But D-Mo's defensive numbers over the last 25 games have been world class at the PF position. You expect the TT to achieve those numbers? If so your opinion flies in the face of every fact. It is just not happening. D-Mo has spent his life guarding power forwards. Asik and Howard have been absolutely inept at defending the four.
You may be right about DMo. I'm not willing to say right now that he absolutely can't be a factor. Right now, I feel like he's a far better option than Jones on both ends of the floor. He can't shoot it any better than Jones but he makes much quicker decisions, doesn't dally around with the ball, and then he moves. I think he's a superior offensive option than Jones even with the starters and his lack of shooting ability. By the same token I think his size bodes well defending against teams with multiple bigs like Memphis and the Clips. So, I'm not against giving him a chance. In fact, like I said earlier, I really think we need to give both him and Casspi a chance to run with the starters before we hit the playoffs. As far as Casspi goes...I think the greatest benefit to his game is his ability to space the floor....not his defense. He's not a great defender. But he does hustle defensively and bang and grind as much as he can. But his shooting is the best of the group of power forwards by far. And that's the main reason why I want to see him get some run. Despite all his stupid chucking with the mop-up crew, he's still managed to hit almost 36%. Jones can't get close to that figure even by being super selective on his 3-point shots. Not even close. I really believe Casspi is a 40% 3-point shooter if he plays with the starting unit and only takes catch-and-shoot looks where he's squared and his feet are planted. And those are the shots that defenses are giving our starting power forward now and he is eschewing them.
Offensively, he looks like he should shoot better, but he just hasn't. He is much too willing to shoot the above the break 3 pointer in my opinion. If he went to camping out in the corner, he would probably greatly increase his percentage, but it would cut down his attempts as he would be more guarded. I think this would help when he is out there, it just hasn't been done for whatever reason. I don't think it is coaching. When Covington was playing PF for the Rockets, he went to the corner very mechanically as if he was thinking "go to the corner" following a coaching directive instead of following instincts.
See this is what I feel was distorted in the Twin Towers experiment at the beginning of the season. In my humble opinion, I think McHale got the matchups wrong. In my opinion, Asik is a great defender against 4's like Blake because of his ability to move his feet and defend the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop. Instead we were running Dwight on the 4's early and Asik on the 5's. It didn't work because Dwight is not nearly as good in space as Asik is and Asik isn't nearly as good at the rim as Dwight is. It should've been Asik out on the 4's and Dwight laying down low. We did see, not in this last Clipper game, but in the game before that, where Blake was roasting Jones and McHale brought in Asik alongside Dwight for a few minutes with Asik on Blake and Dwight low on DeAndre...and Asik shut Blake off and we spurted. But McHale then took Dwight out and went back to a conventional lineup and the Clips spurted right back again. Now...I have stated that I think DMo has improved defensively. I still remember that hallmark Memphis game where Zach banged and banged and banged on him and DMo stood in there, held his ground and was there to bother the shot when Zach put it up. Zach is a handful for the best of NBA big man defenders because of that relentlessness and power he has down low. DMo did an awesome job on him. So I am seeing definite spurts defensively from him. (By the way, there's absolutely no way that Jones could have hung with Zach that game nor is there any chance Jones can hang with him if we meet them in the playoffs. Just one example of matchups. Zach/Marc against Dwight and Jones. You got Dwight trying to take on Marc out high, so he's drug outside the paint and you've got Jones trying to handle Zach down low. Disaster. Flip them and all of a sudden you've got Jones trying to take on Gasol. LOL. Doesn't work. However if you go back to this preseason game: http://www.nba.com/games/20131025/HOUMEM/gameinfo.html when we started TwinTowers against them, we flat out dominated them. We out defensed and out rebounded them early got up big, getting the variance factor going in our favor and then we varied once again down to Casspi spreading the floor and blew them out. Just one game a long time ago in the preseason but the evidence is there.) However, I still feel DMo lacks when you put him on an island and force him to make decisions out high. You put him in pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop...I don't think he's nearly as good. I think he is very vulnerable out there. Just like I think Jones is very vulnerable out there. And the vast majority of playoff teams we are going to see run pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop. Memphis, Dallas, GS, Portland, Clips, Spurs. I just don't see DMo being able to effectively take on guys like Dirk, Lee, LaMarcus, Blake, and Diaw or Duncan. When you look at the matchups...it portends to us needing Dwight and Asik together defensively if the opponent gets their bigs to going. I am still convinced that Asik is the better defender on power forwards. I am convinced that the only power forwards that Asik really can't guard are power fowards that spot up at the 3-point line ala Melo. He can't handle Melo outside and shouldn't be asked to either. That's a different matchup. That's when we increase the variance and go even smaller with Harden/Parsons on the wings defensively, Bev on backcourt playmaker, and Lin on the other backcourt player. We then spread the opponent out and both teams are playing small ball with us being a little smaller, faster, and better.
D-Mo is +12.7 net rating over Casspi over the last 25 games. Heck, D-Mo is ahead of Casspi in offensive rating (oRTG). There is no way that Casspi can be considered a better choice than D-Mo. Unless you use the famously inaccurate eye test.
jtr, once again DMo has been playing alongside Asik. That's a tremendous benefit to him and his ratings. Casspi is playing garbage time and chucking it up. Yes, I see the numbers. I also see the circumstances behind the numbers.
I am not arguing Casspi over DMo. I think Casspi can be used in some instances over Jones when Jones is having defensive problems. Casspi has the skills that his offensive contribution should be more, but it just hasn't happened in my opinion.
I got to your statement about Asik defending Blake and the statement "because of his ability to move his feet and defend the pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop", and I stopped reading right there. To say the least Asik cannot ever be considered quick, even for a big man. Asik completely relies on anticipation for his positional defense. D-Mo is so much quicker than Asik it is not even funny. Asik is huge and slow, but sports decent footwork and an innate sense of where to be. Which works for the center position. But against quick power forwards, Asik is a lost puppy dog more than 10 feet from the basket. Just look at the stats. At some point BBHolic you do need to back up your (eye test) opinion with facts.
What stats do you have that show Asik is a lost puppy dog more than 10 feet from the basket? Show them to me please. And then read this and watch all the video: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/film-session-omer-asik <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/svkYrt0sT8k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qB4RUoJzp_Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Lost outside of 10 feet? I.don't.think.so.
That reply was not aimed at you. I have read your comments on this thread. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Variance is defined differently pending on the distribution of whatever you want to talk about. Changing the variance does imply change of values, but change of values doesn't imply a true change in variance. We need the pick and roll to be effective. Clips can defend the rim, and then agitate us enough on the perimeter to start forcing it back to the rim, resulting in a TO, or a 3 jacked up in desperation. I would also like to see Harden and Howard passing out of the post, alternating low pick and rolls off it. Let Harden and Lin pick and pop 3's to soften the perimeter as well.
TT days and Asik at -6.2 dRTG compared to D-Mo over the last 25 games. Did you notice that 21 point improvement of D-Mo since the start of the season on defense? Not to mention the horrendous offensive performance of Asik on the offensive end. The TT experiment is dead and buried. Get used to it.
That is not evidence that Omer is a lost puppy outside 10 feet jtr. Consider all the circumstances of those numbers you are throwing up. Nothing on there shows Omer's effectiveness or lack of effectiveness outside of 10 feet.
Wow. Splitting hairs here? Are you saying that TT failed because Asik cannot defend within 8 feet of the basket? Must be since both Asik and Howard are top 5 defensive centers in the league around the rim. The much much much more likely explanation is that both Howard and Asik cannot defend away from the basket.
Once again, consider the circumstances. He's playing mop-up ball with the scrubs. It's chaos out there. They're just running up and down ending the games. And he's chucking. (not justified, bad on his part, I don't approve, but he's been just chucking.) He would be doing none of those things with the starters because if he did that with the starters he'd be back at the end of the bench in a heart beat. And while we're on Casspi. There's nothing that says he shouldn't be given a look with the starting unit. No, he hasn't earned it. Neither did Jones earn the starting job. The starting job was handed to Jones after the alleged Twin Towers failure. Go back and look at the games. Jones had did nothing at all to warrant being made starter. But the fact was we needed a fifth starter. And the fact now is Jones is not doing enough to warrant him keeping the starter's job by default.
No. I'm saying the Twin Towers failed because Dwight cannot defend out high. Watch the vids. Watch vids of Dwight out there trying to get up on LaMarcus. Then think logically about the situation. Dwight is the best paint defender in the NBA. He's the best at covering ground, helping off, coming from the weak side and shutting down the rim. Asik is far superior to Dwight out high in pick-and-roll coverage. It's as plain as the nose on your face. Yes, Asik is good down low too. But he's best in pick-and-roll and pick-and-pop defense. I just pulled the videos for you to see. I shouldn't have to go dig up video of Dwight trying to face guard LaMarcus and LaMarcus draining jumpers over him. You should know that. You should have already seen it. And you should be able to look at the 2 players (Dwight and Asik) and see that Asik is the longer player most capable of bothering a long-armed shooter like Blake or Lamarcus spotting up at 17 feet, while still holding position to take him on if he up fakes and drives.
This is probably simple to do & I'm just an idiot for not knowing how, but is there a way of showing DMo's 3 pt. % by month for this season? He seems to be way better at it now than at the start of the year.
MORE D-MO AND JONES!!!! Super excited to see what they can do in the playoffs... or should I say what they WILL DO in the playoffs.
