http://statnerdperspective.weebly.com/ty-lawson-trade-and-what-it-means-for-rockets My first writing piece, thinking about making a Rockets blog an ongoing thing the next season.
I think D-mo off the bench works better tbh. There will be more touches to throw his way in the post. I still have him slotted to play just as many minutes as Jones, but if he can get a few minutes with the bench, it will really up his post touches. is lil buckets thornton? I'm not that high on him tbh. Maybe before Lawson was traded he would have been in the rotation, I'd probably still slot KJ over him unless our offense fell of a cliff still sans Harden.
Nevermind, I saw just below about earning their minutes. I think Capela will see a spike to preserve Howard for playoffs.
Please do, would very much be an addition for Rocket fans. Added a comment to your blog. Encourage anyone who reads it to comment on what you write. This thread will go away. The blog is a great addition for Rocket fans. IMHO
I'll be very surprised if DMo plays that many minutes at center . Last year, he injured his back going against those big guys. I would think that the Rockets would want to limit his minutes there. I see Capella being the back up center this year if he can hang on to the job.
I think TJones is a better fit to start now that Lawson is on our team. There just isn't much opportunity to utilize DMo's skillset in the starting 5. Lawson and Harden are going to open up the floor a lot more and allow more alley oop attempts. TJones is great at backdoor cuts, cleaning up the glass and when defenders inevitably shade off him (now that we have Lawson and Harden on the wings), he can take advantage better than DMo. DMo needs post touches and with Dwight in the starting lineup...it just seems oddly 'off'.
Nice write up! I hope you're wrong about the minutes distribution. I don't think I'm comfortable with Harden playing 36 mpg again, given how devastating an injury to him would be. the addition of another ball handler/facilitator (Lawson) will hopefully mean we'll get away with sitting Harden for longer. I hope KJ and Capela get some rotation time too. I wanna see how they develop with regular playing time, and I don't want to see Dwight and Ariza play 34 mpg either.
Nice article! That's a good 8 man rotation, I think it's more realistic then most perceive. Too many expect for us to run a 11 or 12 man rotation. I can see Capela and Thornton getting some spot up minutes here and there but I don't think a spot in the rotation is guaranteed for either.
Hardens total minutes should go way down because with these new guys we should be able to blow bad teams out of the water like we did with parsons and Lin and not let bad teams hang around. Harden should be sitting a lot of fourth quarters
I completely agree! It'd be a waste of their efforts if Dwight and D-Mo were both in the starting lineup. We wouldn't have enough touches to share between them all. It's better to let Harden and Lawson hit 3s and get in the paint, while having TJones and Howard in the frontcourt providing much-needed defense. Also, when our offense would come to a complete stop last year (which is unlikely to happen with both Lawson and Harden starting), we missed D-mo's consistent offense via post-ups. Start Jones, not because he's better, but because it's what we need.
Well Clint will certainly see some minutes when Howard misses games, like he will for the first game of the season. Thornton probably has a better chance at getting minutes while Lawson is out than KJ does for the simple fact that he can create his own shot and that will be needed more than McDaniels' defense. With Lawson and Harden both in the lineup though, KJ's defense and hustle will be more useful.
