"We are a better team than last year," says the Tillman

Offense is the best defense

 

If he can acquire a title with that saying, then all power to him.

 

But we will also be significantly better offensively.

 

remember when harden was injured and ppl thought we will be better off defensively without harden?

 

Well an NBA team is always a notch below what the team owner says, so yeah obviously we're not better than last year.

But we could be by the time the playoffs roll around. Warriors don't have any more minutes to offer to buyout candidates + Ryno/1st will be a slightly less repulsive trade package as we get close to the trade deadline.

 

If we won two more championships,
the trophies wouldn't be in Florida like the last two

 

But defense is how we beat golden state

 

The thing is they also play Defense. It was a good series.

 

The jury is still out on whether the Rockets are better or at least as good as last season. The media pundits all seem to have settled on the talking point that the Rockets are worse. But I dismiss those morons because, well, first of all, most people in the media are idiots who don't actually watch the games. But more importantly, they never mention James Ennis. Is Ennis a credible replacement for Trevor Ariza? Probably not, although the mere fact that he's 5 years younger makes it a much closer comparison than it otherwise would've been. But I think a strong case could be made that he can fill the role Mbah a Moute did.

So in the end, the Rockets replaced Ariza and Mbah a Moute with Melo and Ennis. Plus if we're looking at the entire roster and not just the 3-spot, they added Michael Carter-Williams and De'Anthony Melton. They have Gerald Green from day one. They have PJ Tucker firmly entrenched in the starting lineup instead of wasting minutes on Ryno. And Harden and CP3 have no learning curve after an entire season together.

I personally don't see that as a worse team, barring injuries. If they don't win 65 games this season, it'll probably be due more to the rest of the West improving than the Rockets taking a step back.

 

Alternate Thread Title: "Tilman either calls Westbrook Unreal, or not a real guard, can't tell"

"I don't think he's ever been in the right situation where he was playing with some other real guards that could feed him the ball"​

 

Tilman won't get too much heat for that. Even some folks in the media who think the Rockets are worse after signing Melo acknowledge that the only pure point guard he ever played with in his career prior to CP3 was Jason Kidd for one season in NY. Billups was always more of a 2 in a point guard's body.

And BTW, those were the most successful seasons Melo ever had in terms of playoff success, so that bodes well for him teaming up with Chris Paul.

 

What seasons?

 

2009 with the Nuggets(Conference Finals - 4-2 loss to the eventual champion Lakers)
2013 with the Knicks(Semifinals - 4-2 loss to the Pacers who were one blown defensive play on LeBron away from the Finals)

 

Rockets are a much better team. Not only keeping CP3, Harden & Capela together for the next 4+ seasons and Paul being healthy.

But adding Ennis who’s possibly an upgrade of Ariza but at worse is a huge upgrade of LUC. Adding one of the greatest scorers in the history of the NBA (to the bench!) who’s still going to force a team to try and keep an elite defender on him. Nice upgrades and depth to the backup PG and C positions that was not there last season (Melton & Hartenstein). Bringing back Green and adding one of the best wing defenders in the game (MCW)

Still a lot of room to add to that. Ryno is probably going to fetch a quality 3&D rotational player and having the majority of that MLE is going to make the Rockets destination #1 with the best of the buyout market

 

logic......


honestly just having a true option at the 4th/5th guard spot makes us better than last year..... and I dont think close.... will they win 65 again??? Meh I dont know but I'd bet on them doing so and feel good about my odds.... but they WILL win at least 58-62.....

 

Alas, if Chris hadn't gotten hurt at a vital junction, and if Luc hadn't gotten injured in the regular season, we would have knocked GSW plus a fully fit Iggy out of the playoffs.

 

What would I give not to play this What if game but have a firm grip at the O'brien trophy.

 

Hell if luc doesn't miss all those bunnies in game 1 it doesn't even go 7. re watch that game and you'll see how those misses killed the 1st game momentum

 

Luc's ineffectiveness post-injury really hurt the Rockets. D'Antoni completely lost confidence in him to the point that he played JJ and Ryno in Game 7. The Rockets got away with it in the first half, but Ryno was torched in the 2nd half.

 

Ariza is not better than Carmelo..

On what planet? Ariza can’t even dribble a basketball.