If Harden gets hurt you're not winning a ring anyway no matter how good your other playmaker is so if Harden gets a season ending injury it's better to flame out and get a lottery pick next year rather than have another playmaker and limp into the playoffs and get murdered in the first round or something. Another great playmaker won't lift us against Warriors and Spurs, it's not the difference maker you expect because another great playmaker will just be redundant with Harden on the floor. Harden isn't a pure scorer, he's a hybrid adept at both creating and scoring so having another amazing playmaker won't drastically improve the Rockets play, why do you keep harping about it? If for example the Rockets get Rubio, how does that make the team drastically better? Every minute Rubio is out there on the court is a minute that Gordon or Harden are sitting on the bench, that's not a drastic upgrade at all so if that's your "season winning" move IMHO that really sucks, it'd be better to get a player at another position because our PG/SG trio of Bev/Harden/Gordon is already one of the best in the league. Compare that to our SF line up of Ariza/Brewer/Dekker or PF line up of Anderson/Dekker or C line up of Capela/Nene/Harrell and any person can see that we need to upgrade our other positions first before adding to what is essentially a pretty strong spot. Getting yet another playmaker on this team is the equivalent of the Mavs paying both Haywood and Chandler at C and Kidd/Terry at pg when they had basically no one decent backing up Dirk and nobody at SG. What the Rockets need is actually another great scorer, playmaking is something that is always consistent so as long as Harden can step on the court he can provide good playmaking for the team. On the other hand, scoring is something that can come and go, we'll have nights where Gordon and Anderson are both firing blanks and in that scenario we need someone who can also hit 3's at a high clip.
Not disagreeing with your notion that we may need another playmaker But totally laughing at your continued persistence that the great playmaker missing in order to win a championship is Ricky freakin Rubio
He is one that would fit nicely because he takes care of the basketball while making sensational passes. There are others, like Goran. But guys like Bledsoe and Knight are more high turnover guys sing to Harden. Nothing is likely to change on this front until we get punched out in the playoffs though. So its a mute point of discussion until the summer. And even then it positively won't change if and until Harden ever sees and understand it.
But he can not shoot well, wouldn't good defenses just dared him to shoot, and help off of him to cover the guys he is supposed to pass to? Hmmm, now that I mentioned it, neither Corey brewer can shoot, yet we are still a very good team with him getting regular minutes.
Gordon is more of a catch and shoot guy. He can drive and dish, but not on a steady diet, so we can't expect him to create on his own when things get really tight. Having more play makers will always help, but I of the opinion that we don't necessarily to have a second or a third play maker on this team to win it all. What we really need is a mobile low ego defensive big that can help us defend bully ball, someone like Andrew Bogut (when healthy). Nene is not a good defender to begin with and has deteriorated to even a much worse defender than he was. MDA interim solution right now is to have Nene man the middle down the stretch when facing elite bigs. I just don't see how that will be enough in the playoff.
We all need to thank Kent Bazemore for not signing with us. I think back then Bazemore was our option 1 and Gordon was our backup plan.
What a mistake that would have been. This offseason was a success. We finally got what I wanted all along and that's a pure shooter someone like klay Thompson is to curry for the past few years. The fact that EG can dribble get into the paint pass a little bit and play defense is a huge bonus. This team needs a star small forward like Paul George or a big time Big. I'm not overly worried about teams that think they can beat us in the post. If that's your strategy I like the rockets chances. And harden really just needs to keep his TOs under 5. He handles the ball so much and has such a high usage rate that it comes with the territory. I just don't want to see anymore 7-8 TO games.
Gordon >>>>> Bazemore. Thanks god we get him. Gordon creats his own shots, can attack the basquet and play defense. Everytime I watch Bazemore play, I dont see something special there.
Gordon is god-sent! I can't even remember when was the last time we actually acquired a guard who played so well. I feel so confident when he has the ball. I don't know why, but I don't even feel that confidence about any other Rockets players (including Harden - maybe coz of my worry that he may turn it over). I don't know if we would call him a star, but he certainly plays at a high level.
There was no hype around this signing. People forgot he was a high lottery pick. Rockets got a steal.
Hmm, is that true? Bazemore was supposed to be a defensive swingman for us. We still needed another playmaker.
Since we released B. Brown and uncertain about DMo do you guys think a J. Jack healthy or Chalmers healthy would be a good pickup...I think we need a 4 man rotation to preserve our guard rotation. Our 3 men rotation of Bev, harden, and Gordon is very balanced, but two of them needs to be preserved cautiously to avoid injuries.
My sentiments exactly. Gordon is perfect. We need to sign or trade for players who can shoot at a high percentage and handle the rock a little bit. IMO Bev is a better option than Rubio. Shoots a lot better and already chemistry there. He doesn't need the rock to be effective. Is Rubio you to be playing with James? I hope not, it'll be Ty Lawson debacle all over again. I'm all for trading for Tyson Chandler or Andrew Bogut if we had to only give up Brewer, KJ and a pick. Prefer to keep CC, Dekker, and Montrez.
The way to look at adding an additional playmaker is that we want another Gordon, but at a different position. Meaning, we need someone who 1) Does not care to spot up and just play off Harden when he is on the floor (majority of the time) 2) When he does spot up, has the ability to consistently knock down shots 3) When Harden is not on the floor or they have the ball with time winding down, they have the ability to create their own shot or make a play. Players like that are hard to find, as most players who have the ability to create also are used to having the ball in their hands quite a bit.
I don't think that's possible given his salary. Who would we trade? The Mavs ain't taking Brewer off our hands. Maybe if it's a 3-team deal, but it still seems like a long shot.
