Let's give the Rockets team that just ended the season a score. And then, every time they make a move (coaches or players), you can update your score by quoting your previous score. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being trash and 10 being a perfect team. The Rockets team that got eliminated: Was very good but flawed Finished as a 4th seed in the West Took care of a good Jazz team in 5 games Got eliminated by the Champions in 6 games in round 2 My team Score: 7
Rockets just confirmed that Jeff will not be coming back. Jeff was: The guy that made our defense respectable Without him, as we saw, we sucked on defense Mike cant coach defense To me, Defense is KING in playoffs, and we just crippled our defense. Team score just took a 2 point hit at the very least. Updated team score: 5
Season opener: ah **** here we go again Score: -1111 Post ASB: Harden is a mad lad could this be the year he really shines in the playoffs? Score: +9999 Playoffs: ah **** here we go again (ref audit edition) Score: -649103748201017473010274
This 2018-2019 Rockets Started like trash, largely due to injuries but also in large part due to bad GMing Bounced back, mainly due to James Harden Finished the reg season strong with some key in season additions, but couldn't nab 2 seed Perceived depth evaporated against GS Failed to close Games 5 and 6 against a Durantless GS (ya I know GS is tough, but Rox have to be held accountable) My team score: 6 Rockets showed great resiliency, but outside of James Harden and PJ Tucker, everyone (players, management, and ownership) either stayed flat or declined relative to their 2018 performance. Most concerning was CP3's decline, Capela's now-show, Morey's offseason, and Tillman's cheapness. I will update the score after Bzdelik's replacement is hired.
This 2018-2019 Rockets: Started off with little cap space and signed players in hopes they would be avg at best. Melo experiment failure Bad start to the year Great mid-season pickups Lost to OKC which took the 2 seed from us. Iman Shumpert bad until GSW breakout Unguardable tour showed Harden still needed help. Seemingly missed out on a better team to get under the luxury tax Beat Jazz in 5 but still looked bad all but game 1 Lost 3 winnable games at GSW Score: 6 Fired Coach JB Score: 7 Explanation: JB was undecided. Shows that Rockets are truly in pursuit of greatness this off-season and 2019-2020 season. Maybe I'm delusional but I'm in wait and see mode before I judge.
It went as well as it could have gone. FTR, while I (foolishly) thought it was ok to re-sign CP3 I immediately back tracked and hoped that we would trade him (to LAL). I did not believe he would be good enough to be a #2 on a title-winning team. Also I thought that our window was basically closed after last year. So, I did not have the biggest of aspirations. Given what I thought they were - a good but not great team - they did as well as I could have hoped for. So in that way they were a 9/10 or 10/10. But if I were to judge their season with zero expectations at the beginning, it would be lower. Slow start to the season, great stretch in the second half of the season, choke in game 82, great first round win, then embarrass themselves in the last 2 games of the second round. That sounds more like a 6/10 or 7/10.
The offseason I was highly concerned (3), they hadn't done anything at the wings other than a washed up Melo - I was proven right in short order … they were awful to start the season. Mid season (6) - Harden and some dudes from the rec center winning NBA games - That guy is unstoppable. End of the season was a little disappointing , losing to OKC and the other two teams blowing leads that would have kept us #2. Just pushed Judgement Day up a series. Round one (6) they played solid defense and meh offensively and beat an inferior team in 5 - like they should have. Judgement Day (7) …. they should have one game one. They should have jumped on them after Durant went down. They did neither …. I blame most of this on the guard play on the defensive end - They couldn't stop Curry or Thompson. (I'm looking at you CP3). First series of 6 games or more in league history in which every game was decided by 6 points or less …. So close no matter how far. The more talented team won .... Officiating in the playoffs was terribad. Foul calls went up league wide while Harden's calls went down , dude gets poked in the eye twice and hammered time and again yet no calls because of the narrative that he creates the fouls. Well , he does …. but they are fouls and you have to call them to be fair. The offseason is here again and this time we have 10 players on the roster , 5 of those GLeaguers and 5 free agents who contributed to varying degrees …. no draft picks , no cap space and only the MLE to play with and they fired their defensive mastermind …. I think they can find a Faried type on the cheap but House and Rivers , I think it's one or the other. The big problem here is that we saw last year that this wasn't enough to topple the Warriors …. They gotta find a way to improve significantly. Maybe Durant & Thompson go elsewhere and Harden's greatness is enough against the rest of the league. Right now , I have them at a 5. Mainly because they have no depth at all. Its the starting 5 and 5 guys from the GLeague.
The Rockets may be the 2nd or 3rd best team in the league. People are pissed that we can't get past the Warriors. But, the Warriors are one of the best teams in history. Considering how well the Rockets did after Melo, and having to deal with all the injuries. I would give the Rockets a 8.75. We will see how the Bucks do against the Warriors. But, right now the Rockets look like the team that gives the Warriors the most trouble. There are a lot of NBA fans that wish their team could be as competitive against the Warriors as the Rockets have been.
Yep, and that's why the Rockets are hated by the media. They're still upset about the Knicks loss in 94.
If u trade for Jimmy butler i bump it to a 8.5 ,if we get a good defensive coach, bump it again to a 9.1 add a few players here and there ,then we could actually compete with golden state.
