Seriously though....I'm not concerned much with our record. It's not like the Rockets play well at home any way. We just have to get healthy when it matters. Luckily we've built up enough of a cushion to stay in the hunt for a top 3 seed. As long as we just win the games we are supposed to win, we should be fine....
they were actually chasing the best seed/HCA possible they should realize by now 100% health, fresh, injury-free, & readyness for the playoffs >>>>> seed/HCA
Exactly, and we don't need Harden to have HCA in the first round. And it's still possible to get a 2 seed. Our goal should be to have everyone healthy by late March and then make a final run at the 2 seed. We want this team to be where they were at in late November / early Dec - come April 14th.
A lot of doom and gloom in here. The truth is no one knows how long Harden will be out. Once he has had a week or so of rest, they will know th severity of it Really time for MDA to put up or shut up in regards to his rotation. He has been saying the Rockets need to trade for more depth and using that as an excuse for his short rotations. Morey went out and got Green, and early he has looked good. Moute is coming back in a couple of weeks. I am sure Morey is looking for another rotation caliber player. If we see Green getting 10-15 minutes a night, then I don't see MDA increasing his rotation long term. When we are healthy, he now has 10-11 players he can give 10 minutes or more a night. If he bumps Green down when Moute comes back; then we have some issues with MDA not extending his rotation. MDA did this in LA and blamed Kobe and the front office. He has ran 10-11 in NY and some times in PHX.
How do you define “supposed to win” when you don’t have your engine? Are we now talking only lottery teams? 7 seed and down?
Harden injury is a gut punch. We have been spoiled by his availability. I am firmly expecting it to be 3-4 weeks. 1) MDA's offense is built on the PG running PNR. The PG is the engine. Harden is both 1) a passer as that engine but 2) just a pure scorer. 2) CP3 can easily hold down the fort as the PG passer. He can be a scorer too, but he seems at times not to totally embrace that. Rockets are gonna need that scoring too. 3) Rockets have to be careful not to "over extend" CP while Harden is out. But at that same time, he is going to be needed. 4) Rockets are probably going to have to bring back that early season "2nd quarter offense" where they did not do as much PNR but more dribble hand offs. It was an entirely new offense optimized for Gordon and Anderson to hold down the fort. 5) Role players can't rest on their laurels. Anderson HAS to show up. Tucker has to hit more shots. EVERYONE has to raise their game defensively. There is very little margin for error here. And that also means that Capela has to own the paint. 6) There are no easy opponents. Every game is a fight and a grind. I am pretty much conceding the Rockets will fall out of the 2nd seed. The goal has to be keeping that 3rd seed so they don't fall into the 4/5 matchup and the 2nd round matchup with the Warriors.
That's the type of sacrifice it takes to add a HOFer and a max salary to your roster. Harden + CP3 + a few aging role players has a higher ceiling and is a better bet than Harden + a mix of unproven younger players & aging vets. Here is the fact here - Morey has built a championship talent team - we would be a favorite to win the title in any scenario past or present that didn't involve Golden State. It's just that they are playing at the same time, in the same conference as the best team of all time. Our "window" is never going to come as long as Golden State is going to have prime KD, Steph, Klay, and Draymond while we have prime Harden. Adding even aging vets like Paul, Ariza, Tucker, Moute is a gamble but against the greatest team of all time, what other option do you have? Getting two All NBA talents in their prime "window" is already a really tough thing - getting 3 or even 4 is pretty much unprecedented until GS stumbled into it. That's why you take a chance with those types of players anyway and by the way, note that GS gambled in the same way when they brought on guys many assumed were done - Bogut, David Lee, Iggy, and Shaun Livingston, Speights, etc....and remember it was Iggy's play that brought them their first title. That they managed to acquire Durant just as those guys were finished is pretty much dumb luck. I get the urgency for hitting our window, but until some all world talent decides to force his way to Houston, I think we are stuck with small upgrades to our roster/depth in the short term.
Is it just me or is this actually really good for the team?. Learn to rely off harden as much and get some more chemistry with Paul. Maybe we struggle a bit but I think we still end up being okay
yeah, i would even say this is the kind of unexpected luck that's hard to engineer but you need to stumble into to succeed
The goal in getting CP was to optimize Harden's prime. CP will be maxed. In Morey's mind their window is the next FIVE years. Which is Harden's prime. CP will likely age gracefully and the Rockets will look to add more talent to offset the slow decline of CP's game. And the added talent will be optimized to augment Harden's game.
