If that is the case then Memphis is better than Dallas since they are 3-1 against Dallas. That logic you just used gets you nowhere.
There's a reason we couldn't catch MEM and NOH toward the end of the season. We may have beaten NOH once and MEM thrice, but against MEM, that was before Zach Randolph and Tony Allen started playing out of their minds. We won't beat them the way they're playing now. And we wouldn't beat CP3 either.
IMO, players like him are great for the boxscore, but not always as great regarding team results. These stat-mongers (AB included in this group, even TP) can be replaced with some ease, the absense of team players with very high basketball IQ, is harder to replace, regarding team results. Look what happens to Spurs, when Tim Duncan and Manu can't play at their prime level, even if one of them is failing, Spurs suffer, but when TP is failing, TD or Manu can score a little more, or other players step up scoring, but Spurs can be very strong still. That's way team oriented players are so important for contenders.
Wow a lot of questionable points here: 1. Thread title talks about Houston, Memphis, and NoLa, but your topic talks about how Morey is a douchebag for sabotaging the rox season and messing with a "good thing". 2. All that "trade stress" certainly didn't seem to affect other teams that were also in trade talks, in fact NY was thriving before the trade deadline even if the "Melo to NY" trade chatter was 1B times greater than the "Morey will make a trade" chatter here. Are you saying Lowry, Hayes, Battier etc. are all mentally weak? But I thought this Rox team had a lot of grit and heart? Can you have heart/grit/passion and still be mentally weaker than Tmac? Hmmmmm 3. Part of the reason why DM took risks on character was because of "how strongly we feel about our coaching staff"->his exact words. I guess he didn't expect Adelman to bench PP for half a season for no reason, bench T-Will for being too stupid to learn the offense and humiliate Thabeet on international tv before he even played his first game. Real nurturing coaching right there. 4. Connected to my Thabeet comment, on Adelman's confidence building techniques: Reporter: What will you do about Thabeet? Adelman: He hasn’t been playing for [Memphis] so I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with him. LOL CONFIDENCE BUILDING MY ASS. Let's not get into how he kept PP and Lee on short leashes but enabled Brad Miller and Aaron Brooks to basically do whatever they want on the court. 5. To me though, the most ridiculous point of your OP is how Morey actually traded us out of the playoffs. We were under 0.500 pre-trades, and it wasn't because of stress, it was because Adelman was playing Brooks 20 mins a night and he was costing us games. How you can even come to the conclusion that the trades cost us a playoff spot when you admitted in your post we became better after the deadline is beyond me. Sorry if I sounded too aggressive here, I don't mean anything personal OMR.
In comparison to New Orleans, they will always have the best player on the floor in Chris Paul. He has elevated his game to an amazing level, and regained my respect as the best PG in the league, even though D. Rose is my favorite. As far as the rest of the team, Houston has a better surrounding cast hands down. Memphis is not the better team, but they are the better matchup to beat the Spurs. They have an excellent front line that overmatches Duncan & Co., and the perimeter defense of Tony on Ginobili and Parker has been outstanding.
Objectively speaking, yes. If you look at point differentials per possession adjusted for strength of schedule, the Rockets are as good as or better than either of these teams. The difference between the records is mostly a result of luck.
JVG actually predicted it would be Rockets vs Heat in the finals before the season started. This may just be a severe case of homerism, but throughout the season I felt we could hang with any team in the league. Unfortunately, just as we were able to play up to our competition, we played down to our competition against sub par teams. I know that's a weird way of wording it but I don't know any other way to say it. The only two matchups I really feared were Dallas and Orlando. Tyson Chandler and Dwight were able to punk our bigs all night long. Other than that, I truly felt like we could beat anyone. Hopefully the NBA will look at the judges decision on uplifting the NFL lockout and try to get a new CBA in place ASAP. I can't wait for next season, hopefully everyone will work hard this summer so we can do some damage in the post season
They are in the playoffs doing well and we are sitting home, so I guess the answer is NO. Head to head is meaningless if you can't win more games than they did.
Yes. Yao may not be what he once was but he is still a 7'6 obstacle in the paint. Hypothetically speaking, if yao played with the Rockets this season, they would be better than Memphis and New Orleans.
The Grizzlies are doing exactly what the Rox did against Portland a few years back: simply out-hustling and out-working another team. It helps that the Spurs are old, tired, and/or banged up. Maybe Battier was responsible for some of that attitude in those Portland and LA series, and he brought it with him to Memphis. But with Hayes and Lowry, we still have plenty of it left. We just need more firepower at certain positions (like center, and center, and maybe center) to be right back in it.
Well that seemed like the plan, but Adelman had other things on his mind. I think Morey himself was surprised how well the team was doing without Brooks or Shane.
Sounds like a passionate fan who's frustrated with being out of the playoffs for the second straight year. I feel you, dude.
Wait a minute. We're not better than Memphis? Can someone please remind me of our regular season record against Memphis this year. Also with just one more somewhat dominant big man, we are better than NO to. Anyone who disagrees has not been paying attention at all this season. SMH
JVG said this when he thought Yao was going to last throughout an entire season. He should have known better.
