Assuming no major trade, how many games do you expect the Rockets to win?

I went with 21-25 in the poll but could definately see them doing significantly better or even a little worse.

We know the roster isnt complete but we expect the young guy's to get a lot of playing time. Im not expecting a whole lot of W's .... but I do expect a whole lot of highlight reel plays. At least they should be fun to watch.

 

21-25

 

how in the world are there 100+ people saying over 35?

 

I love how tall our team is now, though.

If Donuts end up starting,

Jeremy Lin - 6' 3"
Kevin Martin - 6' 7"
Chandler Parsons - 6' 9"
Donatas Motiejunas - 7'0"
Omer Asik - 7' 0"

Literally every position is above average in height. Gone are the days of being undersized.

 

36 wins out be 5 fewer than we've had in a very long time... but when is the last time the Rockets completely overhauled the roster and unloaded everybody in order to have an extremely young team full of rookies and sophomores?

And just because something hasn't happened in a long time doesn't mean it can't happen. And this team has no correlation to the past. It would be odd for a team to get suddenly worse if it was all the same players... but this is a completely different team from any Rockets team before. It is made up of completely different players.

Anything can happen with a completely new team.

 

Wow, you are an optimist!!

We have the players to win 36 games if we keep the same line up.

but with two more years of experience.

 

this team, as is, will compete for worst record.

 

Regardless 35 wins is still a pretty bad record

 

with no Lowry, Dragic, or Lee 4th quarter heart.. we wont get some of those few wins we didnt deserve.. so i go w/ like 30-36

 

0.500, 14th pick. However, that isn't derogatory in this case. It would mean our future star(s) are young and on the team. Major upside with 3 players.

 

A few things:

1. OP made a similar thread last year and I went with 36 wins. We were well on pace to exceed that before the end of season choke job. Still close. Also took the over at 32.5 and made some nice dough. I have a feeling Vegas will underrate the Rockets again this year. If O/U comes out anywhere near 30 it will be easy money.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=6506860&postcount=6

2. Many of you rooting for sub-20 wins need to be careful what you wish for. It is nice in theory to have a high draft pick, but the only way we win so few games is if our FA signings are busts and therefore hugely overpaid, and our rookies all show nothing. None of those things are good for the franchise in the long run, and not at all worth it for probably not even a top-3 pick. Houston fans have been spoiled. Few of you hoping for a losing season even remember what it feels like to win 25 games. And even fewer of you would stick it out next year if it came to pass. It would NOT be fun.

3. With that said, most of you are in for a rude awakening. This team is nowhere near bad enough to tank. Not even close.

Much like the team as a whole, Jeremy Lin is vastly underrated by most here, including Clutch. While I agree that the Lowry/Dragic combo was more productive as a whole last year, it is highly likely that Lin will improve enough this year to surpass them, making the swap an UPGRADE. Much like for Lowry last year, I expect Lin to take a major step forward knowing the starting job(and responsibility) is his. Lowry raised his play to a near-allstar level before getting injured. For Lin, he WILL play at an all-star level. Quite remarkable for a second year undrafted player.

If you examine a little closer, all the other moves this offseason have the potential to be upgrades as well.

Parsons should build off of a strong rookie year with added strength and improved shooting.

Asik, like Lin, is being massively underrated by most here. He will be a huge upgrade over Dalembert, who started off strong for 10 games then teetered off into a complete non factor afterwards. Asik will single handedly make our defense top-10.

Patterson had a terrible year last year due to injury. Few remember the double-double he averaged as a starter his rookie year those couple of games Scola was injured. A healthy Patterson this year will show the improvement we all expected, forming one of the top defensive front courts along with Asik.

That covers most of the players we lost compared to last year. However, the major change this year is a massive upgrade in our potential/ceiling. Winning 0.500 with a lineup that includes 30 yo's Martin/Scola/Dalembert is called mediocrity. Winning 0.500 with a core that includes 20 yo's Lin/Parsons/Asik/PP/Lamb/D-Mo/Jones etc is called a young team on the rise. It would also put the franchise in terrific position to maneuver and upgrade, since other teams will view every one of those young players as high upside, as opposed to "crap" compared to losing teams Bobcats/Wizards etc.

At the end of the day, we will win right around 40 games. 44 is my guess.

Moot point anyways, there is a 0% chance we go into the season with this team and a major move will be made before then. Sorry for wasting your 2 minutes.

 

32-50

You never know, but usually rookies don't make a team very good. There is usually a big leap in their 2nd year if they are the real deal.

 

There would be 0 rookies in the starting lineup with our current roster.

 

38, 12th pick in the draft. I'll be more than happy with that because it won't be maxed out vet's doing it, it'll be young guys with room to grow.

 

enough to get the first pick of the draft next year

 

Nice post. But 40 seems overly optimistic. Would love to be proven wrong though.

 

Great points. I do believe in the talent of Lin and Asik and also think they will be considered upgrades in the end. Lin is a special player from what I've seen and strangely still underrated. His ability to bring a team together to play with a special focus, a winning "never-say-die" attitude, an instinctive clutch gene with an undeterred "will" that is infectious making everyone on the team "believers" in crunch time, etc. And Asik is clearly one piece of a possibly upper level interior defense (granted we gain some more defensive front court pieces and training), but..
Young kids usually do not have what it takes to win games. By "what" I mean a focused coordinated defense, enough confidence to win games against "stars" they've grown up watching, the heightened intensity necessary to "will" games to victory in the 4th quarter, and all the other intangibles only experience and cohesion (through experience) can bring.
Lin cannot, and I've seen all his games multiple times, for certain, be expected to have yet another breakthrough year right away. There could be growing pains. Maybe next next year.. I do believe he will be a star but the team environment doesn't appear conducive to helping everyone play at their best, at a "team" level. Just a bit too young, I say.
Having said that, I hope they do have a year in which they surprise everyone. I wouldn't bet against them to have a solid .500 game year, though the odds would be quite low. I would rank them 20th for now, just outside of contention for the playoffs were I a betting man, but as a fan, I would hope to be able to rank them 15th or so, as that would be one exciting season.
I'm truly truly excited (and scared) for next season.

 

The less the better. But I would say we would win around 25 games.

 

Less than last year.

Looked at last years standings and thought maybe 28, so I am following the crowd, inadvertently.

I would be more surprised by significantly worse than significantly better.

Go Rockets!

 

Clutchfans - a little pessimistic?



Comparing our votes vs a normal distribution, looks like we're skewed a little on the pessimistic side guys...

I personally voted for 26-30....we need more optimists to pull the distribution to normal!!!

*note i counted everyone who voted for 55 wins or more as 62.5...averaged 55 wins with 70 wins...just short of the 95-96 Bulls, not like it matters.