helooo! injuries, suspensions.... playing hard this early is not smart it could produce even more injuries...we lots championship last year because we played hard too early
Great strategy - lose early, lose often, fall into terrible habits of 'no effort basketball', and then hope to sneak into the #8 seed and then work to overcome the lack of home court advantage in every series...seriously?
1) Age - Tucker is 33. Paul is 33. Melo is 34. Green is 32. Nene is 36. Harden is only 29 but has a lot of mileage. As those legs get older and more tired, it's harder to stay in front of the other player and not let him blow by you. It's also harder to stay healthy. 2) Coaching - It's pretty clear even after a small sample of 6 games that Bzdelik was every bit as responsible(if not more so) as D'Antoni for the success of this team over the last 2 seasons, and particularly last year. They look clueless out there on the defensive end after his departure. 3) Personnel - They should be better than this even without Ariza and Luc, but they're also relying on players who simply don't belong in a playoff rotation. Carter-Williams can't shoot. Ennis can't stay healthy. Frankenstein and Clark are too young. And Green was a one-hit wonder(there's a reason he's bounced around the league his entire career). 4) Poor performances - CP3 is looking like CP0. Gordon has been a disaster thus far. Capela looks like someone who is content with getting paid and took his foot off the gas. And Carter-Williams and Ennis are showing why they were available for cheap one-year deals. 5) Injuries(and suspensions) - I don't think this is a major issue thus far, but it does have to be noted that the Rockets only 6 games in have already missed CP3 for 2 of them because of the fight with Rondo. lost Harden and Ennis to hamstring injuries, and Nene to a leg injury.
They'll get the number one pick in the draft, trade that to the Pelicans for Davis and here we go, 65 wins, just in 2019/20
At some point in the not-to-distant future, they need to give strong consideration to pulling a 1997 Spurs and go for a high draft pick. That team also started 1-5 and was eventually 3-17 when it became very clear they were going nowhere. Pop fired Hill, benched most of the team(although Robinson did break his foot), and played CBA guys the rest of the way en route to 20 wins. Looking at the Rockets' remaining opponents in their first 20 games, I don't think 3-17 is gonna happen. But 6-14 wouldn't shock me even if Harden plays in most of those.
Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong. We were never going to pay Ariza $15 Lol but losing Bzdelik was a real gut punch. Apparently Harden and CP3 aren't allowed to play in the same game, Gordon is having a mental breakdown (understandably), Carmelo is forced into the 2nd Star role, and our bargain replacements are showing why they were a bargain. Some of that will change, some of it won't. Best we can hope for is a key addition, chemistry and defense grow throughout the year, fight into the playoffs, and shock the world.
The age is my main worry, all the rest is fixable but the age factor makes it so that if we don't fix it soon, we have lost our championship window. Or the worst, maybe the window has closed and CP3 is finally in steep decline and his massive contract will hinder us for the foreseeable future.
We’ll be a good team but our window is pretty much shut. The Harden ISOs have to stop being the main source of offense. MDA can’t coach and Paul is due to really go off a cliff in the not too distant future. Also, the bulk of our role players are on the wrong side of 30. PJ Tucker is approaching his cliff soon. Capillow is limited offensively. We’ll be a good RS team. But I see a second round playoff loss and a Harden trade request in the not too distant future.
