I don't agree with this. I think they are good enough with a wide margin. The problem right now is the centre. If Asik had not revolted and had played the second unit centre, the Rockets second unit would be one of the best in the NBA (if Lin was the PG). Maybe Asik changes his mind and we'll see that happen. If not, I hope Morey trades him for a really good backup centre (like Hawes for instance).
Except Asik is Not a back up C,he makes Way to much Money. For example put Ryan Hollins äs your back up C and Your Second Unit with Casspi and Garcia would be one of the worst,so yeah These guys aren't championship calliber Players.
Casspi really needs to pay alongside a legitimate defensive center. He thrives in an up-and-down transition game, but if we're not getting stops that forces us to play more half-court basketball where he doesn't look nearly as good. I think he's missing Asik as much as anyone.
Omri Casspi is our best and most solid player of the bench (excluding Lin since he sometimes starts as well) Casspi was signed for an inexpensive contract a vet-min, but he doesn't play like someone who was signed for vet-min contract, his output on the court is major and he looks very decent most of the time he is on the floor, I do agree you can sometimes sense who feels lost on the court but usually he does very well. I won't overstate by saying that Casspi is pretty much blossoming here in Houston, his stats are pretty decent for a 7th-8th guy of the bench. Not long ago his +/- index was the highest on this team, I'm not sure about it now though. There are also some "urban legends" that Casspi doesn't play defense and that bigger players than him bully him all the way to basket, I find it incorrect, I follow Houston and Casspi as much as I can and when I watch Casspi he does a very respectable job guarding his man, I think he is doing way better playing as PF rather than playing as a SF. As for now Asik is injured so of course it affects Casspi and the rest of the second unit. About Garcia, yes he does struggle, those who can't see it are blind, but it makes me livid that everytime someone on this team struggles you can quickly find derogatory threads and demands to trade the player, we are still in the beginning of this season, there are a lot of games left to play, players can sink and players can rise, give them a chance. I've seen Garcia plays with Casspi on the Kings and ever since I'm impressed with the guy, he plays with a lot of heart and effort, all we need to do is to be patient.
Most people loved Garcia, it's really not personal. He hasn't been playing well alll season it's not like it's just been a couple of weeks, slumps that long cost us home court esp with injuries to other people. He needs to secure that ish immediately.
Just so we have all the facts, I edited this table to include both guys career stats. I was going to bold the ones where Omri was better, but there weren't any. Except for his contract. Omri Casspi <TABLE id=contract class=stats_table><TBODY><TR><TH></TH><TH>2013-14</TH><TH>2014-15</TH></TR><TR class=hl><TD class=aling_center></TD><TD class=align_center>$947,907</TD><TD class=align_center>$1,063,384</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> 18 | Forward Houston Rockets Height: 6-9 Weight: 225 <TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="50%" align=center border=0><THEAD><TR><TH colSpan=9>2013-14 Stats</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR class=nbaClrHOU><TD class=compareBold>PPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>RPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>APG</TD><TD class=compareBold>SPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>BPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>FG%</TD><TD class=compareBold>FT%</TD><TD class=compareBold>3P%</TD><TD class=compareBold>MPG</TD></TR><TR><TD>8.4 </TD><TD>3.8</TD><TD>1.6</TD><TD>0.7</TD><TD>0.3</TD><TD>0.422</TD><TD>0.736</TD><TD>0.353</TD><TD>21.4</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Ersan Ilyasova 7 | Forward <TABLE id=contract class=stats_table><TBODY><TR class=hl><TH></TH><TH>2013-14</TH><TH>2014-15</TH><TH>2015-16</TH><TH>2016-17</TH></TR><TR><TD class=aling_center></TD><TD class=align_center>$7,900,000</TD><TD class=align_center>$7,900,000</TD><TD class=align_center>$7,900,000</TD><TD class=align_center>$8,400,000</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> Milwaukee Bucks Height: 6-10 Weight: 235 <TABLE cellSpacing=2 cellPadding=0 width="50%" align=center border=0><THEAD><TR><TH colSpan=9>2013-14 Stats</TH></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR class=nbaClrMIL><TD class=compareBold>PPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>RPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>APG</TD><TD class=compareBold>SPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>BPG</TD><TD class=compareBold>FG%</TD><TD class=compareBold>FT%</TD><TD class=compareBold>3P%</TD><TD class=compareBold>MPG</TD></TR><TR><TD>10.3 </TD><TD>6.2</TD><TD>1.7</TD><TD>1.1</TD><TD>0.4</TD><TD>0.446</TD><TD>0.787</TD><TD>0.372</TD><TD>23.8</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
You guys are crazy for hating on this guy. He's a vet minimum player that's carved out a spot in the rotation. Yeah, he tries to do too much at times, but his numbers are pretty solid across the board. Plus, we're a MUCH better +/- team with him on the floor. Point being: he's far exceeded expectations.
Omri is an excellent 8th man. When u ask him to be more, thats when he fails to live up to expectations. Our bech sucks cuz Lin and Asik have been injured and Garcia has been absolutely horrid.
Casspi is fine. As a minimum contract he's more than living up to his expectations. That said, it wouldn't hurt to upgrade the bench. Assuming we can't get a really nice starting upgrade with an Asik trade, hopefully we can get back a few rotation players that will shore up the bench. A nice back up Center and decent 2 guard to relieve Harden's minutes would be ideal. A mini-MLE/MLE caliber PG ($3-4M range) that can facilitate and play passable defense would also do wonders for the depth chart. Brooks is 1-dimensional and limited, but more importantly has a no trade clause so we can't do much there. And while Beverley is great bang for buck, unfortunately he's hard to play with the 2nd unit due to lacking strong offensive skills. So assuming we don't move Lin as part of a package for a serious PG upgrade or get a serious PG as part of the Asik trade, the next easiest way to upgrade the bench is to trade Beverley with Asik for a mini-MLE/MLE caliber PG like DJ Augustin that can serve as a decent back up facilitator in case of injury, can create for the 2nd unit and can hopefully play passable defense. Either that or hope Canaan develops fast so that one of our PG's becomes expendable to trade for other needs/picks.
...Casspi's a shooter. He's doing his job when he gets passed the ball and "shoots 75% of the time" thats exactly what we want and need him to do. His FG%'s are also very solid which means your argument is ridiculous. I think Casspi has done a great job this season for a vet min role player. Im happy with him, Casspi has TO STAY.
Casspi is fine as long as he's backing up Parsons at SF, it becomes an issue when he's forced to play PF and defend + rebound vs. real PF's and Centers.
I wasn't saying trade specifically for DJ Augustin, just that most NBA teams have more than 1 creating/facilitating PG in the line up. They do this both for redundancy as well as continuity through both line ups. Then they will have a premium defender on TOP of that for specific match ups. Yes, Harden plays "PG" a fair amount of the time, however you still want another creator beside him simply because it makes his life easier. Under ideal circumstances you would trade Brooks since he's basically a streak shooter with dodgy facilitation and poor defense. Since you can't trade Brooks due to his no trade clause, then you either get another PG and slide Brooks to the back up 2 guard, or you move Beverley and get a $3-4M 2-way PG. Or you develop Canaan and hope he rounds out nicely. Otherwise you're forced to substitute Lin more into the 2nd unit minutes if you want more bench punch, but at the cost of less punch on the 1st unit against top tier defenses.
De-mo should be the first option off the bench, he will get better with time, cant say the same for Casspi & Garcia, they are't bad but very limited in skills set
Casspi is pretty mediocre in all his percentages. This is fine if his stats are only relative to his salary or to certain cherry-picked players like Ilyasova. But he is slightly below what we need to be a championship team. We could have twelve Casspis with a really cheap team salary but we also need to consider talent in addition to value.
