Dallas is going to have far better than a 25% shot with Dirk returning in the next month to a .500 club
Does anyone really believe we'll make the playoffs? More like [Pick #14 Watch]. Maybe we can get the 13th pick this year, though. One step at a time...
He didn't predict the rockets would lose 6 games straight and throw away any chance for the playoffs.
it certainly appears that we are late lotto-bound...again, but when you think about it: we've essentially played our worst ball of the season already. Our best player had no training camp or preseason with the team. The guy we thought was gonna be our best player has shot terribly and had problems adjusting. Our head coach was gone for a month. We're the youngest team in the league, and much of our roster is improving daily with each opportunity. If we're a 500 team in the early going, i have a hard time believing we won't improve as we get closer to the end of the season. All this is to say that we are better than i expected and we probably have just as good of a chance at the playoffs as we do getting the 13th pick.
Can somebody with ESPN Insider provide the transcript for this article? I think it has some Rocket's info. Thanks in advance! http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/page/PERDiem-121212/look-positive-side
I was wondering if the Rox tanked last season in the last eight games because they wanted to rebuild the team and a lottery draft would help.
I heard it was a strategic move to get a draft. Morey thought the old roster would have little hope going any further in the playoffs, even though the Rockets had been above .500 for the previous six years and actually made the playoffs in the last three years, and rebuilding from ground up would more likely create a new title contending team in the next three to five years.
The problem is that most of our competition for the last playoff spots can also expect to improve as the season goes on. The Lakers, Mavs, and Twolves are all missing key players and are still on par with us.
I don't completely understand why the Lakers are on there. Do people really have that much hope that Nash can completely turn the team around? Their problems go much further than the PG, and much further than the coaching.
If Jeremy Lin could turn around the Knicks in a lock out condensed season with less talent why can't Nash who is significantly better than Lin in every offensive category. People are underestimating the Lakers.
D'Antoni's system revolves around having a very special PG. No PG, no system. It can't be just any PG, but a PG who is a good player, able to read the defense quickly, make fast and good decisions, and has good court-vision and passing skills. That's why it worked with Nash and Lin, but failed or had limited success with all the other PGs and psuedo-PGs that he plugged in. He needs a good PG with special talents to run his system. No PG, basically no team. The Lakers won't work without Nash in a D'Antoni system. The D'Antoni system was what the USA Olympics team used to win the gold (D'Antoni is the TeamUSA offensive assistant coach, and slated to take over from Coach K as headcoach in future Olympics). The system can work, but it requires a high calibre PG to run the show as we've seen with Nash's MVP years in PHX and Linsanity in NY and the Olympic Games where D'Antoni controlled the offensive playbook.
Now that I think about, the situation with the Lakers is eerily similar to the one the Knicks were in last season. Do they have a 4th string point guard on their roster? Oh, and Kobe will have to be out with a groin injury too.
He is 38 I believe. And despite being 38 he averaged a double double last season, was the assist leader on a Pheonix roster with very little talent whatsoever. You telling me that he can't run the Lakers offense. If Lin could run MDA's offense last season to be the 12th best offense in the NBA last year, then yes Steve Nash two time MVP, elite PNR PG, one of the best shooting PG's in the NBA can figure it out.
