WE'RE NOT CONTENDERS AT THIS POINT OF THE SEASON. MAYBE, AND THAT'S A BIG MAYBE, IF WE GEL BY THE END OF THE SEASON AND EVERYBODY IS 100% HEALTHY, WE CAN CONTEND
Artest said this would be a different team in April when the injuries are behind the Rockets. I hope he's right because if he isn't we'll see another first round exit.
I'm not calling a championship, but this "struggle" doesn't knock us out from any significant post season run. There have been PLENTY of examples of teams that start out "slow" and make a run during the second half of the season. I use "slow" and "struggle" in quotes because despite the bad start we're still 20-12. If playing this bad gets us a 20-12 record... what would playing well get us? The Rockets are a good example. The 95 title came from the 6th seed in the West. If you want a more recent example, the Lakers last year. If I recall correctly, they just sort of hung in there up until December then made a run and in January they were in 1st and they finished the season with a shade under 60 wins.
The point is that contenders play at a consistently high level. Sure, they have some dogs every now and again, but the Rockets seem to have game after game where they display zero intensity, zero energy, zero effort. The Rockets' record right now is all due to their talent, but they have no heart or desire. That's not going to cut it come play off time. If they don't get a top four seed and they hit a decent team like the Spurs, Hornets or Jazz they're probably out in the first round again.
.....thats because they robbed the Grizzlies and got Gasol midway through the season. You left out that important fact. Rockets, without a major and beneficial trade, will continue playing inconsistently and end up getting the 4th/5th seed again.....and get knocked out of the first round, again.
They got their trade in Artest. There are no more trades that will make us drastically better. The Rockets need to get healthy and learn to gel, to contend. IMO, we have a comparable roster to the Celtics in terms of talent. The only difference between the Celtics and the Rockets is all the Celtics big 3 are committed to winning, while only 1 of our big 3 are committed to winning (that would be Artest). TMac and Yao need to wake up and lead this team to victory. If they can't raise the level of their game, we see another first round exit.
yao's level of play on the whole is not bad. he's had some poor games, but he is fairly consistent and can always change the game with all the attention he draws. t-mac really needs to step it up and try to more consistently contribute.
Losing to a losing team AT YOUR OWN HOUSE?? This is the lowest of the lowest. This is an example of why this team would not go far in the Playoffs. They have a tendency to relax against weaker team and i said this before and i'll say it again...this team only step up when they see challenges...otherwise they cruise. This is also one reason why they lost so many close games so far...such as when they're up by 16pts in LA then they start relax...and host of other games too. Tonight is no difference...they're home and Wizards have a bad record...they have Tmac Yao Artest and Battier...it's going to be easy right?? Naturally, everyone on the team should be relaxing right?? WRONG!! They play horrible and this is due to nothing other than the tendency to relax. You see them passing out of bound for no reason??? You see them struggling making shots?? All these, i blame on the tendency to put your mind at ease and relax because you're thinking that you don't need to play hard to beat them. IF they don't clean up this bullshyt mentality...they're in trouble. Because to me, if you want to be a good team, you want to continue maintain a sense of that attitude that no matter who we play...we're going to go out and play hard and win. Clearly, this team is lacking.
Seems like Adelman is the guy who needs to grow a pair. I'm him i'd just bench our starters. Show them that you have to deserve a spot on the team.
Didn't we end up beating the Spurs when they got those players back? Every damn time we lose a game people b**** and moan. There are only 9 teams in contention for the play-offs. Anyone that think we should be worried about how we are playing with 4 months of Basketball to go needs a reality check. Start worrying at the end of Jan and things aren't improving.
I used to admire RA as a coach, but so far this season he has proved me wrong times and times again, maybe he is too old now for this job and it is time for change
exactly. trust me i love this team and like to fancy our chances this season, but the reason I can't genuinely feel we are legit contenders are the 6 losses above. It's one thing if the list was one or two teams long...but the team is now 9-7 vs teams below .500. You won't see the legit contenders have 15 bad losses in the regular season, and that's exactly what we are on pace for folks. Why should we think it'll stop at 6? After each one of the previous five losses, I'm sure we all hoped that the disgusting losses would be a thing of the past, a "lesson" perhaps, but it doesn't look like it. and no excuses can be made, in case you are trying to imply any of the losses were justified due to injury or anything. Caron Butler, being out last night, makes the loss even uglier. And you know what? After the collapse/Ron Artest overtime bailout vs. a depleted Utah team, wouldn't you think the team would come out a little sharper? Nope, negative. It was the same deal. last thing, i notice some use the logic, "hey it's just another regular season loss, no big deal", wrong- it is a big deal. because just like last season, home court and playoff seeding (aside from the Lakers), will vary by 1 game. take a look at the final standings last year -- seeds 2 through 6, were within 2 games of each other. and home court is important if you're trying to make a deep run, don't kid yourself. ok i'm done. btw: Watching the game on the local Wizards telecast, they put a stat up on the screen last night -- Best Home Records since late January, Rockets were 30-4 (now 30-5), second to Lakers I believe. Just something I didn't know.
Are you really that slow to think we were elite? What about our big three being injured, day to day with Tmac and Ron, 25 minute playing time for Yao and were not meshed together yet and you think were contenders? Did you forget which division we play in? You want to know whats embarrassing? Is that I just wasted 1.5 minutes reading this post.
Our problem is not taking our opponents seriously, so when playing, we cant keep consistently all 48 mins. This is one problem Adelman and our players ought to solve. Or we still will out in the 1st round in playoffs.
Please stop bringing up the Celtics losing to the Warriors. It's a pretty big difference between the Rockets and Celtics.
