[Hardwood Knocks Podcast] Houston Rockets 2015-16 Season Preview

Thanks cdrive.

 

thanks.

 

I see that they are skeptical about Lawson's ability to play alongside Harden.

I think it will work beautifully.

Most would agree that Harden was relied upon TOO much last year. Harden was amazing. But as amazing as he was offensively, the team's points per game were still about 4 points less than the year before. That's a really big difference.

The reason is that they had nobody else who could facilitate at all. Nobody. Chandler Parsons was very good at keeping the offense churning the year before. He didn't necessarily have a ton of assists (he had 4 per game, which isn't bad), but he sparked the offense with a pump fake and a drive to the basket. He would then dish the ball out, swing it around, someone else would drive, etc. So even if he wasn't getting an assist, he was big in ensuring the offense would flow and someone would get a good look.

Now, with Lawson, that flow to the offense will be restored. Not only will Lawson keep the offense moving, but he can make some assists for easy buckets that Parsons could not make. What Chandler Parsons brought to the offense will be restored, plus some. Then add to that the fact that Lawson will take pressure off of Harden, and Harden will take pressure off of Lawson, and they will have much more space to work with which will also help their individual offense as well as the team's.

It will work really, really well. This isn't a case where there is only one ball to go around. That might be a problem if you added a THIRD ball-dominant player to the mix. But two ball-dominant players will work just fine. They will just have to get used to playing with each other. It will just take some practice. They'll figure it out, and it will work beautifully.

 

Ball dominant and assist machines at the same time

 

Right. Good point.

They are ball-dominant, but they dish it out.

So no matter who has the ball, the offense keeps moving because they are both willing passers.

 

These guys are right. We need to jam the ball down other team's throats using Harden every single play. Don't worry about it when teams adjust and Harden is obviously winded. There is NO room for a second playmaker.

WTF?

These guys completely flipped their script and said the opposite of what they started out saying. Terrible journalism. They should have written this out before they started. They've completely lost me.

 

For this season, the 3 guys predicted:

54 wins
55 wins, 5th or 6th in the West
55 or 56 wins, wouldn't be surprised if they finish below that



wtf

 

one more alley-oop recipient i can't wait to see is KJ…….imagine him on the wing in transition

 

Um. Who are these dudes again?

 

It seems their two major criticisms are:

1) Not sure Lawson can play off ball with Harden
2) Dwight's post game

Dwight's post game was addressed last year. There was a noticeable change in the amount of touches he got before the Harden/Terry/Dwight meeting and after. I expect his post touches to stay low, as DMo takes more of those duties and Lawson handles the ball more.

Morey said he thinks Lawson is fine shooting off ball, so I'll take him at his word. Denver relied on Lawson like Houston relied on Harden, but the difference is while Harden proved he can be a very good off ball player in OKC, we've never seen the same from Lawson.

Put me in the camp that thinks Lawson will be plenty effective off ball, but ultimately it really won't matter. Each of Harden and Lawson will play 14-16 minutes per game without the other. Of the 14-16 they play together, let's say Harden plays primarily off ball for half of it, which will be a tremendously successful offense.

So really the concern is the 7-8 minutes Harden and Lawson play together and Lawson is off ball. Can anyone legitimately argue Harden/Lawson is worse than Harden/Beverley? Harden/Beverley was probably one of the top 5 duos in the league last year simply because of how good Harden is. While Beverley *might* be the better spot up shooter, it's not by a huge margin. Lawson would clearly be the better slasher/finisher around the rim, and he's probably a significantly better "hockey" assist guy than Beverley.

I expect 60+ wins, and I don't see a legitimate argument for anything less than 58.