LOL, you realize that the East is bad because they keep losing to the West, BECAUSE THE WEST IS A TOUGH CONFERENCE. LOL Geez.
Did you forget this thread regards records.. "best" records? Most of the elite franchises have multiple 60-win seasons and a much higher win%. Rockets are lacking in that department. Don't get me wrong though, current squad is doing well and could challenge the franchise record this year, if not eventually. Another franchise title solidifies us Top 5 All-Time franchise IMO. Heat and Spurs can't keep on winning in between time though.
he's using the all time Rockets record since 1967. he's saying the franchise never had a high bar to reach as far as best season goes, as they have never seen a 60 win season in their history. meh.
Because a winning percentage of 0.561 in the Western Confenrence won't get you in the playoffs this year as in the case of the Memphis Grizzlies if the playoffs start today, but the #3-seed Torronto in the East has a win% of only 0.552. And the #6 to #8 seed in the East are still below 0.500.
9 teams in the west are over .560, only 2 teams are over .560 in the Eastern Conference. 2 bad teams are going to advance to the 2nd round in the east, 2 good teams are going to miss the 2nd round in the west.
I agree with him. There are always 2-3 teams left out that should make the playoffs in the West. What's different about this year? The East is just even worse than ever. A lot of teams are tanking for high draft picks (especially at this point in the season). The Magic started tanking like 10 games into the season. Literally tanking and throwing away wins. It's like you guys want to make 4th/5th seed out to be something grand, especially this year, and it's not. It's always been tough to get 4th/5th seed in the West. This year is no tougher. I expect a team featuring a healthy Harden and Howard with solid teammates to be at least 4th at this point in the season (which is where I had them when the season started). Some have been calling that a disappointment. And I do recall many posters here saying the Rockets were first and that they definitively surpassed the Thunder. What happened to that? Weren't we supposed to smash the Clippers as well? It's not tough. You guys just overestimated this roster which clearly had it's weaknesses, along with underestimating damn near every other team in the league.
A championship is a championship is a championship... Win strength compared to previous seasons and team makeups doesn't make this less strong of a conference.
Pretty much exactly how a championship caliber team finished off a season they had started at 22-1. And by 36-27, you of course mean 36-23.
If you guys argued the Rockets schedule is tougher this season then I would agree with you. It's the toughest I've seen in any year including the years we had more National TV games with Tracy and Yao. I can't remember a year where we had so many back to backs, 3 games in 4 nights, 4 in 5s, 5 in 7s, etc. There was no consistency at all this season. In fact, the Rockets have only had TWO , count them, TWO 3 game home stands all season long (one being a 4 game home stand). What about other teams? Well... Clippers: 3 three game home stands, 3 four game home stands, 2 five game home stands Spurs: 3 three game home stands, 2 four game home stands Heat: 4 four game home stands, and 2 five game home stands Suns: 1 three game home stands, 2 four game home stands, 1 five game home stands Warriors: 4 three game home stands, 2 five game home stands Raptors: 4 three games, 1 four games Blazers: 6 three games, 2 four games Mavs: 4 three games, 1 eight game still to come We played more games than any other team earlier in the season. For example we played 18 games by the end of November while the Thunder only 14. With all of the back to backs and barely any days for the players to rest there was no time to get any practices in and review what went wrong in any losses which is crucial for a young team trying to learn from their mistakes on the fly. So to say the Rocket schedule has been **** would be a severe understatement. I have noticed the officiating has been better since Stern resigned on February 1st. We've only lost 2 games (the Warriors in OT and the Clipps) making us 10-2 in February...12-2 if you count the last 2 wins in January against the Spurs and Mavs. It was the final few days of his 30 year tyranny on the NBA so he was lame ducking it.
People fail to realize that even the bad west teams this year are very talented. Minnesota has Love. Kings with cousins and gay. Pelicans with Davis, holiday, and Gordon. Lakers with gasol (well they just suck). Jazz (they also just suck) Denver (injury to Lawson and McGee)
A positive thread for a change. It just goes to show you how good the players, coaches and GM really are. The Rockets are one of the best teams in the league and I for one am really looking forward to the playoffs!