The important takeaways from the games: our young players are growing

Yeah, things look very encouraging so foar. Plus, this team will be fun to watch. And I love the fact that we can play so many different ways: conventional, small and big. It gives us more to talk about.

 

Parsons is very impressing, he looks more in sync and has worked on ball handling, even his form has a better flow.

 

Lin and Parsons have gotten a lot better.

 

Agreed Meh,

They look good so far.

 

One thing i would like to take away from this game(even though i didn't watch it)is Howard didn't have a good game and we still won by twenty. Against the Pacers.
Let that marinate.

 

Anyone else think Harden looks even better this year? Playing off the ball and seems MUCH more energetic on both sides of the ball.

 

I actually thought Howard wasn't putting in even 70% effort that game. He just seemed to be cruising, taking mid range jumpers to see if he can hit them, etc

 

I agree harden looks great. I am really glad he is not tanking it. When you are wearing silk boxer shorts sometimes its hard to get up at 5am and work. This dude has been doing work.

 

I would also like to point out something about Lin's aggressiveness.

Lin took 6 shots this game. All 6 were at the rim. He also had 8 FT's, the result of aggressively driving to the rim and putting pressure on the defense.

When Lin was in New York he averaged 5.4 FTA/game in his 25 starts.
Last year Lin only averaged 3.4 FTA/game.

The takeaway? Lin playing opposite minutes from Harden allows him to be more aggressive and to play his style of basketball. I'm not predicting Linsanity, but we could perhaps be getting a much closer version of it than the average player he was last year.

 

Forget the boxscore. Dwight Howard makes the game so much easier for everyone. He is such a threat on the defensive end as well. Other teams aren't so confident attacking the paint against us anymore.

 

Well, to be fair, last year they weren't so confident when Asik was in the game either. But now they're definitely not confident

 

Its an exciting year for sure!

I'm just excited about Casspi. serious, what a pick up by Morey.

I KNOW its just 2 pre-season games.

He'll be an excellent offensive tool along side T-jones running in the second unit with Bev when the season starts.

How exciting!

GO ROCKETS.

 

Dwight Howard actually blocks them shots though. Everytime I see Dwight Howard sky in the air to block a shot I am amazed. Of course it sometimes ends up with him losing position on his original man and giving up a layup but ******* that reach.

I'd argue that Dwight Howard's athleticism greatly expands the volume of the space where he can contest shots.

 

I'd also like to add the I loathe Comcast.

I WANNA WATCH THE DAMN GAMES! It almost makes me cry I want so bad.

 

Wow, this actually made me feel really bad. You can cry on my shoulder if you want.

 

Spoiler

 

Spoiler tags. USE THEM!!!!

1.

Spoiler

2. same as 1, but add this / in front of the word spoiler

 

Wow that's a big picture

 

Don't forget Casspi, who is the same age as Lin and Parsons. Not so much as improve but just being properly used(or just playing with better players) as opposed to being dumped on to Cleveland.

DMo and Jones also both looked decent while playing next to Howard in these 2 games(funny how that works), while both still showing major lapses on defense when Howard is off the floor. It's only been 2 games, but it is a lot closer to 50/50 between these two than I thought. Jones has been under control for the most part(besides the 3 v 1 fast break pass to no one).