I thought the Rockets were going to have great depth this year but the first half versus the Bulls sbowed how weak our bench is right now. Cassipi is hot or cold and more often than not cold right now. Garcia was a key contributor last year but is not shooting well this year, he doesn't have much else to his game. He tries on defense but his couple of good plays are offset by a couple dumb fouls. Asik is a quitter. So there are three guys you counted on. Granted Lin is hurt so that is hurting us right now. DMo is a third stringer and fine at that. Not sure when Greg Smith will get back in the groove. That may help but he certainly not there right now. And then he will only be a marginal backup. The problem for me is Asik. He takes away our back up big. With him we can protect rim and not as much is required of otehr backups, he covers their mistakes.
Lin and Asik are going to make our bench look amazing and will make us a very complete team once Omer buys in
So, when the two best-- and best paid-- guys from the 2nd unit are out, the Rockets bench have not played well while relying almost exclusively on minimum wage guys? Shocker.
With Asik AND Lin down with injuries the Rockets bench is depleted. When thay get back the Rockets will have one of the best benches in the NBA.
xfactor is Brooks. If his shot is falling, that'll help a great deal. He can play make some too. Yeah it would be nice to have Lin but he has to get healthy. Maybe he'll be back tomorrow night or Monday. But then he has to get back to game shape, as does Asik whenever he gets back.
Yea with the injuries it is. But with Lin and Omer back we have one of the deepest benches in the league.
Lol so you are leaning on 2 guys and the rest of the 5, 6 rotational players are either minimum guys or locked up safely in the Dleague? You gotta have better players, better shooters (better than Garcia and Brewer). Looking for improvement there. Memphis called up James Johnson. Might as well follow their lead if we are going the 'cheap' way.
The bench is currently my biggest concern as well. Asik and Lin are the best on the Rox bench. Without them two right now its tough. Players like AB, Garcia, Casspi, etc. have to really step up and shoot well to offset Asik and Lin's absence.
Same **** when yao and t-mac were surrounded by subpar players like alston, chuck hayes, juwan howard and luther head resulting in the loss against jazz at home and getting a good coach fired.....now its caspi, garcia, lin, beverly, jones....this team will go as far as howard, hardeen and parsons will take us.
Not having your two best players on your bench might have something to do with it. Once Lin and Omer come back our bench will be fine.
Honorable mentions: Casspi has been decent though. I would consider Lin still a part time starting type. AB had some good shooting games and some bad ones. Garcia- can't really talk about him..... no fire power coming out Brewer, Smith, Moti.............cannon fodder.... Greg Smith is trying Canaan, Covington............... not available Asik is a huge X-factor. Is he motivated, healthy enough and in a good mood?
I disagree. I think we have a talented bench, but they just haven't played well lately. We rely so much on the outside shot that if it's not falling, our bench looks bad. Really though, if you look at each guy individually, I'm not worried come playoff time. Minus Omer and Jeremy, who don't need clarification, we have some nice pieces: -I have been a Cisco fan for years and told ya'll that you would appreciate him when he was traded here from Sac. (check the posting history ) He hasn't played well, but the dude is a flat out shooter and when he's on, he's automatic. He's in a minor slump, but when his shot comes back, and he steps up his defense (underrated), the fairweather fans will reappear. -Aaron Brooks is in a minor slump, but he is capable of dropping 20 on a given night. I like that he pushes the tempo. Essentially, we have a former MIP of the year and a franchise PG(pre-injury) as our 3rd string PG. That's not in the realm of "weak bench" -Omri--Same thing, recent slump, but capable of hitting shots and producing. -Ronnie Brewer--When he gets more minutes, his defense will help us out. I'm so tired of James running so slowly to close out the corners. Ronnie can't shoot to save his life, but his defense is great. He's VERY underrated when it comes to defense. The way he denies the passing lane and plays through his chest is a different approach than other elite defenders. He stays on his feet, and as I mentioned, denies the passing lane better than most. -Greg Smith: Despite the fouls, he's a big body that can rebound and be the garbage man. I wish Kevin gave him more opportunities to play and to rest Dwight. Greg has a good developing post game. When he gets set up, uses his go-to power dribble with the baby hook, his form is effective. It's when he tries to do too much that's a problem... -If all else fails, DMo (yuck) can hit a jumper at times. He's inconsistent, sometimes lazy or just indifferent, but he has had some good games and is capable of dropping double digits from a pick and pop set. The one player I wish Morey kept was Reggie Williams. He had a terrible year last year, but if you followed him when he played for GS, he would be another deadly shooter for us, when given regular minutes. He burned us a few times as a Warrior, if I recall correctly. Anyway, our bench isn't the best, but it's certainly not the worst. When you have a Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik as your bench--guys that *could* start for teams in the NBA (mainly Asik; Lin is debatable as starting material), your bench is pretty deep.