The Rockets have the 4th best record in the NBA, and they aren't even clicking yet..

Lots of new players and injuries is a factor as well.

 

The Rockets are not playing their best ball
I think some of the players are still finding their roles

McHale is still finding his rotations

Rocket River

 

4th best record is slowly declining.

 

The real question is will they ever click?

This team can't live up to its potential until Howard comes back and lives up to his.

 

Yup... new additions and injuries to key rotational players (T Jones and Dwight). Not only that, but definitely not on fire from 3 as they were to start the season.

A lot of people are quick to judge McHale, but he's done a fantastic job of plugging people in making it work and still stay at the top of the Western Conference.

This team's going to be scary once Dwight (hopefully) comes back 100%.

 

Do we even have an identity besides jacking up 3's? Will we ever have a convincing blow out win from start to finish? Will the identity or style of play change much come playoffs?

 

Fire everyone.

With a proper owner, coach and GM we would be undefeated.

 

I get the sense that not everyone knows their role yet. A few do:

Harden: Do everything
Brewer: Run
Smith: Facilitate the bench

Everyone else is somewhat in flux. Even DMo is a bit of an unknown with Dwight out for so long.

Ultimately, two things stand out to me about this team:

1) Harden is our offense
2) We should have one of the top 3 big man rotations in the playoffs (huge change from last year). Memphis and LAC are the only two I would put ahead of us.

We need Dwight back soon to start putting everything together.

 

I'm not worried we've still got 20+ games to figure things out. McHake needs to start locking in his rotation and we're gunna have to get guys used to playing with Dwight when he comes back. Still some time....and we're 3rd in the west right now, I'm not complaining.

 

Well they better start clicking now because that schedule is about to get much more difficult. Starting now.

 

kinda like every other playoff team uh...

 

I remember last season it felt like every other game we were blowing teams out by 30 or getting blown out by 30. I think winning more consistently by the skin of our teeth might be the better path though.

 

Starting Center wasnt even rotation player last year, starting PF was mediocrate last season and injured most of this season. Backup big dropped by his team do to him being cancer of the team. Starting SG blamed for his terrible defense. Our players really did grow.

 

James Harden covers over a multitude of sins.

Untapped potential is a good thing, but I haven't seen much yet to indicate Houston can win more than one playoff series in this brutal West. Who knows though? Playing well and loads of potential is better than playing well with no additional potential.

 

Besides Harden doing the impossible anywhere he wants, no, we don't.

When I was listening to broadcast last night, either Bill or Bull said that Josh Smith was told when he got to the Rockets that they don't shoot long twos, and that's he's required to make 200 threes before he can leave practice. His 3-pt shooting has certainly improved, but that pretty much sums it up on our approach.

The thing that's stupid about the argument is that nobody wants to take the two right inside the three-point line, anyway. But that's not the same as having a MIDRANGE jumper, which also seems to be anathema to this team, except Harden who knows better than the coaches what to do. There's nothing wrong with taking a taking a 12-15 ft jumper over the big men in the paint when you can't get to the rim. Hell, EVERY player is expected to make a 15-ft shot at high frequency when they're fouled. That how LaMarcus Aldridge and Marc Gasol extend their game.

To answer your last question, no, we aren't going to change for the playoffs, and teams are going patrol the three-point line and shut us down.

 

"Everything is taking place according to my design"

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:...outpostdaria.info/makeovers/sw/sn_darthli.gif

 

In order to adjust for the playoffs, stats geeks need a larger sample size.

 

FWIW: our W-Ls record is currently in agreement with our Riley Record (Road Wins vs Home Loss). We have the league's 4th best Riley Ranking, too. 18-8 for a +10

 

Idk I still think josh smith should be getting the most minutes out of the PFs. And while dwights out I think he should get a few starts just to test the waters