I think most of us can agree this team has championship aspirations, but I have one simple question... Can our style of play win us the NBA title? Sure we can score with anybody, but we cant stop a nose bleed. It seems our strategy is to just maximize the number of possessions we have to make up for the careless turnovers that we constantly commit by encouraging a run and gun style of play, but will this work? If you look at the 4 teams that made it to the conference finals last year they all have one thing in common, they are all defensive minded teams! They all are 100% committed to stoping you first rather than just trying to chunk up a bunch of shots to hope to outscore the other team. So are we a contender or are we pretenders?
This thread is very premature. This team is probably not even complete yet. There are trades to be made before the roster is finalised. The team is still trying to find its identity and they are working on their chemistry and understanding their roles. We've only just finished the Twin Towers experiment. We have to give the team and the coaching staff time to figure it out. Come back at the end of the season or even at the end of the regular season and we can have a meaningful discussion about these issues. Eleven games in?
It's more of question of our gameplan rather than execution of the gameplan which will get better of course.
I thought we played good defense yesterday. Everyone seemed locked in. Howard with the blocks but also the perimeter guys I thought played the screens pretty well. If we can keep this up, I think we're hard to stop. It helped that our shots were falling though. We still don't have much by way of an inside threat. It would be a closer game if our shots weren't falling like the previous games.
I am not even sure the style of this team has been defined fully. This question makes no sense at this time.
It depends on the further progression of the team and individual players. That trip through LA has me concerned though. They were still experimenting with that TT line-up so maybe they will fair better later in the season. Not sure.
It's hard to know what our gameplan will be by the end of the season. What if T Jones keeps beasting? Who do we get in trade for Asik? Do we lose Lin/Bev/Dmo also? Once the roster is settled, at least in terms of all the primary pieces then we can see how the team evolves. Like I said, we just finished experimenting with the TT lineup. I do think we need a lot more plays and sets a lot more screens when we are in the half court. It really hurts watching our defenders get run into multiple screens and on the other end our playmakers having to create off the dribble. But that was also the case last year, so I don't have a huge amount of faith that anything will happen about that any time soon. It also requires Dwight to buy into the high PnR and not just stand in the post.
the fact that we get to the line and shoot more freebies than any other team means we will always be in a game. In the playoffs, the names always get their calls anyways.
This team isn't really a finished product yet. Anyone judging what this team will do this year and beyond is just guessing. The Asik trade will help determine quite a bit for this team. If they get an impact player that fits they just might a team that we have to put up there with the best of them. If they trade Asik for future assets then it might be awhile before either players develop or Morey makes other deals to bring in those pieces. Also we have to see a new team (not literally) defensively for long stretches. All championship level teams have another gear defensively they can get to. Houston has yet to show that to me at this point. So the Asik trade, other roster moves, and a new defensive identity will determine that. As of now, they shouldn't be viewed as anything more than an up and coming team with something to prove, but definitely a playoff team.
Umm, we don't have a style yet. Give it 30-50 games and then ask. It's a great question, but wrong time to ask it.
Gosh, you're really going out on a limb aren't you? Aiming for the stars. Be careful with those wild predictions. Since this is a Rockets fan site, I guess we're supposed to demonstrate slight homerish tendencies. Still, we only have two players ranked by GMs as among the best in the league, and a bunch of good up-and-coming role players. So I think we need to be realistic....
I just feel like this offensive minded aproach isn't going to actually work, unless we commit on the defensive end we will be in the same tier as the Clippers and the Warriors of last year... And I mean if that's all this team is aiming or than that's great but we are tryig to bring that trophy back to H-Town. The guys have to get real, because if we dont win games like that now, I doubt we will win them when everything is on the line.
