You are a smart person.... it's been 11 games. Maybe give Dekker and Anderson a larger sample size. You can check out Anderson's career numbers and compare them to this short season and see Anderson isn't playing to his usual standard aside from 3pt%. Revisit this after 1/4 or 1/2 way through. Morey knows what he is doing in regards to contracts.
Allan Crabbe is making 18 million for the Blazers. and Crabbe got 5 pts 1 reb against the Rockets tonight.
Evan Turner is being paid the same amount I think and he's averaging 7 points, 4 rebounds and 2 5 assists off the bench lol. I don't like the Anderson deal much either. I wish he got the same amount as Gordon or maybe a little bit more. That's what the market does though. the market dictates the salary. He has been shooting very cold these last couple of games, but he's still shooting 44% from the three. it's his one redeeming quality. for a guy playing roughly 33 minutes you'd wish we was a better rebounder. About 6.5 rebounds per game and we all know he's probably the worst defender in the team. he's a very flawed player. But the silver lining is that he will always allow supreme spacing for Harden. Any player would be an absolute fool to sag off Anderson in a pick and roll with Harden. It's literally pick your own poison. And well, it sucks that we're paying him that much but at least he does provide that and does make the offense better. take it for what it's worth. he is who he is. A 3 point shooter who provides supreme spacing and almost nothing else.
I guess one of my bigger problems with Anderson is he's more of a "Dwight Howard" than "James Harden" fit. Both guys require 3 pt shooters for spacing but Harden in particular has to be with an athlete who is really good at transition and the PNR. Howard on the other hand, plays in a half court setting so a slow footed guy like Anderson would be ok with him. You can see the difference between Dekker and Anderson in terms of fit, Dekker is a much better target for Harden lobs and passes because he can also run the break and is athletic enough to finish at the rim. Honestly just looking at contributions the one who should be making 20M a night is EGO, he's been the robin carrying this squad in tandem with Harden. Anderson is like the shoe shiner of Alfred in terms of connection to the Batman family, he's that removed from the Rockets' success these days. As for Morey and his contracts, I don't know if you remember but this offseason was the worst for him in terms of authority, Les Alexander basically went over his head and got MDA despite him wanting a more analytics-oriented and defensive coach so I don't know how much leverage he had when he inked Anderson to that contract. While Anderson has been a long time target for the Rockets, the Rockets also have traditionally had a big bulky center down low from Yao to Asik to Dwight. Without that big center, having a slow footed unathletic stretch 4 seems like a bad fit, I mean think of Nash and replace STAT with Matt Bullard. That's basically what we have here. BTW it's 12 games now and Anderson still continues to unimpress,13 pts for your 80M dude LOL what a rip off.
Or you know, just play Dekker and don't put up with the lousy rebounding and horrible paint scoring. Dekker's even shooting better than him at the 3 so for spacing concerns Dekker is even better. Now that he's signed to the team, we should just put aside the horrific amount the Rox are paying him and just place his ass on the bench where he belongs, he should be fighting time with Harrell for PT at the PF spot smh.
I think this is just a classic moment of vast overrating one thing and vast underrating another. Dekker can't just take all of Anderson's minutes and Dekker hasn't proven himself to be a volume shooter either unlike RA. and if we do refuse to play Ryan then who takes Dekker's minutes? Motiejunas isn't signed so he obviously can't. Harrell then? Obviously not because you believe Anderson is on Harrell's level. We can't shorten our rotation either because that's extremely dumb to do in a long and grueling season. Best thing to do is to reduce Ryan's minutes to about 28 per game. Look, I understand clutchfans is looking for a scapegoat. It's what we do everrrrrrrry season. Every season there's a guy who doesn't belong and is the sole reason the Rockets aren't good. Clutchfans just chose to pick Anderson as that guy mainly because of his absurd contract...but you don't refuse to play a guy because of his contract. It's already done. Don't be dramatic and say he should be fighting for minutes with Harrell. That just makes you sound clueless. I don't like the Anderson deal as much as you, but there's just a time in your life where you have to realize that you have to stop be such an irrational knee-jerk type of fan. We're not too great of a defensive team regardless(we're improving, but still), but removing Anderson will make Harden's job so much more harder. Forget it. I'll just go into stats. Ryan Anderson On-Off Offensive rating: +8.2 Opponent Orating: +2.5 (They score more when he's on the court) Difference: +5 Sam Dekker On-Off Offensive rating: -5.2 Opponent rating: -4.6 Difference: -0.5 Honestly, this may be all because Anderson plays more with Harden than Dekker does, but if the difference is +5 for Anderson then he honestly can't be that terrible. It's just honestly a huge dislike for Anderson, and I get it. He doesn't ever rebound and doesn't ever grab rebounds and can't play any defense at all like the worst defender in the NBA, I never seen anyone worse and he is single handily the reason for all 5 of our losses including the one to the Thunder where Harden and Gordon shot a combined 4/17 from 3 and Anderson shot 4/9 and we lost by 2 points kill Anderson. Yes, I get it. He is everything that is wrong with basketball and his contract sucks. But can we just for a second realize the he isn't completely dog poop on one side of the end? Like enough to make Harden's life a lot easier? Nearly 24 percent of his passes are towards Ryan. He gets 2.4 of his assist from Anderson. Anderson shoots 47% from 3 when Harden passes it to him. Harden only has 5 guys on the team that he can rely on to shoot above 30% from 3 when he passes it to them. Ryan, Gordon, Ariza, Dekker and now Beverley. You really want to take Anderson away just so we can appeal to the fact that we're a bad defensive team that can't rebound? It's not going to do anything but make the offense worse and make the team worse.
I actually thought he was better last night. He boxed out well and actually played something to close to average on defense. Much better game then the OKC game where he looked terrible .
harden needs all the space he can get fir he can drive to the rim with ease and if the double team him he has a shooter waiting for him at all times andersom is getting paid a bunch but he's stretching the floor helps out harden alot.
It isn't a coincidence. The spacing works so great when is on the floor. It's not even about him being in the PnR with Harden, it's about him being a potential outlet pass at all times that keeps an extra guy from sagging into the pain when Harden attacks. Harden's efficiency is through the roof right now, and a big part of that is what Ryan Anderson on the court means to other teams on defense. Also not sure why people keep saying he can't rebound? He's at 7.2 per 36 minutes. No that isn't elite, but it's plenty fine for a stretch 4. Paul Millsap is only 8.2. He has been a net positive for the team so far.
Not sure on the negativity. Being able to hit shots 5 feet behind the 3 point line makes the driving lanes so much bigger for Harden. 13 points - 80 million dollars Making the court 25 feet bigger = priceless.
So with Dekker shooting 46% apparently means he's a much better shooter than Ryno then? Because that's what you're making it seem like it saying when it's the complete opposite. If dekker shot the volume of shots Ryno does he'd be nowhere near close to that level. The numbers aren't even close to telling the truth here if you don't actually watch this team.
make no sense when people want to use his salary as a reason to put down Ryno. Is it your money? No who cares. If he wasn't doing what he was supposed then i can understand some justification there. You can say it restricts FA and such but as we've seen Houston isn't exactly the 1st choice on top tier players these days. It's easy to just sit back and just say it limits moves. It would make more sense if Ryno wasn't doing what he was paid to come here to do and so far he's doing that. Spreading the floor for harden, hitting 3's at a career rate, not being a black whole on offense or ball stopper. Just being that solid PF houston has been missing for a long time next to JH. If you were expecting something else then you obviously don't follow Ryno enough to know the type of player he is. You can say what you want about his defense but based on this current system, it isn't a first priority as a team and he absolutely fits into what an MDA system is how it is built around Harden. If you want to alter the way he plays then change the philosophy of the team first before you start criticizing Ryno because he's doing what he is supposed to since he's been here. So if he was making $10mil instead of sub $20 his numbers would be fine? No, he's playing well regardless of that number. People have just been way too accustomed to value signings by Morey and are completely spoiled by it
There's a salary cap, that's why salary matters. Ryno + Ego = 1 max slot for 4 years. Are they, together, worth a max player? Of course it's not that simple, we have to spend the money, at least this year, and they wouldn't take 1 year deals. Still, it matters for flexibility and trying to sign Gordan Hayward or whoever going forward.
Yea even if Anderson was making 12 million, we had another 8 million dollars. What is that going to do? Sergio Rodriguez, Leandro Barbosa, Alex Abrines? Who cares? Again, the only real problem with contracts is if they are preventing you from signing a big name in free agency. If a big name wants to be here, we can make that happen, so it doesn't matter.
No max player wanted to come here, so what does it matter? If Gordon Hayward wants to come here, we can make it happen, so what does it matter?
Look I hate the contract and the complaint that he blocks us from signing a max guy is a fair complaint. Calling him a scrub that should be in the bench though is foolish. He has been a positive for the team.