I think where we miss Ariza most is his Length. The dude did a great job on 3's and 4's. I can see MCW and Ennis being around the same at defending smaller, or same size players .... but bigger dudes are gonna give us trouble
Isaiah Hartenstien for two minutes doesn't count. Capela will NEVER play heavy (32+) minutes per game, his game is too athletically intense and he's not Wilt. You have to get a backup of sorts in there not named PJ Tucker, and apologies to @Codman, but Nene's too damn old to do anything anymore. I'm not suggesting giving Isaiah 20 MPG, but 10 would be good enough and allow for flexibility depending on weather he's hitting his outside shots.
we played 9 not counting hart. 5 starters... Gordon , melo , green , mcw. I'm pretty sure green had the least amount of time but i think it was over 10 minutes
That shots taken by athletic big men near the basket defended by midget guards are more effective than contested 3s. Too many times i saw CP3 or Harden or Green or any other swingman on Anthony Davis. It was gross. This switch everything nonsense is gimmicky and exploitable. This is especially true now that 2 of our 3 most competent defenders are gone.
I also dun think people like Ennis III or MCW or Chriss are as championship hungry as folks like Luc or Ariza. They dun even know how it feels like to be on a perennial WCF contender. They try to win games, Ariza and Luc tried to win big. Switching household names with no names isn't automatically going to work. It might but that is a huge question mark. And we are still old and slow.
That the Rockets are definitely not a better team than last year, that it wouldn’t hurt to be less arrogant and more humble, that they need to keep their mouths shut and just play, that they need to pay some respect to Ariza and Prince Luc and we clearly miss them as individuals and part of a system, that we probably won’t win 65 games, that Melo is not a star and will hurt as probably more than he helps us and we actually have to give him some iso touches on the block, that we need a proper big off the bench and lastly that all this championship talk before you win one needs to stop.
How many times have we heard of a key member of a contending team's coaching staff retiring just before the start of the season, after his team won 65 games and was an injured hammy away from the Finals, and very likely a championship? Seems like that coach would have wanted another crack at a ring. I'm still surprised that Coach Bzdelik left, and we've had a lot of time to process it. One of the things @Will said that I agreed with was this, "Pretty sure Bzdelik would have dealt with the communication and assignment issues. I’m looking at you, Roy Rogers." I'm thinking the same way. We took a hit not only with defensive preparation for the game, the intended strategy and player assignments, but his presence on the bench. I hate to pick on Coach Rogers, but that's currently his job and we seemed woefully unprepared, so yeah, I'm looking at Roy Rogers as well, and we ain't at the rodeo.
It's only one game. Ummm let's revisit this after I say, 20 games from now. Can we all stop overreacting. I don't like the small ball stuff but I will give it a shot before I doom it a failure.
What bothers me a bit in this thread is unrealistic expectations from Capela. Last year when he was on rookie contract, bad games weren't even much of a discussion. With an extension, suddenly he should develop a jumper, post game and whatnot. What?? He is still the same player from last season and this is not a roley playing game with level-ups. He might or might not develop those skills (most likely not), but it's not like we paid him to be a better version of himself than last season right out of the gate.
Learned that Mirotic is going for the Allstar Weekend if he can keep this up. Another 30+ pt performance. On 21 attempts in 31 minutes.
I'm baffled by the folks sniping here at Capela. The only major problems I saw on his part were (a) playing against Anthony Davis and (b) not being Anthony Davis. Capela looks fine. We should worry a lot more about our smaller guys getting switched and abused inside.
I am quite disliking his words, he expects something that he can't really teach himself. Hope it is not his exact words.
In truth, I don't know how these new players Morey got are gonna fit. The Rockets already established an identity last year. Switch-everything defense. Iso-heavy pnr 3 point shooting team. Simply plugging in the new guys will not work. We have to forge a new identity that caters to the strengths of Melo Ennis MCW etc.
WCS from the Kings. Need to trade for him. Bring back Bruno too. Hartenstein is not the answer for any question.
Its been a couple days removed from the Pelicans game. Still thinking about it. And what frustrates me the most about that game is how "helpless" the team looked at stopping AD and Randle inside. The Rockets lost games last year. But not once did I feel they were "helpless" in a game. That is not a good feeling. Not for a team as accomplished as this one. The Rockets will win games and lose games this season. But I don't ever want to see another game like we saw in that Pelicans game.