Sure, but he's a 2 guard to Bledsoe at the moment. I wonder how this forum would react if you suggest trading for Dragic to replace Harden.
Also you can not "hide" Harden's defense when he will play with Dragic together on the court like you did now with Bev. Look, there is no proof whether Bev or Dragic will fit better in this team, one way or another. But at least base on current performance of this season, there is nothing you can validate for paying 7 mils more (at least in this season) with the risk of spending another 2 months just waiting for them to jell together that can help the Rox to win the championship this year.
there are so many elite pgs in the west, there is virtually no "defensive pg", Bev or anybody else could guard them night in night out, you can be all over them but they will continue to score at will, you need a pg who can drive and score to make these elite pgs go to work in the defensive end, hopefully that could slow them down a little bit in the offensive end.
Would you rather Westbrook score 32pts on 17-25 0 turnovers or 32pts on 10-29 w/ 5 turnovers? If you can force a elite pg to go 10-29 then I'd call that a win. Let's not undervalue defense
Lol. That would be fine if Bev could actually ever hold any elite pg to that line. He can't. Westbrook and Lillard normally destroy him. As they do vs every match up. Let's not pretend Bev is Bledsoe.
We are almost reach the half season, these were the 4 games he against the top tier PGS in the west this season. 11-17, Mem, Conley, 19 points 12-10, GSW, Curry, 20 points 12-22, POR, Lilliard, 18 points 12-26, Mem, Conley, 11 points How exactly are them "scoring at will" against Bev? He also guarded against some of the elite PGS in the east, such as Wall, Rose, and Irving, only Irving had a very good games through the first 3 quarters and eventually cooled down in the 4th. I also encourage you to look these PGS that Bev played so far and see their TO numbers, which is way higher than their normal average. If you want to bash his defensive efforts, at least find some numbers to back you up.
Lillard Westbrook Curry Parker CP3 Conley Rondo One dimensional? lol Ok. Bev nor Dragic would win any of these matchups. The difference is Bev's the only one that could potentially force these guys into very bad shooting/turnover games. He's the only one that can physically wear them down, and if Bev's hitting his 3's like he is now that scoring edge Dragic has is minimal. Dragic was NEVER a defensive player, and will have virtually no impact defensively on these guys. You grossly undervalue defense lol. I'm sure you know what defense is, but you don't pay attention to the little things. Not saying Dragic is a bad defender, but is he an elite defender? Can he press full court? Does he force turnovers? Is he physical? Does he force bad shots? Is he good at shading players into certain spots of the floor? Does he get deflections? THAT is good defense. In the postseason our DEFENSE is what will determine our success. I'm not sure some of you fully value Bev's defense and ability to create extra possessions with rebounds. He's the Shane Battier of point guards
In a playoff series those elite PG's are going to get their numbers, it's what makes them elite. It's up to Bev to make them work hard for their numbers and make it as frustrating as possible for them.
Ariza, Brewer and Harden are in the top ten in steals this year. The ball pressure of Beverly makes that initial pass( from the PG) a little more difficult than usual which allows these players to go for the steal. In addition, ball pressure reduces the amount of play clock for the opponent.
When Canaan/Terry were the starting PG, the following players had these statlines: Rondo 2-9 FG 4 pts 5 turnovers http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201411010HOU.html Tony Parker 3-8 FG 6 pts http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201411060HOU.html Reggie Jackson 3-11 FG 15 pts 4 turnovers http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201411160OKC.html Does that mean they're elite defenders? No. <br> <br> Bev's defensive win shares for being such an "elite defender" aren't very good. He's 6th best on the team in that category. <script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgets.sports-reference.com/wg.fcgi?css=1&site=bbr&url=%2Fteams%2FHOU%2F2015.html&div=div_advanced"></script> <br> I want you to look at these numbers: Once again these numbers are taken in a team scope. So it's hard to say "the team sucks on offense with him in there" or "the team is great on defense with him in there" in a black and white way. One thing is clear though. Overall, whatever defensive contribution Bev gives the team is mitigated by the fact that the offense suffers more with him out there. There is a -22 value between the amount of points the other team scores (which is less when Bev is out there) and the amount we score (which is way worse) with Bev on the floor. That is not good. I still maintain that the positive impact Beverley has on defense is 100% due to pure hustle. He's not that good of a team defender and is frequently in the wrong place. He makes up for a lot of that with the aforementioned hustle though. In addition to this, he plays recklessly quite often, resulting in a lot of ticky tack fouls that hurt the team. Cherry picked stats from a few games this season mean nothing. I've seen what Westbrook did to him in the OKC series before being injured. I've seen what Steph Curry does to him every time we play. And I saw what Lillard did last year, shooting nearly 60% from both the field and 3pt. Elite PG's will do help their team win in an efficient and effective manner regardless. Having a plus (although I think overrated) defender who is not that good on offense (like Bev) is a marginal upgrade over an average point guard. An above average point guard (like Dragic) who is not as good a defender (due to the composition of our team and our rim protection) is a significant upgrade over Beverley. Once again, Beverley is very replaceable.
You are absolutely wrong on this. Go watch the game again. In the first quarters when Bev is guarding Irving, he is doing OK but not even in hot mode yet, once Bev sat down, he turned on and scored 6-8 points in a row and the guys in the game thread was yelling McHale to get Bev back to the game. After Bev got back to the floor and picked up 2 fouls shortly, McHale switched with Ariza on Irving most of the second and third quarters and it didn't help much, he was HOT. Bev switched back to him sometime, and it did not help. On the 4th when the Rox started a run, Bev was on Irving most of the time until he sat down with 5th foul. Check you facts.
DudeWah, I watched ALL those games and Bev's defense was fantastic lol. I don't need analytic stats to know that. You just said the elite point guards ALWAYS go off on Bev. That is absolutely FALSE. They actually struggle against us. The only one that went off was Kyrie. Your perception the top tier pg's ALWAYS kill the Rockets hasn't manifested into reality yet. Not sure where you got that one from
The Rockets seem to agree with me. Beverley in spurts would be awesome to have coming off the bench since he can go all out and guard 90 feet from the basket. Right now he can't as a starter since he's playing too many minutes. Getting a starting PG like Dragic fixes everything.
If the Rockets feel Bev's playing too many minutes and are saving him, then I can see why they'd want a Dragic. If they plan on replacing him w/ Dragic then they're making a terrible mistake. But if they want to cut down on his miinutes, why not play Canaan?
During the last game against the Jazz, in the 3rd quarter, Harden was dribbling the ball and made a TO and the Jazz was in a 3 on 1 fast break and Bev being the only one ran back and committed a foul. During the FT, McHale was so upset and yelling everyone to run back on defense, and then he called Bev to the sideline and told him something. Guess what, on the next couple procession, Bev was the one holding the ball but not Harden. And Harden ran from the corner to the other side of the arc and got the pass from Bev twice in a row to drop a wide open 3. They ran the same play twice in a row and almost did the same thing the 3rd time. Its not a rocket science to run this offense, when it comes to passing the ball, it takes more efforts from the guy who will be receiving it than the passer.
That's funny. I actually remember that play thinking to myself "Why is Mchale mad at Bev for that?". Thanks for the summary
