Why CAN'T this Team Win as Many Regular Season Games as the 2014-15 Squad?

The Rockets were actually winning at a higher percentage without Howard than with him, if I recall correctly.

I feel like the Rockets were at their best when the team played around him. Howard, upon returning to the lineup in that season, was more open to a supporting cast type role since he himself said it was vital the chemistry was not disrupted with how well the team was playing without him.

I reckon it would be a similar case this year, except Harden will have a more complete supporting cast (making up for D-Mo's absence) and a guy like Eric Gordon would be huge in terms of play making off the bench.

 

If Capela can play like Dwight in 2014-15 and Harden can get back to his 2014-15 level, then definitely yes this team can win as many games.

 

The easy answer is to look at our record to open the season two yrs ago. We were a big surprise. Do you think we can duplicate that out of the gate this year? If not, then we have to make up that ground in the second half, while defenses are also learning us and teams are getting better and fighting for playoff position themselves

We have new system, three significant roster changes (Dwight gone, EGo, Ryno in) and defenses having two years of game planning Harden now, vs that year where he caught the league by surprise and took by storm, much like Curry/GSW did as well

 

Ryan Anderson is an underrated rebounder; he consistently gets 6 rebounds a game. Fans think just because he isn't the best defensive player, he loafs at the rim. Not true.

I'm one of those fans who thinks D-Mo is a good "box-outer allowing others to get rebounds" (come at me). Anderson is a MUCH better rebounder than DMO.

I think I helped your argument @dharocks

 

People think Rockets aren't going to make the payoffs. Rockets could surprise some teams with a potent offense.

 

Because Houston isn't nearly as good as defensively as they were in 2014 and in 2015. Houston became one of the worst defensive teams in 2016 while still remaining a top offensive team. The outcome was 41-41. The other two seasons houston was both a top defensive and offensive team which led to 54 and 56 win teams. In order for Houston this year to crack that mojo again houston will need to be a top 15 defensive team and looking at out personel it's gonna be tough to do that. That's why 47-50 wins seems more likely

 

harden should have won mvp.

 

My point wasn't can we surprise people. My point about "Can we win as many games as 2014-15" is can we produce the same start that we had two years ago, when we surprised the league.

We started at:
16-4 .800

We extended it another month to:
27-11 .710

Then the conference chased us down, and 4 teams were tied for #2 seed going into last game.

So, my question again is: Do you think we can start off the season like 2014? I don't. And do you think we can make up lost ground in the 2nd half to catch our 2014-15 squad, at the time of the season where it's harder to surprise folks. The new system and coach and significant roster changes mentioned in my 1st post, make me think not. Now if we were an oiled machine (on same page going full boat out of the gate) that's a different story.

 

I said nothing about needing the element of surprise. I just said we surprised fan predictions in 2014, to make sure people remembered how fast we got out of the gate.

Can we get off that word?

 

Honestly, our ceiling right now is the 4th seed. That certainly beats what we were last year. I think we are being underrated. I'm not saying we are contenders but we certainly can advance to the second round and give a hell of a fight to whomever we meet there.

Houston, Portland, Utah and Oklahoma will all be slotted in some random order for the 4-7 seeds. The top 3 seeds are obviously GS, SAS, and Clips. The 8th seed is where the bloodbath will be. Memphis, Dallas, Minnesota, New Orleans and hell, even Denver all have a shot at it. Gonna be interesting to see.

 

I think you forgot the most important factor, everyone on the West got weaker except for GSW and maybe the Spurs. Back then almost every team was a threat, Portland, Clippers, Spurs, Dallas, GSW, OKC etc.

Now? Dallas and Clippers are old AF, they ain't doing ****. TD is retired and Spurs have some locker room issues. Portland and OKC lost key players to Spurs and GSW. So make the competition weaker +slightly better roster = WCF. Unfortunately that would probably be our ceiling since GSW is there but at least that would be a successful run this year and since the team is young we can afford to wait for a chance.

 

Have you seen the Clips play in the preseason? They look like a total mess, CP3 looks like he's done as the best pg in the league and all their wins are against scrub teams like Sacramento and Portland and they won it by 5 pts or less. They remind me of us last year and they're my pick for most disappointing team this year.

 

If I objectively look at the Rockets today Vs 2014/15, I think we're better.
Reason (in part) is Howard was out for large chunks of that season, which killed chemistry when he played last season. Even the whole argument about Harden doesn't play well in finals, I think can be attributed to Howard being back in the finals in 14/15.
We've now built the team with shooters, P&R forwards etc to suit the guy who carried us during the season in 14/15 - So yes we're better constructed.
BUT the reason why I don't think we'll win as many games as 14/15 has to do more with other teams than with us. The top teams have gotten much better and it's simple as that.

 

There is no reason to believe the Rockets are incapable of playing good defense with this lineup.

In the 2014-2015 season, the Rockets started Jason Terry for almost half the season, and Dwight Howard was also missing for half of the season (replaced with Joey Dorsey and Tarick Black). Yes, D-Mo is an underrated defender in that season, but this season the Rockets will have guys like Nene and to an optimistic extent, Capela as well at Center. In fact, the only big man on the Rocket's roster that has questionable defense is Ryan Anderson. Nene, Harrell, Capela are all at the very least decent and serviceable defenders/shot blocking threats.

I think the Rockets' defense this season will be far better than what a lot of people anticipated, and I predict they will be top 15 this season.

 

The significant thing to keep in mind is the west is a lot tougher. Portland, Dallas, Memphis(will be good) Wolves(going to be tough) Utah(my tip as the big improvers) are much better teams then they were in 2015.There wont be many given games. The west is loaded from top to bottom.I think outside of the Warriors and maybe the Spurs the west is wide open.

 

There's more parity in general but the West was tougher before, I don't know how you think Dallas, Memphis and Portland are better now than they were before, and isn't Chandler Parsons injured again? Right now the top tier talent is concentrated on just GSW and maybe Spurs, I think Rox have a much better chance of getting to the WCF this year.

 

Portland is significantly better even without Aldridge. They have a ton of depth and more importantly they play on both sides of the ball now. Dallas with Bogut and Barnes are a much better defensive team this season. Memphis will be there abouts with a healthy Gasol and a leaner and more motivated Randolph.Also my point was not about the Rockets chances or the lack of chances not making the WCF my point is wins in general will be harder to get. I think 52 wins this seasons might get you the the fourth seed because of the improvement in teams like the Wolves, Utah, Portland and even Denver who will be better and the wins will be spread out more.

Wins in general are going to be harder to get this season. Only the Warriors and maybe the Spurs can possibly get 60 odd wins this season in my opinion.