A follow on to my post "The Art of the Long View - Part Deux" , here is a new graph with strength of schedule built in. I was having a tough time trying to come up with a way to visualize strength of schedule along with the games won/lost trend so this is the best I could do. Sorry about the size (1024 pixels wide) but this is already shrunk down as best as I could get it so that it's still somewhat readable! One Item to note. All the opponent pct's are based on their current standings in the NBA. It might have been an interesting exercise to plot their pct's at the time the Rockets played them in the season but that added another layer of complexity I didn't want to deal with yet! A lot has already been mentioned in the other thread by a lot of you all. Here are some additional thoughts regarding it all. (1) Around the 30 game mark the Rockets turned their first corner in improving their game play. (2) Around the 58 game mark the Rockets appear to be turning their 2nd corner in improvement in their game play this season. (3) Looking at their performance this season Rocket fans have a lot to be really positive about. It appears the Rockets are getting stronger as the season progresses. (4) This should serve notice to all doubters, skeptics, (name your favorite player) haters, and traders to the irrationality or risks of their positions.
GREAT GREAT charts, awsome job. ok heres my analysis: conventional wisdom and plain commen sense tells you that we should do better against lesser competition. So to that logic if you would refer to the average curves for our games above .500 and win % of opponent, these two curves should be INVERSELY related. And for much of the season this has held true. HOWEVER, how current win streak is coincided with an actually RISE in competition: the two average curves are rising in unison towards the tail end. THIS is true signs of improvement and evidence that we have turned the corner becoming an elite team. in other words, its a good time to be a rockets fan!
Tango, You Should E-mail this to JVG I swear, being the rumored numbers guy that he is, he'd flip if he saw this. Who knows? Maybe there's even an assistant coaching spot in it for you. The Rockets are indeed getting stronger and it's scary to think that they're still playing far from flawless basketball. To be as good a team as the Rox are right now and to have YET to maximize our individual player potential AND team potential is something other Western conference teams should worry about. The stronger Stevie gets, the stronger our Rox get. The stronger our team chemistry gets, the stronger our Rox get. This is what separates us from the rest of the pack. Dallas, Memphis, heck, even San Antonio and Sacremento - what you see is what you get - no more, no less. Dallas is arguably in decline whereas San Antonio and Sac have already peaked. With the Rox, we still have lots of upside and that's a "glass is half full" notion that's got to leave you happy. theSAGE
Very interesting and unique Tango. Keep up the chart work. Using your analytics, you could even quantify individual player impact on the team, etc. Once again, props.
So Top 4 may still be in the cards. I trust all those who said we are a few years from contending are seeing the possibilities now. Great job Tango.
No offense, but this analysis will only tell us HOW WE PERFORMED.. BUT NOT how we're going to perform in the next games..
birat- THAT is exactly the point. I had not intention of "predicting" anything with these exercises (though canoner has asked if I might try that at some point). How have the Rockets performed. It brings rationality to a lot of irrational discussions such saying we will never improve with the guards we have because they don't mesh with Yao etc. or whatever flavor of irrational gripe people have.
