Yes these 2 losses were heartbreaking but.... To me all signs point to the Rockets having a great season. Both games were ON THE ROAD in front of incredible, loud crowds. The Rockets offense looks unstoppable, against a great defense and against a prolific offense, which means we can score on a great defense and run with the best of them. Between the defending champs getting their rings and monta ellis on god mode, i'll take a 2 and 4 pt. loss especially when were not gelling defensively yet and lowry out. The good news is that if we get back to even the defense we were playing last year without yao, giving up like 100 a game but keep up the offense and start gelling offensively through consistency, were gonna be good to go. Sorry if all this has been said, im just happy with what im seeing so far even though we lost. Defense will come, offense has always been the problem the majority of the time and this season it looks elite. :grin:
Until they figure out a rotation etc, and find a way to play with Yao and without, they are probably going to struggle. They have the talent, but right now a direction is missing. DD
Good point, they were also tired last night and Miller and Hill barely played. I think Rick thinks it's still preseason.
Glass half full, I am down with this. People are overreacting from such a small sample size. The defense is an issue but correctable by putting in the right people in their right spot...Lowry, Lee, Jeffries and Hill.
thats what i mean, once they get 2 consistent rotations down, the yao and the without yao, the defense and offense will gel and this team will be scary. Im only happy because with this chicken with its head cut lets act like its preseason and tinker with lineups rotation we got going on, our offense is incredible. They'll figure it out, maybe they end up sacrificing 5 or 6 games to win 35 out of 40, im excited for the celing of this team
To me these 2 games have given me a reality check. It's not because we lost both but it is how we lost both in crunch time. I actually thought we are ready to compete with the elite and with our hard play we might actually beat LA in a series. After 2 games I now see some glaring weaknesses that only another star can fill. For all our depth we can't score in the 4th. That depth doesn't help much in the 4th since you can't put 10 guys on the court. Yes we will get better and we most definitely win more than 42 and maybe even 50. But won't compete with the elite on a consistent basis. We need a 4th quarter goto guy. We have to many good players (Scola, Brooks, Lowry, Bud, Lee) to very good guys (Martin, Yao). We need a star. Morey said as much but I thought. If it doesn't happen. If we don't get a star then I think we will get better anyway. Yao's minutes will increase. We will improve as a team. Lowry will be back and that will be a major plus. Lee and Bud will improve. One of of our young bigs (hill,Ppat) will earn some minutes in the rotation. But even with all of that the competition is so stiff out there and we will be in the losers half of the playoffs and only some miraculous play will get us to a championship. So my hope is as the above poster said this isn't the team we have in april and that Roster includes one superstar or at least someone close to that.
I agree. However, someone in the NBA front office has it out for the rockets. This is the second year in a row we opened agaisnt the Lakers, then of course we had a back to back with the Warriors. Now we have the Nuggets, Hornets, and Spurs. WTF? I dont know if anyone caught this during the Lakers game, but the Lakers have something like 20 of the their first 28 games at home, and the least amount of back to back games if I'm not mistaken. The NBA - Where predetermining success happens.
Add in Lowry and I think there's a very good chance we win both games. I'll be frank, moving Brooks to upgrade the SF position could be the best thing for the team.
Happens every year with the Lakers, it seems. They probably have an "away" game against the Clippers in that span as well, which is essentially another home game.
I don't agree. Trade him for who, Iggy. And then you will have 2 non shooting point guards. Defenses will be licking their chops at getting those guards to shoot.
Count me in as holding out for Billups or Nash. Brooks is flashy but overrated, and two straight games of him failing to defend the outside shot (which is inexcusable in my mind, if he's got speed he should be able to play his man closer but he just doesn't) have led to two straight losses.
This is exactly what the Rockets situation is. This is why i'm pissed. No direction but even though that sounds like a coaching issue in reality the players also need time to figure this out amongst themselves in more in game situations. So the coaching doesn't look good but Adelman pretty much informed us this would be the case during preseason through his complaining and in so many other words. Good post.
He's not really overrated. Most 3s last season. Fast as lightning. No one on ESPN ever talks about him. Yes, maybe on Clutchfans he's overrated, but so are all the players we have, it's a homer issue. But in general, at the national level, he's not overrated. His D is lacking, but he doesn't have his backup to give him as much rest as he needs. As long as he's hitting his shots (which he wasnt last nnight), he's alright. But when he's not scoring, that's when lowry needs to be in.
Good post, OP. Frankly, if anyone believes that Yao's minutes are not going to increase as the season goes on, and that he will go the whole year not playing in B2B's, well that's just silly. As the year goes on and he gets more comfortable, and the team gets more comfortable with his health, his floor time will expand, but still be down some from previous seasons, which is fine. But this arbitrary crap will stop pretty soon. As for everything else, well, you know when you let Shannon Brown and Steve Blake beat you, and you are playing on the road against the Lakers in the home opener and their ring ceremony and everything else, well, you are doing something right. It was just bad luck. And then last night, when a guy is as hopped-up-on-goofballs as Ellis was, you just tip your hat and be thankful he didn't go off for 60+. That was probably the best game that guy will play all year long, again, just bad luck for us. In other years, both of those games likely would have been blowout losses. To have been in it late in both, given the circumstances, is actually a really good sign. It'll all even out, don't worry, be happy
May I add that not only we need a go-to guy in the 4th, but also a go-to guy when the other team is closing the gap and no one can score a basket. We were very close to getting that guy in Roy a few years ago. I wish we had tried harder to move up in that draft.
Going to have to disagree there, it's usually the other way around. Martin & Brooks aren't going to get much better only thing is hoping that team defense improves. And the offense isn't elite last couple minutes of the 4th q.
We are the Cowboys of the NBA... Looks great on paper, etc., etc. :grin: We will do good this year. We just need the figure out what the hell is in Rick's head on his rotations. I see us struggle until Lowry comes back. Remember last year when Lowry was out? Man, did we suck or what?
