Lol MCW really sucked. Ennis played hard but was so erratic. He got timely skills but got Beat off the dribble consistently.
Different league. Teams got better. Melo drama and inconsistent lineups. If anything I’d say MDA deserves coach of the year for what he went through given the rosters he had.
Chemistry was not the same and some older players aren't either. However Morey found some Alitas in the junkyard and we are right there for a run this year. DD
The team didn't start the season playing with any sense of urgency. Looked like a bottom-feeding team early because they weren't getting up for games, looking like they felt entitled to wins, and then they gave a few more games away with second-half choke jobs. Roster instability didn't help.
The only player that got better was harden. Cp has regressed as has Eric . Clint is not as consistent as last season as well but since the all star break this team is now back to last years wining pace. Heck since Hardens crazy run this team has been on last years wining pace.
I count 24 (out of 49) Double Digit wins with 5 games remaining. Ain't bad. In comparison Bucks have reached 45 double Digits. GSW got 31. Toronto 31. Denver 23. With GSW losing more games than expected, and Toronto winning tons of close games and 9 pt margin games.
He's a record breaker! #never forget 12-19-18 Sank the record-breaking 26th 3 pointer -giving us the record- most in any single game!
After all star break, most playoffs teams get much better, clippers, jazz, .... Lottery teams get worse, Pelican, wolves, mavs Lakers,
CP3 decline, Gordon worst year of his career until he picked it up of late, injuries, weird malaise over the team for the first couple months of the season causing them to not compete.
Nailed it. Delete all posts in the thread and use this as a reply to OP and lock the thread. Call it a day. I would just add that the freedom of movement rule had some effect early on especially with Ennis, who didn’t have quickness to keep up.
The Rockets have been playing at a 60 win pace for months now. So I am not overly worried about only winning 50+ games at this point. If anything, the players and the coach deserve credit for not folding up shop and quitting. The truth is that had Harden not played at an all time great level, the Rockets likely would have quit.... credit to Harden and to D'Antoni for keeping that from happening. As for Chris Paul, his statistics and efficiency is down overall this season. However, if you look at his splits, it has been a very up and down season for him. He has had two bad efficiency months and the rest have been vintage Chris Paul.
And yet this Rockets team is 3-4 games out of first place too. Wont happen yes but just goes to show how tough the West is this season.
I don’t know if that’s the case. That’s a great debate and some solid evidence on both sides. To me I like that this team is much more dynamic and much deeper than last years team. I remember that last years team blew opponents out early simply by shooting threes. Countless times Ariza, Gordon, and Ryan anderson went off and bailed the rox out with outstanding shooting. But in terms of dribble penetration and playing aggressively on offense attacking the rim they didn’t have that in Ariza and moute. Now with rivers and house and green playing more aggressively I like this team a lot this year and excited to see how deep they go.
This years team is far more up and down and less predictable. The Rockets this year are more dynamic and combustible. The Rockets really need "the vintage Chris Paul" to show up in the playoffs 5 out of 7 games in a series.