Trevor Ariza missed 15 games last season. Rockets went 14-1.

Ennis is younger. More skilled? I don't know. We also don't know how Ennis will produce at scale. More minutes and for the entire season at those minutes. And watch the durability. We'll just have to see.

 

based on what. he hasn't played a single minute here for that to be a forgone conclusion

 

Yes and no.

He was not at full health when we played against them in the WCF.

They were still on the brink of elimination even without Luc at max playing level. Again, he's gone get over it.

We will find others on top of James Ennis throughout the season to replace bench players that fit his role. The season hasn't started yet, which is most likely the bigger reason people are still butthurt about losing Luc AND Trevor.

I feel like we'll be okay, everyone else will remain in panic mode. I'm cool with that.

 

This is why there was a consensus that Mbah a Moute is better. A player the Rockets no longer have.

 

They just got hot. Rox under MDA will always be good in the regular season but will gas out come playoffs against contenders.

Now with Lebron there might have been a chance. With Melo.....errr.....nope.

 

all I know is that the Rockets are replacing the defense of Ariza and Luc with that of Ennis and Melo...the answer to beating GS is not to take a step back defensively

Will the Rockets be able to maintain their 6th ranked defense from last year?

 

well since he wasn't at full health, that just made ariza and PJ play 40 mins a game. if he was healthy then some of those exact minutes would of went to LMM with the same defensive concept and matchups.

people should be disappointed in losing those two bc they were extremely important. theres absolutely nothing wrong with that

 

If Luc stayed... I wouldn’t have cared about losing Ariza.

 

Youre wasting your time on such a feeble minded poster.

 

The guys that play the least always become Clutchfans legends. Bob Sura, Luc Mbah a Moute, and D-Mo will forever live on as all time greats on this board, due to the blessing of small sample size.

 

I think Bzedelik is making a run at Top 5 Defense but I am more than doubtful.

Also Playoff Defense, at another level, will be much harder to play with Melo.

 

CF was quick to point out how important not having a healthy Luc was against GS whenever it was mentioned that Iggy was out due to injury

we’ll be tossing out Ennis or Tucker as our primary wing defender to guard the likes of KD now...both Ariza and Luc were better perimeter defenders

 

That could also work, but I am hoping we can dump Anderson earlier than that.

 

So true.

 

...but now that he left, he wasn't that good anyways, easily replaceable, we've already found someone better.

 

Of course. I was definitely one of those people.

But to drag on as if this was as critical as losing one of James Harden or (most likely) Chris Paul is called insanity.

You can't always get the smaller fish when there are obviously bigger fish to fry. Clint has yet to even sign and Melo is, possibly, on the verge of signing... after those two I would definitely focus all efforts on signing Melton and whatever other rookie DM sees fit.

After all that we can see what we dig up ala Gerald Green (this time more defense oriented) off the FA market or via a trade here and there.

We had a lot more peices in place last season off-season compared to this off-season. This off-season we're more so on to regroup mode.

 

i really think we should have kept Luc, but oh well.

I don't think 15 mil for Ariza is reasonable. he has gone through enough slumps both defensively and offensively to justify that crazy money. I think people don't remember that Ariza gets blown by a lot by quicker guards.

 

ariza was a clutch defender who also had length on the wing for an otherwise undersized team. losing him AND luc is very tough to replace. however, we didn't seem to need luc against the warriors. he would've helped but we could've beat them without him.

what we needed was one more guy who can create his own offense besides harden, paul, and sometimes ego. melo will give us that. if we had melo as our 7th man in the WCF instead of green i think we win game 7. he can still score in bunches from anywhere on the court unlike green who only hits the random crazy 3. neither are great on D.

melo will improve our team, but MCW and JE3 are not ariza replacements. they're great depth for the season so we can chase the #1 seed again. we still need a starting quality F to replace ariza if we want to be able to beat the warriors.

 

what does this even mean. every single player in the league gets blown by at some point. that doesn't define him defensively. the durability/longevity. the defensive iq. the mentality. the experience. these things matter

 

You do realize the reason the Rockets weren't in the NBA Finals last year was because they couldn't buy a bucket not because of their defense, right?

By most accounts, Ennis is basically the same type of perimeter defender as Luc. Ariza's defense will be missed, but his lack of offense absolutely killed us. His offense didn't hurt us; once again, it killed the Rockets chances of an NBA title.

That won't be a problem with Melo.