Good game Rockets. You have a nice young team that will benefit greatly from some playoff experience against a team the caliber of OKC. The future is bright for you guys.

I don't think Lin is the answer at PG and you desperately need a low post scorer, but if you sure that up you will be very, very good for a long time.

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Simplebay
posted 12:32a, 04/18/13



You lost. Full team. You were the one who started the smack. And ya lost.

Eat it

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you have been running smack on here since the summer talking about how good the lakers would be.

Who cares about this game, rockets have the youngest team in the league and were in the playoffs before the last day.

Meanwhile, the lakers, who were the vegas favorites, the team you jacked off to everyday on here for a few months this summer, had to wait until the last day to sneak into the playoffs. A team with 4 all stars sucked so bad, they get the 7 seed. Pathetic.

But here you are, acting like you just won the championship. Man, lakers have fallen more than I thought

Your schtick is old. The Lakers worst season of all time is still better than the rockets

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Simplebay
posted 9:48p, 08/09/12



they were already contenders.

if they dont win the title this year they will be considered a failure

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Yet here you are prancing around cause you got the ****ing 7 seed. Puff that chest out buddy

Ho Lakers. Stomped your ass when it mattered

A low-post scoring threat is paramount...right now, we have no one.

There is hope for the future, but I think our present is going to end in about 5 games...not relishing this match-up with OKC.

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Ho Lakers. Stomped your ass when it mattered

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4 point ot stomping.

From Vegas favorite to 7 seed.

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A low-post scoring threat is paramount...right now, we have no one.

There is hope for the future, but I think our present is going to end in about 5 games...not relishing this match-up with OKC.

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Agreed. Another offensive threat in the post is critical. I'm also not sold on Lin being the PG of the future either

Simplebay.. you aren't this bad man. Chill out.

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Your schtick is old. The Lakers worst season of all time is still better than the rockets

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Lakers worst season is better than a championship. Noted

I love it when Simplebay gets a hard on over the regular season. Over beating the Rockets. For the 7th seed.

What sucks is when they play the Spurs, it's a win-win for him. Lakers lose - they kept it close without Kobe, suck it. Lakers win - they won without Kobe, suck it. This'll be fun.

Looking back at the DVR and the overall effort from some of our players I noticed a few things:
1) Asik needs to be a backup at the 5
2) Lin is not the answer at point guard. If you go back and look at crucial moments in the game he played like absolute garbage....missing open shots....making stupid passes....whining about officiating instead of being more efficient with his decision-making....he has to either get better, get trraded, or be a backup
3) McHale isn't a good decision-maker in crunch time when the pressure is on. In the 4th Beverley had just scored a 2-point basket, came down to the other end to take an illegal screen from Howard, and then he is subbed out for Lin who proceeds to come in the game and continue playing like sh**. Towards the end of the 4th and in OT we had NO strategy on offense whatsoever. It was iso's for Harden and a lot of piss-poor passing when things went sour towards the end of the shot clock. On defense we are fouling their best free-throw shooter and giving up wide open dunks/lay-ups. Just an all around terrible job closing out.

on a better note

4) Chandler Parsons was an absolute steal for a 2nd round draft pick. Aside from his three turnovers, a few of which happened because nobody came to the ball and everyone was standing flat-footed on offense, he played with a lot of energy last night. One of few who looked playoff-ready.

Ultimately, I was livid at the officiating towards the end of the game last night but we put ourselves in this position. They should have closed this out on Monday against the WORST TEAM IN THE WESTERN CONFERENCE but they didn't and they subjected themselves to playing in a game where home-cooking treatment would be inevitable.

Bring on OKC....

^Agree with all of that except for Asik. I think Asik can be employed as a starting center the same way Kendrick Perkins was used in Boston. Just need to find a quality PF to put alongside him. Asik is tall, relatively young, and a defensive anchor. We have good wings and good shooters. Just need that four spot taken care of and back-up center. I think Asik would be capable starter provided the Rockets get other help.

Getting a good PF who can consistently score would fix a LOT of the other issues on this team.

As it is when we trot out our starting 5 teams really only have to key on 4 players since our PFs are so damned inconsistent.

Could just be a youth thing as well.

J-Smoove would do wonders for you guys.

Lin has actually all year been making clutch 3s, but I agree last night he was complete trash. I'm content with him considering harden sets up the offense and such, but I agree the 4 spot needs to get a star

I keep hearing about youth and upside. And I wanted to believe in it badly. But whether or not we won these last two games, the Rockets are MILES away from a championship/top 4 in the west finish.

Without any changes to current roster, what does expected natural progression (ENP) of young players get you? Asik is 26; he's not improving drastically. Maybe his 10 and 11 turns to 11 and 12 in his peak. Parsons is 24. He's a great player for his contract. He's pretty much peaked too. Maybe his best season will see him have 17 4 and 7. Lin is 25; same things apply except the bar is even lower.

Most of the starters are just kind of young. The real youth is on the bench. And most of it is really not that good. The upside of ALL of those players is limited to rotation player/nominal starer. Probable case: one or two of them end up decent starters. Best case: Jones (or someone else) gives you Paul George like production.

ENP of this group is probably NEVER going to get anything more than the 6 seed.

ENP + Josh Smith/Al Jefferson/Millsap/ or anyone ACTUALLY available is probably not going to get anything more than a 5 seed.

Fat, undersized 4s like Millsap fall of cliffs in their early 30s. When Josh's athleticism goes, all you'll left is his high school mind; so a 18 mill (2013) Jermaine O'neal; he's not even THAT good NOW.

So the only REAL hope the Rockets have is to against ALL odds, convince a Dwight, or CP3 to come here, or pull of the swindle of the century by offering a poo poo platter for Cousins or Favors.

Though a scenario in which everyone gets hurt next year to average out the healthiest season ever (this one) results in a lottery win and Andrew Wiggins coming to Houston is just as good.

^^^^

You want to know how i know you know ZILCH about evaluating basketball? You just spent a few minutes to type that trash

tickets are on sale now to the public for Game 3 and 4

It's fair to criticize. Its unfair to laugh me off. Tell me the thing you find to be poorest evaluation and allow me to respond at least.

The rockets have an incredibly bright future. If you can't see that I don't know what to tell you.

I feel like Lin neither makes nor breaks this team. He's an above average starting point guard and is good enough for his role if you get a good enough core together.

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Asik is 26; he's not improving drastically. Maybe his 10 and 11 turns to 11 and 12 in his peak.

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Morey signed Asik for his rebounding and defense in the middle. And he's already doing that well.

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Parsons is 24. He's a great player for his contract. He's pretty much peaked too. Maybe his best season will see him have 17 4 and 7.

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And you know this how? This is his second year. He has improved his outside shot greatly from last year. No reason for him not to further improve.

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Lin is 25; same things apply except the bar is even lower.

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Same as Parsons. This is his first full year of playing ball. He needs to play with more confidence and bulk up a bit.

Here are my main issues with Lin from a neutral perspective...

However high Lin's IQ may be off the court, he is a mental midget on it. He is a turnover machine and when more athletic teams trap Harden you need another guard who can handle the ball intelligently.

He has decent length, but he will never be a plus or even average defender. Another reason J-Smoove would help this team with weak side help defense/shot blocking.

If I am putting together a championship roster, I want a PG who plays intense, pressuring defense and who takes care of the basketball (create turnovers, doesn't turn the ball over). If he can knock down an open shot that's a plus. Lin does none of that.

It will be interesting (and a little sad as a Thunder fan) to see Harden react to being THE guy in a playoff series. He is like a lost son to OKC and it is a shame the rules make it that we had to lose him for no other reason than the team got too good. Luxury tax shouldn't apply to players you draft - only to FA aquisitions IMO. Good luck to the Rockets, though. We have common foes but I never disliked them the way I do SA.

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However high Lin's IQ may be off the court, he is a mental midget on it. He is a turnover machine and when more athletic teams trap Harden you need another guard who can handle the ball intelligently.

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I'm willing to give him another season to see how much he improves.

His performance this season has been under-whelming.

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He's an above average starting point guard and is good enough for his role if you get a good enough core together.

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No. He's an average NBA point guard. About as average as can be. He is Rafer Alston.

Pascal, you base a player's potential progression solely on their age, but do not take into consider how little experience these guys have. Lin and Asik are mid-20s (Lin is still 24 btw) and you usually know a lot about most players at that point. However, this is Lin's first full season in the NBA. Not to mention he was coming off a knee injury and his number got better each month of the season. As for Asik, this is his first year as a starter. Before this year he played an average of 12 mins of a game over 2 seasons, plus he has the Euro curve. Sometimes you have to look beyond just numbers.

I disagree strongly with Pascal but I'm too lazy to type it, but I will say this: I truly believe that, with either Josh Smith, Al Jefferson or Pau Gasol, we are 2 years away from winning the West.

Al jefferson

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Current opponent odds: Denver 48%, San Antonio 30%, Oklahoma City 16%, Clippers 4%, Memphis 2% per morey via Twitter

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Last time morey tweeted playoff percentages it was catastrophic

[This message has been edited by Mr.Bond (edited 4/11/2013 12:39p).]

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And he jinxs us again

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If he can knock down an open shot that's a plus. Lin does none of that.

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Lin has hit plenty of open shots for us this season. Are you basing his entire season on one game against LA where he looked ridiculously ****ty?

I'm not trying to blindly defend the guy, because I admit he is way overpriced and has tons of room for improvement. But just be fair when you criticize, that's all

Al Jefferson might be a good fit for you guys. He's probably a top 3 low post scorer that yall are looking for. And being paired with Asik might hide some of his defensive inefficiencies.

Pretty surr Lin is over 40% behind yhe arc sincr the allstar break

I'm ready to take out Lin and put in Beverly