Paul, Griffin & Smith throwing lobs to DJ literally 48 minutes a game is going to be pretty deadly. Pretty high percentage shot, there.
I think there is, at its essence, two dynamics going on: (1) We have an unsustainable mix of power forwards. Last season, we had 3 rotation-worthy players at the 4, with D-Mo, Jones, and Smith. The 3 are all arguably within spitting distance of each other in value, but realistically only 2 of them can fit into the rotation. It only worked last season because (a) guys missed significant chunks of time with injuries, and (b) they are all on cheap contracts. This coming season, there's no reason to expect prolonged injuries again, and it's the last season these guys will play for cheap. (2) Our payroll is very high. We're in the luxury tax and near the apron. We're spending so much money on Howard (especially), Harden, Lawson, and Ariza, that if we essentially can't pay market rate for a starting power forward. The crunch only lasts this season and the ballooning cap will give us a couple seasons of respite, until Harden is up for renewal (though if Lawson has a great season, and/or we get a big pick-up in free agency, we might be right back at the apron in no time). So, coming into this season, Smith saw that only 2 of the 3 would get minutes. He might be one of them, or he might get benched. Since this season is his audition for the next contract in the big free agency bonanza next offseason, he needed a place where there was no risk of falling out of the rotation. I don't think it's a no-brainer he gets minutes ahead of Jones, and in any case, it's a risk. But, this is the last season we get 2 rotation-worthy players at a discount. Jones and D-Mo both get huge raises this offseason. We won't keep both of them, so someone is likely getting traded at the deadline. Now, we'll need a backup. We've got Capela and Harrell, essentially. They're both very young. Or, we can go small (more likely, imo). Hayes would make a great backup once we trade Jones or D-Mo, with Harrell perhaps a promising longer-term solution as backup once he's seasoned. But, we're at the apron and there's no money left. Harrell is being stubborn (is my guess) and is holding out for the MLE contract. That'll mean we can't fit both Hayes and Harrell on the payroll. We could choose Hayes to get through this season (my preference) and lose Harrell, but Morey chose instead to offer what he had to to get Harrell, and will think of something else to cover the backup 4 down the stretch this season instead of Hayes. Maybe Harrell will be ready. Maybe we can go small. Maybe when we trade our PF, we can get another cheap but serviceable veteran PF coming back in the deal.
The major concern for the Clippers' new roster will be this : FT shooting. Now that they have Josh, the Clippers basically has the 2 worse FT shooters in the league and you probably can not play them in the 4th Q after the 6-7 minutes mark till the last 2 minutes. And what kind of backup they have now we are talking about? Cole Aldrich. And that would not be pretty, he is a worse player than Hawes. One of the key concerns for the Rockets to decide whether or not to keep Smith is his FT shooting, when you have so many bad FT shooters in your team, basically you are force your opponents to take the ball out of Harden's hands also. It will not be easy for Doc this year.
I'm honestly very curious to see how he does there. Could be good, could be bad. I'll be woman enough to admit that I wish him the absolute worst, as far as fit is concerned.
I'm not so sure we don't still have the 2 worst FT shooters in the league. You're talking about Smith and DeAndre. I'm talking about Dwight and Capela. Hopefully Capela drastically improves. Not true. Aldrich is one of the best backup centers in the league. You haven't been watching him close enough the last couple seasons. He's a difference maker defensively and on the glass. Clips will be much improved running him and Smith out there as the backup bigs. True. However we haven't really fixed anything by letting Smith go. We've lost a good chunk of defense with him gone and he did shoot the 3-ball at a much higher rate (attempts) with acceptable accuracy than any of our other 4's. And we've got our own problems with poor FT shooting bigs. We could really use a good big that can: 1. Shoot FTs at a high rate. 2. Facilitate the offense by either hitting the 3 at a high rate or being a great pick-and-roll option. 3. Rebound his butt off. 4. Defend adequately against other legit NBA bigs. This all fits Capela if his FT shooting comes around. Capela is a huge key for this team. If he improves substantially at the line we could be in great shape. But if he falters.....we're gonna be scratching our heads for a solution that can both defend, rebound, and hit FTs (shoot) well to complement Dwight/DMo. We need to hope, hope, hope that Capela is mastering his stroke this summer.
Also I remember McHale saying last year, I think during the playoffs, that "I enjoy Josh." Methinks the ladies doth protest too much. Sounds like Josh is a difficult person (uncoachable and not particularly sociable) who wears on those around him, and they let him walk. It's a basketball decision, of course, with Josh being a multiple-threat possession killer (bad passes, bad shots, bad free-throw shooting), which makes him a close call in terms of what he contributes on the court. But I bet his personality tipped the decision, in Houston as well as in Detroit.
The team defensive ranking for the Knicks in 2015 is no. 28, out of 30. Cole Aldrich's rebounding per game ranks 46th in his position, while Reggie Evans played about the same minutes as did per game, ranking 36th and have about 1 more reb per game than him. And Reggie Evans is still unemployed.
Sounds like there you could interpret any comment to mean the opposite of what it plainly says with this approach. Actions do speak louder than words, and from the way the offseason went it doesn't seem like they put a very high priority on him -- somewhere below McDaniels. But, they did extend him an offer and they'd have gladly signed it had he accepted. They didn't show him the door.
I think you are fundamentally correct. This sounds weird. When you look at position, I think Smith is the best of the three PFs, but is the worst when you look at role. Josh has high highs and low lows and is extremely inconsistent. I think inconsistency was one of our biggest problems and that is the primary thing Rockets are trying to improve. Starts with low roster turnover and a traditional point guard.
http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=268048 Not sure why you are so sensitive about "conspiracy theory." It's not about conspiracy. It's not about guaranteed or non-guaranteed contract. It's about one fact. It was reported that they agreed to terms, and now it is reported that the Rockets is not going to sign him anymore. Which part of it is not a fact? And what does it have anything to do with whether the contract was guaranteed or not? They agreed on a contract, whatever it was.
Why did he make a bad decision? He wasn't going to get PT with all those PF's here and LAC guaranteed him minutes. He made the decision that would be most lucrative for his career. Being the 10 guy on the bench isn't going to get him a good contract.
Josh Smith is still Josh Smith. It doesn't matter is Chris Paul or Magic Johnson is passing to him. He still is inconsistent, turnover prone and cannot hit free throws. His signing helps the Clippers more than it hurts the Rockets. Still we are talking about a marginal improvement for the Clippers. Smith will win them games and lose them games. The Clippers are going to be good, probably as good or better than last year. They should have better depth assuming their new SF has his head screwed on straight. Still the Rockets played a large part of last year without Howard; DMO and Beverley missed the playoffs and the Rockets added Lawson. The Rockets should respect the Clippers but a healthy Rockets team should beat the Clippers in a series.
Looks like the Clippers are gonna get Hayes as well as Smith.... Did bother me some much about Josh, but a do feel like the Hayes thing is a punch in the gut.. http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....-hayes-agrees-to-deal-with-clippers/#comments
Regarding Josh Smith.. With the addition of Ty Lawson, we have two players who are INCREDIBLY gifted with the ball in their hands. Josh Smith is a guy, much like Harden/Howard, that requires the ball to be effective. With Lawson, there simply isn't enough ball for everyone and why not give more possessions to the guys that produce great plays consistently? I think Morey had his mind set on Lawson for a while and was indirectly pushing Josh out the door.
You are nuts. Capela did get more consistent with his freethrows. Aldrich is the ****s mate, stop talking out of your ass, the kid is trash,
I'm very comfortable with DMo getting 30+ at the 4 and if needed at the backup 5. The rest going to Jones and Harrell if he's not at RGV. I think if DMo can stay healthy, he's going to improve on last year. That's a scary thought. He could really be a key cog on our offense. He does need to work on his rebounding though. It's a good thing we have Dwight and CC.
