Josh Smith is, by far, the Rockets third best player after a healthy Dwight. In Atlanta, his +5 RPM was top 10 in the league year in and year out. In Detroit, that number fell all the way to around -5 earlier this season. Since, joining the Rockets, it has bounced back to -1.69 currently. You do the math, he has returned to being a significant positive as a Rocket. In addition, we are starting to see some real chemistry between Josh and his buddy Dwight recently. This wasn't evident when he first arrived, when he was still trying to fit in. What all this amounts to is Josh Smith deserving more minutes than the 25 mpg he's currently getting, and ideally a few of those minutes with Dwight. If all these things are true, and if we still intend on bringing Smith off the bench, while playing him with Dwight as much as possible especially with Harden on the bench, it begs the question: where exactly would Dmo have fit in anyways? With 96 minutes to split between, Dwight getting 35 and Josh getting at least 30 in the playoffs, that leaves 31 between Jones and Dmo. With both equally deserving. That is a lot to juggle for McHale, and instead of giving spot minutes to both with neither getting into a rhythm, it might be best simply to pick one. Now I'm not saying losing Dmo is a good thing at all. It takes away another chess piece and potential mismatch the Rockets could have exploited. But in the end, the +0.32 RPM Dmo was giving us(Jeremy Lin level production) was hardly going to move the needle in the playoffs anyways. Honestly, if there was one player in the rotation the Rockets could afford to lose, it's him. By far the more pressing concern for the Rockets is which Dwight Howard will they get, the +5 RPM superstar he has been historically, or the +0.48 RPM Dmo level player he has been all of this year? That question has yet to be answered, and nothing that's happened today has altered the Rockets playoff chances.
backup center is a cause of concern now. This injury took a big weapon from the Rockets come playoff time. Not panic though.
Ask yourself this any time Joey Dorsey is on the court due to foul trouble, injuries, etc. DMo was our second most reliable scorer, our only efficient post up threat, the only legitimate 7 footer on the team, and was shooting 46% from 3 since the All-Star break. There shouldn't be all out panic, but losing him significantly limits the versatility and depth of our front court.
1. Dwight cant play 35 minutes 2. Jones probably can't play 30 minutes 3. Fouls happen... Dorsey or Capela will see minutes 4. DMo is probably our BEST rotational defender from the big position especially with Dwight hampered. 5. You know that stat that links Dmo and Kevin Durant ... its huge , Dmo is our second most versatile offensive player. As well as Smith has shot the 3 i still do not fully trust him with it in the playoffs and I'm not sure other teams do either .. thus it creates a lack of spacing. 6. Also I think the way you were describing the rotation was incorrect. I think if Dmo had come back healthy/ or even better than before he would be starting and playing 30 + a game. 7. Our ball movement with him in the game is exceptionally better than without. 8. He has played a huge role for our team this year and outside of harden it can be argued that he and Ariza are our two most valuable players in terms of how much they carried the team. 9. The last game he played before going out ... which probably means he was injured in the game... he dropped 20+ on Anthony Davis and took him to school on the block. That is the caliber of player we are now without. 10. DMo is a huge part of this teams future ... and his injury appears to be serious. A back injury on a 7 footer is not to be taken lightly especially when it may require surgery or months of rest.
Capela to the rescue. Dude is going to breakout a year earlier. He will protect the paint when D12 sits, break a couple of back boards with those tomahawk dunks and even make fts. Dorsey has been decent, but decent will not get you the best girl. Capela over Dorsey.
The panic is because this is an enormous blow to our playoff chances. I still think we can make some noise, but without Dmo, we have nobody after Harden who can create a shot for themselves. Dmo is near unstoppable in the post and has been hitting from three. Injuries always hurt us so much and it is unbelievably frustrating, especially in a year that I feel we are real contenders.
It's not a panic, but when you are trying to win a CHAMPIONSHIP, you prefer to go into the post season with all of your top rotation players playing and somewhat healthy. Missing Bev and DMo does hurt our depth. It doesn't kill our chances, but it hurts them.
How far has Capella really come? He's not played enough as a Rocket to be remotely trusted for any stretch of the post season. Even then it seems like he's a redundancy of D12 light anyways...
Joey Dorsey is the issue? 1. Dorsey is hardly that bad. His -0.59 RPM won't lose you games, just like Dmo's +0.48 RPM won't win them for you. 2. The only reason Dorsey is playing right now is because Dwight is limited to 20 mpg. In the playoffs, Dorsey's minutes effectively goes to 0 outside of foul trouble. If teams start hacking Dorsey when the Rockets are in foul trouble, they can go small with Papanikolau instead. Having Dmo is obviously preferable to both those options. But the marginal improvement during the few times the team is in foul trouble is hardly going to sway a game, much less a series. With a healthy Dwight playing 35 minutes, and Smith/Jones taking up the rest, Dmo is a luxury not a necessity. And if Dwight isn't healthy enough to play 35 dominant minutes in the playoffs, the team isn't going anywhere anyways, with or without Dmo.
