I didn't really mean trying to engineer the 8th seed; I just meant I'm not worried about breaking into the 2nd or 3rd seed...and actually consider 4th seed better.
Feigen's take on House aligns 100% with my personal opinions as well. He opted to play poker with Morey. Best of luck.
CP3's return will help. Harden is playing unreal, and his leadership skills have grown. But when Harden doesnt have it going, or when the game is in the balance, CP3 is a player that can typically bring a lot to the table, even if at times he falters. CP3 sets a good tone on offense when running the point, and has a knack for setting others up, whereas JH often passes it off and expects everyone to create their own shot. There is obviously something wrong with Austin as well. His biggest asset is his offense, and he has been very reticent on offense, passing it off way too quickly and not looking for his shot. Some have said his finger is hurt - if it is serious enough to be hurting his play this much, he mine as well sit a game or two and let it heal.
Problem is now they have Cousins too. I just want to play them first round and get it over with, win or lose.
Na fully healthy even with boogie im not scared. Its only one ball. People still have to do dirty work.
CP3 got injured in the first round in 2016 and then had an injury in game 7 of the first round in 2017. Basically, you don't know with this terribly injury-prone dude. The tougher the opponent, the higher the chances he'll get injured by using too much energy.
I'm not wild about the Feigen write up on House... He covers the 2 sides views on signing a long term deal fairly well... Rox want a long min contract and are willing to guarantee the money - vs House wants more $ for a 3 year commitment... standard stuff... but he kinda seems to gloss over the finer points of converting him... "He wanted only to have his contract converted to a standard deal for the rest of this season to become a restricted free agent this summer or if he would sign for three seasons, to get all the mid-level exception money the Rockets have left. The Rockets would not go for that and did not want to sign a player they consider a developmental player only to have him potentially leave when he develops." If we convert him - he's still a restricted free agent... so whether we convert and play him or leave him in the g league... he's still a rfa.... This whole "we dont want to develop him if he's just gonna leave" seems to me to be lip service to me... we had no prob 'developing him' while he was on a 1 yr 2 way and getting paid 77K... matter of fact, we had so little problem with it that we exhausted all his NBA eligibility time... lol. We typically got no prob signing guys to 1 year contracts - even if they could potentially leave in the offsesaon... GG, Rivers, Faried, Edwards... So yeh, I aint buying all that... So basically, the concern seems to be that if the Rox convert House... he is going to 'outplay his contract' and get priced outside of our comfort zone in the off season... thereby leaving bc we wouldnt/couldnt match a higher offer... So either A) he plays really well for us and gets higher offers or B) he doesnt play great and he's still available to us on the cheap during the off season... and then there's C... we convert him and use him as needed. Have him on hand as a fall back... As guys come back from injury just cut his minutes back. If we are fully healthy for the post season, I dont see us using him as the rotation shrinks anyway... If worst comes to worst (injuries) and he plays crazy minutes and uses the Rox 'as a spring board'... then it would be bc we needed his contribution... so it appears to me... is the risk of potentially raising Houses value (by utilizing him when we are in desperate need) and potentially losing him in the off season, worth getting the benefit of a high level contribution this season... (i say high level contribution bc if he plays at a low level then he isnt raising his value...) the term 'all in' comes to mind... lol
So they wouldn't be primed to face the Rockets in the WCF? The main point is that there is a better chance we would be more healthy, less tired and less banged up
If you don't have homecourt against the Warriors, why on earth would you be avoiding playing them earlier? We're older and at the moment have less depth. Give me the Warriors in the second round, we can dispose of anyone else in the WCF.
Feigen is the team's writer, his career depends on access to front office. We should expect that he's writing more from the owner's perspective than House's perspective. People are just raving about this because they have this silly beef with House acting out liking some opponent instagram vids.
I feel the same way, as long as we're in the playoffs seed really isn't important. I've seen nothing else to fear out west. The only team noticeably improved is Denver, and they're basically our b**ches. We just need to be completely healthy to beat GS, if that's in the first round I'm completely OK with that. We can keep CP3 on a minutes restriction and beat everybody else. Nobody else is gonna beat them, so just hoping they get upset is pointless.
The argument can be made (same as OT) that it's better to extend the game/series as long as possible then lose quickly. However, there are so many factors like injuries for both teams that it makes the timing irrelevant.
I didn't understand what you meant. What do you mean "extend the series"? What do you mean "then lose quickly"?
Meaning, play for OT, extend the game, strategy. Like going for 2 when a 3 wins it or kicking a FG to tie instead of TD to win. Many coaches prefer the extend the game strategy. So you could argue, play Team USA as late as you can not as early is the equivalent strategy in a playoff.
Honestly I've never heard that. What's the argument? What's there to be gained if you're the older, less deep, more injury prone team?
