Basketball Insiders: 2015-16 Houston Rockets Season Preview

Denver and Toronto.
Since neither of those teams are really deep in forwards they should be asking for a forward back.
We have been offered Budinger but we don't want him. Since Indy is also very thin in forwards they should be asking a forward back.

 

I would be surprised if we don't win the division.

DD

 

It was an okay article. Just quite a few errors and wrong stats from people they call Basketball Experts.

 

Cancer sux. Keep up the good fight!

 

Yeah, I think the Spurs will be the Spurs and throw some games away for the sake of being healthy. People don't recognize / want to talk about it but while the Spurs got LMA, they also gave up quite a bit of their depth that allowed Parker, Manu and Duncan to rest so much in years prior.

But I guess I can see why "experts" put SAS as ahead of us, but someone put us a 3rd place to finish in the Southwest... I can't think of what other team in the Southwest she was thinking will be better than the Rockets.. The Grizzlies? Pelicans? Mavericks? LOLOLOLOLOL

 

i think the spurs losing bellinelli is huge...

 

I thought it was Detroit and Toronto

 

Is Alex Kennedy for real? 5th seed AT BEST?! I'd say 5th seed at worst. I wish I could bet this guy money.

Author claims Trevor Ariza isn't elite at anything, whereas I believe him to be a top 3-5 perimeter defender in this league.

With that said, good article overall.

 

I think we are all just thirsty for content and ready for this season to start, so any article is overly heralded.

I thought the article was subpar and sort of bland. Best Offensive Player, Harden. Best Defensive Player, Howard. Best Playmaker, Lawson. They're gonna be really good, but not that good. #blah

 

Good luck, Codman.

 

Pushing positive thoughts and good vibrations your way, Codman. Get well, brother. You got this.

 

Haha good point. Even the section titling is subpar, on second glance.

 

Get well Cod

Amir Johnson? Not really a vet but...

 

Our defense is nowhere near championship level. If the rockets don't get there they wont win championship. The Warriors played 21 playoff games and only gave up 4 100 point games. The Rockets played 17 playoff games and gave up 14 100 point games. Got to get stops that's the bottom line

 

The defense showed some signs at the end of last year when Dwight was in the lineup. Let's hope a healthy Dwight and the chemistry the team built last season continues into this season and improves our defense. Don't forget, you're getting Beverley back too.

 

That's a simplistic way to look at it.

The Warriors played the Pelicans and Grizzlies in their first two series... two of the lowest-scoring teams in the Western Conference. Only the Timberwolves and Jazz averaged less points per game than the Pelicans and Grizzlies.

Neither of them averaged 100 points in a game last year.

The Rockets played the Mavericks and Clippers in their first two series. Only the Warriors averaged more points per game than the Clippers and Mavericks.



If you look at the Rockets' defensive rating over the course of the entire season, they had the 6th best defense in the league.

 

Rockets did go back to their old habits of trying to outscore teams rather than relying on defense. Very evident against Dallas in the 1st round.

 

Guys, we rolled out Jason Terry & Pablo Prigioni to guard Chris Paul and Stephen Curry. And we were down a 7' foot starting PF/backup C.

Of course our defense wasn't the best. Our defensive captain / leader was supposed to be there instead of Terry. That giant gaping hole at the PG just destroys everything with a guy like CP or Terry. Miraculously we faced an injured CP. But Curry broke down everything, as he should very easily when Terry or Prigs is out there. Hell, who ever wanted to score for the Dubs, just set a pick and get Terry or Prigs switched on you. Do what you want to abuse either of those 2, then help D is forced to respond and you get easy buckets for guys like Green.

Despite Lawson being height challenged and not being the most renown for D, he sure is hell ain't no 38 yr old Terry or 38 yr old Prigs.

I still completely agree though that D has to get better. Rockets need to have defense as the #1 priority coming into the season, just like they espoused at the beginning of last season. And we were a good defensive team. Don't let Barkley lie to you. But injuries took us down.

 

Not saying our defense was great or anything in the playoffs (it was sub-par, at best), but it doesn't help when we had to play the Mavs, Clippers and Warriors in the playoffs, who were 5, 1 and 2 in offensive efficiency, respectively.

All three of those teams could score and score efficiently, then add in our injuries especially to Pat Bev. I mean, JJ Barea got a 28/14 game on us (!!) and Paul and Curry are two of the best PGs in the whole league. As far as I'm concerned, the fact we did what we had to do most of the time on defense.

Look who the Warriors played, too! First round was the Pelicans, 1st year in the playoffs, missing Jrue Holiday and not a great offensive team either. Then they face the Grizzles, a team that tries to keep games in the high 80s and without a healthy Conley. Against us, we had our injury problems too and some of those games were like 98-99. The Cavs were without Love or Kyrie and LBJ basically had to score 40+ to get the Cavs to at least 90.

Numbers like the ones you are trying to use to show your point are very misleading and never tell the full story.

 

I agree that the defense numbers between the Warriors and Rockets in the playoffs are a bit misleading but there is no denying that the Rockets took a step back on that side of the ball in the playoffs compared to how we were playing in December-February.

We def need to bring it on that side because we have the personnel to be great on defense. The offense will come and it should flow much smoother than last year. Defense is key for us if we want to win a championship.

Codman get better were all Going to be praying for your fast recovery.