Just need a top 3 worst record. These types of games are much much much better for us in the long run than just losing like the Pistons. Picking 5th or 7th doesn't matter in this draft. I'll take either of Whitmore/Walker if we don't get the Top 4.
I disagree. Even if the Rockets don't feel there is much of a difference between the 4th and the 7th, there might be another team that feels differently. If so, I'd much rather have the 4th pick and be able to trade back. I want the highest pick possible and the lowest chance of falling beyond the top 5.
We should lose to get the top pick - ok fine. We should lose because marginal trade value of 52% chance of 5 v 7 is the difference btw X and Y is - no, not buying it. At some point you gotta be a fan and not an asset valuation maxi bro
Everytime i see Jabari bring the ball up the floor and hit a 3 it makes me want to be a better person.
Well a team depending on a 19/20 yr old to win games in the NBA is going to suffer, don't know how long you been covering sports, their rebuild plan is what was the shot callers idea for them to suck and pick high for 3 consecutive years so the support cast around those two lotto picks must have been trash as well, maybe they underperformed, or couldn't overachieve Now that drafted rebuild core of Jabari/Green/Sengun are playing nicely together, they look like a totally different team, with the rest of the support cast chipping in mentioning something you said (whining) over and over, is exactly what i wrote about you said they blew the picks, now they are playing better according to your angle, still stand on the fact the Rockets blew it on those picks the sun comes up, but it won't always be like that (when it goes down), the moon comes out but it won't always be like that and they still are bottom (tied second to worst), so much hasn't changed, regardless of being 5-3 since your hero came back, now post the full w-l numbers of your hero since being traded for the 60th pick, and that is a large portion of why they have sucked, it always falls on the best player / leader, who gets the most credit (and blame)
A team should expect top 3 picks to not play like the worst players on the team. Relying on them to be stars would be ridiculous, but relying on a 3 and D player to shoot over 30% from 3 is not ridiculous. In the last few weeks, Jabari has remembered that he knows how to shoot and that's all it took for them to go 5-3 with KPJ in the games. They just needed their lotto picks to play like quality support role players and the Rockets are easily a 30 win team this season but those two let them down again. Hopefully we see them play well to end the season and give reason to think next season might be their first overall quality season.
I never said anything about about Jabari (that I can recall). He is a Rookie after all. Not everyone is a LeBron James.
A team shouldn't expect their raw with upside top picks to carry them to wins, and should expect them to showcase flashes while going thru the initiation grind of the NBA which all three core pieces and the other picks have showcased, including the young talent the Cavs gave away for basically free Based on the eye test they are not the worst on the team and they will be fine with more experience, rather they reach their full potential is on them and the surrounded commitment from team to front office This isn't about no 8 game sample, its like me saying if KPJ would showcase his 50pt career high game weekly and flirt with 40+ weekly they would easily win 30+ games because he clearly has the ability as he did that against the Bucks who clearly have high level team defense If Bari and others were struggling as was the case with 3pt shooting then it was there for the taking especially since KPJ had the keys to the offense and could do as he pleased being the conductor of the plane That would offset the others not showing up and that is what self proclaimed leaders and best players on a team usually do Hopefully they all end up playing well consistently, because relying on your 19/20 yr olds to rack up many wins instantly is not the formula for instant success, but is a good foundation knowing you need them to play well to win or be in games this early in career and when they come of age it will formulate with those guys being the reason when they finally breakthrough and get in the playoffs
....and I never said that they should expect their raw with upside picks to carry them to wins....I said that they should expect top lottery picks to be able to hit wide open 3's and not play like the worst players on the team. You basically can't set lower expectations than that and up until about a week or two ago, Smith was falling short. I honestly don't care about what you think you see with your eye test, I care about what can be quantified. Also, KPJ playing REALLY well isn't a small sample, he's been shooting over 40% from 3 with a TS just under 60% and a nearly 3 to 1 assist to TO ratio since Christmas.....what's new is that Jabari Smith remembered he can shoot so he's no longer completely worthless. In the last 8 games, Jabari has hit 47% of his 3's, he was hitting 29% in the previous 59 games. Now obviously that's unsustainable, but a Jabari that can shoot changes how defenses can play the Rockets and gives everyone a boost. No one expects Jabari to lead anything, they just need him to hit open shots and not be dead weight.
The coping, backpedaling, and moving the goal posts never fails to amuse me from the hot take artists. Needed this chuckle with the Coogs struggling tonight.
No what you said was they blew it with the picks, and who cares about your said small sample cherry picking stats (which come from playing / eye ''test'' watching), now it's about since Christmas, what about since day 1 (large true sample size) when the trade happened? it seems like KPJ had been out since Christmas until recently returning basically your stats say that Jabari hit around 3 out of every 10 threes attempted in first 59 games, and now around almost 5 out of every 10 attempts in past 8, which based on his pre NBA film (eye test) his strength was shooting from 3 so neither was going to be the norm rather it was the low 29% or the 8 game stretch 47%, but getting acclimated first and looking at past rookies shooting percentages it was always going to be a semi struggle in beginning based on those percentages it would seem he could easily be a 40% deep range shooter, which will also come with slumps here and there even as he ages, no different than what Curry and others go thru, but you just hope it sustains the 40% more so than the struggles and now with rhythm/confidence he is starting to showcase what he is all about from midrange to 3pt shot he was never dead weight, he at least kept his intensity somewhat on the other side and always showcased energy and wasn't scared off from shooting despite struggling in beginning, he was just snake bitten early on, which is not a big deal when looking at the macro of it
This is factually inaccurate....though I'm sure since you go solely on a subjective "eye test" that is tied to your own personal basketball knowledge, you'd have no way of knowing one way or the other. He was the worst player on the entire team up until a few weeks ago. He was a mediocre defender and completely worthless offensively.
4th pick is not affected if they remain bottom 3. It is a debate over 5th - 7th. And the odds of 7th are 7%. If they finish worst three they are 50/50 to pick in top 4 (and odds don’t depend on the finish) and then almost certain to get either 5 or 6. The difference between 5 and 6 is trivial. Even 7 doesn’t really matter as historically 5-7 is unpredictable. Enjoy the win.
no we just have diff lens on how we view things, stats are useful, they represent max 20% while the eye and experience of being in the trenches make up the rest The stats are tied to your personal experience The way the rules are catered for offense, everybody is a mediocre defender(one on one) and nobody is acting like he was lighting it up shooting wise If you actually watch the games it didn't take no damn stats to figure that out about Bari being snake bit, your 'eyes' could literally see that Just like the past 8 games or so he is making more, no stats needed, Stevie Wonder can 'see' that
It's not an either/or scenario. Stats are merely a way to check if you are actually seeing what you think you are seeing when you watch the game. If the stats disagree with your "eye test" then your eye test is wrong. It's a way of seeing past the blinders of bias. Clearly you did need stats though, because you failed to see just how bad Jabari was playing up until about 8 games ago. He was an anchor around the neck of the team for nearly the entire season. Most people's "eye test" could see that, but yours couldn't apparently, so if you checked what you thought you saw vs what actually happened, you would've been more informed. In my experience, those who want to protect their subjective opinions from the scrutiny of reality tend to have the worst, most baseless opinions. Those willing to test and potentially disprove their own opinions with objective metrics tend to have opinions much more rooted in reality.
