Sure, it could be real easy to sit here and point fingers at different players, or hell, even Coach McHale after this one. But what good would it do? Further, why do it whenever we have so much to be happy about? This team has the chance to go above-and-beyond ANYTHING we thought they were capable of just 9 months removed from believing that Jeremy Lin & Omer Asik were going to be the "major acquisitions" of the summer. I don't need to re-hash what happened next, but tonight, which ended a long, drawn-out series against a Western Conference monster, is just the tipping point of what looks be an incredible run for the Rockets. The next big step is going out and acquiring/signing that low-post presence who can score in bunches and provide us with a sidekick to Beard. All-in-all, this game, and more importantly, this series proved to everyone in the Western Conference that the Houston Rockets are for real and are going to be very good for a long time.
Remember when the Thunder lost to the Lakers in the first round? They were the 8th seed and they lost 4-2
It's funny, I remember I was in Lake Charles watching the game and thinking, "Damn, these kids are going to be really, really good soon." And look at them now? We can follow the same path, albeit a bit differently since we aren't developing our players, but still yet, we've got the cap and already have a budding star in James Harden. The foundation is definitely there.
There are notable differences though. Okc lost to the eventual champs at full strength That okc team already had kd, Westbrook and harden
yeah.... big difference is Thunder are not that old than the Lakers were years ago and they are lacking Westbrook still a young superstar Thunder are a small market team with almost no chance to sign a big time player, we have a average sized to rather big market to pull one off
How did you come up with this? This is a team that, even with Harden, wasn't even supposed to sniff the playoffs, but sure was going to be "fun to watch." Not only did we squash that idea, but a) had a chance to lock up the 6 seed on the last day of the season, and b) took a #1 seed, sans Westbrook, but still a very good team, to the brink. Remind me how that's not "ahead of schedule" again?
I agree that this team is not "ahead of schedule." Harden, Asik and Parsons were just better players than anticipated by most. That said, the only reason we had a chance at the 6th seed is because the Lakers struggled epically out of the gate and then had injury issues with Gasol. This is not the same as the Thunder team that had three all-star level players, potentially 3 superstar level players and was growing. This is a team with one superstar level player and a roster full of good NBA players. We aren't building this team the way the Thunder was built so comparing to them is foolish. If we can't get a free agent superstar we won't get much better.
they're already one of the highest scoring teams in the league, they need guys that can play some defense. Not so much about compiling talent as it getting role players. Rockets lost cause 4 usual bench players came out there and dropped double digits including Martin's 25.
That's exactly right. The Thunder have SO MUCH talent that they can bring a guy like Martin off the bench. From the Rockets, only Harden even has a shot at starting for OKC, and he didn't! There is a major, MAJOR talent gap still to close before we start crowning ourselves anything. This season was great fun and a good start. But we do NOT resemble OKC 2.0 in any way whatsoever. OKC struck gold in the lottery three times in a row. Houston picked off a few undervalued guys. Impressive, but not in the same stratosphere of luck as OKC, who happens to have a single player more talented that our entire team combined PLUS another superstar to go along with him.
Amen, brother. Can't wait to see what happens this summer and watch the team play next year. We finally matter again, and things are looking bright going forward.
They were better than expected, but i'm not sure that puts them ahead of schedule to be contenders. Remember that a lot of the guys we got to plug up holes could easily be gone soon. Morey was good, but also very lucky in acquiring meaningful contributors like Delfino, Beverley, Garcia, brooks, and douglas. Most of these guys won't be around (douglas already isn't) later on. We're likely to take a step back, or stall, even if we acquire another star because we'll have opened holes in the rotation. There will likely be a new coach in 2 years. It wouldn't surprise me if the team took one whole season or more to deal with significant changes. This isn't a younger OKC team like i'm hearing. They had their two stars already back then, as well as Thabo, Collison. They just needed to mature and some help around those guys. We're only sure we're keeping Harden. Everyone else could be gone in a year or two. As for our high scoring offense, don't be fooled into thinking this is a real long term option for the team. It still could be, but the reality of having more talented players, as we hope to have, is that you don't limit their talents. The team had to come up with a very easy offense because of the youth and inexperience, but still one that would produce to make the playoffs. With more talent, they are going to have to mix it up and probably slow it down. Obviously you still want to draw fouls, get close shots, and not shoot with your foot on the 3 pt line, but you've got to be more efficient. You'll have to create leads with offense and defense, and not just by scoring a lot by running up attempts.
If I could put a percentage on how much we exceeded the majority of expectations I would say we exceeded it by 250%.
