If the Rockets played in the East, would they have won 56 games?

We would have been in our share of ugly games.

 

Yes, we could have.

 

last year we very likely would have.

 

No. A 4 or 5 game jump is all that can be expected.

 

Barring injuries, we could probably have won something close to 50-55 wins.

 

We went 10-20 against the East, for a spectacular 0.333 winning percentage. By comparison, we did slightly better against the West (18-34) - 0.346. Basically, we sucked no matter who we played.

 

Healthy team, YES. Last year (not to keep living in the past) the strength of our record was built in the eastern conference.

We went undefeated against the entire Central division, for crissakes. Our frontcourt, when healthy is at least on par with most Eastern teams, something that definitely cannot be said about the west.

 

Last year, the Rockets could have won 50-55 games in the west if they hadn't lost 6 of 8 against the Nuggets and Clippers. A conference change isn't needed. An attitude change is.

 

No difference. The Rockets have retained the ability to play down or up to the level of competition the past few seasons. No killer instinct or respect for competition while playing against poor teams. I think Cuttino or Steve had some classic quotes on this if someone could help me.

 

I hope that's not true, because that sucks.

 

The Rockets managed to upset some good teams and lose to the worst teams these past few seasons, even forgetting about the injuries. After SF came back, we still stank it up versus some mediocre teams, and beat Dallas and some other playoff teams IIRC ( before they had guaranteed their exact playoff positions).