Quite possibly, though my money would be on them making the playoffs still. I said 34-35 wins and an 8th seed before the season and I'll stick with that. But they're in the ballpark you're describing. There shouldn't be any excuses, injury talk, woulda-coulda-shoulda ... they are what they are. A hard-working, blue collar, teamwork-driven group of overachieving role players. Any fan who followed them closely before the season knew they were a .500 team, give or take a few. Short of landing Deron and/or trading for Dwight this summer, it's looking like the Rockets made a pretty big mistake not selling their "current" pieces for future pieces.
Here we go again rooting for the mavs against the j*zz (yikes two douche team) and Jailblazers against the Suns ................ We are getting so very desperate here -_-
I dont know if they'll make the playoffs. I lean towards no but they have an outside shot of making it. But otherwise, right on the money. I said the same thing in this thread. Overachievers, hard workers, hustle & effort - huffort. Are who they are, as you said. Right back at it again next season, with false hopes of trying to build a contender.
The good guys gave it all they've got. And looks like will land short of the playoffs. AGAIN. Will Les Alexander finally be convinced we need to tank?!!! So we probably are gonna lose Dragic. No way he stays after this epic collapse. Do we still keep Lee? Heard we are trying to trade KMart and PPAt. Let's just have a fire sale?
I'm still a pro tanker... no matter what anyone else against it might say. But if we make the playoffs, say... the 8th spot, what would be our pick position?
If we make the playoffs, we don't keep our pick -- it goes to New Jersey. If we don't make the playoffs, we keep the pick and it's likely to be 14th or 13th (if they finish with the second best record outside of the playoffs -- say 10th in the West behind Utah, for example). Unless the Knicks crash, miss the playoffs and somehow beat astronomical odds and end up in the top 3 picks, then we get their pick. That is likely to be in the 15-17 range right now.
The 2011-12 Rockets aren't now...or at anytime during the season "tanking". They're just a bunch of blue-collar overacheivers who...like the majority of Rockets teams over the past 5 years...have run out of gas. And IMHO, that's an unfortunate by-product of the over-emphasis of not over-paying for talent. And the event cascade gets even deeper when Rockets' management feels they truly are closer to OKC than the GSW. And the trend will continue as long as the fan base accepts hard work and 8th place seeds as standard operating procedure.
I thought that pick was top-5 protected. In that hypothetical scenario, they would retain their pick and it would be top-5 protected again next season.
seems like the fan base spoke this season. rockets sold around 90% of capacity last season...this season, the rockets have sold about 85% of capacity. not sure what to make of the Fox report on decreased TV ratings given that they're pissed about the Rockets heading to their Comcast network with the Astros next season.... but if we miss the playoffs yet again, i think you're going to see tickets sold drop even further next season, barring some major high profile acquisition.
It is top 5 protected, but it's impossible for the Knicks to get picks 4 or 5 now. So that's why I wrote that at this point, unless the Knicks crash, miss the playoffs and somehow beat astronomical odds and end up in the top 3 picks, the pick is guaranteed to come to Houston.
We're right here; we went nowhere (not unlike this Rockets squad). We want championships, you're satisfied with #8 seeds. I'm reminded of that line from The Rock when Sean Connery says, "Winners go home and f**k the prom queen." Losers are content just to have gone to the prom at all. We agree to see the world differently, I guess.
