Nene unavailable on b2b, RA health sketchy at best, and none of the others are ready to contribute now - evidently... couple less projects for someone who could contribute now... as if Trez is getting the opportunity...
I can think of reasons: we used our salary cap on other resources and no stretch 4 bench warmer was available? I mean morey tried to sign bogus.
No offense, but just because some geek figured out that 3 is more than 2 and people are willing to hold him up as the messiah... the game of basketball hasn't changed... there will always be trends and fads - some work, some work until adjustments are made, some don't... in the end, I'll take a big man who can take it to the rim with authority during crunch time over a shooter...
The one trade that didn't make sense was Beas. He would have been a great guy off the bench, but it was perhaps his lack of 3pt shooting and something else that made MDA not want him. His defensive rebounding and scoring would have filled a hole we have on the bench. Maybe we wanted to develop Harrell and Dekker, and MDA thought Beas would stunt their growth.
When you find that big man that is good enough to be that true game changer on a nightly basis let us all know. The game of basketball in the nba as absolutely changed. If there are people that still don't get that yet then you probably need to pay more attention to the details on what is winning ball games out there these days
Hindsight is 20/20... but if we had retained Beas... and turned a couple assets (KJ, rookies, foreign rights, cap space...) into a reliable 20 min a night down low option... I'd feel a lot better about our chances this year... maybe the option wasn't there... welp, lock n load and let's hope for the best!
Gimme Hakeem in his prime... and I'll build a team around him that will beat any present day small ball lineup you wanna trot out... Here's a question for you.. probably make a cool thread... if you were awarded a new expansion franchise today... and you got to sign any player in the league to a max contract... who would it be?
Pretty much proves what I'm saying. Find a big man that can beat small ball cause there isn't any in the league today. Hakeem would one of them if you took him and placed him in the league now. But taking past dominant bigs doesn't prove anything about how the game is played now. As long as the league is perimeter heavy it will have more of an impact on winning than big play
so are you saying the game has changed and big men are now secondary to small ball... or are we just waiting for the next renaissance of bigs to come to fruition...? Is it the game evolving and changing... or is it just ever altering to accommodate its present field of stars?
Big man has been secondary to perimeter play for years now. the game is played more out there than it's ever been. you can probably say it's a product of the perimeter perimeter players being this deep. Evolving changing. Doesn't really matter.
I guess we'll see how they cover for Anderson today. Ariza at PF, Harden at PF etc. LouWill gets more minutes, better make his shots. Unfortunate Rockets couldn't get Taj Gibson at the trade deadline like @Codman mentioned. Double unfortunate he ended up going to OKC. Surpried Morey didn't make a more aggressive effort for Casspi who can play the 3/4 spot "with range shooting" to spread the floor. Seemed like a good fit.
"If Clint Capela is our starting center for the balance of the 16-17 season, we are going to struggle to make the playoffs."
Still can't believe this is a real pic. WTF this is worse than that pic of Yao licking a player's armpit.
All though I think Beasley trade was a bad one I don't think Morey made a "mistake" here. He probably did try to get exactly what you are talking about. He did a lot of moves this off season, it is not like you can just snap you fingers and make it so. There probably weren't any bigs who would be willing to sign with the Rockets AND on a decent enough contract to justify the signing. Hopefully this off season we will see another power spike. My biggest concern is Lou and Gordon going ice cold when we need them.
