Worry not Rocket fans. The Clippers are off to a start just as bad as us

Championship is the goal, we should only look at the Warriors.

Clippers struggling shouldn't comfort us at all, they're not the team to beat.

 

Chris Paul regressed extremely fast. That groin issue will linger all season - he needs rest and the clippers can't afford that luxury.

 

Rockets should be ahead of the clips not in the same situation tbh. The only teams the rockets should be worried about really are GS, Spurs, and maybe okc.

 

The Clippers aren't relevant for any team with championship aspirations

 

I don't think the Clippers are in the same boat as the Rockets at all. Yes, the Clippers have gotten off to a slow start and, yes, they are still getting used to playing together with 9 new members of the team and a new defensive system the entire team is still learning, but they are just a bit unlucky to be 6-4 in that 3 of their 4 losses were down to the wire. Against the Warriors, CP3 (90% FT shooter) missed 2 free throws down the stretch and Steph Curry (45% 3Pt shooter) hit 2 threes immediately after to pull out the win. Against the Rockets, the refs missed a goaltending call that most likely would have sent the game to OT. Against the Mavs, the Clippers were putting the game away when Dirk decided to turn into 2010 Dirk Nowitzki and bank in a bunch of contested threes to pull ahead in the closing minutes. And the one game they lost decidedly was against the Suns, but they didn't have CP3 or JJ Redick and then the refs decided to give Griffin two questionable T's to kick him out of the game in the first half. So that said, the Clippers could be 9-1 right now if not for some bad luck down the stretch. I also actually have always said that the Clippers were going nowhere until Blake Griffin decided to step up and be the man on the team. He's always deferred to CP3 because he didn't want to ruffle any feathers, but with CP3 being 6'0", he's limited on his ability to take over a game. He's probably the most efficient player in NBA history, but he's still 6'0". Griffin the way he's playing right now and his consistent mid-range jumpshot can be unstoppable when he wants to be. He's big and athletic enough that most NBA players can do nothing against him when he wants to take over a game. He just needs to mentally get used to that role and I think Paul Pierce will definitely help him mentally get there.

The Rockets on the other hand have been blown out of several games and, I've said this many times this summer, having Harden and Lawson in the lineup together is trouble from a defensive standpoint. Teams are running the Rockets off the court because they have no first line of defense. On top of which, I think the refs are starting to catch on to Harden's "run into defender" flop game and, when he doesn't get like 18 FTs in a game, he just chucks threes at a 20% clip. I also think players are finally catching onto Harden's game as well making sure they stay away from him when he drives to the basket. Unfortunately for the Clippers, Austin Rivers didn't get that memo and I'm not sure why they didn't have JJ Redick on him to begin with.

But to me, the root cause of the Rockets problem is not their mediocre roster or their coach, but it's Morey who knows nothing about basketball and thinks that his advanced analytics will win games. Most of us have played maybe high school ball. As a point guard, the first thing my coach always told me when my three point shot wasn't dropping was to step in a couple feet and hit some mid-range jumpers to get back into rhythm before moving out again. As much as I'm a big believer in sabremetrics in baseball because the sport is very segregated by at bats, basketball is very much a rhythm game and it's hard to take heat charts or true shooting percentage and just apply it to all cases. Harden should be coming in for more mid-range jumpers when he's cold from outside. But Morey has the team abandoning the mid-range jumper for some idiotic reason and I think it's a terrible strategy. MJ and Kobe have 11 championship rings together living off the mid-range jumper so I don't see why Morey is so blatantly against it. The way the Rockets play, they can open up a 20 point lead in any game and then lose by 20 by the time the game is over.

 

That actually does not make things better whatsoever.

 

This. Only WC teams that should matter to the Rockets are the Warriors, Spurs and (possibly) Thunder.

No application of the "misery loves company" concept can begin to make up for my disappointment in the Rockets. I almost feel like giving up on the NBA season entirely.