players. I mean, 80 million for Reggie Jackson, 70 million for Wes Matthews who might not even be worth a fifth of that contract with his injury, 20 milion to Aaron Bynes, etc...? The fact we are lower than Dallas takes the cake.
David Aldridge does not like the Rockets and he has made it very obvious recently. Les Alexander probably owes him some money.
Uh. Lawson has a lot of problems to deal with before he contributes? It's like people don't look into what they report. The fact that they get paid for their writing is beyond me. Lawson has been an 'alcoholic' since college Lawson has had multiple DUIs already. Lawson just had his best season (some consider it a historically good one - passing wise) just prior to his DUI. If Lawson didn't get "caught" drinking and driving then he would still be a valuable and sought after point guard throughout the league and if the Rockets somehow acquired him with giving up the same as they did then reporters would be saying that the Rockets just guaranteed themselves as a super team.
So Terry is the reason DA put us so low? It's like you find ways to hate on the Houston Rockets franchise...
