Who is the 5th best player on this current roster?

Before this preseason I would have said Terrence, easy. Now I am really unsure -- and that shakes my confidence about this roster a little bit.

It seems like we are a team that is only certain of 4 of its players. More than not having a 3rd star, not having a 5th and 6th player that we have complete confidence in is a major worry about this roster's ability to be an elite team in the west.

 

I'm still not that comfortable with Beverley since his injury. Rockets have a ton of guys that fit role player to deep bench.

 

All trash.

 

T jones... I'm expecting some BIG things from young Terrence

 

Asik was terrible last year. I would say the 5th best player on last year's team was easily TJones.

Asik came into the season with hype but sulked all season long. People think we lost something by losing Asik. Well, we did. We lost a big fat crybaby.

I have big hopes for Papa and for Canaan. If either one of those guys steps up, we may just have something here...

 

I think it is Kostas. I think he will be finishing games with the starters during the regular season.

T. Jones can go from 'OMG! That was an awesome play!' to 'Do the Rockets have a power forward in the game right now?' in no time flat.

 

It's getting pretty reliable that every time I mention what we lost this offseason (which admittedly is more often than people like), someone will jump in to tear down Asik. This time, it's unwarranted though. He may not have contributed a whole heck of a lot last season because Howard took his position, plus he had injuries and maybe a little sulking too, but he was still definitely one of the 5 best players on the roster last season. That we couldn't effectively leverage that ability doesn't change his value. And, as the exercise in this thread demonstrates, the team is thinner for not getting anything for him (yeah, we got a mid-first-rounder for him, whoop-dee doo).

I agree with you on the new guys, especially Pap -- I'm hoping they'll become something.

 

I'll take Asik back...

 

Seriously? "that we couldnt effectively leverage that ability"? We couldnt? Do you have a frog in your pocket? Do not diminish the sulk factor for Asik last season. Do not marginalize what his sulking cost this team. He should have been a big part of what the Rockets were trying to do but instead he sulked. And he sulked. And he pouted. And then he cried.

He chose not to be effectively leveraged. I have no love lost for that big crybaby. I loved him in 2012-2013. He's dead to me now. By the way, how do you actually calculate less than 50% of the 4th best player on your roster?

In team contribution, Asik was probably 9th or 10th last year at best, regardless of how good anybody perceives him to be.

 

The second most votes on this poll went to a guy who has played zero regular season minutes in the NBA.

That either speaks to the strength of Kostas, or the weakness of the roster. I think both.

As for Kostas, I think he will be a damn fine addition. But given the fact that he is young and still developing as a player, and the fact that he will still need to adjust to the NBA game, I sort of view his ceiling this year as being a really good 6th man on a quality team. If he's our 5th best player as of right now, that's probably not a very good sign.

 

Whoever is playing the best on any given night.

 

You didn't get the point. We are talking about the best player, not how much he did. Asik's situation was awful. How he handled it was bad. How he got into it, however, was not his fault. But the point is that it did not diminish the fact that he was the best player sitting on our bench last season and we did not get the value he has.

 

I think Jones will have the 5th most minutes, but believe Daniels will turn out to be our 5th best guy.

 

Papanikolaou will be NBA starter quality within months. He is underrated in this poll.

 

I don't really know the answer to this because it's too early to tell. But I have been saying from the beginning that Terrence Jones is fool's gold. I think I would go as far to say that he is worse of a defensive player than Harden. I expect him to be flipped by the trade deadline while his value is still high. Hopefully D-Mo continues playing solid defense and can somewhat solidify that backup center position.

 

I tend to agree that just based on those numbers, he's superior. However, I think if DMo had swapped places with him, his numbers would have been more on par. You can they are similar in several categories, but the glaring difference is the minutes played.

 

All dmo's done is pick up atleast 3 fouls in during his time on the court in every preseason game. that's not solid defense.

 

I think abysmal is rather harsh characterization of their preseason. There was some obvious gaps that need to be addressed, but I thought we got some good production out of them. The real issue has always been consistency for either these two. They're not consistently good but neither are they consistently bad. Would be nice to have a crystal ball that could tell McHale which one is going to have an off night and play the other.

 

How is Jones winning? He is SO DAMN BAD.