For the minority of "fans" who felt we were better off making the playoffs...

Last time i checked the rockets havnt been sweeped yet? In fact they have literally just played the first game... you must be from the future? or do you just like creating loser future scenerios?

 

There are only so many pages on the calendar of life. There are no guarantees. I can remember vividly the Clippers series from last year. Didn't see any hope. There was no light. It was heavy, it was sad. It was OVER. Only it wasn't, was it ? What if mister MVP has a sprained ankle ? What if it gets worse not better ? What if the coronation is late ? What if the Rockets find a way to play in some fashion ? Oh yeah none of this will happen of course, because.........The wins that can't happen. But did. This is what a fan lives for. If you are spending your life waiting for next years edition I pity you.

Right here tight now, that's ALL YOU GET. Roll the Bones......

 

Right here, right now. If only people on this board would understood the power of this...

 

Great post.

 

Everyone knew this team was heavily flawed and had internal strife. Yet the 'shock the world' fans came out and started pointing fingers and slinging mud. Then what everyone knew would happen transpires and you have ROX fan on ROX fan crimes being committed against one another that could have been avoided, PLUS having the 'faith' that the team could fix some of the issues on the squad and hell maybe even win the lotto and really help this team out. Nope.

Now we get to be embarrassed 3 more times and fuel all the narratives out there about this team. Fun times.

 

Let's roll the dice and see what happens

 

Perfect....

 

These dice are loaded. It's worse than needing to roll a 20 for a saving throw. It's like... needing to roll 20/20 Dwight free throws.

 

This should be the mind frame after you make the playoffs.

We were better off with the pick. We did have something to lose by making the postseason.

 

Utter nonsense.

The Rockets didn't have a choice last year to finish the series with the Clippers. They were there and they had to play. Thanks to career-defining moments by Smith and Brewer (and McHale making one of the ballsiest coaching decisions of all times by keeping Harden on the bench), we beat the odds. It was fun and exhilarating. And then we got our asses handed to us by the Warriors in the next series.

The Rockets did have a choice with how to end this season - a season where we were by far the most disappointing team in the league. All the chemistry, talent, discipline and leadership issues (which some of us observed as early as 2 years ago but were pooh-poohed by the resident Pollyannas) came to a head and the team fell apart. Instead of acknowledging this and benching the starters for the rest of the season in order to keep the pick, Les instead wanted to maintain his streak of having a winning record. I suppose that's a successful business strategy (from a financial point of view) but it's pretty ****ty basketball strategy.

A mid round draft pick isn't as sexy as beating the Warriors or winning a championship, but does provide us with a tangible and useful asset. A beatdown by the Warriors does not. Missing the playoffs gives management the impetus to make real changes to a terribly flawed team. A beatdown by the Warriors or a pyrrhic victory (if Curry and/or Green does down) do not. Yes, there's always a chance we might win, but that chance is close to nil. The chance that we could have gotten something positive out of the draft pick was a million times greater.

Right now the Rockets are like some deluded loser who goes over to the quickie mart twice a week with all of his spare money and buys a bunch of lottery tickets, because he wants to "own his own business" (what that business is he does not know). Sure there's a chance, and the potential payoff would be life-changing. But that chance is infinitesimal - that weekly spare money could be put in a savings account or index fund to earn more. Or it could be put toward education of some sort. Sure, none of these alternatives are nearly as exciting or potentially lucrative as winning the lottery. But the odds of them yielding something positive are astronomically higher.

The Rockets don't have to wait their whole lives (or even Harden's whole contract) to go back to the playoffs. Make a few good changes and we'll be right back in it next year. But this year, there was nothing realistic to be gained. Success in life is opportunity + preparation and if there's one thing we all agree on, the Rockets were not even remotely prepared in any way to compete this season.

 

Nobody expects the Rockets to win, but in terms of convincing FAs to go to Houston making the playoffs is more convincing than having a late lottery pick. For the casual fan having a late lottery pick is very valuable but in the eyes of current players these lottery guys are junk, for example LBJ wanted to win so much he pressured Cavs to trade away that dude which went no 1 a year ago (forgot his name) just to get someone who can help him win games immediately, and Kobe before went and ripped LA for not trading Bynum for Jermaine O'Neal.

I mean if you're a premium FA your goal is to get your max money and be in a competitive team, right? If the Rockets were in a lottery team how much leverage can they really have in terms of convincing guys like Horford or Durant to come to Houston? So this is why getting to the playoffs is so important. And we don't even know what's gonna happen sure the Rox lost now, but there's still 3 more games left, last year nobody expected Rox to win after they went 2 games down to Clips. This will likely be the last year of Howard nd Harden, might as well take one last shot before you blow up the team.

 

You fail to realize, if MIN didn't have the pick (Anthony Wiggins btw), they couldn't have made the trade. If they had made the playoffs (like the Rockets did), they wouldn't have been able to upgrade in the offseason. Now, I'm not saying a mid-1st round is gonna be a supreme upgrade, but it's better than nothing, a beatdown. Any FA knows the Rockets don't have a coach or chemistry and we were in the WC last season. They know there's gonna changes in the roster. A 1st round beatdown does make us more attractive.

 

Because they will definitely win a game with the performance in Game 1.

 

We now have 83 games of evidence, my friend.

 

Rockets made WCF last year and were only able to sign Thorton and resign JET, Brewer, Bev, and KJ. Before that they made the playoffs and missed out on Bosh/Melo. A possible FA shouldn't care about this current roster and if they made the playoffs, there will be a new coach, new approach to the scheme, and new role players. This current team is irrelevant because the FA wont be playing with a lot of these guys.

 

"Why does it happen? Because it happens...roll the bones!"

Nice Rush reference in there, whomever rolled them.

 

Since you are so full of wisdom and angry that the Rockets made the playoffs, I challenge you and all your "I-told-you-so's" to not watch the Rockets and not post on the forum until after the season???

As a matter of fact all the smart folk who didn't want the Rockets in the playoffs dont watch nor post until the seasons over OKAY???!!!!!