This is different. Lakers is old. They don't have much talents other than Bron and AD. Rockets, on the other hand, shouldn't be this bad. OKC without Chet won 5 games this season. San Antonio with an inferior roster won 6 games so far. Magic won against the dubs without Paolo and won 4 games. Detroit probably has worse coaching than us, still won 3 games. Don't even talk about Utah and our butts will get hurt. Winning just two games on this Rockets' roster, meaning we don't even need a coach. Just let the players have players-only meeting before the game and decide for themselves who to play and what to run, we probably be winning more games this way.
We got rid of Wood and now we need to get rid of Porter or we need a coach to humble him, Silas cannot. I think Porter is the same Porter as last year, attitude problems with a big contract. Our Star players(Green, Sengun and Smith) are way important than Silas and Porter. We will get another top 5 or top10 player in the year draft, and we have over 60 million dollars this summer to find 2 good players and hopefully one is a Star. We are in good shape as a franchise but we need to get rid of a bad apple and make Silas , start and play Sengun 30 minutes a game.
See, like i said.................people are not use to a full blown rebuild. You got way too comfortable with all the winning seasons and now have no patience after we stripped it right back. Also, give it time. The record is probably where we expected it to be after the schedule came out. It has been tough. Hard to play great team defence with a squad so inexperienced.
With me it's never been about wins and losses at this point, it's been about HOW you're losing. And to me they were looking lifeless, like no one wanted to be there and that's what my issues were. No defense, No structure. The last three games have been different. They have been in games, playing better defensively, playing better offensively, just looking more like a NBA team.
Massively upgraded farm team system and free agents largely the reason for the Astros turnaround. Also remember huge amounts of luck involved in draft selections. On Smith he's performing on par with other similar aged rookies drafted high. i.e. cunningham and even banchero's subpar shooting. Just 19 vs. veterans = free pass from me. Green looked quite bad for 3/4's of last season and didn't start this one well but is OK now. I just don't agree with treating "losing" as the only method to find success. Not a great mindset for a team to have for years and years.
Oh man well gosh then the Rockets should just flip the switch from trying to lose to try to win. Winning in the NBA requires talent, veteran experience and quality coaching. Rockets have raw talent, that's about it. Even if Popovich this team has a losing record right now. God forbid this team drafted poorly in 2021 or 2022. Let's see where they draft in 2023. Rockets fans are spoiled from the Harden years.
We have been pretty competitive this season, much different than last season. Memphis, Phoenix, Clippers and Toronto games we were in the games until experience took over.
Got to love the instant "absolutist" response. The rockets will still get good draft picks even if they build a culture with a chance at winning. Attempting to lose 70 games is just pure misery for everyone that lasts for years and due to the rules the chance of success with the method is not good. DM proved it can be done without absolute misery almost every game - we traded for Harden we did NOT draft him. *Did you see the Rockets faces in the game tonight vs. the Clippers? They cracked like 5 smiles the entire game, it was like watching a funeral. You think that's good for this team, the fans or the culture?
But we haven't been. In fact we are near historic lows in almost every statistical category vs. previous teams. See this chart: Right now we are winning at .154, last season was .244 and season before that was .236. To find worse teams than these you have to look all the way back to 1967, 55 years of Rockets basketball to find a squad this bad. Our defense in particular has suffered vs. the previous 2 seasons. Will we get better - yes, of course. Nowhere to go but up.
Different schedule than those previous seasons. Did we have a road heavy schedule in those other two seasons and start with games against high calibre teams like we have this season? We will win more games than last season, just a matter of how many. this seasons record so far vs teams above .500 1-11 vs teams below .500 1-1
What's worse is in previous bad seasons we roughly doubled our win totals the following year. Not this time. Following year just +4. This year who knows (right now it's worse but maybe we put something together as the season drags on) but the team just does not seem to care. Next Season there will be another superstar in the draft and the year after that and after that. The SAME people here will advocate each year we aim for the gutter trying to get them. Lose 65 games and you have "WON" a 14% chance at your superstar.
But we didn't strip the roster right back like we have done in this rebuild. This is a different kind of rebuild.
Yeah teardown to be in the gutter so we can receive up to a 14% chance at the top pick. Instead of smart trades, building up the strongest assets and having a half decent team along the way we try for last place 3 years in a row and hope for 14%.
We had to get rid of bad contracts as well. Harden wanted out, that was the start of the rebuild. We will be alright, we have a young core now that we can build around. Just need some patience. We have lots of assets and draft picks. Also now caproom to go after free agents in the off season. The first year wasn't planned to be bottom. This season we have had a hard schedule so far, why can't people see that. Just 2 games so far against teams under .500
The problem with all this tanking is failing to land the #1 overall pick year after year will mean we tanked for nothing. We're dangerously close to that happening.
This has already been labeled the worst opening schedule in NBA history. I think it was punishment for the intentional tanking last year. We will not end up with the worst record this year.
