With the moves, are the Rockets a better team than the Blazers?

We are not only better than the Blazers. We are better than anyone in the NBA right now! Bold statement!

 

there really was nothing to be upset about..Rondo is a shell of himself, gifted point guard no question about it but there is no way he would fit in the offense we have set up. Pat Bev is the absolute most perfect point James will play with, not much of an offensive facilitator but his 3 point shot this year has been something. (althought Gogi if he's available) but that's for another thread.

 

Count me in the group that 100% believes the Rockets were the better team last year. This year's team is clearly better than last year's so I'd say we would smoke them in a series.

The only improvement I see from Portland is Lillard's growth as a player. Significant but not enough to stop the Rockets.

As far as Aldridge, yes, our defense against him wasn't the best at times in the series but he also hit the zone. It won't ever happen again for him. He just isn't that good of a player. It's like when Bonzi Wells went GOAT against the Spurs in a playoff series way back when and returned to earth immediately never to sniff that level of play for the rest of his days.

 

With the addition of Smith and Brewer, I'd say we are now neck to neck with likes of the clippers healthy okc and gsw, so yes. Better than portland.

 

We were better than them before the trades. Our defense and Ariza made us better.

 

I'll believe it when I see it. Lillard is killing right now.

 

This..

 

Brewer & Smith aren't good perimeter defenders but Smith on Aldridge will be important. I say TBD.

 

Portland improved a bit from last years team, but we improved a lot more. I also think that we learned a lot more from last years playoffs than they did even though they got further. Losing like we did left a chip on our shoulders. We are hungry to prove we can make a deep playoff run.

 

We were not.

They beat us in a 7 game series.

I think we are still pretty even with Portland.

They have good depth now. It would absolutely be a tough series.

The key is getting Aldridge and Damian L to work on defense.

 

Better than Portland, yes...but we were a better team last year and still lost the series. We lost because of a lack of focus on defense...which we seem to have remedied this season.

We need to integrate the new pieces now into a cohesive team which can take on all comers in 7 game series.

I fear only OKC and a healthy Spurs team, but of those OKC the most.

Want to see Ariza/Brewer on KD and Bev on Rus again. We have them beat up front now if we can somehow somewhat neutralize KD.

 

NBA teams are jealous of what we have. We got the 3 Amigos plus a strong supporting cast. JTerry, C.Brewer, Ariza, TJo and Beverly as support players. We should be top-echelon. I don't think we are done dealing.

 

The Rockets are the best team in the west right now.

 

I have no idea. That's what the playoffs are for.

 

A 7 game series definitively proves who the better team is?

 

Considering they beat us 4 times, twice on the Rockets home court would prove who the better team is.


Y'all sounding pretty butt-hurt about it. If Harden plays like he does in the regular season, the Rockets probably would have swept the Blazers.

But he hasn't and has notoriously struggled in the playoffs. If he changes that, the Rockets are going to be a much better post season team.

 

Aldridge literally needed every point of his nightly 40 to beat us. With Smith on him now, even if he puts up 25, that still puts us at an advantage.

 

lol.

Agree to disagree I guess. The better team losses in sports all the time.

Hell we OUTSCORED the blazers in that series. Just about every game went down to the wire.

That series proved that the blazers were better than they were given credit for, but I don't think you break down the results of that series and come to the conclusion that they were clearly the superior team.

 

Hey Brotha! I respect the opinion being a huge Rocket fan myself.

I could be a little to pessimistic right now about last year, but I never want to be that fan that says we were better when the result didn't back me up.

We can't sound like Shaq on TNT now, always claiming that Orlando's long layoff was the reason OUR Houston Rockets beat the Magic in the finals.

 

We are if we can beat them in a seven game series. Paper means nothing; it all happens on the court.