yeh, I like how having Yao Ming healthy, no Tmac drama, Kevin Martin for the entire year, and an even deeper bench only makes us 2 seeds better at BEST!? seriously, ESPN? lol. ok. cant wait til tomorrow night. I know some Lakers fans at work, and so we're having an opening-night Rox/LA party at my place watching the game on projector. WOOOHOOOO I know its a tough tough shot to win in LA on opening night ring ceremony, but dear god if we did I'd be a happy man on Wednesday. lolz! GO ROCKETS!!!!!!
We have good, solid, NBA-caliber players, but no real go-to guy. Except maybe the top scorer in the world championships this year Or one of the most accurate and efficient scorers in the NBA Or the team's go-to guy and floor general last season, and winner of the MIP award Or probably the best offensive center in the world But since none of them are superstars, we obviously have no legitimate options during crunch time. I just have no idea how we're gonna cope. We're probably going to take a step backwards this year, since this offense relies so heavily on the ball being in a superstar's hands, a superstar that we just don't have. Give me a break.
That was dumb. How can he justify this team being 11th when they were 9th (with a winning record) without Yao last season. And 7th AT BEST??? Give me a break
I'm not saying that he's right, and that our best case scenario being 7th / 1st rounder is flat out ridiculous; but the argument that we were 9th last year without Yao so we should at least be x spots higher this year is flawed for it doesn't take other team's changes / progress into consideration.
Brooks is far from an injury concern, and if you look at the injury history of NBA players in general, the correlation between injuries and size is exactly the opposite of one this guy is suggesting.
True but it's rare for teams to win without a true superstar player, all the teams that have won it in the last decade outside of the pistons had atleast one or more future hall-a-fame player (pierce, duncan, kobe, wade, garnette, shaq). What made that team unique was their great defense imo, their entire starting unit were all good defenders, to go with their balanced offense, our unit are more offensive minded outside of battier.
I'm not so sure about that. In the few games we say Kyle in this year, he shot a few threes without hesitating that actually went in. He's the kind of guy IMO that will always be trying to improve, and I wouldn't be surprised to see that he's worked on his shooting over the summer.
You guys are serious Homers. There are so many unknowns right now. What is known is that we could not make the playoffs last year. We got a true center and a backup now, so that should make us better. 7th place seems realistic. Everytime an analyst has gone out of their way to call us a darkhorse, they get burned and we get a major injury.
I'm afraid that people underestimate the impact of Yao only playing 24 minutes a game and no back-to-backs. We don't have a 100% percent Yao coming back, like we had a few years ago. Our backups of Miller, Hayes, Hill aren't that good. Could we do better than 7th? Possibly, but not much better, maybe 5th tops. Other teams in our conference improved talent-wise and we added Miller? If Shane starts all year then that's a bad sign. He doesn't have much left. We fans like to think that Budy can just jump in and start later this year but they may be unrealistic as well. The success of this team in the past depended on defensive prowess. As constructed, our team has an average defense. Our offense is improved but how will that work with Yao? If you're hoping for a 4th seed or better then prepared to be disappointed...
It's been said, but I want to reiterate the point. 7th place is realistic, but it should not be considered the "best case scenario". There's a huge difference between those two concepts.
I can understand the prospective...kinda take a team seriously when the guy they are depending on to stay healthy has a lengthy injury history.
This poster shows good common realistic horse sense. I would like to see the Rockets rated at #2 but there is to many factors like Yao durability and other possible injuries to other players. Do feel like our bench is very underrated. Really expect C Lee ,Bud, and Kyle to improve steadily all season. Hope Brad and Hill will be able to impress us more thin I think.
