3 quality, near star players got traded east on draft night...allen, randolph and richardson...this makes it much easier to win more regular season games...i can see us winning 58 to 62 if everything breaks right
I think your buggin a little bit the only team of those three that acutally got any worse was Seattle. Portland will be better as will Golden State.
Are you sure you're not trying to raise the bar there too high for Adelman? Two of those teams -- Seattle and Portland -- were not good last year. Losing Randolph is not likely to hurt the Blazers ... Portland will definitely be better after the draft they just had and the fact that their young guys have another year under their belt. Seattle is atleast young and interesting. I do think GSW is hurt short-term on that trade though. If anything, this bolsters the East teams, which the Rockets feasted on in 06-07. I don't think this ups the Rockets winning percentage in 07-08 automatically.
Yeah Seattle probably got worse in the extreme short term, but that was gonna happen anyway if Rashard left. Now they have a much better chance of keeping him. Portland got rid of a ballhog who gets stats with no substance. They will work much better as a team with Oden and Aldridge in the lineup and will spread out the scoring to make up for losing Randolph. Golden State cannot possibly be worse. They got a highflying player that fits with them in Wright. They also got a ~10M trade exception from trading JRich. They can use this trade exception to pick up any player or players that they feel fit. That is a big asset.
You're looking at 'individual' talent on a couple of teams instead of taking more of a 'macro' approach. Try to look at the overall picture. Currently, the average talent level on a Western Conf team has gone up after the draft. The overall conference talent level has significantly improved if you consider the fact that two teams that didn't make the playoffs last season can now enjoy the services of the top two picks in the NBA draft, not to mention two superstar-level talents that are set to become franchise players in their own right. I think the overall picture is 'bleaker' if you're the Houston Rockets. The West just got deeper and even formerly 'bad' teams got enough help to compete for a playoff spot next season. The only way this overall picture might change is IF Kobe and Garnett go East. But Ray Allen alone, who's a pretty nice player, does not even come close to changing the dynamics in that way.
not trying to raise the bar on coach a...it just makes sense...if we are healthy, we should win alot more than we did this year, but you are right about the east being better...should have thought about that clutch...thats why this is your board...you are smarter than me.
lol, now I can't tell if I'm getting Adelmaned too Not smarter than you, that's for sure... if healthy all year I agree the Rockets should be better, but how much is really going to depend on roster improvements in my opinion. JVG's team with Yao out played very, very well ... for the first 75-80% of it you could say they maybe were a better team without Yao. This is one of the reasons I cringe when people talk about the Rockets winning 52 with Yao being out 30 games, so they should win 60 healthy. JVG was a coach of the year candidate specifically because he played a style that had the Rockets not missing much of a beat with Yao out.
clutch...im not adelmaning you...you are the man for this board...and your right...60 is too much...but 55 to 58 is in the ball park if healthy. and you know i think highly of the coaching staff last year, but i think this years staff is great too...better players equals more wins...and we have better players...and morey is already an upgrade at gm...battier trade and james trade and i trust his eye for talent in the draft...
Hopefully Coach A has the ability to keep the Rockets at a high level with Yao out (fingers crossed that we never are forced to find out) and utilize both stars and the supporting cast better than JVG did. I feel that we were better than the sum of our parts when Yao was out, but worse than the sum of our parts with both Yao and TMac. Coach A will fit his system to the personnel and hopefully in the playoffs they will look even better than in the regular season instead of the other way around as with JVG.
easier?? since when was the west easy to begin with? and yeah the west lost some good players but also gained a couple too with the draft
Portland, Phoenix, Memphis those teams definitely got better. Seattle may not be better short term, but they added Durant, adding Durant to the West does not make it easier. San Antonio probably finally got their center in Splitter. Etc. The west is much tougher if anything.
Randolph leaving Portland will make them much stronger, perhaps with the upcoming season being the only exception. JRich going East won't make the Warriors weaker because they have other players to re-sign and someone wasn't coming back. They should be a stronger regular season team next season. I think people are underestimating Jeff Green. In the long term, that trade makes Seattle much stronger. If he develops like I think he can, Ray Allen will be a distant memory for the Sonics. That was an awesome trade for them. If Green doesn't let being in Durant's shadow bother him, he will be heard from in a big way. Will the Sonics pleeeeeeeease choose a coach?
yao out really doesn't hurt us terribly. T-mac out, that would be a killer. We'd only win 24 games without him.
Many of those teams have been getting lottery picks for years. They still didn't make it to the playoffs, last year. Even if though a team got the ROY last year, they still want back to the lottery. Rookies still need time to develop.
San Antonio, Phoenix, Utah and Dallas are the only teams that concern me. that's in the entire league. Chicago got better with their pick up of Noah and they still haven't traded any of their young talent. they're probably going to surpass Detroit next season regardless of what happens to Billups, McDyess and Webber. but the only way the Rockets see Chicago in the playoffs is if they go to the finals and in that case, the Rockets seem to have the Bulls' number. but anyway, the key is the health of T-Mac and Yao this season. then it's how quickly they can adjust to and flourish in the new offense. if Adelman can fully utilize all the offensive talents of T-Mac, Yao, Bonzi, James, Battier (he shouldn't be known just for his defense), Head, Snyder, and even Hayes and Rafer as well as retaining just some of the defensive intensity they had last season, then 60+ wins shouldn't be unreasonable. some people are acting as if the Rockets have no chance to get out of the first round if the season were to start today. the Rockets currently have 5-7 offensive options, four of whom that can create their own shot, not that they should need to. but that's still at least 2 more than what they had last season. i will make one more prediction and that is the Rockets being in the top 3 in overall offense and in point differential. that's at least a 10 spot jump.
