The Wild, Wild, West. How Do the Rockets Break in?

Everybody has drunk the Wemby kool-aid. As will completely suck this year by design.

 

All except maybe Memphis and New Orleans.

 

All of them. We're going to destroy the rest of the league. 82-0 baby!

 

I’ll be realistic.. maybe 8th seed.
No higher than 7th

 

I still have them as easily being below .500, yeah. CP3 will help them get organized even if he's on his last legs as a player. They'll have some internal improvement. I think we're pretty safely better than them this season, though.

 

Easy answer, they don't break in.

 

You really are insufferable. Lolol

 

I expect Denver, Dallas, PHX, Clippers to finish ahead of us.

I think it’s plausible we can improve more than any of the other teams. I’m not counting on Curry being enough to carry GSW or that Zion will be healthy long enough to boost NOLA.

 

if they don’t make the play-in this season, heads gotta roll

no excuses…no caveats…no moral victories or silver linings

 

Whose head rolls first? Stone or Ime?

Or Jalen?

 

side eye to the entire young core that would officially be suspect if the team still can’t even be a play-in team

temperature rising on Ime’s seat

if Jalen is still inconsistent ass by Christmas then

 

If there are no major injuries to stars on any teams this is my prediction.

Teams I think that are the most vulnerable to injuries will be Suns, GSW, Lakers, Clippers and Denver. They are all lacking depth and if a star goes down for an extended amount of time I think they are done.

I think the Rockets finish 6th seed.

Utah, Portland at the bottom

SAC, Clippers, Lakers, Suns, GSW and San Antonio will be fighting for playin spots to 8th seed

OKC, Denver, Dallas, Memphis, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Rockets Fighting for the top 6 with 1 ultimately missing out and finishing 7th

 

Team Rocket will need an injury free season and Brooks needs to keep his self control in check like last year. Make or break season for Jalen. If they make play in it will be a successful one.

 

It's like 1 day into Free agency, they will end up with other new players in the next 4 months.

 

I'm hopeful, but I wouldn't be shocked if we miss the playoffs again this year. The west is too stacked. We're coming upon the hardest part of a rebuild. Last year it was easy to improve a 22 win team by adding competent veterans. But how do you improve a 41 win team to at least a 46 win team? It would require for March 2024 Jalen Green to show up this October and Jabari to step up in a big way. They need to make the front office realize that they are the stars, and there's no need to go "star hunting."

 

Replace Brooks with someone like Cam Johnson and we are probably a solid 5/6 in the West.
Or if Cam steps up & takes Brooks spot.
Or if Amen develops a 35% 3.
Or if Sengun develops a 35% 3.
Or if Thrilla develops a 38% (I expect more!)
Or if Shep comes in with a 44% 3.
Or if Tari stays healthy & hits 3's at a 35% clip.
Or if Bari takes a step and becomes at 20, 10, 2 monster.
Or if Adams is healthy and a rebounding, pick setting beast.

 

Last year the 6th seed was Phoenix with 49 wins. The Rockets would need Sengun to either turn into an all-pro level player, or one of their young guys to become an all-star level player to achieve this.

Last year's 10th seed was the Warriors at 46 wins. I think next year it won't be that high of a number, but the Rockets still need some major improvements among their young core to get there.

I would say the Rockets medium outcome is the 10th seed (don't know who's dropping one of many teams can drop) where one of their youngsters other than Sengun pops.

 

It will be tough, but the chances are MEM/HOU displace GSW/LAL from last year’s postseason list.

GSW: CP3 and Klay are obviously way past their primes but they did contribute last year, still way above replacement level, and are now gone. Melton is a nice add, but been injured, so some question marks.
They struck gold with Podziemski and Dale Davis Jr., Kuminga had a semi-proverbial 3rd year semi-leap, Curry somehow played at an all-NBA level at 35 yo…. and they barely managed a 10th seed.
If Curry gets the memo that he’s old, the rookies hit a sophomore slump, or Kuminga gets paid and checks out, GSW are definitely out.

LAL is just a two-man show, and one of them is 40 and the other is notoriously injury-prone…