they wanted dorrell wright but he skipped town to Portland. in a sense Lamb must provide instant offense.
Agree (except Lin in crunch time) Starters: Bev -shooter, defense Harden- ball handler Parsons-shooter, defense Dmo/TJones/GSmith (depending on matchups) Dwight- Finisher, Defense, rebounding Bench: Lin - Ball Handler Canaan- shooter, defense? Garcia-shooter, defense Dmo/TJones/GSmith (depending on matchups) Asik-Finisher, Defense, Rebounding I likes.
I think OKC's reaction is well-justified. Don't get me wrong Dwight Howard on this team might have boosted interior defense by like 300%. However OKC's strength is their mid-range jumper and their transition game. KD did destroy us by driving past us every single time in the playoffs. Sure having Dwight remedies that. However, its OKC's mid-range game that worries me. We just do not have the perimeter defenders capable of defending against Westbrook's deadly mid-range jumper and transition pull-ups (other than maybe Bev, but I'm assuming Bev doesn't start) and KD (who Parsons, while a great defender, can't guard). Our offensive game will be great and our half-court offense will finally be what we hoped it would be. Our defense needs to step up to beat OKC. Of course, on the flip side we'll have D-Howard to destroy Serge Ibaka on both sides of the court. Its a toss-up.
The way I look at it, we played them pretty evenly when Westbrook went out in the playoffs, some would say we outplayed them. Now consider... the addition of Westbrook to their lineup (minus Kevin Martin), and the addition of Dwight Howard to our lineup (plus a healthy Jeremy Lin) then I say we edge them out. Also I think we have better overall talent in terms of depth on our roster... Kevin Durant/ Russell Westbrook/ Ibaka/ Sefolosha/ Collison/ Perkins/ Jackson/ Thabeet / Lamb/ P. Jones/ Orton Dwight Howard/ James Harden/ Parsons/ Asik / Lin/ Beverly/ T. Jones/ D-Mo/ Canaan/ Smith/ Garcia/ Olbretch/ Casspi / Anderson
He was injured. OP: no way we are behind Denver. Next year OKC probably will still be better along with the Spurs and maybe Clippers depending on their chemistry with the former Celts. We are still a very young team and they'll need a year to mesh I imagine. The year after it's gonna be a good series.
Lin << Westbrook Harden >> Sefolosha Parsons << Durant Jones = Ibaka Dwight >>> Perkins Hou Bench > OKC bench
Its a media bias. We're top three at worst, the disrespect is embarrassing. Thunder, Rockets, Memphis, Clippers/Spurs the positions can interchange
Still too early to compare. I still think we have a few moves and Thunder too before the next season starts... Rockets have a lot of room to improve with the current roster.
I'm sorry but yes losing Westbrook to injury during the playoffs had put a nail in their coffin but man did McHale outcoach the crap out of Brooks and that's a pretty sad thing.
