The Rockets are exactly what most of the experts predicted they would be at the beginning of the season. No surprise to me in the least. I'm not upset or disappointed in the teams performance at all. The Rockets are succeeding in determining the strengths and weaknesses of their players. After eleven games I think most people would say Asik can provide the defense and rebounding we were hoping for. Morris is a legitimate NBA player that has value. Parsons has improved his 3 pt shooting and free throw shooting and is a better player. Patterson is an OK power forward, but is not the player who the Rockets need as their starter in that position. Jeremy Lin has been a disappointment, but it's too early to say if he will be a flop. If Lin's shots start falling everything will look much better. I'm not going to be critical of the coaching staff at this point. With such a young team it's hard to know if poor play is a result of poor coaching or just lack of experience. The Rockets lead the league in turnovers and are shooting terrible, these are parts of the game that should improve as our players gain experience. The Rockets have yet to get a good look at what their rookies can do. So, the Rockets still have a long way to go to just determining what they have on their roster. So far the season is going about like expected. Anyone who thought we were going to be beating good teams or be going to the playoffs was just being way too optimistic. We are rebuilding, it will take a while.
Didn't see any posts about injury and sickness in the SG position. Delfino has been out 3 games and Harden should not have played last night. The coach only hurt him and the team by playing him 17 minutes in the first half with the flu. Then in the 2nd half when the Rockets came from 23 down to 10 and Lin is running the show, the coach with over 6 minutes to go in the quarter pulls him and puts TD in. You don't pull players who are on a roll. They hung in there for a short time but then fell behind by 15 and the momentum never came back!
Before the Harden trade, I thought a reasonable projection was 25-30 wins. Realistically how many extra wins should adding Harden and subtracting Kmart result in? Harden is not yet a superstar and Kmart is hardly a scrub. I say 5 more so that brings us to 30-35. That said, and I'm a Lin fan, I'm disappointed with Lin's scoring so far. I had expected him to improve his shooting but it seems to have regressed instead.
Maybe I am, but I know how important it is to Les Alexander to have an all-star in the all-star game they are hosting. I do think its motivation for the franchise more so then trying to win a championship right now. Right now the motivation should be just to build a culture, and a franchise cornerstone. I think you misunderstood me though. I dont think the all star game is the only reason why they got Harden. They got him because he's a 23 year old budding superstar, that reason is good enough to begin with. -Either way, all teams try to win at all cost in the first half of the season for a variety of different reasons. Even the Bobcats are trying to win as many games as they can right now(and actually doing better than expected). That's why the whole "why Mchale no play rookies" argument is ridiculous. The Hornets are playing Roger Mason Jr. heavy rotation minutes right now. So yeah, its not just the Rockets. But that doesn't change the fact that even though there is motivation to win now, they are who they are in the end, and its going to take someone like a Marcus Morris, or Terrence Jones stepping up in a big way to take this team to the level of competing for a playoff spot.
I strongly agree. And apparently I agree with you a lot lately. I need to spread more rep before giving more to you. Every time I watch one of these games and we can't seem to score, or things just don't seem to go our way, or we can't stop our opponent from scoring, I tell myself that this is a young team and that THIS is what I expected before the season started. Nothing has changed except for hope. We're still an inexperienced team and will continue to make mistakes out of inexperience.
I find it curious that someone who pays so much attention to "stats" doesn't observe tha 4 wins in 11 games is 36%. That's with one more home game than away and very few back-to-backs. 36% is 29 wins when I do the arithmatic. Regarding the OP, I'd call it a lack of talent. (Not one of the options in the poll). You could sugar-coat it with "youth" but you'd be deceiving yourself. There far more young NBA players who become capable role players over time. In contrast to young NBA players who are under the radar and become "stars". But that's probably enough to satisfy those dedicated followers of the "cap space and assets" theory of development.
It's the coaching and the bench. Rockets have lost a lot of close games and when you have a backup point guard playing crunch time minutes you will lose those close games.
Arithmetic was never a strength of mine. That said, I put more weight on point-differential and strength-of-schedule than win% in an 11-game sample.
Bad start? Huh? They have won 4 games, lost two in overtime, and got plain beaten in the other 3. I think they are doing great considering they didn't have a camp with harden and Aldrich and the coach is gone.
Everybody should read this article, its one thing to know that the team is the youngest and most unexperienced in nba, but when you read this article it will be drilled in your brain and muscles and youll be less prone to rush throwing harsh judgements upon coach or player or anybody else Just how inexperienced are the rockets http://www.thedreamshake.com/2012/11/18/3660294/just-how-inexperienced-are-the-rockets Perhaps these results are the sign that we have a championship team...
Thought --> Toney Douglas is the Rockets MVP in the 2013 Draft --> he will help us to a top ten pick; a place we have not been in long time. He is a hero and should be treated a such
Never seen an NBA team win a championship in November. But it's the same griping virtually the beginning of every season. I'm just pissed I can't get to watch these upstart Rockets from my snowbird home in Conroe. /world's smallest violin
No one's to blame but yourself if you think you have put the blame on someone. This is a young team trying to find their identity, poor start or not, it's still within my expectation --- Your unrealistic expectation is the root of all evil.
