[Yahoo Sports] Houston Rockets way ahead of schedule, team to watch

Just for comparison, Sagarin has the Rockets schedule at 13th.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/nba1213.htm

 

Good article. It takes a team time to gel and play efficiently. And that is speaking for veteran teams, which this team is not. This team was thrown together at the last minute and I am surprised they have been playing so well together so early in the season, with such young players. Asik and Smith are productive, Parsons is solid, Mook and Lin are coming around. Douglas has been a surprise. Harden is a star. This season is fun to watch and the playoffs are within reach. That is more than I expected from these youngsters. The future is looking better than it did last year.

 

Good find. Sagarin's rating accounts for the # of home vs away games and I think b-r.com's does not. The ROX has played teams with good records overall but has more home than away games. In Sagarin's system this puts their difficulty of schedule 13th overall, still slightly above average.

Either way, the team has not played a cupcake schedule.

 

Jimmer is looking very good in the sporadic minutes he's getting. AB is still AB, primarily a shooting pg (though he isn't shooting as high a percentage as he should be) apparently bad shooting is catching. Isaiah took s big step back from where he was last season because he's being jerked around. Keith Smart is not all that basketball smart... His rotations are laughable they are so bad and it's effecting every player who chances to get in.

If you ask the majority of kings fans there are four PGs, because they think Tyreke is one. He plays better with a primarily shooting PG so he has the ball in his hands... Hence the reason Smart is airing him w/ AB when Reke starts. But honestly... When Tyreke is out there it's all ISO ball... He's been hurt though recently.

Chuck gets out there and it like he's herding kindergardeners. Tells them where to be on off tells them where to be on d... Then you see him get irritated and smart takes him out.

It's a very very frustrating team to watch... Even when they play well there is a lot of head shaking at the tv

 

Can't blame Chuck. He probably feels like Einstein teaching special ed with that group.

Funny comparing the state of the Kings with that of the Rockets. The Rockets are even younger than the Kings and somehow the Rockets players seem to more or less have a clue when they are on the court.

I keep on thinking that some of these guys can be salvaged and are not just fatally dumb basketball players, but they seem to have built up a critical mass of stupidity and dysfunction over there (not just among players, but from owners on down) that they just can't get out of that death spiral of suck.

Guys like Chuck, Cousins, Jimmer and Isaiah deserve a chance to show what they can do on a normal team (doesn't even have to be a contender team, just one that functions).

 

The Kings are just a cluster**** of a group. I don't even know how they manage to put together that mix of players. I want to say they're trying to put together a fantasy team, but it would be a crappy fantasy team with minimal talent.

 

I believe that teams are made and broken by the FO and especially the coaching staff. Houston has a great FO and a good coaching staff. The Kings? Not so much. Playing for that bunch of bozo's has got to be trying.

 

So, Smart just told DeMarcus Cousins not to come out of the locker room after half time of the Kings vs. Clippers game.

Interesting.

 

Dysfunction, thy name is Sacramento Kings.

 

Opportunistic, Daryl Morey is.

 

Looks like T-Slack disappeared. Ah well.

I love this team. More, please.

 

Totally agree...besides the back to back games the remaing schedules for the rest of the season is very good for the Houston....this is assuming those teams don't step up and suddenly become good. Assuming the team keeps playing like this and there is no sudden breakdown, Houston does have a very high chance of getting into the playoffs.

 

The only thing that may make our schedule tough soon is the number of road games. We have had a very home-heavy schedule thus far, and that's not going to last much longer.

 

That and we also have been playing a disproportionate number of games against the Eastern Conference. Winning on the road against WC teams will be a major challenge.

 

rockets have played really well..and getting better each game...

they can finish as high as 5th ...

Every player is young and should be improving...

wow if we make playoffs with the youngest team....

 

You can say its been an easy schedule even though the Rockets lost to the defending champs by 3 points, but defeated the Lakers, Knicks twice, Memphis, and Celtics.

I don't know about easy schedule so far when the Rockets had basically played against all the elite teams and did fairly well. Plus given the facts that the Rockets are the youngest team in the NBA and they are basically in year 1 in rebuilding and they are doing way better than expected.

Remember even after the Rockets acquire James Harden from OKC, a lot of experts and many others were predicting that the Rockets would be probably one of the bottom teams. The Rockets really started off really slow in November because they were so young and still getting to know each other and trying to build a chemistry. But since then, they are doing really well..

 

I think overall the Rockets strength of schedule has been average.

1. They've had more home games vs away games.
2. Opponent record is very high, even if they were many EC teams
3. #of games played have been a bit lower than average

They are also a "legit" 14-12 from their point differential, and if anything are unlucky in going 0-3 in OT games. A slightly better luck and we're talking 15-11. At worst, this is a .500 team with lots of room for growth.

 

True test comes January.

 

I dont get why people are so afraid of January schedule...
in Dec. we faced 10 sure playoff teams out of 16 games...
in january we will only face 3 maybe 4 sure playoff teams out of 17 games...

sure the road games will be tough but is it tougher to face New Orleans on the the road than face SAS at home?

 

Count the number of back-to-backs. See how close they are to each other, and notice the days off.