You guys seem to be forgetting we were also down D-Mo and Bev. When those 2 return and if both are able to return to form, we are upgraded and still better than the Clippers by default.
We are not better than the Clippers. They have the same team as last year with the additions of Pierce and Stevenson that's huge. The Clippers without those additions are still better than Houston. Losing Smith will hurt us especially if DMO continues to have back trouble. If Morey refuses to dip into the MLE for a guy who was instrumental in us making the WCF than shame on him.
Yes saleem I said it before in this thread and I was accused of being a troll. If I was Josh Smith I would be pissed as hell that whilE I contributed to getting to the WCF the team doesn't appreciate me enough to spend the mle on me, and would rather spend it on a rookie.
We were in the bottom 1/3 of the league in average age. Take out Pablo and Terry and we are in the bottom 8. The only younger WC teams were Minnesota, Utah, OKC, and Portland. Everyone on our team minus Terry and Pablo are on the way UP. Everyone will be better. Not to mention we had 3 of our top 6 miss 25+ games. Dwight and Jones missed 40+. DMo and Bev missed the entire playoffs. Houston is a 58-60 win team with or without Smith.
LOL...remind us who won the series again...without two starters. This isn't the time to declare the Rockets demise. Only a fool (and there are many of them), would assume the team is set for next years playoffs. Its a work in progress and a fun time to be a Rockets fan.
I disagree that I think the Clippers are better. I feel that you severely underrate how much having the 2 back improves our team, not just the starting lineup, but depth as well as the other bench players move back to their respective roles. Capela also looked really good in the moments that he had on the court. Thornton is going to be a boost for us as well. Would I prefer to sign Smith? Absolutely. I just trust Morey to know more about basketball and team building than the 2 of us combined. He has done an amazing job and I will continue to trust him to do what he believes is best for our team.
LOL 2 thoughts combined and made a horrible typo. I meant to type "I disagree in that I think the Rockets are better." Fail by me!
So by this logic Dallas was a better team than Miami in 2011? The "better" team doesn't always win. Nobody is declaring the season over or any of that crap. I simply believe not resigning Smith when we have the full MLE available will hurt the team. We don't get better by losing a huge part of our playoff success. It doesn't work like that.
We need Josh back. He knew when to turn it up a notch in the playoffs, and when he did it was contagious. TJones did not have that impact. And it is unknown if Dmo can do that.
Smith obviously wants to come back here. The most likely scenario that is going on is that Smith has been told that anything left of the MLE after signing McDaniels is his. The idea that none of this has been discussed with him is ridiculous. If a team throws a crazy offer at McDaniels that the Rockets don't want to match, Smith could stand to get close to the entire MLE, so it benefits him to be patient and see how the McDaniels situation turns out. Until it is resolved, the Rockets don't know how much they have available to offer Smith. But it's not like Morey is refusing to dip into the MLE to keep Smith here.
All I know is the Rockets were a dead team with Terrence Jones starting at PF and down 1-3 to the Clippers. McHale scratches Terrence from the lineup before Game 5 and inserts Josh Smith as the team's new starting PF. Rockets blow the Clippers off the floor winning 3 straight to take the series with Smith, the catalyst, leading the way. The only reason we lost to Golden State was we didn't have a PG. With an adequate PG we would have been in the Finals.
Souci for rubio?????? I wouldn't trade my door mat for this guy. If we wanna win big , then we need type Lawson who averages almost 15 points and 9.5 assists a game. Rubio is a joke.
The only reason we lost to GSW is that they were much much better than us. Also Smith helped vs Clippers, but you can't just ignore all the bad games he had in the playoffs too. He had as many bad games as good ones, if not more.
Umm yes, the better team does win. Especially in the playoffs. As they always do. If you don't believe that, then you believe teams only win due to other factors outside of the players on the team. Secondly, Smith has to accept the MLE. I don't think he's sitting around waiting on us to offer it. He's trying to get as much as he can, which I don't blame him.
I could not disagree more. I would say it usually wins...but not always. Sometimes better teams just run through bad stretches...and sometimes teams that aren't as good play out of their minds.
no but we do get better by bringing back two healthy starters. Bev and DMo being healthy >>> Josh Smith on the team In terms of impact.
For all of the Josh Smith nut huggers, lets not get carried away here. In the LAC series, he averaged 10 and 5 shooting 40% from the floor Yes, he had a solid last three games of the series, but even then we won those three games by a combined 46 points, Smith was +13. The only thing he brings that isnt replaceable is his defense, which I said all season long that for us to be competitive, we would have to find a PF who can guard the elite PF's in the Western Conference (almost every team has one but us).
