Howard isn't very effective at creating his own shot. You can stop Howard by making him post up. That won't work in the playoffs, where we will be playing teams that not only are going to be great defensively, but will know our game and what we like to do very well. Also what happens when Harden has to go to the bench?
DMo plus I think at least one off these have more than enough offensive tools to step up at a given night: Terry, Canaan, KPap, Ariza, PBev, TJones, and even Howard - see last year's playoffs didn't you watch the last two games?
I think as well as our guys have stepped up, it's unrealistic to expect them to handle a team like the Grizz, Clips, or even Spurs over a 7 game series. To beat those teams, which all play stellar defense, we'll need another facilitator.
There's no doubt that the Rockets have the heart of a champion. The fact they have been able to play so well with all the injuries, proves that. But, we still need a talent upgrade. There are just so many talented teams in the West, and sometimes talent edges heart. We definitely need another playmaker on this team. We can't expect Harden to do it all on offense for the whole year, and we need insurance in the case he misses a few games or rest. It doesn't have to be a big name, but someone that can make plays out there. A "North-South" guy as McHale would put it. Maybe Canaan can be that guy with some Pap with some excellent passing, but until they do it consistently, we should look to upgrade. With the emergence of Dmo, I feel a little bit better with our big man rotation. I still think we need a real 7 footer on the bench though. We have no rim protection when Howard and Jones are out, and that is a big problem. It's amazing the lack of rim protection hasn't killed us, but there have been times when we cannot stop anyone from getting into the paint (Wolves game - 2nd Quarter). Maybe someone like Mozgov? I love this team this year. But there are still moves that must be made if we even want a chance to compete seriously this year. We have the trade assets to make a deal so it will be interesting what Morey can round up.
My response to that is how everyone has been contributing already to that extra facilitation. It is a luxury to have a point guard like Chris Paul or DRose but our guys look more committed to offense by sharing the ball. Our offense does suck when Harden struggles but our guys aren't "literally" stalled on offense and all they need to do is not allow the opposition to score in bunches by the time the game is over... which they have been accomplishing quite well
Playing good defense has always been key to winning championships. Even if the Rockets struggle on offense, they could rely on defense, and with James Harden on the team, the Rockets will always find ways to squeeze out some points.
Are we really the #1 D team right now? And without Dwight? It's got to be the addition of Ariza, and Haren's miraculous transformation into HarDen. Amazing. I really didn't think it possible. We all know what defense wins...
I think Pap will be our other play maker. The guy sees things in slow motion which is amazing for a rookie in November. By playoff time, he may be a beast. Also DMo is developing into a reliable scorer. My question will be is how his new found success will look next to Howard. You can't have both guys in the low post.
We're finding ways to win. 5 players out and we still manage to beat quality teams, we're blowing huge leads, but the fact that we're GETTING huge leads, considering our depth, is telling. DMo is playing like a candidate for MIP this year. When Jones comes back, it's going to be a tough to determine who deserves the starting spot. One thing that's for sure, the NO pick is no longer our best asset. I imagine DMo and Canaan's value is as high as ever, or Canaan's was prior to his injury.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2015.html #10 is SRS, #7 in margin of victory, #27 in strength of schedule. #3 in DRtg, #20 in ORtg. Pretty sure the ORtg ranking is worse than any of JVG's teams other than the 05-06 squad and people b****ed endlessly about JVG's offense. The Rockets are, objectively, a pretty good team, but not "elite." Kind of where they were during Yao/TMac's tenure and that team didn't make a deep playoff run. Of course, Dwight, if healthy, will help. But the team had its offensive struggles even before he got injured. You guys can blow smoke up each other's asses about how much "heart" this team has and how "defense wins championships" but I assure you Morey isn't thinking this, especially since he's been in this situation before. All those 50+ win teams with elite defense. Plenty of guys with "heart" from Sura, Wesley, to Scola, Battier, Landry, Artest, Lowry... Winning a championship takes more than what this team has right now.
LOL. How can you effectively make an argument about a team that has been missing 60 percent of its starting lineup for almost half the season thus far? 16-4. Recent wins against Memphis and Phoenix with half the roster decimated by injuries, and your starting point guard is a 37 year old player who hasn't been relevant in 3 years. Stats are kind of meaningless right now.
Right? There is literally only one team in the NBA with a better record thus far. I know schedule comes into play there some, but I think any arguments one may have about the difficulty of schedule are easily offset by the amount of injuries the Rockets have suffered. And Carl, you're talking about all of those 50+ win teams with elite defense. This team is currently on pace to win 64+ games. I expect that to slow down at some point, but we really could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 58-60 wins this season. Are you just mad because we're doing it without Patrick Patterson? I don't get it.
This is has been an amazing run. This team plays with more heart than some Rocket's teams of the past few years (I won't be specific). I like the grit and determination of this bunch. However, the top tier of the Western Conference are all on a roll. Despite all the effort and all the winning the West is still crowded at the top with only a game or two separating the first eight. So, the Rockets have kept from falling behind, but have not separated themselves from the pack.
This I agree with. The West is really tough. But we have so much to be excited about. Not only does our team have the second best record in the NBA a quarter of a way through the season, pretty much everybody but Terrence Jones and Troy Daniels has raised their trade value significantly.
You must spend so much time finding stats that you honestly don't watch games. The Rockets rotation players, players who would actually be playing when everyone's healthy, have all been very good. The Rockets had a lot of leads dipped because they've been inserting DLeague players as backups. Numerous times teams have "came back" in the 4th against us when the regular guys rest. So yes, the Rockets lack the 40 point wins that Dallas have to pad their stats. Because it's clearly shown that our non-rotation players aren't good enough to match up against opposing backups/starters. What's your point though? These players won't be playing when it starts to matter. You think Dorsey suck? Well, he'll be getting no minutes unless Dwight gets in foul trouble. Troy Daniels and his god awful -25 per 100 possessions? Not really applicable. Sure, every good team have blowouts and stats affected by them. But if the Rockets were healthy, the players who'd be finishing such games would be Canaan, DMo, Garcia, Terry, Black. That's what other contenders are trotting out there. The Rockets can't because most of these guys have to start for us.
This post says a bunch of totally obvious things but tries to sounds smart by using a cynical tone. "Morey is working hard!" "The offense can be improved!" "We haven't won a championship yet!" WRONG! But who cares to fact check, right? Just say some bad **** and move on. Oh, I'll check your BS for you: JVG Rockets ORtg 2003-2004: 24th 2004-2005: 15th 2005-2006: 29th 2006-2007: 15th You do understand that the top team has the weakest strength of schedule (because everyone else is below them)? So top teams have week schedules and bottom teams have strong schedules? Do you understand how that works? You mean it takes playing 82 games and then going through several rounds of the playoffs? Damn . . . you're right, we haven't won a championship yet. . . .
Houston's total strength of schedule might not be as good as some other teams but their wins against the top teams when they've had the opportunity has been very good. Look at the top 8 teams in the WC and see who has the most wins against the other top 8 teams in the WC. Wins against the top 8 WC teams... GS - 3 Houston - 4 Portland - 1 Memphis - 4 SA - 3 LAC - 3 Dallas - 0 Phoenix - 3 Strength of schedule is a little skewed by playing the Lakers and 76ers twice each but how they have found away to win the games against the play-off contenders more often than not. They also have 2 wins in the only two games they have played against the EC top eight teams. Imagine how Dallas must feel, they have lost all 4 of their games against the top 8 WC teams including a loss to the short handed Rockets.
