The season is little less than half over, this is now your chance to comment on where you think we will end up. Personally I see us no better than the 7th or 8th slot with a first round scare to the #1 or #2 to seed (6 game exit). This is dependent on Ricky changing the starting lineup to a scoring lineup and dropping hayes to bench and starting Scola. Scola will make the better power forwards use energy playing D. Right now too many teams 3 and 4 spot are resting on defense because Shane and Hayes are not a threat on offense. With Bonzi, AB, Luther, and 5 Head Landry (boy this dude has 60" plasma screen forehead) coming off the bench. This will produce enough scoring power to compete with the better teams.
5th or 6th seed are what I'm looking for, will depend on whether they continue thier solid play and if tracy can mesh when he returns.
6th seed are very realistic. 5 teams figting for last 3 spots are within 4 games. So, the best bet is 6th seed.
You bring up an interesting question as the Good Guys are mired in 10th place, and none of the upward 9 have any apparent presentation of a precipitious drop - off. Let alone two teams. Or five to fight for home court??? I am very discouraged and believe that despite the recent improvement, despite the reality that home court would be likely if in East, there is only hope and pipe dreams that 'This is the time' now. I don't want to blow'r up, but I would be attentive to prospective deals. I would not give TMac away, but I'd let him be pitched. I'd explore Okafor and/or Wallace and/or JRich w/MJ. I'd consider Redd for the Rowdies. I'd see if Paxson of the non-trigger finger was comatose or ready to deal. I'd check on the ownership battle in Atlanta and see if Knight can talk, let alone wiggle. I'd at least call Riley and offer mj and Bonzi for Williams' expiring. It's not so much that this group stinks or is in a malaise but rather the hill is steep in '08 and I am optimism challenged.
I don't think we'll catch San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix, obviously. After that, LA and New Orleans will also be difficult to overtake, but they are more likely to dropoff. LA may struggle with Bynum missing a couple months, and lack of depth for the Hornets makes them vulnerable to a long dry spell. Can't forget about Portland either. They've looked pretty good after the first month, even when Brandon Roy hasn't been on the floor. They're good, and I think they have a pretty good shot of making the playoffs. If I had to pick a team to slip out, it would be Golden State. I'm not sold on Denver either. Most likely scenario for us is a 7th or 8th seed, and unfortunately a probable first round exit.
NBA Conference Standings Western Conference L.A. Lakers 26 - 11 .703 Phoenix 26 - 11 .703 San Antonio 25 - 11 .694 Portland 23 - 14 .622 Dallas 26 - 12 .684 New Orleans 25 - 12 .676 Denver 22 - 14 .611 Golden State 22 - 16 .579 Utah 22 - 17 .564 Houston 20 - 18 .526 Sixth seed? It will probably take a minimum of a 50 win season for that and more likely in the 52 win neighborhood. To get a 50 win season, the Rockets need to go 30 - 14 (.680) over the remaining games. To get a 52 win season, the Rockets need to go 30 - 12 (.727) over the remaining games. To get an eighth seed, the Rockets will probably need to be in the 47 win neighborhood. That will take a record of 27 -17 (.613) over the remaining games. Unless something extraordinary happens to more than one of the top teams, he Rockets will be fortunate to make the Playoffs in the eighth or seventh spot. Missing the Playoffs is still a very real possibility.
I would say 50 wins would guarantee us at least 4 to 6 place. We'd have to finish 30-14 (68%), that's not impossible considering that our hardest part of the schedule is pretty much over with. We only have the dreaded teams about 8 more times (Celts-1, GS-2, SA-2, Pho-2, Dal -1). Good teams we can beat 8 more times (Lakers-2, Por-3, NO-3, Den-1) We have pretty easy schedule,except that hell week in (the ides of) March. Lakers on 16, Boston 18, No 19, GS at 21 (on road), Pho at 22 (on road). If we split against the 1st tier teams with GS and the second tier teams, that only comes out to 8 losses. 6 to spare for down nights, poor referees, and etc. Thing is we really need to win against the good, but not great second tier teams, like NO, LA, Por, and Den. I think that will tell us if we make the playoffs this year or not. I wish we could go undefeated agaisnt those 4 teams in particular cause that would be an 8 game swing. Or finish 7-1, 6-2, not 5-3, because it is too close to .500. In hellish games, we need shot for 4-4 or higher. We need to keep destroying these Eastern Conference teams, so it will give us some cushion. This is how some of these other teams jumped out to great records by playing glut of lowly EC teams. Feb is super easy for us (only good West teams we play are NO and Por), while March is pretty decent except the ides of March. Which, I think is another week that will show if we are going to be in the playoffs this year or head for Hawaii in May with mid-round draft pick. We have to 2 or at least 3 of those games, I hope its one of the Pho/GS, maybe the Lakers or Celtics. At worst, I see us at 46 wins, but 46 is really going to make hard for us to be in the playoffs.
If we end up with team, like the Lakers, Trailblazers, Hornets, or Nuggets, I think it'll be pretty good for us. If we end up with Spurs and Mavs, we are dead meat. If we end up with the Suns, hard to say, we might still be dead meat or we might run them out of playoffs very quickly, if our go to players are on and everyone else plays decent on defense.
we're too good not to make it to the playoffs...its amazing how well the west is doing but some team will go thru a slump eventually so we're good to go..as long as we dont' get blown out by philly tonite...but we'll smoke them i know it
I will have to sit and contemplate the concept of the Rockets being able to run the Suns out of the Playoffs.
47 wins will not make the playoffs in this conference. 50 wins will get us the 8th seed, maybe the 7th seed. But my sig tells you how we can get to 50 wins. We have to be nearly perfect against the crap teams and decent against the good teams. Not an easy task for sure.
Now is our chance to make a push! With the injury to Bynum, I think the Lakers will fall some in the standings. 8 weeks with no bynum will surely make some room for the Rox to move on up!
Maybe run was not good word, but we could definitely batter and bruise them. They have no inside game, weak rebounding team, and porous defense. But when they get hot, they can be really hard to beat. But, like I said, if we are playing well and they are not stopping our bigs, Yao, Scola, and maybe Landry. Or slowing down T-Mac. Adelman is outcoaching D'Antoni. They won't last long against us. Most people (and even the ones) on this board, would be like the Suns could beat us 3 games......I say 3, because most would assume the Rocks would concide the series on the 4th game. That's one thing I like about playing the Phoenix is their coach hates to play defense and we could attack the basket, like crazy without Yao necessarily having monster games. If we play S.A. and Dallas, they will not give us the same opportunity...especially Spurs....People think we have shot at the Spurs, and not the Suns. Even though, the Spurs are probably the most disciplined, balanced, and well-coached team in probably this entire decade. Against the Suns, the game is more wide open and if you play them tough (slow them down a bit), you have good chance of beating them. Dallas and S.A. execution on both ends of the floor would be too much us in the 1st round, we need teams that are more flawed, like the Lakers, Suns, Trailblazers, Jazz, or Nuggets.
the best chance we've got is a 7th-8th seed. HOPEFULLY we get matched up with the Spurs b/c they're the only team we have a shot at beating in the top 3, but realistically we'll just give them a scare and they'll finish us in 6-7 games. same story every year.
that is incredibly wishful thinking. it's been proven the suns are the worst matchup for us. they dont even take us seriously. our best shot is the spurs since we have the spurs killer
I expect the Rockets to be a better team in the 2nd half now that the Francis experiment is over and Aaron Brooks is finally getting some PT. Can't hurt that Reefer's playing with more confidence either. If T-Mac and Yao can be healthy for most of the 2nd half, I think we'll end up with a 6th - 8th seed. The Lakers will probably be lucky to play 500 ball. I'd guess that Portland might fall off a bit with their youth and lack of depth also. Hopefully we'll be good enough that we can pass Denver and/or Utah as well.
Plenty of momentum at the end of the year after learning the new offense along with a healthy Tracy executing his role or the players procured in a deal integrated into the rotation.The development of Brooks,Scola,Landry,etc. If the stars align correctly...It doesn't matter who we play or what seed we have.
My random trade proposals * Shane/Tmac/Rafer for Jefferson/Kidd and #1 protected pick * Redd/Charlie Bell for Tmac/MJ/Steve * Hayes for Sheldon Williams (no room in the ATL) * Artest/Bibby (I don't care if they don't like each other) for Tmac/Rafer
