Looking over the next 13 game stretch we have the Bulls, Lakers, Mavs, Celtics, Knicks, Thunder, and Spurs twice. That's 8 elite teams. Plus Utah twice which is no gimme by any means. It's conceivable we could go 4-9 and find ourselves 8-15 which might be too big of a hole for a young team to not only dig itself out of, but also lose confidence and essentially break the season into a lottery one. While I would not be upset with that (quite the contrary), I think this board would go nuts in a bad way. More honestly, my biggest concern would be young players learning bad habits and learning to play losing basketball, but that's fixable. On the other hand, if this team goes 6-7 then I think we are definitely playoff bound for better or worse. It's a real test for a young team to go into such a brutal stretch - keeping in mind your most experienced player is a 23 year old starting for the first time. Basically, just saying - don't panic or be too hard on these guys if they have an abysmal roll-up to the christmas break...
11/22 Bulls 11/24 Knicks 11/28 Raptors 11/29 Thunder 12/02 Jazz 12/05Lakers 12/08Spurs 12/09Mavericks 12/11Spurs 12/13Wizards:grin: The schedule as per Lou's.Good thread btw.I wont be back till mid dec but it'll be good to see whether rockets can survive.
Seriously I'll look forward to see whether the offense,defensive rotation improves . Regarding to bench I'll hope Morris can contribute well off the bench & tj as part of rotation(maybe)
If we dig ourselves a deep enough hole, I don't want to see Douglas or Delfino get any more minutes. Play the rookies, then.
Damn, that is tough. I could see us being 7-13 after that stretch. Not out of it (obviously), but not in good shape.
How the fock did the Celtics lose to Pistons by double digits????? It was the same way last year/ does Detroit have Celtics number???
Good test for this team. Look, they have actually started playing pretty well on offense. Realize that the past couple games, these teams have really just shot the ball extrememly well. We have witness some career performances in that time. What Im looking for is for this team to hopefully be around .500 come the new year. This next stretch of games isnt what I would call "must wins" more than I would call them a good test, and a chance to really sharpen up their game. Clean up the turnovers, and sharpen up their offense. Then with the added offensive efficiency it should help out their defense.
Only Machado will benefit from benching those two. We will still have log jam at 4. The only rookie I really wanna see is DMo. If he gains some upper body strength and learns how to box out, watch out! DMo will fit perfectly at 4 with our current system and has the most potential to become an all star.
Mavs,Jazz, Celtics and the Bulls are not exactly setting the world on fire. OKC is feasting on bad teams. The Spurs, Knicks and the Lakers will be tugh though. Lin versuses Knicks and Harden versuses OKC should be fun.
What Rookies are going to play in their place other than Machado? Are you going to move T. Jones to the SG or PG position???? The Rockets have up until February to see what this group can do together. Breaking down their roster in December solves what???.... nothing. Even then, how many players in the rotation do you have to "break down" to make room for the young guys???... 2 maybe.... and the only high upside rookie not getting rotation minutes is D-Mo. (Sorry Royce, you're season is overwith before it began, and Machado... I like to potential, but lets not get carried away. You can sit tight for a few weeks) If the Rockets look to be out of the playoff race in February, then I have full confidence that Morey will probably move a couple players to free up minutes, and potentially bring in a high upside guy or two to in the process unless they can pull the trigor on a all-star move. So Rockets fans need to just sit tight until the end of January to see where this group is at, and what kind of potential trades come on the market. After the February trade deadline, there is still half of the games for the Rockets to worry about developing their rookies. Right now, they have to see what they got with the group they have.
Machado instead of Douglas (his shooting can't be any worse, he is a much better distributor, perhaps he can learn defense). Jones taking minutes from Patterson Motiejunas taking minutes from Patterson Play Parsons some at backup SG and give Morris more minutes at SF. That's a pretty big lineup then.
I pray to god we go 6-7, this board is unbearable when the team is losing. Whether we're playoff bound or not i'm excited to see our young guys out there rather than the 14th spot mediocrity team of the past 3 years.
Choosing between Machado and TD is like choosing the lesser of two evils. Machado's defense is as woeful as TD's offense. At this point, Machado looks like the lesser one. Jones makes no sense at this time. It's a downgrade in defense. Jone is not ready for face the like of Love, Griffin, Aldridge, or Davis at 4 yet. If you don't want to see his confident getting demolished, don't play him against any big or skillful 4's.
Fully expect Lin to bring his A game for the Knicks. Also, hopefully Lowry will be healthy when we play the Raptors cause those will be some fun matchups to watch. Would have been cool to see D-Mo vs Jonas V. though.
why are you predicting this? the Lakers game was the first game of the season in which the Rockets got blown out!!! after a few games, missing Coach McHale is starting to show imo. i think we would have won some of those close games. what is their record with Sampson now? still they just gave away the home game vs Miami and Portland road game. not having Delfino the past two games has hurt too. they have been looking pretty raggedy on offense since they were running a lot of the offense through Delfino. the chances of winning today at Utah aren't looking very good, but if they go into a talespin of being regularly uncompetitive, that is not the team they have been this season. they just need to tell themselves "we have given away some games we should have won, so now we need to win a few games which we are not favored."
HAHA.... so 2 players are getting bumped out of the rotation to develop guys who are already getting plenty of minutes other than Machado?? The whole "Machado can learn defense" argument.... um.. maybe that's true, but is Douglas really holding back the future franchise player in Machado???.... Is the franchise doomed because SCOTT UNDRAFTED MACHADO isn't getting the minutes you would like? Should Morey, McHale, and Sampson all be fired because SCOTT MACHADO isnt playing???? The delusion on this board is out of this world. Look, Scott Machado, if he's good enough, will make the decision an easy one for the coaches eventually. He hasn't so far... you know why???... Did you watch the Summer league and Preseason??... He's a rookie, and he makes rookie mistakes consistently. That's ok for an undrafted rookie, but right now, he needs to take this time to fine tune his skills to be able to run an NBA team. The PG position is the most important position on on this team, and when the PG makes mistakes, it affects THE DEVELOPMENT of every other player around them. The PG needs to be quarterbacking the team to make sure everyone is where they need to be, and the offense runs efficiently. I like Machado, but you aren't hurting him and the team by developing him for half of his rookie season. You might actually hurt his long term development, by reinforcing his bad habits with unearned extended playing time. As for the GRIZZLED VETERAN Patrick Patterson... look up his minutes played.... He's still a very young player who is coming into his own. What kind of precident would this team be setting by benching their lottery pick just 2 years ago to play another later 1st round pick 40 minutes instead of 30?? -I like Patterson, but my guess is that he probably gets moved at some point this season or in the Summer, but if you bench him now, you will see his value drop dramatically, and that could cost the Rockets big time in February. The whole, "play the young guys" argument is getting more and more ridiculous in the GARM. The Rockets are the youngest team in the NBA... what is it going to take for you to realize that and just shup up and enjoy the season??? If in February Pat is stinking it up, and Douglas can't walk and chew on the court at the same time, then come back. But for now, just stop it. This argument just makes Rockets fans look incompetent.
The Rockets are a force to be reckon with in a year or two... Right now, young age and inexperience is showing....
