paychecks were handed out This team has a lot of depth which is great for a long season . Mix of vets and youngsters on the roster .
They could make the playoffs, but as of right now, they still have no star caliber players and more than one guy in the starting lineup that shouldn't be there. I'll certainly hope for the playoffs, but if they don't make it, I'll completely understand.
If someone votes Yes, what is their recommendation upon our "bust"? To blow up the team? To panic trade some young guys for a declining star? To move the team to Austin? No, there is no way next season can be a "bust." We haven't even gotten good enough to be a bust yet.
It would be a massive failure to miss the playoffs this year. If we miss the playoffs that basically means we saw stagnation or even regression from our young core. And these guys are supposed to be at the stage of their careers where they see the biggest improvements. It would be both a failure and an incredible disappointment for the fans.
It's kind of crazy to expect playoffs this year when we're largely running back the same team from last year that was just average. To expect playoffs we would need for Jalen and Jabari to take major leaps. I can't put faith in that happening given how we've seen them play thus far.
Agreed. We got close to the playoffs last year. This year, our franchise player Alperen Sengun will be one year closer to his prime, as will our second most promising young star, Amen Thompson - and Jalen Green, Jabari Smith, Cam Whitmore should all improve from where they were last year. We still have Fred van Vleet in a prime age as the guy that helps lead the team and unlock the other players' strengths. Brooks is a solid defender and still in his prime. We are adding three extremely valuable players who barely played last year, or are completely new to the team this season: Tari Eason - defensive ace and all-out hustle guy Steven Adams - mean screens, offensive rebounding monster, good defender, as Alpi's backup Reed Sheppard - potential to have a Mark Price - like career - should be one of our best shooters from the get-go Plus, we have solid additional depth, with Landale, Tate, Holiday, Jeff Green. So - barring major injuries - we should indeed win 50+ games this season.
An improvement to 45+ wins should be the minimum, considering that's what the team's net rating suggested last year. 40 or fewer wins, barring massive injuries, and you have to start calling the core into question.
What do you mean? Go look up any good player, or any great player, and look at how much they improved in their early years. From year 1 to 2, or 2 to 3, or 3 to 4. Good players see big improvements in these years. Great players see even bigger improvements. Franchise players see enormous improvements. This team was 41-41 last year, they probably only need to improve by 3-5 games or so to make the playoffs. That doesn't require multiple "major leaps". If the players we drafted are not getting a lot better year over year in their early 20s, that means we made bad picks and drafted subpar players. And that would mean our rebuild is probably not going anywhere.
Y'all setting the bar high this year. I just hope people realize that the growth we saw last year was mainly due to the vets added. It's easy to add wins to a bad team just by adding vets. Advancing to the next phase is the hardest part and where things can plateau. The west is stacked this year. If we don't make the playoffs it's not an indictment against the coach or the GM...yet, but maybe some players we thought were the core may need to be traded for upgrades. I don't want people giving Udoka the Silas treatment if we miss the playoffs.
Udoka said last year that if Jalen would've played the whole season the way he did in March they would've made the playoffs. I think the same applies to this upcoming season. I guess you think he can? Call me skeptical but I've got to see it to believe it.
Of course it did, but I think having a competent PG like FVV dish the ball to him helped. There's no way Sengun would've achieved as much with KPJ playing point.
If Jalen played the whole season like he did in March the rockets would've won 55 games. That is not the minimum bar to "make the playoffs". And no, obviously I don't think Jalen will do this, that's a ridiculous suggestion. But he doesn't have to. We have Jalen, Sengun, Jabari, Amen, Tari, and Cam. These players should all be better this year than they were last year. Even if it's not massive improvement, small improvements by all of our rotation players would be enough. We only need a couple more wins compared to last year. I'm not saying we need to be a serious contender, that we need to win 50 games, or even make noise in the playoffs. We can get bounced in the first round after winning 45 games and I'd still be happy, because it means we're on the right path. But stagnation is failure when your team is this young.
I think we do need Jalen to be great to make the playoffs. Either that or Cam to emerge in his sophomore year, which is not likely. The reason I say this is because while we are a good defensive team (top 10), we are near the bottom when it comes to offense. Jalen is supposed to be the walking bucket that improves our offense overall. I don't think other guys like Tari, Jabari, or Amen can fulfill that role. They can play defense and keep us in the game, but to win games and blow teams out, we need a bucket getter/shot creator. If Jalen doesn't step into that role, no one else on the roster is likely to fulfill it, and we'll have a similar year to last year.
