You know, seems like right now, we are number crunching and figuring out complex playoff scenarios and deducing what matchups favor the Rockets and what matchups would doom the Rockets, but the bottom line is this. For this season to be minimally successful, this Rockets team has to win the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs period. Once this team wins the 1st round of the NBA Playoffs , then we start looking ahead to whoever we face for the 2nd round and no matter what happens in the 2nd round (win or lose), I'd rather enter next season asking the 1st ? 1st ?: "How are you guys going to take that next step?" instead of 2nd ?: "When are you going to win a playoff round?" Trust me, I know those players are tired of taking that 2nd question every season since 1997 and we Rockets fans are tired of asking that darn ? every freaking year! Just win a playoff round is all I can ask for Houston Rockets. I just want this Rockets franchise to be taken seriously and given their due respect around NBA circles once again for winning in the playoffs instead of being laughed at for not winning in the playoffs. Keep this message in mind as you breakdown the playoff scenarios and matchups and numbers.
i dont get your post...perhaps some posts are predicting too far ahead, but they are all taking the first round into consideration, it's not like they're completely ignoring it based on the assumption that we'll beat anyone we play and assuming we are a lock to get to the 2nd round...in fact, most of the discussion is about the first round
Thanks one of the points that I'm trying to get across is, no matter who we face in the 1st round, you just have to win the playoff round no matter who the team is across from you. You want the Rockets to get respect around NBA circles, then win the 1st round of the playoffs this year and you'll start getting your respect. To put some perspective on the ?s each NBA Texas franchise is asking right now as we enter playoff time here's this nice breakdown for you. In Dallas, they are asking "What do you have to do to get back to how things were in 2006?" In San Antonio, they are asking "Can this team return to the NBA Finals?" In Houston, we are asking "Can you guys win a playoff round?" DAL & SA have better ?s to ask then we do right now, but I'm hoping and praying that at this time next year, we will be asking come playoff time: "What do you have to do to make that next step of playoff success?"
It's been frustrating for sure. 12 years is quite the gap for actually not getting out of the first round. Sure we've made the playoffs (I'm not looking at any stats) about half of those years, but we don't have anything to show for it. Not that a second round exit is a lot better than a first, but it would show progress. We went all in this season and so far, it's a bust in terms of the grand prize of a championship. The championship depended on the health of ALL 3 of our star players, not just 2. Then again, McGrady/Artest played pretty poorly when both were on the court at the same time, so who knows even if McGrady was healthy would this team have strong chance to not only win a 1st round series but to go to the finals? I'll commend Les, he's not like Uncle Cheapie. He'll spend for the players. It just didn't workout this year in terms of the big prize.
I agree, people here are seriously overestimating this team. This team is the least athletic of all the playoff teams in the west and can't execute in the 4th qtr. Yet people here think we can reach the west finals. In the playoffs, games are won in the 4th qtr and we do not have a star player who can carry us in the 4th qtr. So can this team win a playoff series? Yes but only against the hornets and maybe the blazers. The preseason expectations of this team was getting into the nba finals and competing for a championship but now those expectations have fallen far below to getting past the first rd. For me the season has been disappointing because we should be were the lakers are but we are nowhere close to them. But we can save this disappointing season by getting past the first rd. HCA is a definite must of this team in the first rd.
I was thinking about this today. It seems every year we have title hopes just to fall in first round. We had successful season but lost every hope of NBA championship. Same as you, I just want to cheer once as a Rockets fan in April, May.
San antonio is not more athletic than us, neither are the hornets. Dallas, barely, but maybe not even them.
We won't get any respect this year by just winning a round. A bigger question than, "can we win a series" is, "can we stay healthy", and we already failed that this year. Winning a series is is nice, but the ultimate goal is a ring and respect is given to those who show they are true title contenders, everyone else is just in the way. Utah is a perfect example, as much success as they've had, we're probably the only ones who "respect" them, but only because they keep beating us. The rest of the country (and some here as well) don't expect them to get further than a conf final. That's not the respect I'd want for this team. We need to get healthy before we get the respect we truly want.
I'd say NO may be just as much because i forgot they have Wright and Daniels...but they also have Bowen, Armstrong, Marks, and Peja. some of our slowest guys don't even get significant PT, like Cook and Barry, even Deke, so i think that makes us faster. It's like the age, with Deke we're kind of old, minus deke we're one of the youngest teams in the league. So I'm counting whoever is consistently in the rotation.
San Antonio is no way more athlethic than anyone. Parker, Hill.........thats it. Manu has acceleration but he doesn't have pure speed. Brooks, Wafer, Landry, Lowry all guys in the rotation I consider athlethic. Either because of their speed or vertical. New Orleans I feel they are like us, they have a some athlethic guys. Dallas...meh. I'm not even going to count athlethic guys with no skills such as Green and that other dude who slips my name. Bass though i'd count him. So yeah I think we beat those three teams there.
