Let's be realistic for a second...What are people actually expecting from the Rockets roster?

Pretty good post.

 

Good post, but put this in perspective: Gregg Popovich as the Rocket's head coach. With THIS roster, do we have a chance for a ring with his coaching staff?

 

This roster really isn't that good. Dwight and Harden are great players. Parsons is a solid player.

Asik is also a good player but due to his position, he doesn't get much playing time.

Everybody else isn't that good.

The Rockets don't even have any of those veteran players who can still come off the bench and contribute. They're all young and inexperienced.


The fact of the matter is... the roster just isn't that good once you get past Dwight, Harden, and Parsons.

 

Nope.

The depth was a real issue and the elephant in the room is Jermey Lin's contract. He just did fit the team after Harden showed up. $8 million is a lot of money that could help solidify a bench with vet leaders.

The Minutes played by our starters were a huge problem. Harden and Parsons were amount the leaders in minutes played. If Howard didn't get in foul trouble he'd be up there too. We have ZERO bench depth.

 

This is the first time in 20 years that the franchise has not been running in circles. It is frustratingly different to have a team this talented underachieve, but I will agree that it is a halfway decent problem to have.

Also, what do you mean you people?

 

i actually think Joe Johnson is better than James Haren
JJ is more team player and play both side on the floor
Haren cares too much about his stats
he can scored 30 ppg all he wants
not going to help when he gave up 32 ppg to his guy

 

Not entirely true.

No other team has two outright best players in the world at their respective positions. Rockets have Harden at SG and Dwight at C as the best players at their position. That is 40% of the starters right there. Maybe just maybe Clippers, with CP3 at point and if you consider Griffin the best PF in the league.

Add to that a top 10 SF in Parsons (like most here claim), a back up top 5 defensive center, one of the best defensive PG's and a pretty solid bench if used correctly.

The talent is there. Right up there. What is holding the Rockets back is simply coaching or lack thereof.

What I will say though despite the above is that outside Harden and Howard our talent is a tad overrated not just by most here but by Morey too it seems. Bev and Lin should not be starters for any team, Parsons while good is over-rated (not a top 10 SF IMO).

 

I agree. Our roster is very top heavy, with the bottom players mostly underwhelming, but that is by design. See Zach Lowe's grantland piece on role players in the playoffs. Houston didn't want to spend medium sized money on good role players to support our stars last season, instead they gave cheap contracts that were gambles, hoping a few would pay off. Unfortunately, Garcia, Casspi, Hamilton, and Lin have all largely not paid off, costing us depth. This is in contrast to teams like Dallas that overachieved in the playoffs because they paid extra for veteran depth who made the difference in the playoffs. While it was disappointing, I understand why we did it. Stars are the hard part to find in this league, not role players. Houston wants to keep its options open for finding that third star, and only after we have clearly found one will they build around with vets on longer contracts. Being able to do so is the difference between putting out a perennial contender and a perennial second round contender. I'd much rather shoot for the moon and go for the former.

 

If only this was what was actually happening.

I could be mistaken but I thought someone posted the stats after the season that showed our SG position out scored the oppositions SG by a wider margin than any other position.

 

lost all credibility here

plz stop posting

 

After signing Dwight Howard the ONLY contracts, other than one ~2.5million exception, we could give out were vet minimum gambles.

Lin and Asik were both here before we brought in the superstars. If we had the stars first there is no way Morey uses his cap space on those 2. With those 2 off the books there's no doubt he would have and more importantly COULD have signed some the mid level type guys to balance out the roster a lot more than it currently is.

 

Any way we can turn Lin / Asik / Draft Picks into Marcus Smart and Melo?

 

1st SG
+1st C
+1st defensive guard
+Potential all-star
= Champion

 

Not just scoring. Here's the 48 minutes NET PER for each of our players at their primary positions from 82games.com:

*** all PER ratings are per 48 minutes
*** NOTE: Average NBA per is right around 15

Harden at SG PER 24.8 opponent: 13.9 Net PER: + 10.9

Howard at C PER 23.2 opponent: 16.3 Net PER: +7

Parsons at SF PER 17.2 opponent: 14.6 Net PER: +2.6

Beverley at PG PER 13.1 opponent: 14.3 Net PER: -1.2

Jones at PF PER 20.5 opponent: 18.9 Net PER: +1.6

Lin at PG PER 12.6 opponent: 13.3 Net PER: -0.6

Asik at C PER 16.2 opponent: 16.1 Net PER: +0.2

 

I think most people would agree that CP3

 

^fixed

 

Getting Love would dramatically make this team better..He's a smart player all around.Can go beast mode.Solid as you could possible find...and is exactly what the Rockets need.

More quality players should follow..Hardens defense it something that needs huge improvements.Not gonna win a ring like that..Just standing there...

 

It sounds like you're describing what we went through with with Yao and steve and then tmac and yao....so how are we not going in circles? If this team can't clearly break into being a top 5 team, then it's not different. I've been on that ride before and it's getting old.

 

The problem about this team is this : there is some kind of evil aura around this team, this team has a very bad vibe.

Look carefully as I am not joking here.

Our coach is probably the dumbest in the league, our super start SG is a laughing stock on D, our super star C is a PR nightmare the last few seasons, our Asian sensation is overrated in every aspects also with a horrible contract and followed by a group of maniacs, our backup C has a bad contract combined with bad attitudes.

Even our GM, as great as the Rockets fans will think he is, are often described to be the evil dork Elvis.

Overall, our players made more dumb plays (TOV) on the floor than other teams and made more dumbest decisions you will ever seen.

The media doesn't respect us in general, the refs will not give us marginal calls. Other teams hate to make deals with us.

Until you can change the culture and mindset of this team, you really should not expect much.