Coming into the season I expected a .500 team with the losses of Yao Ming/Tracy Mcgrady. So far from what I've seen from the team it appears my assumption and the assumptions of many other clutchfans has been confirmed from our play on the court. Our level of play is always hard, but even with maximum effort we still are unable to make up for the lack of talent that our players posses compared to the upper tier teams in the NBA. So at a record of 8-8 it appears that the Rockets are who we thought they were, or at least in my opinion. How do the rest of you feel as the team has now fallen to the 8-8 mark. Do you feel that we will stay at a .500 record,rise above,or possibly even become a below .500 ballclub.
am happy with this team, will stay 40-45 wins at the end, which is the expectation always be optimistic
Even if we do make the playoffs, we will have a very hard time because our advantage of of playing as hard as they can every night will no longer be an advantage since the other team will be doing the same. But don't worry, i am sure plenty of Yao and Tmac haters will come in and pretend we are a contending team. I am enjoying watching the younger guys play though, minus the 20-30 stupid players every game
8-8 man this is what the team will be hovering at the rest of the season .500. Brooks, Hayes, and Battier are hurting the team. Need to start Lowery, Budinger, and either Andersen or Landry to start the game or to start the 3rd quarter.
This isn't a knee-jerk reaction. We are 16 games into the season. At this point in the season we certainly have seen the most of what our team has to offer, and our capabilities.I believe we have the right to judge them.
Obligatory D-bag. Seriously though, that's 3 painful losses in a row. I thought we might make the playoffs but keep this up much longer and those high draft picks are gonna start looking mighty nice for this rebuilding team (tank).
So far the Rockets look like a solid team against lesser opponents, and a slightly less than .500 club against the elite. Overall, I'd say they are slightly better than a .500 club right now (yes, they are exactly a .500 club right now, but their schedule has been tougher than average). I still think they have room to improve. Some relatively subtle offensive tweaking and we could be knocking off some of the top teams again. all it takes is Aaron getting hot and a string of defensive stops. Come postseason, I say we get in the playoffs and teams will be afraid to play us.
OP is right. Now we see the following: Hayes is an unskilled basketball player. He can only play post defense, but on offense, he's terrible. Also, he's way to short to play the position. Scola is okay, but he can't carry a team; also, he's a terrible passer and seems to have replaced Yao as Mr. Turnover. Ariza is a poor offensive player for his position. He can't dribble, can't drive, can't finish in the lane and is marginal at shooting. He is okay at D but I think way over-rated (why was Jefferson so wide open at the end of the Spurs game?). Battier is Mr. Intangible. No points, no rebounds, no assists, no steals but a bunch of fouls and missed shots. He also has very little skill on offense; if he can't hit the three, he's a big zero on offense. Brooks is too streaky. He's too small on D and turns the ball over way too much on O. Put that together and we're a lottery team. Period.
They'll finish above .500. The schedule has been pretty tough to start out and we haven't played any of the cellar East teams yet. With or without McGrady, we should be over .500 but I'm happy as long they play their hardest which they have been doing 99% of the time.
I actually agree that this is probably a .500 team. I was comparing this roster to the steve francis non-playoff teams and if they played, I might actually pick the Franchise's version to win. Our best hope to gamble on T-Mac and hope for the best. If it doesn't work, we get a sweet draft pick. If it does, we could actually grab a six seed and hope for a yao return.
