(Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Being an 8 Seed)

Beginning on Bleacher Report, and now on another fanpost, there are calls to gut the entire Houston roster to rent Dwight Howard for one season. The argument goes: either A. we get Howard and D-Will, or B. we tank and will win again.

The first problem here is the suggestion that scenarios A and B are even close in terms of likelihood. D-Will has never shown any interest in Houston and may even have a negative attitude toward the Rockets due to our intense rivalry with Utah ever since he was drafted. Howard has never taken Houston seriously. There's a reason the acquisition would be called a rental.

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is it just me... or is anybody else actually starting to regret the ariza trade?  imagine having ariza starting in battier's place.. I feel like that solves a lot of our defensive problems

even beyond that, I'm kind of starting to regret not re-signing artest.  sure he just chucks up bricks once in a while, but he was able to create his own offense at times and played solid defense.  i'm just not feeling confident with battier right now.  i don't know.  0-3 does weird things to your brain

The Lakers only lost 8 home games last year (including playoffs)
Dallas, Cleveland, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Portland, Boston (x2).

We came within a last second three of it... without Lowry.  And with it being Yao's first meaningful game in over a year.

Also, the Lakers only allowed 110 pts in Staples Center 4 times last year (including playoffs)
Phoenix, Denver, Golden State, Atlanta

Pretty encouraging sign that we're up there... and I don't think we're a Golden State type team at all.  This is about as good of a loss that could happen.  On the road, against the reigning champions, and nearly took it.  The Lakers really don't mess up at home.  If you win, you're outplaying them.

Once Yao's 24 minute limit comes off in the playoffs, I think they're going to take the NBA by storm.

Some of these articles just really don't make any sense, and I'm starting to actually think that there is some dark, anti-Rocket conspiracy out there.  For example:

http://www.whatifsports.com/beyondtheboxscore/default.asp?article=2010NBA_WesternConferencePreview

Really?  Because I thought that for the Rockets to go 31 wins this season (-11), either the West would have to be more competitive, or the Rockets would have to have gotten worse.  Neither is the case.  Yes, I understand that 24 minutes of Yao will result in uncertainty, but I don't understand how that is a downgrade from 30 minutes of Chuck Hayes.

Now I'm wondering where there's an actual reason in the Rockets section why we will do worse, and no matter how hard I try, I just can't find one.  The writer praises the additions of Miller and Hill, saying they will "alleviate any post concerns for the Rockets."

He goes on to speculate that Martin might become upset at being included in Anthony trade talks and have a decline in performance.  Hasn't Martin already taken a light-hearted approach to this whole situation with his Melo Halloween joke?  Wasn't Martin thrilled to just get out of Sacramento last year at the trade deadline?  Does anyone honestly think Martin has that type of bastard personality?  Well, if his 58% preseason three-point shooting has been despite trade insecurities, I'll take that and run with it.

Anyone have any idea what happened to the Aussie?  I remember reading some stuff about some back problems earlier?  Not sure..

I realize he's not backup center material, but he's a nice supporting player to have, and if Yao goes out again he can act as a backup for whichever backup center is starting.  I'm hoping I've reached the minimum word limit by now.  Nope, apparently I need a few more words.

***EDIT***

Apparently Andersen did injure his back.  From http://www.davidandersen.com.au/

"

Dave Heading Back To Oz

"

Great games from Ariza, Battier, Pops, and Lowry

Budinger wasn't shooting well but was great passing.

The first half was really close, but we really pulled together in the second half, passed the ball, and kept the raptors from scoring, and we didn't choke.  d d d d d d d d  d d d d d d d  dd d d  d d d d d d d d d d d d

Discuss.