Do you see Reed's shoes... he hasn't gotten the bag yet!!! He may not even have boxes... those shoes are rough!! BTW I didn't know who he was at first!!!
You guys love strawman arguments. And no, hoping for Tatum’s return isn’t the same as hoping for Sengun/Amen’s growth. Tatum is a “has been” but Sengun/Amen are “never was”.
That was probably more like the Lakers “C or D” team. It’s pathetic that LBJ can say that he eliminated both Jabari Smith Sr. AND Jabari Smith Jr.
The francise can't mislead us here into believing that SA and OKC are our competition, most understand the game and roster building much better than the average fan and that's who they have to convince - the average fan. The average fan isn't obsessing over every little detail .... They can sell those people on the idea that getting back FVV and Adams is a needle mover - that don't fly with most of clutchfans. They can sell those average fans on the idea that Marcus Smart solves the PG problem - we know he's not a distributor, he's a better defensive and worse offensive version of Holiday. I mean, how many average fans know Clutchfans exists? As long as they can keep the average fan engaged / fooled .... they'll keep the seats full after the first quarter.
I dunno about that, I might put this roster down in the fighting for the play in spots category. Several teams behind the Rockets got better, despite getting back all those injured players and adding Smart and Bogdan, I don't feel like they have done enough to keep up or solved any of their problems. The expectations of Fred returning and fixing the offense are overstated - I don't expect FVV to do much of anything - he couldn't finish at the rim or in the paint before the injury and I expect that to get worse. I don't think you can expect him to be near the same defensively either - it's tough to stay in front of NBA guys as it is, now he's gonna do it on a compromised wheel? Then the chance of further injury ... he's played 70 games only twice in his career and missed 22 games the year before - a full quarter of the season. You can't count on that. Smart isn't an offensively gifted player .... I expect him to play good defense and maybe be able to get the ball to KD without turning it over but that's about it. Bogdan is washed. He took over Uncle Jeff's roster spot. Adams can't stay healthy .... he spent more time on the operating table than on the court the past couple years.
I guess. we are as vulnerable as any other team in the league to injury. Actually, in certain ways, we are probably more adept at dealing with it because of our depth. we definitely made the same mistakes two years in a row with being overreliant on one person/position, but I do believe that internal growth and the Smart signing have us pretty well protected against ourselves now. every team in the NBA has to deal with injuries. If SGA blows out his ACL in the first game, obviously they are done. we will have players this time to injuries, but if we are relatively healthy, then we should be OK. I like our chances of being healthier this year than we were last year.
saw this picture and was thinking “Who is this random dude sitting between Stone and FVV?” didn’t recognize Reed Sheppard at all at 1st
Rockets legit might be like the 14th best playoff team Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavs, Raptors with Kawhi, Hawks, Sixers, Heat, Pacers, Thunder, Spurs, Wolves, Nuggets, and Lakers Out of all those teams, how many of them are you confident the Rockets would actually beat in a playoff series?
as a life long rockets fan i have noticed when everyone thinks the rockets suck, they end up being good. and vice versa
Makes sense. Vegas has them as the 16th most likely to win the championship, but what do I know, I’m a doomer.
This team is the definition of pretender. Stone scared to make real moves. "judge me in 2030" lame as dude. Reminder that leflops sperm had more points than the Rockets bench in a playoff game. The fact he got minutes was a indictment how bad it was. I like Bogi & Smart as players but honestly both are on their last legs and both are injury prone as well. No additions or subtractions to the coaching staff. Best player will be 39 when the season starts. Pretender
This list is actually so bad that it's making me second guess my own personal opinion that we are not contenders. If this guy says we aren't, then maybe we are.
Well that’s certainly a glass half full way of looking at it. It would depend on the team we’re comparing too but I feel like we probably have a higher than average injury risk given the age of guys who got injured (both), their injury history (Adams) and the extent of the injury (Fred). Hopefully we can rehab some trade value in this (what I suspect to be a “gap” year) and sell high next off season.
and again... folks wanna make out like we lost to geriatric using a walker LeDouche... yet teams are lining up to have him join their squad... how many guys get to pick their destination - top tier players may have their choice of a few... but most of the teams would make whatever moves they had to do to bring Bron into the fold... even at his present age. and again... we were wo 47% of our cap... Now if folks wanna make it some indictment of our "young core" - then it is what it is... but lets not act like we were at full strength... edit: LOL and right when i post this reply, i look up and u just posted about "geriatric LeBron"...
We are going into year 7 without a playoff series win. That is a long time for one regime to be in power and not win a single playoff series.
The Rockets decided to target and double and triple down on old and/or injured players in free agency. Saying that half the cap was injured is more of an indictment than an excuse for the Rockets. If anything, the Rockets were lucky KD was shockingly healthy for most the year - good chance he isn’t next year based on his age and history. The Rockets lost to a Lakers team without by far their best player for the entire series and their third best player missed most the series - it was a very ugly loss for the Rockets and no real way around it.
