with ALL players back, we have a damn good crew of people. Two All-stars, Veterans with rings (Ariza, Terry, Mchale?), young players. I have to say, it's a pretty nice well balanced group. I love the toughness this team has gained.
I could see in preseason that Black was going to give us more than we got last year from Asik (I'm not saying he's a better player than Asik, but Asik was flat out useless last year), we had literally no wing depth at all last year, which was our real killer, basically if Jeremy didn't produce and he often didn't, our bench would get beat down (we had the 2nd worst bench, behind Portland, whose benches were near historic bad, and we weren't that much better than them).
Well, i said before the season that Ariza, Canaan and Paps would be upgrades over their counterparts from last year. Bev (and Jones) are a year 'better' Terry and DMo surprised me!
We will see. There are competent spot-up shooters and defenders, but team is still lacking in offensive punch-- currently ranked 20th in points scored per possession and not getting to or finishing at the rim at a high enough rate. Also, Harden is carrying a higher share of the offensive burden than he did not only last year, but also 2 years ago. And this was happening even before Dwight got hurt. So, the team can use some "depth" in terms of guys who can create some shot on their own. Maybe the "new DMo" can do it, or maybe Canaan or can do it (both showed positive signs but got hurt before really playing a whole lot). Who knows. I bet Morey isn't sitting back happy and satisfied, though. The team can use more and he knows it.
I do think they are pretty deep (largely due to DMo as Easy pointed out). One more loss though and the Rockets would be 6th instead of 2nd - not sure if this question gets posed in that case. Where are the Black haters?
They proving to have good depth for the regular season, but in the postseason, you're not going to see more than nine of these players. Beverley / Terry Harden Ariza / Papa TJones / Dmo Howard / Black or Dorsey With maybe Garcia or Canaan getting some minutes depending on situations and needs. My gut tells me that's a roster good enough to make it past the second round, but still not quite enough to go all the way.
I think by now, given the success rate of sending our players there, it should no longer be looked at as a demotion. Even Covington is blowing up in Philly.
If Black and Dorsey can play consistently 70% of what they did on the other day against the Grizzlies, then I'd say yes. Otherwise, No.
Johnson and Black would have been playing in the DLeague if not for the injuries. Canaan is a second year guy who has played about 5 good games so far. Don't forget that Troy Daniels was thought by a lot of people to be part of our "depth" and he is looking like DLeague material this season. And DMo has been down in the DLeague many times in his first two seasons and few people considered him good depth at the beginning of the season. So that's my point. A few good games does not make a guy good bench player. Good depth is something you can count on. When the starters sit, you know they still bring it and the quality of game won't drop off sharply. Right now, I feel that I can only count on DMo, and maybe Papa. I would say Terry too if he wasn't that old and health was a big concern. This team right now is kind of like the 22-game streak team. That team had no business making history like that. But they scraped and they crawled and they overachieved. It was fun to watch while it lasted. But you knew that you couldn't count on them to play like that forever. The current team is like that. the 16-4 record is amazing exactly because you know that you can't count on them winning like this.
I've felt for a while this team had talented depth. I thought if given extended minutes guys would have more chance to blossom and improve. Troy can play too. But he's in a tough situation of having to show up in garbage minutes and small spurts of play. Even in past years it wasn't like dmo got consistent minutes. Even after good games mchale would sit him. He went many games at a time without playing. With young players there's going to be ups and downs. Tjones might not have gotten his shot to play as much if morey hadn't traded Morris and Patterson. Canaan was a rookie last year. You could see the talent but he was still an inconsistent rookie getting inconsistent minutes.
Irrelevant to depth in the NBA if steph curry goes down, golden state is boned if lebron goes down, cleveland is boned if aldridge goes down, Portland is boned
Not gonna lie, I am surprised. DMo, Terry, Pap, Canaan, Johnson, Black - they are all playing better than I imagined. With DMos play our problem at the 4 could be solved (TJones wasn't plaing bad either). With Pap we have no problem at the 3 either. And with Terry and Canaan we have no real problem at g either. I am still not too confident about our backup c, though Black and Dorsey played alright. I am not sure if we don't need another playmaker. Terry and Pap kinda have that role, but I think a real playmaker could really help this team. So far the only player, that really disappointed me is Daniels...
Since half our roster is always injured, then no I wouldn't consider us a deep team. We may be a deep team if everyone returns to full health, but even that remains a question mark. Howard has missed how many games now with a sprained knee? I have sprained my knee two times before, both incidents took about 1-2 weeks to heal to full function. Howard has been out about 3 weeks now and there is still no timetable for his return? Very strange. Either the injury is worse than what we have been told or McHale is sitting him intentionally. Take your pick. Jones the same. When I first heard of the injury the Rockets organization had reported that Jones had bumped knees in practice or something and that it wasn't serious. One month later, still no timetable for his return. Not anticipated to return anytime soon, done for the year? With Howard the concern is even more serious, how can we trust that this guy will ever be able to stay on the court now that his knee's are starting to go out on him? Seems like his body could be in decline and probably started with his herniated disk. We have seen this crap before with other players who have back injuries and then the rest of their body starts crapping out and they spend more time on IR than in the game. Rockets may have a deep team, if healthy. But, just like in the Yao and Tmax campaign we still have to use the words "if" and "healthy" to describe our team's potential.
i thought we had absolutely no bench going into this season. like, not one player capable of contributing other than the 5 starters. now, i think we have dmo, papa, terry. those 3 will be the playoff rotation. i also think black, dorsey, and canaan are worthy of minutes during the regular season while capela and johnson should be d-league all stars.
In the last week, everyone has evolved. we are deep now. Canaan is a Vinny Johnson type now that he's found a stroke, a scorer off the bench, and while not always on, he can be. Dontas is now in effect a quality starter with good Defense and a goto set of moves that are reliable. Terry has enough moments to be valuable. Black has some bounce now when we need it. That's a very solid bench. I'm all in with this team. In addition we have a specialist in Troy Daniels. Papa will not be viable until he can hit a shot. So ironically, he seems like someone who does not belong in the rotation other than to spell ariza for a few minutes.
