Yes, we can!!! I was not really a fan of getting Josh Smith to be honest, but I've looked at his numbers and the role he had in Detroit and realize his situation was pretty bad. He actually did okay given the circumstances and will probably flourish in a system where he's the third / fourth or even fifth option and not the 1st / 2nd! That being said, with the addition of him, Brewer & Shved, we finally are 9-10 deep and do not have to worry about the bench anymore. At the moment, we would have: Beverley / Shved / Canaan Harden / Terry / Johnson Ariza / Brewer / Papa Smith / D-Mo / Jones Howard / Black or Dorsey / Capela That's a team we can go to war with and let's say Jones comes back healthy, trade for a creator and lose either him or D-Mo + maybe get Okafor / JO type big we would have a championship team. Right now, we're definitely contenders and there's no reason not to get far in the playoffs and win BIG! Go Rockets, excited as hell about this team, it should hit everyone that we are going to be awesome!
And the assets we have still is unbelievable. They can't get us a Superstar but we have enough flex to grab a much needed role player to complete the puzzle. Every position now has the ability to rest the starter for extended minutes. Very few teams have that ability.
The rotation will most likely be: Rotation: PG: Beverly, Terry SG: Harden, Terry, Brewer SF: Ariza, Brewer, Papanikolaou PF: Smith, Motiejunas, Jones C: Howard, Motiejunas Bench: Canaan, Schved, Black, Dorsey D-League: Capela, Johnson
but this depth comes with a cost... it might cost us one of the best defensive big man in europe, who at the age of 31 is just entering his prime! jk wooo depth!
This will be the rotation/depth chart based on McHale's comments and patterns established over the last year. Bev/shved/Terry Harden/Terry/brewer Ariza/brewer/Harden/Smith Smith/D-Mo/Ariza/Harden Dwight /D-Mo/Dorsey Glued to bench: Canaan/Papanikalaou D-league: Johnson/Capela IR: Jones Gone: Black Until a trade goes down of course. Interchange Black and Dorsey if you want.
Let us enjoy it while we can, for all we know this might kill our team or Harden might get hurt. We have plenty of time to wallow in reality then. For now we can be happy.
I have always been able to say "depth". The trick is in how you handle the transition from the "p" to the "th".
Cant glue Papa to bench. He's too good of a passer for that. Only he, Harden, and maybe Schved, are true triple threats. You want him around Smith.
I'd argue that we were already deep. We had a lot of uncertainty with our bench when we started: 1) Broke-knee Terry or does the Jet still have jetfuel? 2) Canaan. Step up and blossom, or still d-league caliber 3) D-Mo. Year 3 leap in store? 4) K-Pap NBA Debut. Worth the largest 1st year salary for a 2nd rounder or not? All 4 of those questions were answered with about as best of answers as you could hope for. But injuries forced our deep bench to become starters: D-Mo, Black, Canaan. And yeah, with Nick Johnson and Dorsey getting extended minutes, our bench is subpar. But guys getting back healthy, and now with Brewer Shved Smith on board....man....we're stacked. Canaan Terry Brewer Pap D-Mo That's what I would run as my bench. Slide in Shved at times with Terry at the point. Also slide in Black with D-mo at PF at times if we need to go big against a big opponent's bench.
I agree. But that's the trade-off that comes with getting Smith. Papa plays the exact same spot as him. Smith gets D-Mo's minutes at the 4. D-Mo gets Papa's minutes at the 4. And brewer already took Papa's minutes at the 3. There's always a trade-off. The Rockets made one. Now they have to roll with what they have. I give it about two weeks or so until that depth chart I predicted comes into play. Until whatever trade we eventually make. No he won't. There's not enough minutes to go around. Unless <4 mins a game randomly every now and then counts as spare minutes.
I think one of Black or Dorsey's stint is over... Smoove can play C in a very small lineup and Donatas will take the backup C role
I remember our lineup prior to the James Harden trade... Lin K. Martin Budinger Patterson Asik What Daryl Morey has done in the last three years is truly amazing. Persistence + Flexibilty + Timing and a whole lot of luck has truly made us into a championship contender. (And that was before we added Josh Smith!). I don't know but going after Dragic just seems like we'd be making a deal with the devil. No team can have it that good...can they?
If Terrance jones was back we would be super stack. I wonder if we should deal him and get more depth at Pg
Not enough minutes to play Jones. A second playmaker is definately the most pressing concern. Both first and second units struggle whenever Harden sits.
