[Positive Optimism|Rockets may not be as bad as people think

Thunder are going to win 50 if Westbrook is healthy. When Durant,Serge,and Westbrook were out, they still won almost 50games. Rusz is that good, Olidipo will help alot.

 

negative optimisim exists in OP's world

Mind it.

 

Too many heavyweights in the playoffs.

It is just waiting for someone to knock you out.

If people are looking forward it, I have mild expectations at best.

 

The Rockets won't be bad as the majority on this site will. They will most definitely win more games than last year and make the playoffs, but will lose in the first round no matter who we face because the opponents defense will lock down on Harden.

James Harden will have another MVP like season and we will play fun Rockets basketball and make this team look good again.

The guys that are saying whats the point if we're not competing for championships? The point is to fix the dysfunctional reputation we got last year so players want to come play here. Easily doable.

The only issue I have is why Ryan Anderson's contract. That's the problem. So excessive. Find a lesser player, win a few less games, and keep that cap open.

 

I agree....
We still need a wing that can shoot/post up/ dribble/pass/defend and his name is Gentile.

The best way to beat this Warriors and their death lineup is to make them have to defend each position.

Rockets could roll out a line up of....

Anderson/Green
Beasley/Durant
Gentile/Iguodola (Gentile is a very versatile scorer)
Harden/Thompson
Gordon/Curry

And yes I do know that we wouldn't be able to defend them either but who can?

 

We're a bottom 10 team.

 

any optimism is positively something... lol

 

This is how I view it: how do the Rockets become an attractive destination again? By having a good season! If Anderson and Gordon are effective, at the worst we are better than we were last season. Lets get back to being a 4/5 seed and surprise some people this year. Having a fun/competitive season will make us a more attractive destination, and maybe free agents will be attracted to the ridiculous stats are players could put up under D'Antoni. D'Antoni seems to be a lot more popular to players than he is to people on internet message boards.

^ See what that is? Optimism. Maybe not as realistic as being a 'realist', but it sure is a lot more fun. Honestly, I really like this Rockets team. I guess the ultimate goal is to end up like the Warriors, but **** them. I'll take this underdog team. It's what we got, we might as well live with it.

 

That's the same strategy as the Lakers, nets, kings and any other scrub team I'm forgetting

 

Is it? None of those teams made the playoffs last year, and none of them are even close to being on par with the Rockets. More accurate to say the Trail Blazers or Mavericks or Hawks or some team like that, but I'd say we have more star power than them.

Another point - you don't need to think of last year as the norm. I'd say it was more of an aberration than anything. Terrible funk, bad chemistry, mid-season coach firing, terrible coaching the rest of the way. We can and should easily improve on last year - optimistically, I think we can get back to 2014-2015 form.

 

Ok. Believe in that propaganda then.

Morey is all propaganda

 

Also, don't count out Morey's ability to make trades. I'm predicting a return to the Moneyball type deals and trades that lead to the Harden move in the upcoming future. Morey can find bargain on bargain players.

Right now we're doing what I always thought we should do - we don't necessarily need 2-3 stars that won't get along and will all demand the ball. We need a deep roster full of good players that can play different roles we need. I think that's what Houston is on verge of acquiring.

 

Why are we talking about previous years? We had Dwight and basically replaced him with Ryan Anderson.

No that's not an upgrade

 

We have nothing to trade

 

Well on the bright side, the Mavericks are in worse disarray than are the Rockets.

 

What does this even mean? I think it's pretty clear if Morey had it his way, we would've tanked when we lost Yao and perhaps we would be tanking now. Instead, Les wants to win now. That is the reality. So lets make the best of that reality and build a competetive ball-club.

Also, Ryan Anderson seemed to pick the Rockets over several of the teams you mentioned. After one of our worst years in franchise history. Why is it so hard to believe if we have a good season we might re-appear as a somewhat attractive landing spot? A good year under D'Antoni could do a lot to change the perception about this team and about D'Antoni himself.

Suns never won a championship, but Nash was fun as hell to watch during their hey-dey. It was probably really fun to be a Suns fan during this time. Rocket's will probably be the same way, even if we can't compete with GS (HINT - almost nobody can).

 

I honestly believe Capela could be an improvement over last year's Howard, and a lot of last year's 56 wins came with an injured or very limited D12. Capela can provide the same shot-blocking, rebounding, and floor-running skills as Howard, while being a lot less needy.

 

Except we usually used both last year

 

I don't think this is necessarily true, and Morey has a penchant for finding players out of nowhere. P-Bev. J-Smoove. Maybe this Euro SG/SF will be a similar addition.

While we may not have any very valuable tradable assets now, that could change with a flurry of smaller moves. We'll see.