Who has to go beyond expectations/ ceilings to win it a championship

Even this year, Lin will be the 3rd option and probably control the defense more than everyone except Harden. Parsons is our glue guy but can't create much yet so it is as it should be. Now, will Lin improve and be our 3rd best player? I hope so. Asik unfortunately will not be able to impact the games as much with Harden here so we'll see how that works out.

 

Ha! I loved the Manute 3!!

 

Any of the players can "step up." But the most likely one is Dwight Howard, if recovery from his back surgery gets him back to the level he was at back in Orlando between 2009 and 2011. He's the most likely one because he's been at that level before, for everyone else improvement means achieving a level they have not been at so far.

Also, "Orlando Dwight" was so good that he was able to bring a roster otherwise devoid of elite players deep into the playoffs. So we know that he can "make a difference." For everyone else, you'd expect some improvement due to the youth of the roster, but we don't know which of them will improve and by how much.

 

Lin is a wildcard.

 

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You have absolutely no support from me. If you want my support do the work to figure out what the parties need to do to win a championship. Don't put out some stupid IMO poll. Intellectual laziness at its worst.

 

If Lin is healthy, we going to the finals probably. However Lin's body is not built well enough so far to take the pounding of a 82 game season + playoffs for the past 2 seasons. So hopefully he can improve his conditioning and with little bite of luck to stay injury free. Can't wait for NBA season to start, we are going to make a lot of noise for years to come.

 

Lin. He's the key. He's the escape goat. He's the most overpaid. He's the most underpaid. His position is the that needed an upgrade the most. He's the one holding the Rockets from getting a third star. Did I said most of Clutchfans posters' feelings?

For me, everybody should perform above expectations if this team is to go for a championship ring. It's always the whole team that must be held accountable at the end and not just individuals. Yes, you can be critical of certain individuals but nothing will be accomplished without having the all team partake in the blame and praise that goes with the pursuit of a championship.

 

It's funny how Lin can be the piece that puts us over the top to win it all, or the piece that costs us to not even make the playoffs in another poll. How is a player this polarizing? Anyways, I voted Howard. He's still recovering from injury, but if he comes back to form and becomes Orlando Howard from the Finals, then that takes us to the trophy.

 

if parsons could get himself that paul george defense then the team would be complete imo. Lin the distributor, Harden the scorer, Parsons the shooter + defender and Howard anchoring it all

 

i voted the four, but everyone must step up. from our superstars to our players

 

*to our role players

 

Yes, and be more assertive.

 

the only way the rockets can ever win another championship is if lebron somehow loses his motivation and passion and switches to another sport such as baseball

 

the Jamaican in me says he'd be better in a dutch pot, with curry & scotch bonnet peppers ...

 

I think most CF's think Lin is slightly over paid, but not grossly, and I don't think they see Lin as a scape goat, but rather as a player who has yet to really find his fit in the team.

Most people on here have an objective view of Lin, and see both his strengths as weaknesses. He is a bigger question mark than Harden or Howard or Parsons, because their game is pretty well known and understood. The other thing is that the nature of the PG position is that it can impact everyone else's game. So any change in Lin's game can have a bigger impact.

Lin is a player that can be so good one night, and so not good the next. What people think is that if Lin can really find his fit, it can make a big difference simply because there is so much room to improve.

If he can hit 40% ft's that's going to change the whole dynamic of how teams have to defend us. And so yeah, that would be massive since now next to Harden you have a 40% shooter on either side - where is the double going to come from?

Yeah, his improvement can be game changing.

 

Fixed it

 

Beyond expectations? Asik getting minutes alongside Howard and developing a midrange jumpshot. We've seen folks say it'll never work and others say it could. McHale himself had that quote about give me two skilled 7 footers who can play D etc.

Find a way to make this work. Get Asik some significant minutes. Devise a way to terrorize the rest of the league with twin tower defense the likes of which we've never seen.

We had offense in spades before Howard arrived. Lin hitting 40% from 3 and Tj contributing more would be great. But to truely reach the pinnacle we don't need players to exceed individual expectations we need them to figure out how to coexist and not waste potential because of a lack of cohesiveness.

 

I would think Patrick Beverly and/or Jeremy Lin need to step it up. The expectations are admittedly low. They just have to hit open jumpers, play reasonable defense, make the smart plays, and don't turn the ball over but that's going to be HUGE for this team if they can hold their own out there with some of the great PGs in the West. Houston will likely hold an advantage at every other position even with a D-Mo/Jones/Asik spot minutes PF rotation.

If they can average 20+pts/game, 2-3 steals, 2 or less TOs, 6 rebounds, 9 assists out of that PG rotation we will likely go far.

 

I would hope that one of our young POWER FORWARDS give us good, consistent production

TJ/DMO/Smith/Covington