The Rockets will win 65+ games next year. Why or why not?

Really? I can think of several of the playoff teams taking steps back:

Denver--don't think they win 50 games again
Dallas--this team is no longer elite
San Antonio--still good, but getting older
Golden State--lost their #1 talent
Phoenix--losing Marion and an aging Nash and broken Shaq don't bode well

Only New Orleans, LA and maybe Utah (with Korver for full year) look to improve this year along with Portland making a leap into playoff contention. I like the Rockets' chances this year, if healthy, to make a run at 60+ wins.

 

53-63 depending on T-Ming's health.

Probably 3rd seed.

 

I don't think anyone in the west will win 60+ games - it's too competitive night in and night out.

Not only would a team need to be very healthy, but it would be a massive load on guys like T-mac and Yao.

I think 60 games would be a great goal but would be happy with 57 and being healthy.

 

I say we go 61-21.

The West is easier than last years as well.

 

Somewhere in the 60's.

 

No. Injuries and adjustment. If this turns out to be a legendary year, it will look more like '95 than '94, starting slow and hitting our gear in the playoffs. It's sweeter that way anyway.

 

Brooks ball is at it again. Don't you ever learn?

After Yao got injured we went 21-10. That's not even including the fact that Battier, Rafer, Landry and Tmac were fighting through injuries down the stretch. So now you bring back a healthy squad and Yao returns. You add Dorsey and Barry and Artest and the question is who is going to beat us. Who is going to stop us from winning 82 games? Without Artest I already felt we would win more games than any other Rocket team. Now the only thing I see stopping us from winning 70 games is injury.

 

I hope so ,but i don't think we will win more games than celtics did last season.Celtics is a team with big three and we also have our big three,but their big three lost less than 20 games in total while our Big yao lost more than 30 games last season,not to mention tmac.Ron is a strong guy but he also missed some games last season.So if one of our big three fall into injury occasinoally in the upcoming season,we may not be able to be as valid as celtics was .


However,it doesn't matter the injuries in the season,what matters is that all of our guys must keep healthy in the playoffs.We will not be able to break up the 1st round if one of the big three gets injuried,never to mention two or three of them.Man ,the cel big three are more healthy and valid
that ours,even though their big three are older.

If only will our big three stay healthy throughout the upcoming season.

 

I'm not at anything, again. Was that insulting or something? My god, man. Let me breathe. I didn't create a thread about it. It was just my opinion and I wasn't the only one that felt similarly. Respect my opinion and I'll respect yours. Not looking for trouble or trying to create chaos. I learned my lesson about creating anti-Rockets threads. What the hell did I do wrong here?

When are you going to learn to stop harping on someone or something beyond the point of reason?

You're the one "at it" again, not me. What's next? Are you going to threaten to punch someone else in the face? I don't remember who you said that to, but I know they didn't do anything to deserve it. I may have created a poor choice in threads but I never threatened another forum member. Get off my back, dude. Go find someone or something else to pick on to make you feel better about yourself.

 

55wins.. 60wins.. 65wins.. I don't care...
All I want is the Rocket play against the Jazz in the play off on more time.
I wanna see the Jazz being destroied ...
who with me??

 

65 is a lot of games the rockets have a good shot at winning 60 considering they won 55 last year, but nearly half of those came during our winning streak, but at the same time the majority of our losses came early in the season with out brutal schedule and having to factor in a whole new system of playing ball.

I dont think the system will be an issue i dont obviously see another 20+ streak in the cards but i think they will have 2 10+ streaks at some point in the season. I am looking at around 61 games personally if everyone remains healthy throughout the season (a BIG if of course) 65+ seems a bit much not many teams have done that and it takes a lot of mental focus to do that too. right now the focus i see of tmac and possible yao is to win as many games possible and get into the playoffs with HCA. i think if they are able to lock HCA early enough they may just shut it down heading in the last 2 weeks of the season where they'll lose games that are inconsequential.

 

We always overestimate wins here. All three of our "Big Three" are prone to missing a number of games in the regular season. On average, an optimistic estimate might be they play 70 games each.

Last year's team overachieved to reach 55 wins. I think this is a better team, and we won't have to overachieve this time. 55 is my guess.

 

Old Man Rock thinks you're out of your mind for picking the Rockets to win anything less than 70 games. And he'll punch you in the face if you disagree.

 

Between 55-58. We know Adelman keeps a short steady rotation, but play the bench throughout the season, go into the playoffs HEALTHY.

If the Rockets get a dependable backup point guard to run the show and spell Rafer, THEN we're looking at a 60 wins team. Yeah I think that move can get the Rockets an extra 2-3 wins for the regular season.

Artest was on the '04 Pacers club that won 61 games, with him being the #2 behind Jermaine O'Neal and Jamal Tinsley as its starting point guard. They were in the East, but this Rockets team betters their talent.

Yao>= J O'Neal
Artest = Artest
Scola >= Al Harrington
McGrady > Reggie Miller
Rafer = Tinsley

 

Agreed.

 

I think everyone would love to see that. Though I wouldn't mind if the Rockets finish in the top 1 or 2 in the west so they could have one of the easier first round match-ups.

 

59 or less I'm afraid. The West is too deep for a team to win 60+ games in a season and the only team I think that stands a chance of breaking 60 wins are the Lakers. But I highly doubt they do that.

 

Id like 55 or less


Rest yao the first 30 games or so

let him get to 100% while integrating Artest in the team offense and seeing who your backup pg is

 

The most important thing is the championship not how many wins in regular season.

I hope that rox could get 55-60 wins in regular season and bring us the championship.

 

actually, Yao missed 1/3 of the season, and T-Mac missed 1/5 of the season.
those 2 only played a whopping 40 games together winning 28 and losing 12 (4 of which T-Mac left early because of some injury), all before Christmas. after Christmas, 111 went 15-0 baby, with an average margin of victory of over 9 points. the average margin of victory during the "streak" of which only half was played with 111, was almost 12 points.

put another way, the Rockets won 26 games with only one of Yao or T-Mac on the floor at all, and lost only 15 games (8 without Yao, and 7 without T-Mac). they even won one game late in the season against Seattle without both of them, so they actually went 27-15 without at least one of their superstars.

however, it's the 15-0 record with 111 that sticks out to me. sure they started out only 13-12, actually 13-8 factoring T-Macs mid-game injuries, so i'll summarise each of those 8 losses where both T-Mac and Yao finished the game, except for when Yao fouled out as he did in two of the losses.

loss #1, november 5 against Dallas, 98-107
Jason Terry scored 31 points on 11-16 shooting, T-Mac shot 12-31 for 35 points. Josh Howard also scored 21 points on 6-11 shooting, and Irk only scored 19 on 20 shots. Stackhouse scored 16 points on 8 shots off the bench. Yao only had 12 shot attempts, but scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. no one else on the Rockets except Luther Head, off the bench with 9 points, scored over 8 points.

with Artest, Battier, and Yao, no way does Dallas score 107 points. no way T-Mac shoots the rock 31 times unless he's going for 50.

loss # 2, november 13 at Memphis, 99-105
this was one of the most "throwing the television out the window" games of the year based on how awful the Rockets played and how badly the game was called. freaking Memphis shot 41 free throws compared to 24 for Houston, and a player like Darko Milicic scored 20 points on 9-14 shooting. Gasol, who's absolutely reknown for being super tough, in fact the toughest in the league , scores 26 points on 11 attempts, and shoots 14-17 fts. T-Mac does pretty well, Yao okay, but every one else plays like crap.
this loss wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the strong start of 6 wins out of 7 against good teams like the Spurs, Jazz and Lakers.

no way does Memphis shoot 50% from the field, 35-70 field goals and 34-59 for two pointers (meaning that no defense was played), against the new and improved Rockets. and for what it's worth All-World Gasol is no longer there.

loss # 3, november 21 against Dallas 94-100
T-Mac's first game back from his scary elbow strain in the Lakers loss right after the Memphis debacle. the Rockets are on a free-fall after their strong start losing 4 in a row and now 5. T-Mac doesn't play well at all, scoring only 15 points on 19 shots. Yao has a great game with 30 points, 15 rebounds and 6 blocks, Rafer becomes the shooting guard with 18 points on 13 shots while T-Mac is the distributer with 12 assists. but that's not enough to counter Devin Harris' 22 points and Josh Howard's 20. Stackhouse scores big points off the bench again (15) and Irk only scores 18 points on 16 shots. like the Memphis game, the winning difference is at the line; the Mavs shoot 20-24 fts. compared to 14-18 by the Rockets.

i'm tired of seeing Josh Howard and Stackhouse kill the Rockets. that will happen no longer with Artest AND Battier. not that it matters, but Harris is no longer on the Mavs, and is replaced by the geriatric Kidd. Battier can easily check him.

loss # 4, november 23 at Miami 91-98
T-Mac is still ineffective, plays even worse than the previous game, scoring only 19 points on 20 shots, but only 4 assists this time. Wade scores 31 points off 24 shots. Yao get crushed by Shaq who scores 26 points on 12 shots and grabs 14 rebounds and 3 blocks and fouls out Yao in the process, but only shoot 6-12 fts. Yao only gets 20 points and 7 rebounds and 6 fouls in 35 minutes. in fact Scola has a better game than Yao (actually better than all the Rockets) with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 5 fouls. Battier and James combine for 17 points, and Alston, Hayes, Bonzi, Head, and Deke combine for a whole 15 points. as badly as the Rockets played, the winning margin was still the free throws. 23-38 for the Heat compared to 14-22 by the Rockets. Tracy only made 5-10 fts.

111 might as well have not even been playing considering that they didn't even show up. credit has to be given to Shaq and Wade though. Shaq's in Phoenix now, and the Rockets definitely have an answer for Marion.

loss #5, november (i'm really hating november) 94-113 at Golden State
this is by far the worst defeat for 111. you can't blame it all on free throws this time, although the Rockets shot them so badly, only 17-30 (57%) compared to 24-35 (69%) by the Warriors. as badly as 111 did in Miami, it can't compare to how they did in Golden State. the two combine for 21 points on 26 shots, 9 rebounds, 7 assists, 7 turnovers, 3 blocks, 2 steals and 1 foul. the starters were so bad that Adelman went 11 deep. everyone played at least 8 minutes including SF3 (28 minutes!), Snyder (19 minutes), Wells (26 minutes) and James (25 minutes). James was the player of the game for the Rockets with 19 points. the Warriors' starters (Davis, Stephen Jackson, Harrington, Ellis and Biedrins) on the other hand combined for 91 points. they shot 51.9% overall compared to 44.6% by the Rockets. and they weren't lighting it up from the 3 either, making only 7-18. Harrington shot 4-5 for three. i guess he's the poor man's black Nowitzki? although he doesn't shoot free throws too well.

Davis is gone. Harrington or Jackson are helpless against Artest. Artest knows their games both ways better than just about anyone. i dare them to try small ball against these Rockets.

loss #6, December 1 at Sacramento 99-107
it's hard to explain this loss. 111 played great for once during a loss. Yao had 29 points and 11 rebounds . the Kings had no answer for him in the first half, and then he fouled out with 3 minutes left to play. T-Mac did well even against Artest, scoring 40 points on 30 shots. Bonzi Wells could only muster 8 points on 8 shots in 26 minutes against his former team. James added 7 points, and the rest of the Rockets (Rafer, Scola, Battier, Head, Hayes, and Brooks) added a staggering 15 points. Artest and Martin both scored 26 points each including 14-17 free throws, with Udrih, Salmons and Brad Miller adding 15, 13, and 12 respectively. the Rockets only made 3 less free throws, including 13-13 from Yao. they outrebounded the Kings 48-42, including 13-11 offensive boards. they shot better from the field. by just about all accounts, they should have won. except one. the Rockets committed 13 turnovers which is slightly better than average for them. 9 of those turnovers were from the Kings stealing the ball, Artest with 4 steals. except that the Kings themselves only turned the ball over 5 times; all Rockets' steals, 2 from Bonzi Wells. they were able to turn that 8 turnover difference into a 5 point advantage, combined with their free throw advantage for the final margin of 8 points.

how about a magic trick? watch me make this problem disappear? ta da! it's gone! just like that, the wizard (joker?) snatches Artest from the Kings. Martin's going to have a hard time scoring against Ron-Ron, and i pity the fool that has to guard him.

loss # 7, december 9 at Toronto 80-93
the last 4 losses from 111 have all been on the road. Yao follows yet another good effort (25 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists in a win against the Nets) with a stinker against Toronto with 15 points and 6 rebounds. T-Mac doesn't do any better with 23 points off 21 shots and only 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 turnovers. Bosh scores 21 points on 17 shots, and grabs 10 boards, along with 4 blocks. Anthony Parker added 11 points. the difference is the bench with Humphries, Delfino, Kapono and Calderon scoring 16, 12, 10, and 7 respectively, 3 more points (45) than every other Rocket besides 111 combined. the Rockets' bench scored 22 points. the Rockets were killed on the glass, 35-48, and 8-18 on offensive boards. this was just a bad loss. 38 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and 7 turnovers from 111 just won't cut it. not since Golden State, have they been so unproductive.

Ron Artest by himself can't change this game into a win, unless he came off the bench and shut down Humphries or at least held him below 10 points, while scoring about 20 points himself.

loss #8, december 15 against Dallas 83-96
the final loss for the Rockets when both Yao and T-Mac finished the game. yet another case of deja vu. Yao played very well against Dallas with 28 points, 14 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 assists. T-Mac really struggles with only 12 points on 19 shots, 5 rebounds and only 3 assists. Rafer doesn't play, coaches decision, and Stevie gets the start, but chokes or something, with only 3 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists and 5 turnovers in 23 minutes. if Rafer started instead, maybe the outcome would have been different, but clutchfans and others really wanted SF3 to get the start. no other Rockets besides Battier (11 points) scores in double digits. Josh Howard scores 23, Stackhouse gets big points yet again (17) off the bench, and Irk only gets 20 points off 17 shots, but a surprising 8 assists. Terry and Harris don't have huge games again, but combine for 24 points and 8 assists.

like the Dallas games before, Artest would have put an end to this Howard/Stackhouse nonsense, while wreaking havoc on the other end.

the whole point of this novel is that Ron-Ron is right. if healthy, the Rockets can't be beaTTT!!! during the streak, only 2 teams were able to score over 100 points, Golden State (111-107), a then difficult matchup, and Indiana in a very close loss (106-103). if the Rockets had scored a couple more buckets and gotten a couple more stops, as they would with Artest, then Indiana doesn't score over 100 either. in all their wins after the streak, the only team to score over 100 points was again Golden State (109-106).
the 4 other times they gave up over 100 points (Utah, Denver, San Antonio, and Phoenix), they lost. none of those teams pose a real matchup problem any longer. New Orleans was only able to defeat the Rockets without Yao. even without T-Mac, the Rockets were able to crush them.

that leaves only the Celtics and Lakers. as great of a defensive team the Celtics are, the Rockets are better, and they still don't have the depth or offensive firepower the Rockets have. neither KG nor Allen really demand double teams, and Pierce only sometimes. i would put T-Mac on Allen, Battier on Pierce and Artest on KG, unless KG sticks to the perimeter then i rotate Battier onto KG and Artest on Pierce. that leaves Yao with a two-way mismatch. Perkins can't over power Yao, and isn't long enough to affect his shot.

as for the Lakers, they're weaker (big 3), worse shooting, but deeper and less defensive then the Celtics. if the Lakers thought the Celtics defense was tough, wait till the Rockets go big with Yao on Bynum, Scola on Gasol, Battier on Odom, Artest on Kobe and T-Mac on Fisher. here you have two major mismatches in favor of the Rockets. for all those that say that T-Mac is not a point guard, i say he only has to do it for 4 games. and i mean the playoffs, not the regular season.

so in the end, there is no one that the Rockets can't consistently, soundly beat. if perfectly healthy the Rockets win 75+ games. in the real world 70+ is more likely.