Rick Fox & Reggie Miller Predict HOU Will Miss 2015 Playoffs

[CodyB_]

Comes to how effective D12 is.

[JellosJigglin]

Every year there are teams that disappoint, teams that meet expectations, and teams that surpass expectations. Anyone who is adamant about where they see each team in the pecking order is a fool. There are going to be surprises both ways just like every other year. Houston missing the playoffs wouldn't shock me one bit.

How much you would be shocked if they manage to get to WC finals?

With the roster as currently constructed? I'd be surprised. They lost a lot of talent and only added Ariza. I like Ariza, but he's the kind of role player you add to a complete roster, not someone you want as a piece of your core. I just don't see how a team could lose that much talent and improve from 1st round to WCF.

[gmoney411]

That's very debatable. The rockets lacked perimeter defense and Ariza fills that need. The starting lineup is much more balanced with him in it and they should be a much better defensive team. They are also returning four starters that should have much better chemistry.

Parsons isn't a bad defender, so the slight upgrade you get going from him to Ariza is offset by the larger downgrade you get offensively between the two. And the problem with perimeter defence wasn't Parsons, it was Harden. It still is Harden. Until that guy pulls his finger out they're going to struggle with perimeter defence.

I don't buy the chemistry argument either. Sure, maybe Howard is more used to them and vice versa, but the rest of the guys have been together for 2 years now. There's not going to be some magical leap in team chemistry that boosts their production.

As far as the bench goes it was trash last year too. Asik was worthless and a negative for them most of the year after he got benched and then "injured.". If Johnson/Terry/Cannan can replace what Lin gave them they will be just fine and possibly better in their second year together.

Terry is done. Relying on him for anything would be foolish. Johnson and Canaan? Sure, I guess. I don't think they're anything special but I suppose they could be productive.

But here's the problem, and you just spelled it out yourself; the bench sucked last year and they did nothing to improve it. In fact, they're now hoping that the guys still on the roster can just get them back to the level the bench was playing at the year before.

As I said, just how much worse they got is arguable. If you want to say 'not very much', cool. But they took a hit while other teams, in a lot of cases, improved significantly.

You are understating how much better Ariza is on defense compared to Parsons and overstating how much better Chandler is than Ariza on offense. Ariza fills a bigger need and still provides the floor spacing they need.

Bev and Jones were first year starters last year. The starting lineup has lots of room for improvement

[Ballings7]

If everyone is absolutely healthy, the following teams are locks in this order:

Spurs, OKC, Clips, Grizzlies, Warriors.

Blazers, Rockets, Mavs, Suns, Pelicans fighting for the last 3 spots.

Everyone else is food.

Gotta agree with Juice...

And I see Rockets and Pelicans missing playoffs; barring injuries to the other three in the bottom half. Mental toughness is questionable at best for Houston, in terms of ref calls getting to them, and offensive-rhythm individually and team-wise, effecting them (Howard, Harden). Plus their bench is shaky and not proven, but that is a lesser factor to the latter two.

New Orleans, I think they have too many guys who need the ball and be in a rhythm to be effective, and I kind of doubt they'll be able to get that down like LeBron/Wade did, and Parker/Ginobili have over the years.

Jrue needs to handle, distribute, defend, hustle, and pick his spots to score.

Tyreke needs to be the main guy scoring wise and running the offense through him off the perimeter, like eh was before Cousins came in and took over in Sac (being a talented big guy). He's got good overall size and toughness as a dynamic wing.

Eric Gordon at this point from his injuries and on this team with the other two, and being pretty undersized, is best as a super 6th man strong-guard scorer.

They're all capable of scoring and making plays, but Tyreke is the biggest and most capable overall right now (when he gets back)>

They really need to adapt from game-to-game there on the wing, but let Tyreke do his thing as the identified #1 on the perimeter (along with Davis up front) consistently.

I also think they're one of the most injury-prone rosters in the league if you look at their roster's history... but hopefully not, a lot of talent and relatively young.

They also lack good spacing in the starting/finishing line-ups.. they're best shooters are all primarily bench-role guys; even if Ryan Anderson finishes at PF, and it's more of an offensive flowing game, still.

[ceremony816]

They have no bench, Harden and Howard are going to have to play heavy minutes. I can see them missing the playoffs especially if one of them gets injured.

[RightToCensor]

I like how people are talking like Phoenix is a lock for the playoffs lolololololololololollol

The Pelicans didn't even sniff the playoffs last season, they have too many fragile players to make a clear prediction for them.

[C-Melo Man]

Unless Dwight Howard & James Harden average 25 ppg apiece & Trevor Ariza 16 ppg, they're not making the postseason. Losing Chandler Parson's playmaking & all-around skills, Asik's interior D & rebounding, & Lin's playmaking & scoring off the bench is a lot to overcome. Ariza's a solid role player, but will he be last year's Washington Ariza playing for that new contract or the first Rockets season Trevor I remember making him the #1 option LOL? Dwight & James are mentally weak & rely on refs bailing them out with playcalling. Patrick's an average ballhandler & below-average playmaker. Terrance Jones is a solid young PF, but still needs time to develop. The bench is putrid. Houston is easily one of the last year's playoff teams I can see falling off & one of Phoenix or Denver (now HEALTHY) replacing them. I don't see New Orleans in there yet.

[WVSArtist]

Dwight would just jump over to the Cavs

[cloudng8]

Unless Dwight Howard & James Harden average 25 ppg apiece & Trevor Ariza 16 ppg, they're not making the postseason. Losing Chandler Parson's playmaking & all-around skills, Asik's interior D & rebounding, & Lin's playmaking & scoring off the bench is a lot to overcome. Ariza's a solid role player, but will he be last year's Washington Ariza playing for that new contract or the first Rockets season Trevor I remember making him the #1 option LOL? Dwight & James are mentally weak & rely on refs bailing them out with playcalling. Patrick's an average ballhandler & below-average playmaker. Terrance Jones is a solid young PF, but still needs time to develop. The bench is putrid. Houston is easily one of the last year's playoff teams I can see falling off & one of Phoenix or Denver (now HEALTHY) replacing them. I don't see New Orleans in there yet.

While losing Parsons hurts us offensively ( we were top 5 in offense last year and believe that wont change this year) adding ariza improves our perimeter D by a lot which is something we sorely needed. Plus contract wise its a steal to have Ariza what hes making and every year it decreases. I would rather take that then pay double the money for parsons. I am glad for Parsons that he got paid, good luck to him.

I find it funny everyone always brings Asik but fail to remember he barley played during the regular season because he was injured and upset ( rightfully so). Lin productivity can be replaced as well, its not like he was scoring 20 ppg.

I am glad people are hoping for Rockets to fall off the wagon. I rather them be a dark horse/underdog.

[Dark Faze]

i think the depth there is really bad, a single injury could result in a ton of losses

[Peregrine01]

It's a high possibility that they do miss. They weren't much better than the 8th seeded Mavs last year. This year they lost 3 key guys and they still have McHale as their coach.

[Br0ken_Sp0ke]

Will they be proven correct? I'm not so sure, but we'll see.

Looks like we have our answer with the majority of RealGM getting it wrong with Reggie and Rick. Clinched today with Dwight missing 39 games, Terrence Jones missing 47 games, and Patrick Beverley also missing 16 games this season.

I think Houston implodes this season and most of us will be loving every minute of it.

Houston is not going to be as good as they were last year. By what extent, we will have to wait and see. I don't think switching Parsons for Ariza will hurt but losing Lin and Asik is going to kill their bench.

I predicted that a long time ago.

They lost Parsons, Lin and Asik and have "replaced" only one of them with a worse player in Ariza.

Jason Terry doesn't do anything for me at this point.

They have managed to get significantly worse on paper while other teams have gotten significantly better.
Don't be surprised if my Suns or the team that the Rockets gifted Asik to (NOP) keeps the Rockets out of the playoffs.

I'm personally predicting the Pelicans replacing the Rockets.

A LOT of people including myself have been saying this.

The Rockets were ahead of the Western conference 8th place team by 5 games and they were healthy!

Now they lost:

Parsons
Asik
Lin
Casspi

and replaced them with Ariza and Terry. Rockets have no bench and nobody to take a load of Howard and Harden. Even in the playoffs, they had some horrendous offensive stretches with awful looking sets that resulted in jacking up ridiculous attempts.

I would be really surprised if Houston makes the playoffs. Only going to happen if there are a lot of injuries to other teams or if T.Jones and/or D-Mo really break out.

I think if any of the 8 teams misses the playoffs that made it in the West last year, Houston would be the most likely team.

They are an injury to Harden or Howard away from being pretty mediocre. By giving away Asik/Parsons/Lin for nothing and then adding Ariza they have depleted their depth and will rely pretty heavily on the starts all staying healthy and playing big minutes for the majority of the season.

It all comes down to health in the West, there are 10 teams that I wouldnt be surprised to see making the playoffs. I think the Kings could make a jump this year, and its hard to imagine Kobe not making the playoffs, but the rest of the team around him is just too questionable. I think obviously the Nuggets will be better and the Suns were just a game out last year and had Bledsoe miss half the year.

It's sad that a team with arguably the best SG and Center in the league will barely make the playoffs if not at all.

I think the lakers will be better than Houston rockets

I have a hard time seeing the rockets win more than 42 games

Kobe is 1st team all nba again and without parsons harden struggles to shoot 43 percent

Motivated boozer will be as good of a second option as Pau gasol

Randle is very similar to Blake Griffin arguably has a better jumper and superior handles / post moves

Jeremy Lin will be out for blood and prove to be a top 10 point guard

Howard continues his decline as seen in the playoffs and averages 15/8 with simply average defense

I personally don't see them making it. They lost Lin, Asik and Parsons, and got back Ariza. Most here would never admit it, but Ariza is not nearly as good as Parsons. Do they have a second perimeter scorer? Do they have a second player on the perimeter who can create shots for himself, and for others? Which perimeter player will score for them while Harden sits?

Their offense will not be as good as last year. I guess the positive is. . . Their defense can only go up, right?

They got worse. You can argue about what degree they did but the fact is they lost players from their rotation and weren't able to, for the most part, replace them.

I wouldn't have them as a lock to be in the lottery by any stretch, but it isn't crazy to think they could miss the playoffs either. Which might actually be a little ironic, since Harden and Howard were supposed to get them out of that 13-14 pick range they'd been stuck in for so many years before.

I also Predict Houston will miss the 2015 Playoffs

Unless Dwight Howard & James Harden average 25 ppg apiece & Trevor Ariza 16 ppg, they're not making the postseason. Losing Chandler Parson's playmaking & all-around skills, Asik's interior D & rebounding, & Lin's playmaking & scoring off the bench is a lot to overcome. Ariza's a solid role player, but will he be last year's Washington Ariza playing for that new contract or the first Rockets season Trevor I remember making him the #1 option LOL? Dwight & James are mentally weak & rely on refs bailing them out with playcalling. Patrick's an average ballhandler & below-average playmaker. Terrance Jones is a solid young PF, but still needs time to develop. The bench is putrid. Houston is easily one of the last year's playoff teams I can see falling off & one of Phoenix or Denver (now HEALTHY) replacing them. I don't see New Orleans in there yet.

It's a high possibility that they do miss. They weren't much better than the 8th seeded Mavs last year. This year they lost 3 key guys and they still have McHale as their coach.

[laploutocratie]

Broken Spoke just uncovered a graveyard of haters.

[Don Ford]

That's a lot of work to just say nanny nanny boo boo

[KobeBryant24]

Did ya really have to bump this thread up lol

[RSCD3_]

mine was obviously satire lol

[trickshot]

Thread will soon be locked but based on their offseason moves the predictions were very reasonable. It's just a shame that people are still reluctant to give harden credit for his effort this season.

[Mister Ze]

If I posted in this thread originally I would have said something like:

"Lillard will just end their season again."

But now that they've surprised everyone and surpassed expectations I'm probably gonna say something like:

"Lillard will just end their season again."

[LBJKBD12]

mine was obviously satire lol

Damn bro, you're predicition is terrible lol. Kobe first team all NBA what made you pick LA?.

[MaxRider]

wow my prediction was pretty close other than Pelicans > Grizzlies
in reality Grizzlies >>> Pelicans