Still at the 5th seed for some time but what's happening?

The bench has been a major disappointment, in part due to injuries(and pouting). That being said, there's still enough talent on this team that they should have 3-4 more wins than they do. And if they did, they'd be competing for a top seed. Instead, it looks like we'll struggle all season to secure home court in the first round.

As for why we're underachieving, the defense is weak, the team has taken weaker opponents way too lightly and gotten burned, the offense is stagnant in the half-court, and our late game execution is p-ss poor. A better coach wouldn't cure all our ills, but it would be a good start. Moving Asik and Lin for more reliable(and cheaper) players would also help.

What drives me nutz is that the Rockets are not that far away from being championship material. But they're stuck in a sort of stasis right now where they can't fire McHale til after the season at the earliest and are unable to find many suitors for Asik or Lin due to their contracts.

 

We got walloped. Two backup players would hardly make a difference when your star shoots 3-14.

 

If you watch closely, every time this team plays you can sense that they feel like they should cruise to a win by just 'doing what they do'. When adversity starts creeping into the game, Harden becomes a chucker and the rest of the guys start staring each other down and whining to each other on the defensive end.

I have to say, honestly, that this team is losing me right now. Not in a dramatic way - I'll always be a Rockets fan, but Rockets teams don't usually have this sense of entitlement. Back in the Yao, Scola, McGrady, Francis, etc years I really, really wanted to see our underdog team pull out a win. Even when we were losing - it was OK. This season, it's tough to watch these guys; they don't play with the same sense of raw competitiveness.

 

All of this is correct, except we didn't miss a beat when Beverley missed time. Beverley went down in the first game, and in our first five games we went 4-1 with the only loss against the Clippers in LA.

When Bev got the starting spot back, we proceeded to lose 3 of the next 4 with only one win against the lowly Raptors in OT.

The other thing we need to note is, we're only 9-8 within the conference but 8-2 vs the East. Similar to last year, we're just hovering around .500 within our conference. Even Phoenix is 12-8 within the West, and I'd argue that they've had more 'key' injuries than us this year (Dragic 3 games and Bledsoe 6 or 7). Within the conference, Dallas is 8-8, Denver 7-9 and Golden State 11-12 despite missing Andre Iguodala forever it seems now.

Our record isn't all that good. We've just beating up the Leastern conference. Actually I would add we've had a couple of good wins against Portland and San Antonio. But in our conference, we can't afford to drop games against the Kings, Jazz and the Lakers (put the Suns in a different category now).

I don't think we've got the 5th seed sewn up, far from it.

 

Can't blame this one on Morey. He had no money. He would rather signed Kyle Korver and Milsap along with Howard unfortunately they weren't accepting the minimum. We'll probably get some kind of upgrade at the 4 before the deadline and a DMo trade might get us an upgrade for Garcia. Still need a backup center maybe camby can come back.

 

I guess I agree with Jeff Van Gundy, you are your record. We are a bona fide fifth seed.

It has been interesting watch this evolve. When we were just missing the playoffs every third word was tank. Then Morey churned players like mad, we improved dramatically and positioned ourselves to get Howard.

Then every third word was championship. I would have settled for third seed, and you never know.

It appears now that churning is not feasible and favorable trades at this level are few and far between.

If we were a third seed you might say a little time and a little tweaking and we have a shot. It may take more than that to get there from here.

 

They're not backups. They're two starters masquerading as backups; one of whom is a game changer.

 

We're still more than a month away from the actual trade deadline.

Plus, you don't know how this group would do with a different coach.

Everything has to be on the table now. Except trading Harden/Dwight. Asik, Lin, perhaps Parsons if Fegan wants something crazy for Parsons.

For me, I'd like to see how this group would do with a real coach with a real playbook, and one that holds all players accountable on both ends.

Even with injuries, I see no reason why we're not a vastly better team than Phoenix, Dallas and Denver. And Golden State is not as bad as their record suggests. They made a conscious decision to lose Landry and Jack to get Iguodala, who has missed 15 games.

 

What is Camby's rehab status? Anyone know?

 

Not many championship rosters where the 8th and 9th guy are "championship" players. Lin and Asik gone (permanently soon) really hurts the bench.

Unfortunately, those 2 are on the way out too. I am not sure how well they will play the rest of the season knowing the staff and front office want them gone. Their minutes will be greatly reduced no matter what.

 

Dwight wants the team to peak at the right time so they are half assing games but get up for certin games they were up for that Pacers game you can tell how they started but the Pacers D is just better and so is George

 

Did you not hear? The Rockets signed some center named Dwight. The Rockets players have missed more games this season than the entire 2012-2013 season.

 

This is a disappointing season for me at least. Maybe not for you. It seems like the players chemistry is worsening since the beginning of the season. Players moved the rock and that improved the intensity of the team overall. Now we are losing to the Kings and getting whooped by the Pacers.


Every GM is trying to build a championship team. Morey got lucky and landed Dwight due to their young talent but, clearly there are cracks in the armor and the team is showing many weaknesses that other teams are starting to expose for the rest of the NBA to see. Pacers undressed us and now the rest of the NBA now has a pretty good formula to stop at least the starting lineup and now the bench without Lin.

 

fell to 6th

 

I have a feeling we are going to be at .500 in a bit. See a big slide coming..

 

We could possibly drop to 7 with these next few games
Lack of defense, injuries, and bad bench play will be the downfall this season

 

You forgot the most important factor: Our horrible defense!

 

It's worrisome that we're the 6th seed and our schedule has been absolute cupcake level.

 

Who cares if we win, as long as we have flexibility.