Those guys stay healthy, plus maybe some easy consistent buckets inside, we should do some damage this year.
Eh to Anderson and don't understand gordans health record I don't understand why even take the risk of wasting money
Solid point and exactly what I was thinking. Morey has dabbled with relatively low risk, high reward moves(failed young guys like Robinson, Thabeet, etc) but I can't remember the last time he truly gambled on a non star making this kind of money. ...but the need for better shooting on this team was great without a volume rebounder on the roster anymore(bye, Howard) and the pool of players who fit that bill wasn't really that deep so Morey had to move quick and probably pay a bit more than he wanted to. If even just one of them pans out and stays healthy, the Rockets are much improved from last year.
The rebuild strategy is far more of a long shot than hoping Gordon and Anderson pan out. Just ask all the rebuild teams how that's working out - Lakers, 76ers, Kings, Nuggets, the Celts(good team, but even with Horford they are still a star short of making real noise), the Bucks, and the Magic. Hell the Pelicans struck lotto gold with the Brow and they still aren't a playoff team. And who are all these young guys without injury histories that we had a chance to sign this offseason? I understand the desire to go young because promise feels better than risk, but I think if you really think out your strategy, you'll find the rebuild strategy when you already have a star player is kind of foolish.
Health concerns aside, this is the best our PF rotation has looked in years. Eric Gordon is a much much better fit alongside Harden than Ty Lawson was. Add that to the fact that both players are clear fits for this team in terms of offensive chemistry and fit D'Antoni's system (as opposed to D'Antoni's last two coaching stints where he had to impose his style on players that didn't fit what he wanted to do.) there is a lot of reason to expect better chemistry and better effort. So while the mainstream media knock these moves as being a negative move for our defense... an increase in effort and chemistry can at least improve our defense from this last season. Rebounding will also improve because our shakiness at the PF position has always hurt our rebounding. Ryan Anderson isn't a superb rebounder but he'll gets his share and with all other positions with plus rebounders we should be adequate. The real improvement will of course be in spacing and three point shooting. Imagine with Bev, Eric Gordon, Harden, Ariza, Ryno, DMo... we could have 5 players on the floor that could hit 3s at 38-39%! Gordon can shoot and get to the basket and run a pretty solid PnR. Add Ryno's iso plays and you have a significant assistance to Harden's offensive workload helping Harden put more effort into other aspects of his game.
The formula is simple in the NBA. 2-way players. You want players who can guard their position and could impact offense--3ND players are nice (Ariza) but better still would be those with penetration ability: JR Smith, Richard Jefferson types. The pursuit of Basemore made sense. Harden needs a wing sidekick that could take some pressure off him on offense, so that he could expend his energy on defense economically. A deep rotation allows the 5 players that are on the floor to play all out.
Not overly excited by Gordon and Anderson on their own. But it's still early in the off season and there are trades to be had (or other FA's). So if we bring some guys in at the right positions, overall it could end up being a really good off season. So I'll reserve my decision for a while and wait see what other moves get made.
I feel like these are the kind of guys you add to an already good team looking to make a step up to contender as productive rotational players that may or may not start. I'm not sure these are the types of guys you add to a mediocre team and expect to get good. Someone said it earlier, I would have been thrilled with these guys 2 years ago when the Rockets were on the verge.
We have the same team, minus Dwight, whom nobody wanted back,and we added 2 newer better players we didn't have. It's a step in the right direction. Clint can easily do what Dwight did for us. We now have more depth and will run a better offense, how could it be worse than last year? We will still be top 8 team.
