I was optimistic before the season the Rockets could show meaningful progress. Sure the early schedule was brutal but the Wembytank league wide left the door open for 25-30 wins. Games 1-2 and even 3 given the circumstances gave me some hope this was possible. Rockets had some energy and used their athleticsm to push good teams. They still lost but you could delude yourself into seeing progress. This week has been an absolute disaster. The Rockets were given a dead tired OT b2b Utah tank squad, barely beat them. Regressed horribly the next game making bad decision after bad decision particularly KPJ too dig an ultimately insurmountable hole. Last night a Dameless Blazers team bullied them into a zillion points in the post and one hot stretch by Simons (and their prized rookie looked better than any of our 1st/2nd year guys) and more or less sleepwalked their way to an easy victory in the 2nd half. But it wasn't just the record it was how BAD everything looked doing it... KPJ is going backwards in terms of offense orchestration. Green is playing his worst ball since January, is pressing and looking even worse doing it. Smith looks generally clueless on offense and is less impactful on defense than i thought. Eason seems to have just vanished on the court which is bizarre after preseason. Tate is still just Tate. KMJ is still just KMJ. Garuba remains useless replacement level guy with no flash of upside. Sengun puts up good box score #s but is just abused inside as part of the worst interior defense in the league. Boban Nix Christopher - i don't even want to say anything. The Astros blew a 5-0 lead to a shitty NL team they should be steamrollering in the WS for the 3d time in 4 years. There is no street parking due to construction on my block through Friday. I have to do a presentation on Monday at 9 am. Everything is blah. For some reason this Rockets team as bad as they are interested me a lot this season but that interest looks misplaced.
Hang in there. I agree, this week has been absolutely terrible for Rockets ball. I don't understand why we can't be fun to watch.
Astros blew a 5-0 lead? Well damn this team could easily be 1-16 or 2-15 by Thanksgiving team has looked like a Shaq toe nail on the court the past 2 games
I bailed at halftime last night. It's almost as if we're getting worse with each game. While I was always picking the Under for the Rockets season win totals, I was expecting this season to be a tad more *fun* than it had been the last two years. But that has not been the case. Maybe that's on me. Maybe I should have known that a team that barely wins would have to be miserable. But in any case, I'm still disappointed.
If they get 1 win in the next 10 it's an absolute miracle - someone on the other team is hurt AND someone for Houston scores 40.
I'm surprised how much Smith and Eason look lost, overwhelmed, or disinterested at times. They're rookies, so hopefully they'll improve as the season unfolds. But the next week and a half look to be very rough sailing. road game vs. the Suns road game vs. the Clippers home game vs. the Clippers road game vs. the Timberwolves road game vs. the Magic road game vs. the Raptors Maybe Houston can somehow eke out a win against Orlando, though you can bet that Banchero will be hyped for that one.
they got the Pacers at TC on the 18th…I could see that one And looking at the schedule past Thanksgiving, O/U 3.5 wins by Christmas?
I dunno, I've watched every game so far and they look a ton better than last year. By they I mean KPJ, Jalen, Sengun cause they were the only ones that mattered from last year. For me they kinda went from a 30:70 flashes to suck ratio to closer to 50:50, which mind you will still lose a lot of games but it's getting better across the game. I always expected us to suck anyway. Like I said in the optimism thread, if you expect wins, that's on you.
I noticed a huge drop off in effort after the first 2-3 games as well. It's like the team collectively realized they're not gonna win a bunch of games off talent/skill and packed it in for the rest of the season. The sad thing is I might be going through the same thing as a fan. My hope/expectations has really dropped for this team. I didn't really care that much about through wins going in but I wanted to see nights where our top draft picks dominated. So far, Jalen and Jabari look like the type of guys who will score in the flow of the game and take what the defense gives them. Not really forcing the defense to adjust to them and dominating in spurts. That could change but I haven't seen it yet. And, I also have a presentation on monday
This x10000. I was expecting a fun competitive season. Yeah they'd lose but at least they'd make it interesting. This team reminds me of Holgorsen's UH squad. An absolute chore to watch.
My confidence in the Rockets even fielding a team comparable to the one they dismantled that almost got them to the Finals hasn't changed. My initial thoughts were it'd be possible to field another team capable of making a strong run for a title if given years to develop, but then management would find a way to dismantle the team they built because of cost or something just like they did last time. I still can't imagine being a new owner, seeing what the previous owner left you with, being one major injury and possibly one big signing away that'd put you over the luxury tax but would secure your teams position even better for a title run, deciding you want to blow it up and do it your own way instead, and this is the product you leave fans with.
Suckage is expected when the head coach tries to brainwash the players into believing that a loss is not a loss. I have to believe that this is part of some grand Master plan. No way Silas is that clueless. Right?
If heroball is first option, no one moves or sets picks. If not involved in offense, they don’t effort on defense, or box out for rebounds. Just three goofs on the floor setting up for 3ptrs and slow-jogging to defend the other 3pt line. Try hards tire out fast when offense is only one shot or a turnover. It’s like the ghost of Wood out there.
I know it was just pre season but you can usually get a vibe for a team with the way they play. Results don’t matter much, but the way the Rockets played in the pre season is not the way they have played in the regular season minus maybe the first two games. Its like they they got depressed and decided they aren’t good enough and so they went back to the bad habits and loser basketball. In my opinion Silas has to take a lot of the blame for that. They had a lot more energy and seemed a lot more dialed in to start things out but now they just look like they are going through the motions. And I’m pretty much just going through the motions with them at this point as well. I’ve got very little interest in watching another season where the team as a whole isn’t progressing.
