Move Lou and Ryno and maneuver up to the lottery to grab Markannen. Get Hayward in FA. Move Trevor to the bench. Throw whatever money is left over on Patty Mills and hope he goes for the money.
Solid article. Couple that with the ESPN magazine article about Houston's 3pt strategy being the strategy of underdogs to increase variance and thus improve win probability - and that's the story of Houston's season. Right strategy for the roster that helped our team overachieve, but it doesn't erase the fact that it's an underdogs strategy and we still need another all star level talent to be able to compete with the very best teams.
In my opinion, the issue can be fixed by a PF. I don't think we need a center to fix our issue, just a big bodied PF that can't be picked on like Anderson was. He was great for a bit, but Ryan just needs a bit of help.
It's a good article, well thought out. We do need another playmaker who can be a scoring threat, but we need a 5/4 who can score rebound. and defend, along with better perimeter defense. Nene is awesome for his age, but he isn't 27 anymore. He will have suitors too, and we might lose him, despite his desire to stay in Houston. Lots of problems, with little cap room.
Well said. These Rockets mirrored the Astros 2 years ago. Hot start then hovered above .500 the rest of the way. For us, I think Gordon struggling the last half hurt us, though it's not a surprise that his individual hot start wasn't sustainable. Once he started struggling, Brewer's ineffectiveness became more obvious, so we traded him for Lou Williams. Unfortunately for the most part, Lou was also struggling with his shot post-trade. Biggest need for the Rockets is a more reliable 2nd option for Harden. In terms of free agency, Hayward is the best option by far.
Don't drink. Get up at 4:30 everyday. Read the bible and pray for the first thirty minutes to an hour. Then I ride my bike for 45-60 minutes, shower, eat, and hit the road. Last night had a little insomnia. Posted late. I usually get 5-6 hours of sleep a night. Which is enough.
I need to get my bike back into working order but even then, it's hot and humid like a motha.... here and I'm not sure the hassle of bleeding disc brakes and worth riding in misery.
As far as the first half vs second half contrast, a lot of things factored into that: 1) The Rockets had a tough schedule in the latter half of January and in March. That will inevitably lead to an inferior second half record. It's no coincidence that their lone 3-game losing streak of the season included 2 games vs the Warriors(including one on a B2B after playing in Portland). 2) They played more games than any other team prior to the All-Star Break. If fatigue played a role in their second half fade, I would think logging more minutes than the competition would be a factor. 3) D'Antoni shortened the rotation. Dekker played every game til his hand injury at Phoenix. But for some odd reason, D'Antoni settled on playing only Nene as the backup C/PF in non-B2B situations(aside from when Capela was out with his leg injury). Harrell, despite some impressive showings, was stuck on the bench. 4) The ridiculous records of the Warriors and Spurs. The Rockets were pretty much stuck in 3rd place for most of the season. There was no way in hell anyone was catching Golden State. And San Antonio was frankly never within reach after the All-Star Break. So all they had to play for was the 3rd best record in the West and the NBA. So going forward, what can be done about this? Not much in terms of the schedule. The NBA dictates that, so all D'Antoni and Morey can do is try to ensure the team has adequate depth so that the starters and key reserves aren't forced to log heavy minutes early in the season. D'Antoni does need to trust his bench players more. It was inexcusable to abandon Dekker the way he did in Game 5 of the Spurs series. Who cares if he's not shooting well? He's young, athletic, energetic, and can provide a breather for the worn out starters. Unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about the Warriors and Spurs other than to hope that free agency and/or age weakens those teams next season and beyond.
Trade Anderson for 0 salary in return and roll with Ariza or a bargain basement starting PF Harden/Lou/Brown Bev/Gordon/Taylor Hayward/T. Williams Ariza/Dekker/Wiltjer Capella/Nene/Harell/Onaku For the record, I hate it when they start Ariza at the 4. I am pretty sure that their record is horrible when they do.
Appreciate the kind words. By the way, I didn't mean to overlook the contributions (or lack thereof, in some cases) from the bigs like Anderson and Capela. It's just that the interior production was more of a constant, and for purposes of this article, I was focusing more on the variables. Other than Dekker/Harrell, there wasn't a ton of variance in production from Ryno, Capela, Nene, etc. from the first half to the second half... they generally are what they are. What I was trying to focus on is why/how the Rockets were elite in the first 40 games with those guys, but not in the final 42 and playoffs. In other words, what changed during the season? Now going forward, could you improve the bigs? Absolutely. In fact, in my podcast today with NBA TV's Brian Geltzeiler, we spent a ton of time talking about why Ryno is the most logical spot to upgrade, along with discussing the potential replacements (Ibaka, Millsap, Gallo, Gay, etc.). So I'm definitely not trying to overlook it... even great teams have flaws, and that's clearly a spot you CAN improve. The article here was just more of a "2016-17 reflections" piece, rather than a true "preview" of how to best optimize the roster moving forward. It certainly had a few components of the latter, but the former was my primary emphasis. (P.S. I know Ryan in particular was very up and down in regards to his SHOOTING numbers in a given game, but I'd argue that he was predictably inconsistent, if that makes sense. Not the same dynamic as with Gordon.)
I haven't listened to @The Cat's LockedOnRockets most recent pod yet, but interested in what we all thought of Ibaka in terms of if the Rockets could replace Anderson with Ibaka (trade Anderson to a team that has space). It would seem that would improve the defense greatly even if the 3pt shooting downgraded, but only slightly. Also encouraging about Ibaka, he has been quoted as saying he "does not mind" playing the C spot. Generally guys like him pitch a fit on that. So, with Ibaka open to playing C, you could play him with Capela and then have him be the 2nd unit C. Nice flexibility there. Plus the synergy with Harden. I'll be honest that I haven't looked deep into Ibaka's numbers, just offering some ideas on the surface.
