Might not? They'll struggle to win 35 at the rate they're going. They're already 0-2 against the Clippers who aren't exactly playoff material. And before anyone brings up the Grizzlies being 2-0 against us early last season, at least that Rockets team was beating the crap out of everyone else over that stretch.
dude we only played one single game healthy and complete Catastrophizing is an irrational thought a lot of us have in believing that something is far worse than it actually is. Catastrophizing can generally can take two different forms: making a catastrophe out of a current situation, and imagining making a catastrophe out of a future situation. What is Catastrophizing? – Psych Central
We've had 2 games thus far with the key guys in the lineup. We got destroyed at home against the Pelicans and we eeked out a win at the Lakers who aren't exactly lighting the league on fire at 2-5(one of their 2 wins is against the 1-5 Suns). Of course that's a tiny sample. But what about the other 4 games which have all been losses? We lost a close game at the Clippers who are not a playoff team. But it was a B2B and no CP3, so no biggie. But we also lost by 11 at home to Utah, a terrific team, but also a group we demolished last year in the regular season despite missing players due to injury. And we got blown out at home by the Clippers(again, not a playoff team) and the Blazers(a playoff team, but again one we beat 4-0 last year). Can things improve when Harden returns? Sure. Offensively they'll be better, but defensively they'll likely still be a mess. And there's no reason to assume they'll suddenly start winning a bunch of games. If they're barely beating the Lakers with their full squad, how in the hell are they gonna compete much less win against the really good teams in the league?
The sample size is getting bigger and 0.500.would be optimistic imho. This is gonna go down as the worst year of the Morey era. Alexander was smart to sell when he did too.
Well, at this rate they're literally looking at more like 15 wins, so we have to assume the rate is changing. The question is change to what rate, and when?
Well, if I'm doing the math right, for the OP's dream of 50 wins, don't we have to go, like 49 and 27 (approximately, I'm sleepy here) the rest of the way? Could happen, but that would be a pretty good run on its own, TBH. Also, yikes.
I'm getting that vibe. I know we're "only" 7.3% of the way into the season. But to quote Morey after the McFail firing in 2015, it's not that they're losing. It's the way they're losing. They're not even competitive beyond the first quarter. They don't look motivated. They don't look confident. They don't appear to have any idea what they're doing out there offensively or especially defensively. This frankly looks worse than the 2015-16 season. That team finished .500 and had a +0.2 point differential. Right now, the Rockets have a -10.3 point differential which is 3rd worst in the NBA(only the 1-5 Suns and 1-6 Wizards are worse). I know there are 76 games left, but it will take a monumental turnaround at the defensive end to get that figure anywhere close to what the 2016 team did.
Almost makes one nostalgic for the Howard years... ...jus kidding! It’s sad really. To go from near - first to near- worst. One wonders if Jeff B saw the writing on the wall. I actually think the most responsible thing to do now is to blow up the team, find ways to shed salary with shorter term people, trade away our expensive contracts, and keep those four first rounders. The free agent pool looks terrific after this year. TheSage
I'm not on the "blow it up" bandwagon just yet. But I would absolutely under no circumstances deal for Jimmy Butler right now. You do not sacrifice a bunch of draft picks(even with protections) for a possible rental on a team that may struggle to even make the playoffs. Let's see how they're looking after 20 games. If they're something like 7-13 or 6-14, then they do seriously need to look at blowing it up. Cuz the next 20 games are brutal. A bad Rockets team(i.e. one that's playing like this) would be lucky to win 5 of those. The good news is most of their contracts are movable. Gordon, even with his slow start, is on a great deal. Tucker will be coveted by many teams. And Chriss will be an expiring contract. The tough ones will be CP3 and Knight. You hang onto Harden and Capela of course, unless you're dropping a nuke on this team and completely starting over which seems unthinkable.
I took the under at 56.5 …. I don't know if I'd take the over at 49.5. This team is a hot mess. Not only is the defense a disaster but the offense has been a cluster**** too. They were out of sorts in the preseason and it has carried over … I cant put my finger on what has them so discombobulated. The loss of Ariza , Moute & Bzdelik …. replacing them with Ennis and the hot garbage that is Melo ?! That might explain the defensive issues but what happened to the offense ?! All of the sudden no one can shoot ….
I'm not sure when we've even looked like a 40 win team. They LOOK like a 20 win team right now. I think they'll get it together and win somewhere in the range of 45-50 but they've looked like one of the worst teams in the league thus far.
Let's put it this way: 1-4 with an unhealthy team and new rotation players is unacceptable for a contender.
I think this will be a 55 win team purely from star power alone assuming CP and Harden can remain healthy the rest of the season.
