Offense wins regular season games. Defense wins playoff games eventually leading to series and so on. I expect more wins then 06-07, I'll say 59 wins but without hardcore defense its hard to say how far we'll go in post season. (Suns are and have been a great example of that for the past 3 years)
what cost us the jazz series? we held the jazz to a pathetic offense even moreso than the spurs. yet our offense was even moer pathetic than that. our D wont be so bad that it will prevent us from winning. so dont worry. just hope our offense wont be so bad that its worse than the offense we already stop.
If the Rockets current roster remains intact and Bonzi returns to the team in-shape and starts playing hard again, (neither of which seems likely) the Rockets can win between 55-57 games.
To be honest, barring any "extreme" roster changes, I can't see us doing worse than this season.... I'm hoping the better offense/defense balance + 1 or 2 decent trades/roster changes will swing some of last year's close losses/4th quarter collapses in our favour so I'd go for 55-60 Hopefully the more varied offense under Adelman will lead to more efficient use of the roster and therefore less minutes for our starters leading hopefully to a better post-season as well
apologies...jumped straight to the end of the thread and missed the same-roster + bonzi restriction.... With that i'd say 55
55. no more no less. playing some of the guys jvg refused to play will require an adjustment period that should have happened last year, therefore not much better than last season.
there is always the health factor. But if tmac and yao play together in 65+ games, i could see the rockets approach 60 wins...thats given the current roster with no changes. with some upgrades and natural player improvements, plus figuring in yao and tmac miss some time, i will shoot for 56.
