Upon his return what is the expectation? We will be better...do doubt imo. But playoffs? I am not sure And Not sure I want playoffs. First round fodder is a moral victory I can do without. Can we shock the world? Rocket River
Given the draft pick situation I’ll take the first round Reps. Playoff experience is key to Wood’s long term success. I’ll take a 14-16 pick since the chances of getting too 4 are so low.
But given Dipo struggles and everyone else’s shooting and defensive issues as of late, I can’t see us making the playoffs. Still don’t think we will get a top 4 pick. So then we just get Wood accustomed to losing? It could be a big momentum builder if he comes back and we go on a run to make playoffs. Think about that development time for Wood > a CHANCE to draft a high pick
If we attempt to tank we will end up getting the 5th overall pick. That's how things go in this sports town.
Its not only woods return. during his injury time..how often we had all players on board? and overall it depends on the next FO moves...will we trade dipo, EG, tucker, house? and whats the return... with a full healthy roster...we can beat Utah again in the 1st Rd!
The problem is he can't even stay healthy enough to carry us anywhere. He needs to heal fully and get stronger for next season,....exactly what his former coach told him to do.
It's pretty apparent the momentum has been rebuffed. It wasn't just Wood. Sure, he was the biggest part, but you also had an extremely solid three-headed backcourt of Wall/Gordon/Oladipo to go along with him. And that was even when Oladipo was playing merely "good." At one point it was reasonable to assume the law of averages would take over and Oladipo would start playing even better and closer to his "norm." Well, Oladipo actually took a step backward AND is dealing with injuries. Gordon dealing with injuries. Wall still looks pretty damn solid, but can't do it on his own. Defense has dropped simply because there is no rim protection. I think if the Rocket just had a big man that was nothing but semi-mobile it would probably have made a slight difference. All I can hope is that the front office has seen enough of small ball to realize it doesn't work. That's fine if we keep doing it for the rest of this season, but once the rebuild start in earnest the team needs to be built without any inkling of "small ball" in mind. Anyway, I think this will probably hurt the Rockets in the long run. They're not going to have a whole lot of leverage with a bad record and expiring contracts. Teams are going to know they're in sell now mode and that they'll probably just take anything. I guess we can hope there is some competition for our players, but I have a feeling there are going to be enough teams "selling" that the buyers won't really have much incentive to fight over any one player when there are other options. If Oladipo came out strong looking like his All-Star self we may have had a chance to get a good return, but that hasn't happened. Tucker was never going to get that much. And Gordon's contract is so bad that teams would probably rather just take a slightly less productive player without an injury history for 1/5th the price. Much less risky options for teams likely just seeking some extra offense off the bench.
They need a healthy and consistent roster and rotation before they get good again. One guy isn’t going to be enough to fix that, they need everyone to be available and involved.
Guys we have picks. It doesn't matter where they fall. What matters is the homework and thought used to make the pick. We could end up with the 4th pick and choose another Anthony Bennett. Or we could end up with the #30 pick and choose another KPJ. Also what matters is what we have now. We still have a very good chance at making the playoffs. We still have the players and picks to make some good trades. We just have to make a few moves.
Obviously not. Wall hasn't even learned how to play with Wood yet. We still have a big man rotation problem. Tucker doesn't fit. We have no backup PG so our bench relies on Gordon's streakiness. Oladipo has been shooting like Westbrook. House has been shooting like Luther Head.
By the time Wood returns, other people will likely be injured. Winning streak was likely fools’s gold anyway due to weak competition. Even if tanking largely succeeded, we already know the owner won’t pay extra to marginally improve a championship contender to get over the hump. This team is ****ed.
many champions told me anything is possible, defeatist, losers here on cf , ABC and HOF tell me its not even worth trying...lolol you should always surrender at the smallest signs of defeat...their philosophy is, go collect as many defeats as possible, the more Ls the better...then pray to silver to set the ping pong balls for you and if he does that it means you are a winner... ........NOT! boy i would have kicked every single cf member ass on basktball playground... especially @HP3 and @Reeko they have no fight in them , want everything given to them at silver platter, they shoot too many 3s, have no midrange and god forbid the post game....lololol i would have had a FIELD DAY playing them one on one or my crew vs theirs....tsk tsk tsk
I’d lock your ass up, rip u easily, and get buckets on u all day...don’t ever hype yourself what a joke
Obviously we've had some troubles with injuries and roster turnover, but currently our offense is 26th in the league. 5TH WORST IN THE NBA. Absolutely horrific. Previous 4 years under D'antoni: 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 6th (off year cause of Westbrook) I guess Iso Ball wasn't so bad after all?? LOL
This years stats include 1/3 of the season of Harden playing 25 PPG 10 APG with this new offense. We'd actually probably be dead last if it wasn't for Harden inflating our numbers for 8 games. Unfortunately, even with Harden our offense with mediocre at best.
Almost every team is dealing with injuries, sprinkling with some COVID sit outs. We just don't have enough talent to sustain a long layoff of Wood. By the time he is fully recovered, we will be in a hole too deep to make the playoffs. So I guess this is an unintended tanking. And Dipo looks more and more like a damaged good, whether physically or mentally. Maybe we can stop arguing tank-or-not-tank. The situation is taking care of itself. I do hope that when Wood returns, we will play well again.
On defense, definitely. But he averaged 25/10 on 61 TS%, hard to suggest that he was mailing it in on offense.
