We have had enough respected members who were not rocket fans, this is one of the best Forums on Basketbal. Just remember Nuggets4, MemphisX (altough some didn't like him) Kellydwyer, and there have been others. it is good that non-rocket fans come to this site, it keeps us honest. Wow. This is just sad. So if someone is not a rocket fan he cannot be here ? I'm happy you are so openminded. I hope you were trying to make a joke (which obviously failed terrible), if not why don't you follow your own advice.
All I know is that we will win more than 45 games. I have it like: LA Dallas Nuggets Blazers Thunder Jazz Spurs Rockets
I don't know how you could possibly predict beyond LA #1. Seriously, all the rest of the teams are so tightly packed together. The Thunder have improved on paper, but they are still so young and the jump they made last year was so huge...going from 50 wins to the next plateau of 55 doesn't seem like a lot on paper, but it actually is. The Mavs seem to be that veteran squad that should know how to win and rack up a great record, but maybe they'll also be that veteran squad that is comfortable with a 4 seed type season, to turn it on in the playoffs. The Nuggets I don't think have gotten better - not necessarily worse, but they're kind of in neutral. The Spurs are getting worse. They're still solid, and good, but it's undeniable that they can't put together mid 50's+ win seasons anymore. I'd like to see the Jazz drop of, but the logical person in me says that Al Jefferson may actually dominate in a structured system like Sloan's, and Milsap is great anyway. Some of the backcourt losses will hurt, but how much? The Jazz are likely to coast in the 4-8 seeds and turn it on the last 2 weeks of the season to get home court advantage. The Blazers. Will they ever stay healthy? If so, I could see them having a strong year...but that team is cursed. The Rockets - you'd love to say Yao comes back strong, Martin has a full year under his belt, Ariza is a better fit as the 5th scoring option in the starting 5, Hill and Budinger get better, etc...but they clearly didn't pick up that extra all-star we all wanted. And with all that analysis, teams 2-8 last year were separated by all of 5 games...and Portland, SA, Thunder had the same record and Nuggets, Jazz had the same record. So I hope nobody is betting on their predictions.
LOL I love how the Thunder are placed so high this year because their series against the lakers. on that logic we should have went into the season last year the league favorite. The Thunder are still young and raw with no inside presence, they aren't a shoe in for the playoffs in my opinion
I wanna know how the hell can we be number 8 and Portland be number 5?? Complete BS. Once again, Houston gets no love. Oh well there's always this video I love.. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9_PoLB8_cWw&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9_PoLB8_cWw&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
yeah because the rockets didnt lose artest, tmac, and yao ming. and the thunder dont have a very young and improving team with the league's leading scorer seeming to get better every season. sounds like the same exact scenario to me to.
Two things.... I guarantee Houston does not finish 8th. And Thunder do not finish 2nd. I don't care how good people think they will be...or that they took the Lakers to six last year.
Read the article linked to in the OP and note a few things: First, the poll had Rockets winning 45 games, and had only 3 WC teams winning more than 50 games. Second, if you click on the voters list, you'll see that the ranking is a result of an average of votes from a large number of ESPN reporters/commentators/bloggers, etc. The first fact is probably a result of the second. It's August, after a July in which there was a huge amount of player movements and before anybody has seen any team play a game for months. So, people's opinions will differ, and when you have the average of a large number of people, you'll tend to a prediction that tends to have a "moderation" effect with a lot "average-looking" results (i.e. mid to high 40s in wins) and that's what happened. For example, with the Rockets, you probably got a few guy who don't think Yao will be effective at all and doubt they even win 42 games, you got some that think they'll have home court advantage in playoffs and win 50 or maybe even 55 games, average these opinions gets you to 45. The same kind of "glass half empty vs. glass half full" disagreements among the many voters probably applies to Denver, Dallas, Portland and all of the other teams, too so now we have a bunch of teams ending up with a prediction of mid to high 40s wins.
i got shot down in the season prediction thread when i said the thunder would make the playoffs and they did (also were just a couple of games out of 2-3 seed) people dont want to give credit to this team but they will be damn good. i guess people never really want to give a team credit when they havent done it yet. much harder to predict that way. easier to say the colts make it to the superbowl last year then predicting the saints would be there.
That's not gonna happen. The Thunder will at least make it to the second round. That team is scary good and I'm not basing this off the playoffs against the lakers. The core is only going to get better.
http://360fadeaway.blogspot.com/ Better prediction. Thunder will be the power of the west in the future but right now they are overrated and are missing the necessary big men to dominate the West. I can't see them passed 6th seed. Rockets beat the Thunder 3 out of 4 last year without Yao. Same team plus Yao versus little improved Thunder team, I expect Houston to win 3 out of 4 again.
Hey most fans on this site are still thinking about that 2009 series with the Lakers when it went 7 games thinking that the Rox can somehow take them out, so why not for the Thunder?
If Yao and Martin will stay relatively healthy this coming season I think the WC championship will be played by the Rockets and the Lakers (that is barring major injuries to the Lakers too. Injuries are an equal opportunity factor I would guess).
The funniest part of that article is that BSPN's voters are still saying 45 wins is too high for the Rockets. Too high! BSPN's target readership is too high alright... on weed! I can barely believe they placed us that low with the same team as last year but with Yao back and Miller as a backup. Unbelievable.
If you post logical thoughts, avoid flaming and trolling and basically contribute to threads, you don't owe anyone an explanation for why you are here. Feel free to post in any forum or thread you like.
