Alpi and Jalen are not a perfect fit---- YET, but they still can be, all either one needs and both need it are a 36-40%3pt shot. DD
At 32-35, if the the just beat all the below 500 teams on their roster and win half the Of the rest that would Put them at .500 at worst.
To add, my prediction before the season was 44-38. But that would have been with Tari and Alpi healthy for the whole season. I think we will get reasonably close.
They can sneak to 41 wins just by going 9-6. That's definitely doable though without Sengun significantly challenging. Rockets need to win pretty much all their next four games before they play the Thunder to have a chance I think.
Final expectations are that the Lakers and Warriors make the play in as expected from the beginning of the year... and we have a suck balls off season
9-6 is going to be hard with no Alpi, Tari, Cam and the schedule ahead of us. We have some gimmes but we also have more than 6 games against winning teams.
Mavs, Warriors, Heat, and Magic are at home. Clippers on the final day on the road but likely resting starters. Win at least 2-3 of those games and take care of this weak part of the schedule and 500 is actually very doable as long as Jalen stays hot. Fingers crossed.
Whatever the results, I gotta say it feels good to have the Rockets still be in the mix with 20 or so games left. To paraphrase Amen Thompson in the recent post-game interview, "just win every game."
Crazy how we're like 3 games back of the play in as of March 19, 2024 with 15 games to go sitting at 32-35 and 11th place. I think we lose 6 of our last 15 games games due to matchup analysis and we finish the season 9-6 and overall 41-41.
Ideal accomplishments should be at the hand of your own work instead of banking on the failure of others. If playoffs was the goal, more work should have been done early. And personally, still not big a fan of the play-in. Borderlines participation trophy. That said, for a young team, goals are important. If it's a carrot they could chase to play better, then so be it, use it as a mental motivation. Better as an improvement vehicle than the actual result.
I love the play in, but I see it as a punishment. If you can't finish in the Top 6 of a conference, you don't deserve a guaranteed playoff series. If a 9th or 10th seed win the NBA Championship, they deserve to win because everyone else sucked enough to let it happen.
Next 3 at home. Bulls concern me slightly but still a game that the Rox should win. Take the next 3 games. And if we miss the play-in then at least go out swinging.
