As we all have learned The NBA is a business. They create narratives and storylines based on the entertainment value of their teams. Currently The Rockets have great value but does not have the attractive popularity at present that the Lakers and Clippers have outside of Houston Texas. Plus the negative media attention surrounding: Hong Kong , Morey, Rockets Style of play, Harden we could go on and on.................. The point is the League wants a playoff matchup with the Clippers and Lakers to me the best way to not get cheated in the playoffs is for the lakers to finish with the 1 seed or the 4 as long as the Clippers and Lakers finish 2 and 3 respectfully and Denver finishes with 1 seed.
It's very important. It would be a much harder route to go through the LA teams twice in the playoffs. We need to get the 1st and let them be the 2nd and 3rd to duel out before play us. Any other seed would mean we will likely go through them twice in 3 rounds of playoffs.
to be the champion you have to be the best team. doesn't matter if you play the lakers all 4 rounds you need to be able to beat all teams to get there
LA has looked strong, but just give it another month or two before AD goes down with some injury. I still think the Clippers are the team to beat in the west. Nice to see that we've played well against them so far. Would love to beat them in the WC Finals.
Too early. What happens if we get 1st seed, but one of the LA teams gets 4th because the nuggets gets the 2nd/3rd seed. Its all very tight at the moment
This thread makes no sense. There's never a situation, regardless of opponent, in which you wouldn't want to be the 1 seed.
Obviously the number 1 seed is the most valuable. That doesn’t mean seeds through 2-8 are equally valuable. Saying the Rockets should get the number 1 seed is completely worthless commentary. We should be debating the likely values of 2-8, depending on which teams are likely to under or over perform relative to the playoffs.
There is a good possibility we can be the #1 seed. I don't think the Lakers or the Clippers are that strong. Clippers are strong but load management Lakers are only now meeting legit competition Denver and Utah are the new Denver and Utah I think they could challenge for te #1 spot but I think they won't go far in the Playoffs Rocket River
The *Houston* Rockets could miraculously heal the sick and cure the lame, and the national media would find a way to hate on them. If they were the *San Francisco* Rockets, they could kill homeless people in their spare time, and it would be glossed over and buried. This is not about having a victim complex, because I don't care what these low-grade media people think. I'm just acknowledging through a bit of hyperbole their inherent biases. Also, even if we're just talking about random fans, people on the internet that hate things are always the loudest. I'd love to know how many quiet Rockets fans there are out there in the nation who just don't feel like getting in arguments just from the simple mention of what team they like. Statistically, though, as I constantly point out, having the 1st seed or at worst the 2nd seed, is pretty much mandatory for winning it all. Just by correlation without digging into causation. Whatever elements cause that correlation will always be up for endless debate, but only about 10% of NBA teams have ever won a championship with a 3rd or lower seed, and the large majority of the remaining 90% were 1st seeds. Aim as high as possible, strive to win every game, take nothing for granted.