They're one of the youngest teams in the league, and that's before we inevitably trade Eric Gordon. I don't care if management, the coaches and the team all give 100% every single game - we are still finishing bottom 5 in the NBA. They aren't ready to win yet. They are not even capable of winning with any consistency yet. And honestly, why wouldn't we take one more season to increase our odds of adding a future top 5 player in the NBA to this roster? Next season our pick belongs to the Thunder, so this is our last chance to control our destiny in that regard. After that, our draft will be decided by how well the Nets do. It's weird to me that any of you would risk rushing it. You mention the Grizzlies, but I actually doubt they'll ever make it to the Finals. They got their star in Ja Morant and they have a bunch of well-rounded players on that team, but they don't really have a second star unless JJJ finally breaks out or Desmond Bane continues to improve and shocks us all. And they don't have the money to go out and get one now. Why would we want to be in that position? Which, by the way, is the same position the Dallas Mavericks are in, and I am counting down the days until Luka demands a trade.
us making the play-in means several young players have played way above expectations/have made significant jumps in level of play…if that happens, it’s a good thing
Or it means Tate, Gordon and Matthews shoot unsustainable %s from three while the younger players languish on the bench/G-League and the Rockets crawl to 36 wins - beating the dregs of tanking teams at the bottom of the West.
Go hard, try to win. Try to establish a winning culture. It is really hard to establish a positive winning culture environment. The rockets do not want to be the Kings.
lol, stop yeah, EG, Tate, and Matthews would have been the ones leading us to the play-in thinks no one
That would be cool because it would mean we are ahead of schedule in terms of the rebuild. That would offset the early lotto pick disappoint. But I just don’t see us being good enough to make the playin. And frankly we still need to swing at young star potential. I can wait one more year at the back of the line, to be at the front for several years going forward.
If we don't convert our pick from OKC, it'll truly be a failure of a season. Bottom 4 or bust. To win it all, every team in the past has basically had a top 5 player and I'm not convinced any of our young guys will end up being a top 5 player.
It was $50. And I would have probably only put $50-100 on rockets to make playoffs in Vegas (which obviously wouldn’t count play in — I was arguing between two friends it should count). I put $50 on Astros to win it all. I’ve never bet more than $50 on a game before.
Finally! Somebody with the guts to say this. I wanted to write about it myself. I think they will make it and come close to making the playoffs. This is one of the better young teams once they start clicking. The only reason people don't think they will make is because they don't want them to make it. They want Wembayama.
Of course I don’t want them to make it, i would never want my favorite team in the play in game. Like i said, it’s just a way for the league to punish the stupid teams (see the hornets, kings, teams that want the play in). We also are full of 19-21 year olds and guys that young don’t win.
no that's not the only reason. what a silly assumption The real reason is actually legitimate. team is way too young and inexperienced. folks want to act like you can fast forward this and skip the learning curves that take a ton of time to overcome. That's not how it works. There's probably 1 proven impact player on the roster and that's EG who everyone knows isnt good enough to lead a team into the playoffs. He wasn't in his prime and he certainly isn't now. Any other unproven player on this roster is a mere hopeful they can take those steps towards being an impact player and actually contributes to winning games in a positive way. The Rockets are a 20 something win team. That's no where near close to the playoffs and are still on the bottom of the league
I personally don’t want to tank. I actually never did. That said, I think it’s going to be tough to make the play in. We’d need the Rockets to be much better and we’d also need 1 or two teams that are projected to be better than us to suck for whatever reason. Even the bad teams from last year were better than us. We got a lot of ground to make up and there’s really only three teams that are projected to be worse or just as bad…okc, Utah, spurs… Going to need KPJ to take a MAJOR leap as the floor general. And for other young players to perform much better than expected as well. I won’t rule out making the play in, but it is a lot to overcome.
This. The play in game is the worst possible scenario with a team this young and devoid of talent, it sets you up on the treadmill of mediocrity. I don't understand how anybody could get satisfaction with being in a play in game, the NBA really knew what they were doing with that travesty. Has anybody actually used the 8th seed to catapult themselves into a contender. Because all of those teams you have named have been in purgatory forever and even with a guy like Lamelo who we hope Green can be they are far down the pecking order even after sucking for multiple years.
Lmao slightly exaggerating, but the Rockets actually would have been close to 30 wins if EG and Wood played every game. 36 wins can be done even with mediocre play from the young guys.
This is like the silly assumption Wood would be starting and the 2nd or 3rd option on a playoff team. Oh wait. he's coming off the bench in Dallas.
EG and Wood aren’t the difference between winning 20 games like we did last year and almost winning 30 EG would never play every game because his health won’t allow it, and he doesn’t have impact like that…Wood is very overrated if we made the play-in by some miracle, it would be on the backs of the young players making massive leaps…none of our vets are that good, nor do they have any upside
