Analyzing and assessing our championship aspirations

I want to pitch in but this summarizes my idea.

this all depends on Yao. If he's back to his old form, pre-injury, then I think we're a team to beat.

Yao can handle Bynum, with Patterson and Hill neuralizing Gasol.

 

Compete, yes, you mean like the year before where we took the world champions to 7 games with a new PG, a wild card named Artest, and arguably our best two players in Yao and Tmac on the bench most of the series.

This team is NOT that far away, and if you add a healthy Yao, they are RIGHT THERE.

And I know you want to be wrong....don't ya !

DD

 

I will actually agree with you, this is a 55 win team if EVERYTHING falls perfectly into place and some other teams fall back. The problem is how often does EVERYTHING just fall perfectly for a team. You are also assuming none of the other Western Conference teams improve and Portland doesn't get healthy along with OKC not improving much from last year.

 

Big if

 

We have no other choice this year, do we?

DD

 

This team, as is, makes it to the second round easily!!!

ID2K..How about a friendly bet to the tip jar? $20 says we make it past the first round.

Edit:Any other doubters? Put your money where your mouth is.

 

Man yall are such freakin pessimists. Geez it almost sounds like your rooting against the Rockets.

 

It happens every year, for one team.

 

And that team always happens to be the Lakers.

 

anyone who thinks a full year of Yao and therefore not one, but two (hill), legit centers doesnt translate to at least 10 more wins is drinking some strong stuff...that's 52 wins. Full year of Kmart is at least 3 more. Any improvements by the bench players and that's 56-57 win potential...on paper. Again, you must consider increasing team talent...realistically i'd say 52 to 54 wins, which is GREAT nowadays. You can't evaluate what a great win total is from year to year without considering the changing distribution of talent around the league.

 

You can't just assume that a certain amount of players equals a certain amount of wins. It just doesn't work like that.

 

That's why i said on paper and lowered by predictions down a few wins. It's not top notch scientific, but we're not talking about adding scrubs or guys who are redundant. We are adding a star, much needed efficient scoring at the wing spot AND a lot of needed help defensively at the 5. It directly plugs many of our weaknesses last year, so i think in this case it's very fair to say it will result in more wins and not just a couple. Overall my prediction was 10-12 more wins and that's perfectly reasonable.

 

just because Bosh is out means we have no choice? either you give up easily or you're scared that your faves will get traded.

 

ARTEST NOW PLAYS FOR THE LAKERS. I can't believe people keep glossing over this when talking about the 2009 playoffs.

And again, anyone who watched Game 7 of that series knows the lakers were just toying with us after Yao got hurt. It hurts me to say that....but it's the truth.

And please stop with the YOU JUST WANT THE ROCKETS TO LOSE!!!!!111 shtick. Some of us are fans, not blind cheerleaders. I've been pulling for this team for 30+ years - longer than most on this website have been alive. And I will continue to do so. Doesn't mean I can't honestly assess the teams chances of winning a championship.

You're on. Remember, the key words here are "as is". If we end up trading for Kobe Bryant mid-season, the bet is off.

You know what? I hope you win!

 

Agreed. People seem to forget that we beat the Blazers without homecourt in six. And pushed the Lakers to 7 with Yao out for six of those Games. Anyone that has watched this team in the last few years Knows with a healthy Yao we are Contenders. Yao is 7' 6 game changer on both ends. Say what you want about his dominance but he changes whole game plans. And he has better weapons then two years ago.

 

:grin: ....me too....it's on.. Go Rockets!

 

Very probable WC Finals with a healthy Yao. A healthy Yao brought us to 2nd round last year. What had changed since then to justify my claim?

AB (MIP) > AB
Jordan Hill > Chuck
Chase Budinger >>> Brent Barry
KEVIN MARTIN >>>> Von Wafer
Patrick Patterson <= Carl Landry

 

Without Yao for four of those games. Did I mention that our best player during that series NOW PLAYS FOR THE LAKERS?

Spoiler

I didn't say that was their strategy... If you watch games 4 and 6 they were just going through the motions. They were leaving our shooters WIDE open. No defensive rotations whatsoever. They expected us to lay down after Yao got hurt. To our credit, we didn't. It was a great series and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

But once the fakers got their act together in Game 7, they blew us out of the arena.

Did I mention that our best player during that series NOW PLAYS FOR THE LAKERS?