Fist of all congrats to the Rockets with this unexpected season. I've never thought we can take Thunder this far even without Westbrick. Now next season we have something to look forward to. We have the talent but here is some break down my own observation that each contributing player needs to improve to be a much better team assuming no one is traded. Harden- DO NOT initiate offense. He tends to dribble the ball for too long before making a decision. Avoid those bull crap no look perimeter passes. It's so predictable, defender usually gets a fast break. Harden is the best score foul drawer. Let him be a shooter or slasher. Run some screens for him for him to be able to cut to the basket right after a catch. Oh and he needs to put effort on DEFENSE. Beverley- Be the starting PG. Offense should run through him. He doesn't have the best court vision but always plays aggressive and with lots of energy. He can break down the defense fine and get Parson or Harden easy drives. Play smart on defense. Pretty much every game he's in foul trouble. Brooks- Looks like he's back to his old self. Sometimes he could be a chucker but when he's on fire, he IS on fire. He fits perfectly with the pace rest of team is playing. His defense is much better than Harden's but down side is he's still a bad defender when he tries. McHale just needs to use his min smartly. He can be an awesome offensive firepower when we go small ball. Lin- Be the 6 man. He should have the mentality of being aggressive at all time. Good thing is when he's cold, he usually doesn't chuck up too many attempts. He's got the court vision and should initiate the offense when he's on the court. If Harden has the ball and starts to drive, Lin needs to move to create more options instead of just standing in the corner doing nothing. Screen for Harden when Harden goes ISO. Needs to get inside for more rebounds. Sometime you just don't know if the ball is gonna bounce your way. Again be aggressive. Parsons- Just play the way he did this season without handling the ball too many times. I want to see him screen more for our guards. Asik- Do not bring the ball down when going to the rim. Dunk the ball. Pay attention to what our guards are going to do. He really needs to fix his slow reflex. Practice free throws. Delfino- Do not initiate offense. Shoot whenever he's open at perimeter. Screen for Harden. Smith- Get stronger on defense. No more soft foul under the rim. Box out for rebounds. Practice free throws. Garcia- Play like he did against Durant. Shoot when he's feeling it. Set screens for guards. TJones- Box out!!! Jones could be a very good player if he knows how to defend. Anderson- Please sit on the bench. Robinson- Learn how to layup. T Jones- Learn to rebound and stop being a p***y inside. Needs more touches at post. Fisher- Needs to get fined 5 millions for countless flops and retire. Mchale- Learn some offensive plays.
We need to improve the roster. I don't think CP3 will notice the Rockets took the Thunder without Westbrook to 6 games on a night he got thrown out of a game 7 loss. Howard and Paul will likely take the guaranteed money even though they are probably better off $ wise coming to Houston. That leaves us with cap space, an early second rounder, and that PF we have stashed in Turkey. I guess we can sign Josh Smith (if he's around ~$12 million).
here's what i think we need (in no order), whether we contend or not - a pure shooter, or cp3. someone who can make an open shot 9/10 times. we dont have any of those, we have chuckers and average shooters. plenty of wide open missed shots regular season and playoffs. we have guys that can create their own shot, but not great at making it (sry for making no sense lol). cant depend on brooks going back to his old rocket days either, but still would love to resign him - a good perimeter defender with size. im not sold on garcia. its up to the front office if they want him back. i'd rather go with guys like brewer, nick young, j butler, d wright, etc. perfect if he can make 3s and run the floor. - upgrade at the 4/5. either with dwight howard, or a pf who can stretch, rebound and defend. a backup center too. if we dont get one, then its not that bad choosing from the logjam 4s. not perfect but still ok. we dont need to worry about the backup 4 as long as we keep dmo/tj and 2 of royce/smith/robinson
Sounds like the 'New Age Battier' that the Grantland article was talking about. Basically how good defenders that can defend the 3 and 2 and also drain threes are a hot, underrated commodity among GM's. Since those guys are rare, I would love to get JJ Reddick somehow. Not sure how it would work, but I feel like he'd be a perfect backup to Harden.
I like Beverley. But I dont think he is PG material. He doesnt seem to get many assists in general. He'd be more a SG, except that he'd be small for a SG. McHale, am not sure about him. Dont know if he is more help or hindrance. Everyone else, I like though I keep expecting Greg Smith to do better most games than what he actually does. And I think Donatas is used wrongly. Big fan of T Jones. Not so much of T Rob, though his potential is v big.
bored so here's a pipe dream team for next season, if we s&t for paul rockets trade - lin(8m), garcia(6.5m) robinson(3.5m), tj (1.5m), and a pick = 19.5mil. if they wanna trade crawford to shed salary, we can get a 3rd team involved and trade tim and anderson and maybe delfino paul / beverley / brooks harden / brewer / brooks parsons / delfino / brewer milsap / dmo / smith / white asik / mozgov / smith
definitely shane battier kinda player. tho he doesnt need to shoot 3s, or at a high percent. i think reddick and korver are among the best pure shooters which means they'll stay on the high market teams.
I think from a business point of view, most teams would want Lin on their payroll, cos I am pretty sure that he'd bring in more $$$ than what he is paid. From a basketball point of view, how can anyone compare him to CP3? Silly.
My list: 1. More cuts from Parsons and harden. More sophisticated offensive plays. 2. Someone needs to develop a reliable post game. Critical for closing games. 3. With small ball, we are beaten on defense rebounds and giving up a lot of second chances. This needs to be resolved. I am not smart enough to know how. Maybe someone can shed some light? 4. Practice defense especially double teaming more. We lost OKC partly because we could not recover from double teaming.
Reddick is short and unathletic, people can shoot over him or go around him, but he's a good system defender, he won't miss rotations, and he'll always get beaten in the direction he's meant to be beaten - paraphrased Stan Van Gundy.
imo mchale uses small ball a lot cuz its one of our best lineups. we dont have any reliable pfs. thats the weakest position. so he just needs morey to get a starting pf if he still wants to go small we can give millsap a look. he's 6-7 but really versatile and can play sf.
Yeah. I now understand his reason to go small... Really want to see what he will do next season Btw: I think Mchale would not trust any PF because they are all not that good in his eye Just kidding.
