[fivethirtyeight]Ty Lawson Moves The Rockets Closer To The West’s Top Tier

We essentially bring back the same team that lost in the WCF except we have subtract Josh Smith and replaced him with Ty Lawson, Marcus Thornton, Sam Dekker and Montrezl Harrell. That by itself is a pretty substantial upgrade to the team.

Add the fact that DMo and Pat Beverly were not available but should both be healthy and ready to go for the season. Additionally Clint Capela should be substantially better as a 2nd year player.

I'm trying to figure out how any team in the west outside of GSW is suddenly better than the Rockets when they were not better than them last season.

 

I do hear you and I agree but let's. It act like its a big slight. I mean they only have GSW who waxed us 5/9 games and won 8 of them and the new look spurs who just added LMA and David West. Personally I like Houston better than the spurs and think we can finally give GSW a run for their money. I mean it was just 2 years ago that we would beat the warriors up and down the court. They had a great year but I think they will regress back to the 55-60 win range.

 

You have to like the Spurs offseason, and the Thunder never really played together last season.

 

If OKC at their best won 60 games, and we won 56 last year with Howard and Jones out for more then half the season, then we should beat them out since Durant's coming off of injury, they have a new coach. Plus we got Lawson.

60+ win season for us, 55+ win season for them IMO. I think we will be tied with the Clips if anybody. But I think Lawson + health > Pierce, Smith, Stephenson additions.

 

I mostly like the Spurs off season.

But I also like the Rockets off season. Health, Ty Lawson, Marcus Thornton are huge. The Rockets are younger, better and deeper than the Spurs IMO.

 

OKC is so overhyped

 

They also have a pretty clutch player in Harden. People forget Harden alone almost won us games 1 & 2 against GSW. Who do the Spurs have that is like that? Maybe LMA, maybe Duncan? They have talent, but we have the real MVP.

 

West looks tougher than usual this season. Don't mind this at all.

 

Yes they had a 60 win season a few years ago and a 59 win season 2 years ago. Of course since then they have lost some key pieces in those season such as Thabo Sefelosha and Kevin Martin. I think people underestimate how important Thabo was to their success. He was the perfect compliment to Westbrook and Durant. He was a 3 and D shooting guard and a lock down defender on the wings. There are very few defenders that consistently play James Harden as good as Thabo did.

With Deon Waiters and Enis Kanter inserted into the starting line-up they have really gone backwards on defense. Personally I would start Steve Adams over Kanter because Adams is a superior defender but there is no way you give Kanter the max and put him on the bench. I guess they could go back to starting Andre Roberson but he just provides nothing at all on offense.

The West is tougher now than it was when OKC won 60 games IMO. OKC has a ton of question marks that need to be answered about their team including their new coach who wasn't all that good in Phoenix. I'll just hold off picking them over HOU for now.

 

i think it is a guess at this point. the grizzlies could land anywhere from 3-6. but the rest of the teams (warriors,rockets,clippers,spurs,thunder) could be anywhere from 1-6 and i wouldn't be surprised. so take every single guess as what it is a guess.

 

I disagree. When KD and WB are both healthy, the Thunder don't lose that many games.

The Thunder just don't fall apart with their duo, if healthy.

 

Not even close, they've been the best team in the league for the last 3 years they've just been killed by injuries.

 

In 1995 the top four seeds were as follows:

62-20 Spurs
59-23 Suns
60-22 Jazz
57-25 Sonics

I could see this season having a similar stretch of teams at the top. Yes it is unusual. And yes, our Rockets did beat three of these teams en route to the championship.

But this is how I see the current season playing out:

62-20 Spurs
60-22 Warriors
59-23 Rockets
57-25 Clippers

As far as OKC, I feel like the spectre of Durant's FA will just be too much to keep that team in the upper echelon. And where will their defense come from?

 

??? OKC has been one of the best defensive teams in the league for years.

 

I still think we have a big problem
How are we going to take care of Griffin and Aldridge and Ibaka with no Josh Smith

I like DMo but I wouldn't say he's proven he can handle them and he's coming off back surgery.

 

Interesting. I wouldn't have pegged Bev as the only person w/ positive offensive and defensive ratings.

 

:grin: I kid.... kinda? Kinda.

 

Rockets were ranked 8th in the West going into last season by this same metric.