Listen brother. I hear you. All that is cute and all, but Rockets are on house money. We are a good team, but its obvious we are missing that IT player. You need atleast one IT player to win a ship. Having said that, this team can make a deep run. I believe it.
IT players are made in the playoffs. We don't know if we have an IT player... or two or three. We'll find out soon enough. And IT players don't all need to be superstars, but they do need to be clutch on both ends. Horry was an IT player, Barkley not so much. I suspect we have more than one IT player on the roster, though it may take this year and next to truly see it because of the youth. For example, Steph in his 4th year barely shot 40% against the Spurs, and GS lost in the second round. The next year, he shot 44%, but GS lost in the first round. At that point, he was a good little shooter, but did nothing that really scared you. The year after that, they won their first championship and all of sudden there were 4 players on that team who had IT: Steph, Clay, Andre, and Draymond. For most, it takes time to find IT and the more success you have as a team, the more IT you find. Patience--and enjoy the journey.
The guy that averaged 7.9/5.6/2.4 on 54.6% TS was “IT” but the guy who averaged 23/13/4 on 58.4% TS was not “IT”. That’s pretty damn hilarious.
I don't understand why people claim we have 0 playoff experience. Thunder are an example of a team that actually had 0 playoff experience going into the playoffs their first time. That includes the entire 15-man roster and the head coach. We're not that inexperienced. Our coach has won championships as a player and assistant coach. He and most of this staff made the Finals when he was a HC. Our starting PG was a key player in a championship. Our playoffs rotation includes Brooks and Adams who have made deep playoff runs. Our bench includes another champion in Jeff Green who's literally here to mitigate this factor. We're one of the least experienced teams in the playoffs, but there's a marked difference between us and how OKC went about doing it so you should also expect there to be a slight difference in how we perform our first time. I think we win in the first round. By the second round, we would have a roster full of players who have made it past a first round playoff series and we'd also be full of championship experience. I'd say I'm more worried about the first round than the next ones. If we can be up 2-1 after game 3, we're good from that point forward. I'm only worried about those first few games where some of our core will be like "holy f*ck this is way more intense than I expected".
I don't know why this is directed towards fans. I mean it's the front office that made the decision not to try and get some wins this playoffs. They made moves at the deadline to get future assets, rather than try to shore up depth. Even if you argue that there wasn't a difference maker on the market, at the very least they could've added a backup PG or big to help shore up some of the team's weaknesses and provide more matchup flexibility come playoff time. If the front office is telling me this season is wait-and-see, how can I as a fan who isn't a professional suppose to feel optimistic?
People who say this also then turn around and get annoyed because KD decides to join a 70-win team or LeBron gets his boys together to build a superteam. Imagine if Barkley, David Robinson, and John Stockton all decide to join the Bulls in 1990, would they somehow be considered more as winners and have more IT factor? I mean, that group would've won all the 90s titles and Hakeem would have zero titles. So Hakeem would be a loser in this hypothetical scenario cause he can't beat a team with 5 superstars?
He has to be guarded by Podz so he better have a good game. Butler is the only perimeter player with the strength to guard Amen so I doubt he’ll be on Green.
I’m not even sure we’re missing the “IT” player. Our guys haven’t even hit their peak yet, and they’re only going to get better. What if we already have that guy—he’s just not fully developed yet? Never said we’re winning the chip this year either. I'm just curious to see if we can hit another level during the post season
They are not able to hit FTs in the regular season, they are likely cooked come playoff time given the environments and added pressure. If you can't hit FTs you can't really get far in the playoffs. We need a miraculous turnaround in that department.
