We will make the playoffs, we will finish 4th, and here is why..

1. I'm guessing you haven't watched the Nuggets, very much this season. That team could easily end with the best or 2nd best record in the West. The Nuggets simply have more talent than we do, as they have some nice veterans on their bench, not 3 and 4 year projects, like we do, where you can never tell with this team.

2. The Blazers, scratching my head at this one. We beat them, earlier, while they have lost 4 out of the last 5 games, yet they are still ahead of us and have a better roster.

3. The T-Wolves as crazy as this sounds could finish ahead of us, by season's end, as they are only two games under .500, yet they have a growing point guard in Ricky Rubio, while they have Kevin Love as well. The Wolves actually have a promising future, if they can pick up or even draft a nice shooting guard. Most of all, they have a really good coach.

4. Houston finish at anything higher than 6 is near ridiculous, but finishing ahead of possibly the Lakers, Clippers, Thunder, Spurs, and even the Nuggets. Those teams at full strength are simply way ahead of us, while alot of posters were talking about tanking the last couple of weeks.

 

^ With all due respect this is something that's a problem that will only get WORSE as the season goes on. This team is MAYBE 7 guys deep with CLee now rejoining the team. The starters are getting run into the ground and you can already see the effects with Scola and Lowry. This is when injuries are going to be a factor. You can't play them 40 every night. Our bench has to improve through trades or call-ups like Morris and Smith. The bigs rotation has got to get better than just the poor man's Udonis Haslem...yeah PPat that's you!

 

Definatly will make the playoffs baring there isn't significant injuries...as far as finishing 4th, that would be very tough...
I like how we are playing so far, u gotta beat the teams when u are favored to win...we clearly need to play better on the road but I definatly love the lineup change and how dalembert and parsons emphasis on d seems to be rubbing off on others

 

Those were basically preseason games, and I think Pop pulled his starters halfway through the game as it was the second night of a B2B for them.
It was also the 2nd night of a B2B for Atlanta.

We also had an ugly second half last night vs the Hornets (about the same talent level as us) and were lucky to win that one.

Point is, this season will continue like this - we'll have a few lucky wins against better teams and a few losses against worse teams, but overall I don't think our talent level puts the Rockets in the top half of the Western conference.

 

I looked at the conference standings yesterday and was thinking to myself that its going to be very difficult for this team to make the playoffs with all the solid teams in front of them.
Even now , with the team at .500 they are 10th in the West ..... Its looking like another year stuck in the mud picking late in the lottery .... and we see what thats gotten the team the last few years - More of the same.


The paid attendance has been way down thus far this season. I think thats the only thing Les is going to understand - an empty stadium.
His plan of upgrading the roster thru FA hasnt materialized and picking late in the lottery hoping to find a star is unlikely at best. He's handcuffed his GM with these tactics ....
This team has gone from being a historically strong playoff contender to a below average franchise in hte last four years. He has to somehow upgrade this roster .... or he'll be looking at empty seats long term.

Those teams that have been historically strong franchises during the two decades the Rockets had "Good teams" have all had their down years and reloaded with top talent -

Utah with two lottery picks in the most recent draft netting them Kanter and Alec Burks

OKC(Seattle) getting Westbrook and Durant in back to back trips to the early lottery

Portland getting Aldridge @ #2

San Antonio transitioning from Robinson to Duncan with a trip to the lottery.

 

After a 4 game winning streak now we talking about finishing top 4?

Overratig at its finest.

 

Meh, we only have one loss that looks bad and that's at MEM. I think we could win this division.

 

I just want to point out that I notice that, too, (about the bench guys) and it's pretty heartening to see. This team seems to have good morale in spite of all the drama experienced recently.

 

The Memphis loss wasn't even bad... Memphis is a good team, and they're a VERY good to GREAT team when Randolph is healthy (which he was when we played them... IN Memphis).

 

I miss the Yao and Artest days so much right now. It seems so long ago yet it was just a few years.

Now everytime we barely win a game people keep putting our seeding higher and higher.

 

They can win the division if they stay completely healthy. It happened for the Spurs last year (no injuries). To me that would be the easiest way into the playoffs. The division is weak. Not sure they can make it in outside of that scenario.

 

Just to get to the playoffs, our bench needs to play as good as our starters and Scola needs to find his mojo.

If BOTH of those things happen, I could see maybe a #7 or #8 seed for the Rockets.

The ONLY way I see something better is if our bench becomes such a force as to let us make a 10 or 11 guy rotation work and effectively wear down opponents who are more fatigued with shorter rotations.

 

A+ :grin::grin::grin:

 

My pre-season prediction was 6 seed, with the nuggets playing great, Portland being better than I thought, and Memphis being a disappointment so far... Id say 7 seed right now.

 

Not sure about 4th..think your dreamin'..more likely to be 7th or 8th which i couldn't be happier with.

 

Before season started I said we were going to be in the 4-5 seed. When hill and bud were starting I converted into tanking and lost all hope.

 

This. We might have a solid all around team but a big glaring hole in the OP's analysis is the lack of paying tribute to the teams ahead of us. The Lakers, Clippers, Thunder, Mavericks, and Blazers are worlds ahead of us. That has us finishing 6th, and that doesn't include the Spurs, Nuggets, Jazz, and Grizzles that are a bit better than us. Lets not get sucked into the hype of a 5 game win streak and just sit tight and hope for the best.

 

It's frustrating that there are 6 teams .500 or better in the East, but 10 teams .500 or better in the West. If it was 8 teams each in both conferences, .500 would be good enough to make the playoffs. Same ole story as the past couple of years.

 

With stars such as Deron Williams, Boozer, Melo & Amare going East, I thought we may see an more even field. Hasn't seemed to work out that way has it?

 

That's quite the exaggeration, we have one of the best starting lineups in the NBA. We just need Dragic and Patterson to return to form.