the Rockets would be out of it. Daryl Morey's prophecy has come true. No playoffs without change. The Rockets didn't chance since Morey said it, now they are on their way to lotto land. So... time to get rid of older guys like Battier, Scola and Yao and begin rebuilding?
KNEE JERK REACTION TO JAZZ WIN. On a serious note any of the trades I've seen proposed recently won't make us contenders without Yao. And if you are relying on Yao to make your team a contender you put yourself in the same situation we've been in for most of the past decade. Which is relying on injured players to take up salary room and carry you to the promise land. I don't care if this team lands a superstar or not, I just want them to have all of their players on the roster available on the court. It's so irritating seeing all that money we pay Yao, and Mcgrady to be virtually useless right now, and hurting the rest of our team.
Oops, I just checked the standing of Western Conference, three out of five teams in Southwest division are in order of 9, 10, 11 berth in this playoff race. And if it started today, we should just consider a major surgery on this roster and a change is a must.
but the playoffs have not started today.... there is still alot of season left i dont get why everyone panics when it only jan the rockets usually play well after the all star break any ways plus their scheudule alot easier form now on. plus im sure thunder will collapse at the end and maybe the hornets depends on what happens in feburary at the trade deadline. and if this team trades battier this squad will have no leadership and will collapse and hit face first into the hardwood plus trading yao people here are crazy there is no way leslie alexander will trade away the biggest cash cow he has (maybe if its for lebron or wade but thats my opinion)
High Draft Pick>Doing Jack in the playoffs. As much as people like making the playoffs if you have realistically no shot of competing in them then your team is hurt in the long run by not getting high draft slots, and holding onto constantly aging players as is our case.
I don't think we are quite near rebuilding mode. We are a few tweaks away, that is pretty good considering that half of our payroll is injured/not on the team anymore...
Could being contenders be as easy as a Tmac replacement? If you think about it, just a few years ago we were right there... Rafer/Brooks Tmac/Wafer Battier/Artest Scola/Landry Yao/Mutumbo Now with most of our rookies being developed.... Brooks/Lowry ???/Ariza Battier/Budinger Scola/Landry Yao/???
Why do trade assets need playoff experience for.Battier,Yao and Hayes have years of playoff experience already.unless we get D.Wade or L.James next were not going to beat the fakers any time soon.so whats the point of spinning wheels.
Ariza needs to get his playoff expirence as the go-to guy, so when yao comes back will be contenders next year.
Disagree. We were a good team before the league figured us out, as Morey said. Now, we are just a middle of the pack team. Even Morey recognizes that changes are needed, but you still think the current team is fine?
Someone brought up a very good point on RealGM. He asked if it was actually better to end up 9th in the West rather than 8th and be in playoffs. His reasoning: being 8th in the West gives you a matchup against the Lakers (pretty much a sweep) and a pick in the 20th - 22nd range. But being the 9th team in the West, while missing the playoffs, grants a pick that is, at worst, the 14th, with a change (although very slim, like 2%) to get a top 3 pick. But to potentially move up 8 spots in the draft simply by narrowly missing the playoffs isn't such a bad scenario. Now, I encourage trying to make the playoffs, but it would be okay in my book if we barely missed it because we'd be able to reap the rewards of a much higher pick while knowing that our current squad is basically a playoff team. Any thoughts?
Absolutely... we play hard with huffort, as long as you got that you can always put yourself in position to win a championship.
Ok.... everyone is entitled to an opinion. While on the subject, do you believe this team as currently constructed, can win a championship, if it play its heart out?
Everyone has known all along that the "worst case scenario" would be the 8th playoff slot. Nothing new. Really the most efficient move longterm would be to showcase pieces to trade and throw games and try to get John Wall. But that makes you a p***y, and really if that's why you watch sports... to watch your team throw games to win at all costs... you seriously need to rethink your priorities This thread is knee jerk, I said before the season that the team would have early success because they would catch teams off guard. It takes teams a quarter or more of the season to get into their groove (barring injuries) while Houston have players who come to play from day 1. Unfortunately, what noobs dont understand is that no one took Houston seriously... now they do. And sad face for people whose self-worth is tied to the team but the amount of press they get is inverse to their likelihood of sneaking up on any teams. If the Rockets are playing so well that Landry, Brooks and others start getting media attention, it means that even the morons in the media who barely watch Rockets games have become aware of Houston's talent... it correlates to other teams also paying that much more attention to Houston... and more losses Houston will be a bubble playoff team the rest of the way. Maybe when injuries start to hit other teams sometime after all-stars then houston can make up some ground on some teams. the one thing that has in fact hurt Houston is that Ariza has been a ****hole of talent and he's statistically cost Morey at least a couple of games below what Morey probably figured the Rockets to be at this point
