(FiveThirtyEight) Rockets will be the best in the west

I completely disagree. People hyped up teams, like the Lakers, Celtics, LBJ teams, Spurs, Warriorsor any team with good players, as they usually perform well through the regular season. And, succeed pretty well into the playoffs.


Why does that change with the Rockets? A team that is actually good or championship worthy, wins in spite of pre-season prediction and odd makers. Because, what is ultimately being implied is that the Rockets cannot win with high expectations.

 

We would have been the best last season if we didn't have all those problems and injuries. The whole playoffs would have been a different story. I honestly believe we would have beaten the Raptors in the finals.

 

The Nuggets were a legitimate powerhouse, last year. They are a few leagues better than Utah and would've fared better than the Blazers against the Dubs.

 

Any team that purposely tanks for playoff lineups is not really a powerhouse; it is a paper tiger.

 

Still would not have beat the warriors with cp3 only playing like a role player and Clint struggling no matter seed we had..... and their injuries may not have even happened playing different matchups. Idk why you would be so confident we beat the raptors either.

 

Because the media loves to trash the rockets, specifically James harden, and now with Westbrook they are going to have even more fun when the rockets struggle. I just feel like the roster has too many holes for them to be saying rockets should be a 1 seed in a tough west, so maybe there is an ulterior motive

 

If those other teams did load management, one can say the Rox could be fighting for No. 1 if everything clicks.

But if nothing works out, they could be facing 7th or 8th seed too.

 

Because we would have played them later on, which would have made a huge difference. We already beat the Raptors twice last season.... with Kawhi out there. I'd rather play the Raptors than the Warriors. The only reason the Raptors team beat the Warriors is because KD and Klay missed games. Totally different story if they have those 2 are out there when healthy.

 

Oh, no....we would have (rightly or wrongly) climbed considerably with Russ added.

 

Gotta go heads up against Lakers and clippers

 

I like the Nugs a lot but they need a few more guys to take a leap to take them seriously - they struggled last year in the playoffs. Taking the 7 seed to 7 and then losing in 7 to a weaker 3 seed who lost their best big a week before the playoffs started is not a good look for a team that dominated the regular season...and they definitely would NOT have fared well against GS because the Warriors would have went small and exposed Jokic as the weakest link on defense and forced Denver to choose between getting roasted on defense vs the keeping the guy who makes their offense special on the floor.

 

They've said that we will drop (not necessarily in standings but in overall numbers) when they adjust their calculations to include their new stats. Hasn't happened yet.

 

Am I the only one who sees a mega drop off in defense? I don't see how we will be a top 5 team. I don't trust this team with out Jeff with MDA, Harden and Russ running the show.

 

That was one concern that was glossed over......by the arrival of Elston Turner.

All of a sudden WB becomes that emphatic, all over the place hustle player on Defense. With that broke knee.