Had Gobert not gotten hurt at the end of the season, the Jazz very well could have been the 8th seed instead of the Rockets. Heading into the last two games of the regular season, Utah had a slight edge over Houston; Rockets were 39-41, while the j*zz were 40-40 with their last two games against the Mavs and Lakers. That said, I wouldn't put them equal or better than a team with Harden, either, although I am biased since I LOATHE Utah and LOVE Houston
GSW/SAS/Memphis/LAC - Assuming health, I would say at a minimum these 4 teams are clearly better than Houston. Great D/O balance & team leadership. The second tier is tricky - Dallas, OKC, Houston, Utah, Minny, Portland - any of these 6 teams could land 5-8 in the West. Personally, I don't think Houston is considerably better than the other 5 unless a number of things happen: 1) MDA offense takes, 2) Harden & Ariza regains 2014 defensive form, 3) We re-sign DMO, 4) EGO, Bev, Anderson, Nene, & DMo stay healthy, & 5) Capela makes massive strides in development. Too many IFs to get overly optimistic on the season BUT I'm definitely excited - I think it'll be a fun year with lower expectations.
Not sure why people are short-changing Memphis. They are just as good of a team as Houston with the Parsons acquisition. The Clips are clearly a better team than us. SA and GS go without saying. I know OKC lost Durant, but they still have Westbrook and a pretty deep squad; they go to the playoffs this year. So I think right now Houston is looking at about 5th seed in the west, IF folks stay healthy. If we get bitten by injuries we're looking at the lottery.
we have a top 5 player, some mediocre guys, and scrubs. from a talent standpoint, we're behind an awful lot of WC teams. i see us as a bottom seed playoff candidate.
Maybe not 4th, but definitely 3rd. And if I had a player offensively better than harden already (Curry, Durant, Lebron) I'd also take Green over Harden.
You would trade Green for Harden straight up and would be fine with that trade? I'm just having a tough time wrapping my head around that. Now, if the argument is Green is a better fit on the Warriors than Harden. Ok, maybe.
Furthermore, James Harden at 26 is already an ELITE offensive player. We have seen he can be a good Defensive player. He has proven to be a really good passer. Imagine Harden passing to the likes of Klay and Curry; he would average 26 assists... Come on, guys.. this is ridiculous. Green is good, but come on now! reset!
Opponents are going to score 120+ on us every game. Kool-Aid upshot? We will score more than our opponents on a consistent basis, because they can't keep up with the pace and therefore, win consistently. Per my multiple sources, teams that score more than the other team during the game wins 100% of the time.
Only teams better than us as of right now: GSW, SAS, LAC. If we're healthy the 4 or 5 seeds are ours.
This thread smells like the exact same shlt like year this time : "Ty Lawson is the final missing piece of our championship puzzle" "Finally a real ball handler is going to help Harden to destroy the NBA" "Anything less than a 60 wins season and the ticket to NBA final will be a failure"
