This is exactly how I feel. Les wants to stay "competitive" so he can still sell tickets. It's all about the here and now and not the future. To him, having an average team for years to come is better than having a crappy team for a few years then perhaps having a great one. He doesn't have the stomach for rebuilding. And he doesn't think the fanbase does either, which frankly, I find insulting. I really hate "I told you so" posts, but I have to say that this is EXACTLY how I predicted this season would go down. I mean, I wasn't exactly going out on a limb. It's how the last 3 before it have gone down too.
At this point I think we are better off just finishing the season strong (no tanking, for what) and the organization needs to start focusing on what needs to be done to bring a superstar over to our team. Making the playoffs would results in a first round loss, nothing more. Again we'll be at the mercy of a boucing ball come the lottery. Everybody pull out your lucky rabbits foot cause we need it to bouce in the top 3. I can only hope.
and also ridiculously ironic considering the fan base doesn't seem to have the stomach for this mediocrity. assuming we miss the playoffs for a 3rd straight year while trying to be "competitive now"....the fan base is going to stay away in droves next season.
I think they have already started that this year. The TC is half empty every game. Some games I wonder if even 5,000 people showed up. If we stay like this, I agree with you, next year will be an empty TC with another embarrassing and frustrating season. Fans will start to save themselves the heartache and not watch. I will always watch but it is irritating as all hell.
I see your point, but it's a hell of a lot better than a never-ending cycle of #14's and mediocrity. Take a chance with a top player and build around him. We could be like a Garnett-led Wolves or the Kings with Webber. Morey can build around a star player. Le$ just won't let him have that opportunity.
Resigning Dragic will be even more of a longshot than it was now that we're missing the playoffs in very disappointing fashion. If the argument for making the playoffs was that it would attract players to want to play here, wouldn't choking away 5 games in a row and dropping out of the playoffs make players not want to play here?
While the record and the players on the team certainly are key, what some seem to be overlooking is that playoff success, or just getting there in this case, has often to do with neither of the above. It has to do with playing your best ball at the right time. Look at the 80-81 Rockets. They had a 40-42 record. But they hit their stride at just the right time and went all the way to the finals. 5 games ago, we had won 4 straits on the road against very good teams. All looked well and we were playing playoff intensity basketball. Then, something changed, and we are playing below that level. Bad timing is all I can say. Same team. 4 wins followed by 5 losses. Perhaps we get focused again and win all our remaining games and squeeze into the playoffs. I dont know. But I do know we need to build some momentum to have any chance.
Uh...the 80-81 Rockets also had 2 Hall of Famers on the roster along with a pretty good foward named Rudy something-or-other. Who are the 2 potential Hall of Famers on our current roster?
Obviously, comparing that team to our present one will yield differences. My point is that if our present team WAS playing their best basketball right now, their would be no doubt of us making the playoffs and would even have some hope of advancing.
a .500 team, over the course of a season, typically wins some games it probably shouldn't...and loses some games it probably shouldn't. that's just the nature of the beast...so you don't look at it over stretches here and there. you take the whole universe of games to rate the team. yeah, they could be playing their best basketball now...but would that mean they weren't playing as well earlier in the season. i think this team is what it is...and is what most of us thought it was...and is what it was last year and the year before: MEDIOCRE. Honestly, we're looking at a 3 year sample size now and they're remarkably consistent.
Eh, if the current team was playing their best basketball right now, you're right, we would make the playoffs. But I don't think we'd make it past the 1st round. I think we should strive to do more than just make the playoffs. I'd like to see us win a series every now and then. And by every now and then, I mean more often than once every 15 years. If that requires a few seasons of rebuilding, so be it. I don't think Les understands that.
Les seems to think making the playoffs is great success. I don't share that view. Not for the NBA, anyway.
Remember in 2004 when football was the laughingstock of our city and the other two sports were really competitive? How the tables have turned... Seriously people, basketball reasons. David Stern will be dead before the Rockets are competitive again. And no I'm not threatening him, it's just a simple fact. The NBA has no legitimacy anymore, it's only about propping up big names in big markets, selling the game to fans around the world, and making sure that Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker face off in the championship fight.
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I wouldnt characterize his thoughts this way. I think Les believes making the playoffs is preferable to NOT making them. And TRYING to make the playoffs is preferable to tanking. Either notion can certainly be argued. But you have to get to the playoffs in order to advance in them, and this is not arguable.
What good is getting to the playoffs going to do if you have no shot at getting past the 1st round? I view it like this: We're in a race going 200 mph. We get a flat tire and can only go 100 mph. So do we keep racing at 100 mph or do we make a pit stop and change the tire so we can eventually get back to going 200 mph? Les wants to keep racing around the track on 3 tires instead of making a pit stop because he's worried the pit stop might take too long.
While your view and analogy are quite legitimate, I view the playoffs as a brand new season. Anything can happen. That said, our chances are slim to advance, true. But even a good showing (getting to a game 7 for instance) would be great experience for our young players and give a certain amount of needed confidence going into next year. Perhaps Les does need to rethink his strategy. But taking where we are right now. Tanking with 4 games left to play is nonsense. We may as well do as well as we can and try to make the playoffs at this point.
