Everything has changed: Eric Gordon is the starter.

I've been beggin for MDA to move Anderson to the 5 for the playoffs for months ....now we get Anderson starting at center along with Dekker getting some Burn...VERY interesting

 

Uh, every team's offense is predicated on the ability to get buckets. Feeding LMA got them like, 8-10 straight points. As Harden, you're either going to get scored on, or foul LMA. Both are unfavorable, for the Rockets.

 

FIFY

 

Yeah Anderson off the bench is PERFECT.

 

moving Anderson to the 5 coming off the bench and starting Gordon gonna give Pops fits...now he has to deal with Spazz Dekker if he can slow down his game and get focused the Rox might be more LETHAL moving forward..only thing missing is getting Montrez some burn

 

Whether by necessity or not, I love this change. We are obviously playing small ball, but adding E.G.'s abilities (drive, shoot, defend) makes The Rockets more dynamic on offense. Like so many unpredictable events, the Nene injury is the thing that may drive us past the Spurs.

 

unfortunate but true if we get past the spurs yep! Ironic how chit happens like this

 

Honestly I will take that match up every damn day.

 

Thanks for this thread @knote32, aside for the good points (which i agree) this gives me the chance to give some props to Gordon since it seems like he's not being talked enough at this point, we know he had a terrific first part of the season, but in January after those two injuries he really feel off...at some point he was basically bad and i kinda lost hope on him and i'm really happy to see that i was wrong, he stepped up again, he's scoring and that's ok, you kinda expect that, but his defense is what really got me...i'd say we have a true two way player here.

 

Same here, aside for some games, i don't really think LMA has been very efficient in the playoffs in his career...and while he's still a good/great player, those shots/plays he makes are not going to win you a playoff series...looks like he's also not that good in reading situations, i'd just send some help here and there to frustrate him and make him move, but i wouldn't double him regularly.

 

Offensively we can all agree we should be more than O.K. A more fluid offense (after all, we will have 3 guards starting), hopefully will cure the 1st quarter offensive droughts.

Defensively, you just know Pop will exploit the fact that we have only a true proven center. I expect LMA and Gasol to post up Capela trying to get him into foul trouble early. Capela needs to recognize this and adjust accordingly -- don't go for fakes, and if they score on you, so be it. Capela is much too important for us (holic, my man, faints, lol).

 

Nice. I like this.

 

I feel confident because Road Ryno is basically Dirk lite. I'm feeling confident again.

 

With Nene out, the Rocket's most useful rotation player is Dekker > Harrell, which forces Ryno to play backup C/PF and for Ariza to play 40+ minutes with Dekker getting spot minutes. Fortunately Capela has been playing well, and Ryno is certainly capable of generating offense off the bench.

We lose a bit with the mismatch of Harden guarding LMA, but this really makes it difficult for the Spurs to go 2 bigs as they're trading slightly better 2 point shots and a rebound boost for extreme pick and roll problems and transition defense issues. This is an interesting dynamic and perhaps we have our version of the Warriors 'death' lineup here if things keep going well.

 

yep...been waitin to see the "death lineup" theory show up in the playoffs with Anderson at the 5 variable lineup options...we shall see!

 

I like to see ryno in center look likes chris bosh

 

i like this lineup better than before. we can start gordon and still have a strong bench with lou, ryno, and dekker.

side note - i get why anderson just being on the floor helps spacing even if he's not hitting shots or doing anything else... but for $18M i'd like to see him contribute somehow if he's having an off night... or at least not have so many off nights. If we have a chance at hayward, blake, millsap, or ibaka i'm trading him for cap space.