Eh let’s see, our improvement is definitely not a fluke but playoff success and contention are far from guaranteed!
Yeah I disagree. Makes me think if this guy's a Rockets fan or something. Love my Rockets but we're not a contender this year
We're for real in the sense that we're a good team now, but that doesn't mean we're ready to go deep into the playoffs and compete for a championship.
I think the Rockets are going to be a tough out for anyone this year... except maybe for OKC and (if by some miracle we made it that far) Boston. So in that sense we are "for real". I expect us to be legitimately competitive even as a young, inexperienced playoff team. But I give us almost zero chance of a title this year. We're more likely to lose in the first round than we are to make the finals, let alone win it all. Still, I think a realistic best-case scenario might be making the WCF. But even losing in the first round wouldn't make this season a failure IMO All empty conjecture. Just my gut feelings about where we currently stand and how we match up in the west.
I agree with you but at the same time there are plenty of legit teams who lost in the first round of the playoffs their first time. Meaning, we could be a future champion as constructed but still lose in the first round this season. No matter how talented you are, very often in the playoffs you can't ignore the experience of the people running the defense and offense. OKC went down easily in the 2nd round last season as the #1 seed - no one is really criticizing them for that, it was kind of expected. To be top 5 in the West while the average age of the people dominating our usage is lowest among playoff teams and among the lowest in the whole league, that's a warning shot to the league. That we have an excellent record against teams above .500 bodes well for the team's playoff character. That we're also filthy rich in terms of tradable assets outside of the core means teams have to watch out. We've blasted ahead of the Magic and Pistons this season. Now the only young team we have to catch up to is OKC. I don't want to overestimate us for this year's playoffs, but overall the foundation and room for improvement is so solid.
I think if healthy, this team can win a playoff series or even two. But because they rely so much on defensive intensity to win, they are likely to run out of steam at some point. Kind of like what happened during the in-season tournament, though the team is even better now.
What separates the Rockets from OKC? Shai. Period. IMO. We lack offensive fire power I think we are their equal everywhere else. Could Booker be our Shai? Jalen ain't there yet. Is Booker as good as Shai? If not Booker then who? Perhaps a tandum like Brown and Tatum? Do we have half of that in Green? Sengun? Rocket River You know my answer. We could compete NEXT YEAR
Chris Mannix is now the expert on that. IMHO OKC has the best not top market organization after Celtics and Spurs...from top to bottom .
Rockets climbing up the standings windows, they’re snatching yo people up. … So hide yo kidz, hide yo wife AND hide yo husbands cuz da Rockets raping everybody up in NBA Lincoln Park!! Go Rockets!!! ……. ……. …….
We'll be a tough out, but I think people figured us out. They're going to force us to shoot and clog the paint. If we can make shots, we'll advance. No team really believes we're going to shoot well for 4/7 games though. I guess we'll see.
We haven't used the double big lineup against OKC. Since they essentially have two bigs maybe it matches up better.
