Legit point. Our interior help D when Dwight has to commit himself to stop the initial shot has been absolutely horrific. (One reason why Terrence has to hit the road.) To win anything in the NBA, you have to have good help rotation defense. We ain't got it and it's killing us against any team that is trying to win games. Yeah, ok, don't think we wanna do that. We get called for everything now. Don't want to make it worse. Agree with the poor man's Draymond comments. Very poor man's Draymond. And...one of the reasons why Smith was successful in the short stint he was here...including the playoffs is because ............ Smith was just rogue enough to take the basketball, damn the torpedos, and make a play. Smith wasn't afraid to take his sack out and put it on the chopping block in order to get to the positive return that we wound up getting from him. The bulk of his OFFENSIVE success with us came because of the randomness of his offense.....dribbling up and pulling up out of nowhere...with everybody in the building wondering what in the sam hill he was doing out there. Taking the ball and instead of swinging it, just dribbling it towards the hole and using the old chemistry him and Dwight had to create great alley-oops to Dwight...and others. And then working off that randomness and chemistry with Dwight to then find WIDE-OPEN 3-point shooters. The secret to Smith's success here, that nobody has really talked about, is the fact that he didn't care if Harden wanted the basketball or not. Smith went out there in the playoffs and just played his game. He just played. If he thought he could make a play, he tried to make a play. Didn't matter that Harden was standing there with his hands out wanting the basketball. Smith just went and made a play. We are missing both Smith's incredible defense all over the court but especially in the paint and at the rim. We are missing his flexibility to be the primary anchor when Dwight was on the bench but also his ability to be that great help defender at the 4 alongside Dwight. We are missing his randomness and his guts to ignore Harden and go make a play on offense when Harden was on the court. And we miss his playmaking ability when Harden sat. Smith was our de-facto second playmaker last season after DMo went down and throughout the playoffs, guys. We DID NOT replace him. He walked on us. And frankly, I knew this team was in trouble during the summer when it became obvious that we weren't going to have DMo to start the season, that Dwight was going to be missing games, and Smoove had gotten away from us. You can talk about Ty Lawson being the answer all you want. None of it works without your defense making stops. There's no way you can expect Lawson to come close to replacing the stops that Smoove gave us. So there was no way we were going to get the transition basketball we were getting when Smoove was here. I was never convinced this team would be as good or better than last year's team. Because we did not replace Smoove. Just goes to show you how important defense, specifically interior defense, and rebounding is. And we got guys here wanting us to trade Dwight. Anybody that wants us to trade Dwight has already thrown in the towel on this season and wants to maximize ping-pong balls. What's the answer???? I'm waiting. The answer isn't to trade Dwight. The answer is to replace SMoove on the defensive end at least...and from there hope that Lawson arouses on the offensive end to compensate for the playmaking we lost from Smoove. Or at the very least be able to trade Lawson for a playmaker than can match/exceed the playmaking Smoove gave us last season and has the guts/balls to go make plays and ignore Harden demanding the ball all the time. I think it's more likely that we replace Smoove with 2 players. Just don't know who that defensive/rebounding menace is that can be relied upon to shut down the paint when Dwight sits and be the great rotating secondary defender when Dwight is out there.
What will it take to get Favors + Rich boy Parsons GORDON HAYWARD to H- Town Dwight and what else? Hayward is a decent enough ball handler to ensure Harden doesn't have to do all the ball handling.
I will say this.....I have become re-convinced that Rajon Rondo would have been the perfect here. Rondo is the perfect playmaker/defender with the perfect personality to deal with Harden. Rondo is the kind of player that would force Harden to reckon with him and in the process our transition game would go off the chains. Morey needs to do the bold thing here and bring in a personality like Rondo that makes Harden's head snap. Frankly, I think if we had both Rondo and Smoove on this team we would be flat-out gutting teams right now instead of straining to get our head above water.
That's not happening. Utah is going crazy. They're winning. They're a point guard away from challenging GSW/SAS at the top of the West. If they get their mitts on Rubio by the trade deadline...look out.
Rondo is worthless off the ball so question remains would Harden let Rondo do all the ball handling while they share court time and be willing to play off the ball? Something tells me Harden just loves to handle that rock all the time. When he doesn't have it, he just stands in one position hoping to get it. No back door cuts, coming off screens, moving off the ball etc.
Nah, their entire back court stinks. Even if they get Rubio, they have freaking Rodney Hood starting at the 2 They are no where close to challenging SAS / GSW even with Rubio.
The point I am making about Rondo is he has the type of personality to just go out there and take the basketball and run with it. It wouldn't be a matter of would Harden let Rondo do all the ball handling while they share court time. Because Rondo would assume it and take it. Unfortunately, Harden doesn't understand that he needs another great playmaker on the floor with him. He simply doesn't get it. He wants everybody on the court to serve it up to him. And he wants to dictate when the secondary playmaker magically goes out there and makes a play. And all that crap does is slow us down and bungle us up. Harden needs to have to deal with another super playmaker with a dominant personality. Because in today's NBA we ain't winning nuth'n with Harden and 7 basketball dwarfs out there.
You and i see eye to eye - But there isnt anyone out there than we can get to replace him other than Jsmoove. I have always felt that the pick up of TY was a bad one, in terms of fit, it is the same as the Jlin problem. (TY-JLin; are about the same in terms of what they do not their skills). We need some nasty back and we should get it quick.
Have to agree with this. The biggest gripe with Howard on here was " Quit giving him the ball in the post!" And " If only Howard would just focus on rebounding and defense like Deandre Jordan, our offense would run so much more smoothly " Now that Howard has stopped getting post ups and touches, his points has dropped significantly and people feel like he has really dropped off as a player. But if you look at Howard's numbers his first season (his best and healthiest season) in Houston compared to this season. 12.2 rpg, 1.8 blks, 0.8 stl, 1.8 ast, ft.547%, fg.594%, 3.2 turnovers in 33.7 mpg 12.2 rpg, 1.8 blks, 0.9 stl, 1.7 ast, ft.547%, fg.586%, 2.8 turnovers in 32.6 mpg Everything is basically identical, except his points and shot attempts, but I'm fine with that Howard is not a offensive star. The only thing I'm concerned with is his health, and if manegment feels like that's a big problem the we can either not re-sign him in the off season or try to sign him to a short 2 year or something. Just let him walk instead of trying to trade him. That would be a mess.
Don't want to quote everything, but I like a lot of what basketballhoic is saying in this post. 1) Good points about help defense at the 4. 2) Very interesting points about Josh Smith's rogue basketball. It is ironic that since the Rocket's offense is so predictable, it takes someone going rogue to augment it (which in reality it should hurt it). Agree that too many people defer to Harden and the addition of Lawson was supposed to help here and it has not.
Chris Paul & James Harden straight swap who says no? Chris Paul's the prototype athlete that this forum routinely cries for. Family man, ultimate professional, leader & actually plays D. I think swapping them would easily push us past Golden State. For me Morey's assembled a star roster but Harden's selfishness is holding the team back. CP3 would turn Dwight into the best C in the League again, create our knockdown shooters easy shots & have this team playing Top 5 defense again.
Sam Dekker to the Clippers for Josh Smith. then... Ty Lawson/Corey Brewer/Terrence Jones to the Nets. Joe Johnson/Future pick via Rockets to the Kings. Rudy Gay/Darren Collison to the Rockets. Clips trade Smoove who doesn't seem happy over there and get a nice piece in return. Kings get cap space in 2016 to add key piece to Rondo/Cousins core. Nets finally are able to deal Joe Johnson and get a considerable amount back in return. Rockets improve in PG/SF/PF positions while getting an underrated player in Collison and a solid scorer in Rudy Gay. **Someone pitch this to Morey** (Codman? lol)
If Clips are stupid enough to gift us Smoove, then Morey better take it and run like hell. Not crazy about the 2nd part of that trade. TJ with Smoove on the team is a luxury, but getting rid of Brew and Ty Lawson for Gay and Collison is wishful thinking.
...all I got for now. May not happen at all. May not happen until 12/15 or a few days later. But need to stay awake until 11 or so tonight. Very well could be a trade on or before 12/20/2015. (This last line is logic. Need 60 days to be able to flip players at deadline.)
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=qa3d3yd HOU In: Olynyk, Covington HOU Out: Jones, Dekker PHI In: Zeller, Dekker PHI Out: Canaan, Covington BOS IN: Jones, Canaan BOS OUT: Zeller, Olynyk
LOL what? A soft 30 year old that doesn't care to improve his game and just wants to have fun is not a problem? Spoiler who also wants 20M+ a year?
