Barring a massive wave of injuries this team has no excuse to not be over 45 wins given we won 41 with an extremely young team that retained everybody.
That 43.5 is not an easy over to me. It looks pretty tough. Teams like Memphis and San Antonio will be better than last year (6-2 against them last year). Other than Tari, our injuries were pretty lucky last year. Alperen went down against a very cream puff schedule at the end of the year. If he goes down earlier in the year we're toast. We could go 3-9 to end the year, we could go 0-5 or 1-4 in the last five games. I think the talk about 50 wins is very homerish. 45 wins is possible. I don't think 48 wins is doable and 50 wins is way out there.
I do think Udoka gives us an extra 5 Wins but, yeah anything can happen. I thought last year the real team strength wasn't at 41 but 36 Wins. Coaching and veteran help got us to 41. Obviously with fewer injuries they could have won 43 something as well. Believe in Alpe.
I would say last year was at 30 or 31 wins........Vegas followed me up with 31.5 wins (if I'm not mistaken) I'm eager to see where Vegas puts us this year.
@astrosrule Rockets when Sengun got hurt...........................28-35 (W-L) Previous 10 games prior to Sengun injury...........4-6 (W-L) That would have put Rockets on pace for..........36-46 (W-L) if Sengun did not get hurt ________________ Just some thoughts The so-called experts question whether Houston can have Jalen Green faster pace work with slower pace with Sengun? Thus sites like DraftKings going 43.5 wins I feel we saw Jalen Green and Sengun run PnR with enough success. Unfortunately the VanVleet the year before was asked to be a spot shooter with Toronto so Scottie Barnes and Siakim can initiate sets (coach Nick Nurse). VanVleet 3P% wasn't so good while being asked to be spot shooter. *Jalen Green went through that at beginning of last season. Can the Rockets play both Sengun and Reed together and cover both defensively? We might see plenty of Jabari, Tari, Cam Whitmore running into Sheppard while they are trying to flank Sengun defensively. Tougher Western Conference and 16 back to backs I feel I was being optimistic
Ya the stretch at the end where we played like 10/12 against fully tanking teams inflated the record a lot but there are always some tanking teams. I think .500 or a couple games above is pretty reasonable.
Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey will draw teams to Tank again......but I also see teams getting tougher. Going game by game I have us taking it to Lakers, Suns, Blazers, Jazz, Nets, Wizards, Nuggets, Bulls, Raptors, Spurs, Hornets, Hawks, Pistons but teams like Thunder, T-Wolves, Heat, Warriors, Clippers, Bucks, Knicks, Celtics, Dallas, Magic, Cavs, Grizzlies are going to take our lunch Pacers, Pelicans, 76ers, Kings....break evens ---------------------- If you told me Sengun was out for the year......then I would say we (Rockets) could get over 50 wins. Green scored higher in isolation: (per NBA.com) Green 35.2 NBA percentile Sengun: 32.0 NBA percentile Landale scored better in PnR (Roll Man): Sengun 51.6 NBA percentile Landale 53.2 NBA percentile Rockets wouldn't have to worry about assignments as Sengun does drop coverage defense. Switch everything. Pace would take off as well. 10- man rotation would keep people fresher unlike that 7-man rotation back in March.
We match up extremely well with Okc. I think we get at least a split with them. Clippers, Cavs, and Magic should be on the break even lists too, in my opinion.
Why don't we make a $100 tip jar bet on something that has a chance of happening? Rockets will win a higher proportion of games with Sengun than without next season as long as Jalen is available for over 90% of both sets of games. Deal?
Thunder added: Hartenstein Alex Caruso addressed two weaknesses of last year. Big with some meat on his bones with Hartenstein.....Thunder got stronger while Knicks will hurt from that. But Knicks back court of Brunson/OG Aunoby/Mikal Bridges will be a force. Alex Caruso replaces the no defense of Giddy. Giddy was a weak link we exploited. Sengun vs Chet was the other. Magic added: kCP (drafted) Tristan Da Silva Magic addressed a weakness of defense in the back court. They often give you two point guards with neither playing defense. KCP changes that dynamic. Watched Jett Howard in summer league, was a beast doing everything. If they can get anything from Caleb Houstan.....they can be trouble. Clippers added: KPj Kai Jones We don't have a guard that can stop both Harden and KPj. Use Amen on one but the other will kick VanVleet and Sheppard @$$#$. Then they will mix in Bones Hyland, Norman Powell, Kris Dunn, and Terrance Mann. All notorious Rockets killers. Clips have one big with muscle in Zubac.......but can go run and gun with the other 4 positions. What can their coach tap into Kai Jones. Can we match their small units? If Kawhi plays, may be the deciding factor. But nice discussion
Why did you say Green play over 90%......Green played 82 games last season while Sengun did not? Just curious
VanVleet................Amen................(I don't say you have to give Vv starter minutes) Jalen Green ..........Cam Whitmore Dillon Brooks.........Jack McVeigh.......(I don't say you have to give Dillon starter minutes) Jabari Smith .........Tari Eason Landale .................S Adams Can most definitely win 50 games......throw in Sheppard with him being the only defensive liability that we have to focus on. Oh yeah. Multiple combinations of those up above!! Go Rockets!!
I'm saying Green should be at least 90% available both when Sengun is available and when he's not. That's in your favor so we can totally remove the condition if you prefer. Do we have a deal?
