The Rockets have been sort of competitive for exactly 1.5 seasons. That's not a number vastly greater than 1. If you don't think 1 playoff appearance say much, then you probably shouldn't be thumping your chest on 1.5 seasons of high level regular season play either.
I'm thumping my chest on the available data, which would suggest they have been a very competitive team in that time frame. That is all. I'm not interpreting it beyond that suggesting they SHOULD have been any more or less competitive. I'm living in reality.
Help me understand what point you are making. Are you suggesting playing hard is not important? Last season, the single biggest issue was that the Rockets didn't have a closer. They fixed that. How about you let it play out and see how it goes before declaring the season an adjunct failure before the all-star break.
@Hemingway is putting their own hopes and dreams into Amen being this point wing who just needs all those pesky players like FVV, Reed, Sengun, KD, and Adams to just got with the Amen program.....
50-win regular season into first round loss is "very competitive"? Are you also of the opinion that the JVG era of the Rockets were an unmitigated success story?
Oh, it's great that they play hard. The point is I don't think having a good regular season record means you're a top team, for the reason I stated before. You said in previous posts we have been a top tier team for the past 2 years and I strongly disagree.
Yeah, now they have a closer, they just lack an initiator .... Reed isn't ready and Amen's, for as much as he does well, isn't capable of running an offense. I wouldn't call it a failure right now, but they do need to readjust some salary around the FVV injury to bring in a veteran guard. Who? I don't know.
I think so…. Considering how we were just literally tanking two seasons before making the playoffs and losing in 7 games against a veteran team. Can’t just bring up JVG and pretend like this is our 3 or 4th season making the playoffs or just hand wave away all the major injuries to Yao and TMac.. If anything, I think last season made too many folks think we are better or more ready than we are. I’m certainly guilty of that.
Well we had an initiator but they had a season ending injury in training camp. Just bad luck. I think people underestimate how much the FO is still seeing what we in our young, developing core. Despite, trading for KD we are not truly “all in to contend”. FVV’s absence puts the spotlight on the young core to setup and execute an offensive plan and it hasn’t been pretty.
Dude, you need to relax and maybe go for a walk in the woods with fresh air or something. Life isn't so black/white. During the JVG years, the Rockets were definitely competitive. Go look up what the definition of competitive means. I agree with you the playoff results were lack luster but context matters!!! JVG had a 55% winning record in the regular season and made it to the playoffs 3 of 4 seasons. That is competitive. However, the Rockets never made it out of the 1st round. But let's break down his playoff run because CONTEXT MATTERS: 03-04: The Rockets played prime Shaq/Kobe Lakers with young Yao. Is that JVG's fault? 04-05: The Rockets were up 2-0 on the Mavs but lost. Most of us true fans remember that was one of the worst officiated series of all time. The refs basically gave the Mavs 2 games. Tim Donaghy later admited he instructed the refs to alter "points of emphasis" which swung the momentum of that whole series. Never mind the blown Michael Finley out of bounds call that could have changed the outcome of that game/series. Was that JVG's fault? 05-06: Rockets lost to the Jazz in 7 games. I'm having PTSD remembering that series as Carlos Boozer worked over Yao. TMac was also stuggling with his back and was clearly well past his prime in that series. TMac having back problems, was that JVG's fault? Context Matters! So yes, the Rocket fielded a competitive team. Absolutely. They just were never able to put it together and the chips never fell their way. But they were a good team. It's sports. Ish happens. You can't control every variable. What you can control is acquiring talent and then you go play the games in front of you. Maybe do some breathing exercises?
