During the course of the regular season, with the exception of the 72-10 Bulls, most of the Championship teams have a point in the season, usually in the beginning or middle part of the season where they coast, as you will, and drop a few games that maybe they shouldn't, or hit a minor skid on their way to revving it up just before the playoffs and pushing the metal to the pedal once the playoffs hit. The Rockets have put themselves in the position that they have to go full stride from here on out, just to make the playoffs. There basically isn't any room for error anymore this season. So, if the Rockets eek in the playoffs this year. Won't they be too burned out or tired to make any meaningful noise anyway? Are we setting ourselves up for, at best, another first round exit? Of course we can alleviate some of this by playing more people and have our big guns play less, but we never seem to blowout people for that to happen. Your thoughts...
Very true, but there is still a chance. If for some reason the Rockets played great for the rest of the year and got into the playoffs, I don't think that would hurt them in the postseason. Just becuase you are winning doesn't mean you will eventually run out of steam. The playoffs are weird, you just can't predict those kind of things
I don't think Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt or Andy Pettitte are going to come and save the day this time around.......
No team plays at peak efficiency all season. This year's Rockets rarely do so. Comparing our travails with any championship team is ludicrous. If we barely make the playoffs and lose in the 1st round, it will be because we aren't that good, not because of fatigue. Rest is the last thing the Rockets need to worry about. Dorothy, our coach needs a brain and our team needs a heart. If that doesn't happen soon, hello lottery because our margin for error is about gone.
...or at least snort lots of cocaine in the locker room before the half. That could be the key to victory.
They completely remade their roster during the season with a lopsided trade with the Pacers. That was a unique situation.
If we sneak into playoff with healthy personnels, nothing is impossible. If Tmac remains healthy for the rest of season and we click offensively we'll be that dangerous darkhorse team. I think we'll still have a chance because our bench is improving and the schedule will be in our favor. Somtimes little bit of luck might open the door just enough to get through. It's not over yet
Not completely, a lot of what Don Nelson said were the earlier issues of the team was getting a lot of new talent to mesh under a new system in a short amount of time. The second we pulled the trigger on our trades we were instantly considered contenders and pressure was placed on the team. Now, we have gone through the rocky part of the season and it seems like we can start to make progress toward actually doing well. I don't think the recent two losses or our current standing mean anything, I won't call quit until the 82nd game of the season. Who knows, maybe Dirk and the rest of the Mavs are on steroids and this whole scandal breaks out and now they get kicked out of the playoffs. Unlikely, but it's a possibility.
The bottom line is Harrington and Jack were ten times more productive than Dunleavy and Diogu. It wouldn't have happened without the new players. The entire talent level and personality of their team changed overnight. Think about it: Harrington and Jackson vs. what Dunleavy and Diogu were doing. The Pacers wanted to dump Jack at any cost and ended up getting robbed. The personality of the Rockets is what it is: Weak and soft, which is a reflection of the coach and players. If we made a major trade, perhaps that would change. The two recent losses and our current standing mean EVERYTHING. Go ahead and dream; nothing wrong with that. I'm still hoping we make the playoffs and do damage, but facts don't support that happening. Too many people here just assume everything than can go right for the Rockets will eventually happen. I'm a realist, have adjusted my expectations and am still boiling angry about it. You and others who are overly optimistic will likely go through this process later on. With a "players" coach like Adelman, I don't have confidence this season is salvageable.
I think getting a new coach with a completely different system really set us back a whole lot. We probably will win only 45 this season. Maybe by next year, without injuries, we can dominate the league like we were supposed to this year. If we kept JVG, along with the new players, we would be the best team in the league right now. I'm not saying JVG is better than Adelman, Just that it wasn't right timing to bring in a new coach and just change the whole plan.
The way these western conference teams are playing even if the rockets played well for the rest of the season chances are that they cant steal one of the 8 seeds all eight teams are good not to mention utah at 9
We are only six games out of first place?! Over a 40 game stretch that isn't a hard pressed improvement. I think the talent needs to start to mesh together and we need some minor tweaking but the parts are obviously there. I think the door is still very much open and I think we (under RA) have a good chance at turning a couple heads. At least we aren't the Miami Heat.
I'd rather the Rockets miss the playoffs entirely then show up at the Finals only to get ROLLED like those dopers.
I guess I asked because, TMac was soooooo tired in game seven last year that he couldn't drive to the hole in the last seven minutes. This after shouldering the load from December (Yao's injury) to the end of the season, which, although he might not need to shoulder the load, he will need to play almost just as hard for us to make the playoffs. Yao also has a history of poor stamina (although he's a lot better now), but he has had to shoulder a lot of the load since T-Mac went out, and will still have a lot to do just to get to the playoffs. Despite the "newfound depth" that we apparently have right now, we're only going as far as these guys can take us. We don't have that third star that can carry the load, which would put the burden on the role players, and I'm not so sure about them, as far as consistency goes.
