Nobody saw this coming. Nobody! So, where do these Rockets stand? Lets revisit an idea from the off-season. What teams are we better than, or perhaps easier, what team are better than us? For now, I want to focus on the West. Pretty Sure are Better Denver Minny Golden State Phoenix (when healthy) Not Sure Dallas OKC New Orleans Clippers Probably Not Better Sac Lakers Portland Utah Memphis This seem about right? Opinions?
it’s always been play-in or bust for me…they keep this up a few more weeks and it will be playoffs or bust Vegas can kiss my ass
Right now the Rockets have young players tasting their first success, a new coach and free agents with a huge chip on their shoulder. In turn, they are playing with a crazy amount of effort. An effort level that isn't sustainable over a full season IMO. That's not to say I don't see huge improvements that should stick long term, I just think we are currently playing at a level of effort that will fall off while our opponents are in normal season effort level. Once the new season smell wears off we will see where we're at. I thought all along .500 was attainable, but 35-40 was more likely. My expectations have moved up a little from that but not much. I still expect some major rough patches.
I've upped my expectation to be that we fall within a few games of .500. If we're, say, 40-42 to end the season, and the West is similar to last season, that would put us where the Thunder were, at 10th seed. It's still a small sample though. If we keep this up through 20 games I'm going to be wanting us in the playoffs. Just don't want to set myself up for disappointment--as good as we've been, most of our core is still pretty young and learning how to win consistently. FVV and Brooks are good but they're our only heavy minutes veterans who are accustomed to winning ballgames.
I'm still holding on to 40 wins at around the higher end but now it seems a lot more possible. Now something like 40-45 is not out of the possibility which it wasn't for me in the off season. I just did not expect the team to lock into a good communicating excellent switching defense 5 games into the season. I thought it would take a lot longer for these habits to start forming.
For sure. I did not see this defense, so early. I bought into the narrative that it takes time for Udoka’s impact to be seen on the court, because of Boston’s slow start. Now I think it was just a Boston thing. They resisted a rookie coach, early. Now in his second job with a track record of success, there was no resistance early, at all. We are very teachable and the kids (as @DreamShook says) we’re begging for this culture of learning. When talking about sustainable things, I put consistent effort as our new identity and the most sustainable thing we can point out. That is to say, if there is anything we can say is sustainable, it’s our effort.
Giving much better effort I think is sustainable, but we've been playing at basically playoff intensity, the kind that's hard to sustain on B2Bs down the stretch. It's hard to expect 82 games of that unless you're ridiculously deep and can play your starters like 28-29 minutes a game. Which, maybe we will be if we can get everyone healthy at the same time and make like one bench pickup before the trade deadline, but I'm not counting on that.
Call me crazy but I think we would have just 1 loss vs Magic if Tari Eason had been around. I remember the Rox starters had positive point differential even in the 2 losses besides Magic game but our bench failed us (mainly cuz Bollocks, Landale And Amen got pt over Holiday, Tate and Green). Eason could have easily won us the Spurs and GSW game. Coming off rusty as heck Eason immediately got 9 pts and 9 rebs in just 14 mins.
From high 20 wins to low 30 wins. The wins over half-strength Lakers and Kangz flatter to deceive and the cumulative ratings of the Rockets opponents so far is terrible ex- GSW But even beating bad teams is progress so that shouldn't be discounted Need another 2 weeks/7+ games to make any real predictions
For sure, the regular season is a grind. but I’m talking about our most sustainable thing. What would you say is more sustainable? Or are we in a semantic discussion about nothing is sustainable, just because teams can’t repeat something every game.
Agree that it's too small of a sample, however blowing out a mediocre team or a good team missing a star is not something we were generally capable of last year. We would have been lucky to barely scrape out a win, not putting them away by halfway through the third quarter.
Yeah, it's subjective, I just personally think we're currently playing above our talent level by giving next-level effort. I would still be very surprised if we finished the season with a winning record.
I think our defense is sustainable. I think our effort is sustainable. The offense? I am not sure. But it almost sounds like some of you expect some mild regression? What if instead, we continue to get better? Are we continuing to underestimate the Udoka effect? There will always be those games where we just dont have it or the opposing team goes ballistic on us. But those should be outliers. Happens to every team.
How about this for expectations: Who thinks we can win the mid-season tourney. not that it means anything, but I could see a non-contender stealing it with maximum effort, to get noticed!
You cannot say who is clearly better until this team has hit 50 games...... Right now the system and Ime are clicking on all cylinders but I would say they are not immortals and some of the efficiency will drop.....they are all humans..... And when they do and reach the median ......the law of averages sets in and we would have a clearer picture. I can only assume that they are not as bad in the games against Orlando and San Antonio which was still a decent game. And closer to the games against Sacramento and Charlotte. At the off chance they are playing like this every game now, they are clearly with Denver and maybe Luka the Top Team in the West. You do not have to worry about Minny or OKC they are up there, they might not win a game against the Rockets but they are there recordwise.
