I'm pleasantly surprised with the offensive production we're already getting out of Ariza already. He's honestly been as good or better than advertised - great pick up. Defensively, at times at least, it seems the Rockets have made some significant strides of improvement. Harden seems more committed, Ariza has a nose for the ball, of course Dwight is still anchoring the frontcourt. But even without this Pat Beverley injury, we've got issues facilitating the offense. The bright spots so far are Harden and Big Papa, but beyond those 2 guys, the offense looks pretty stagnant. We saw it especially towards the end of the Laker game, and again against the Jazz when the Jazz made a game of it late. This is where losing Parsons, and even to a lesser extent Lin, is going to hurt the most. I'm sure that any of our existing talent can realistically be expected to fill that roll. On paper, Terry may be the best bet, but neither he nor Canaan appear to have the DNA to be that kind of player. It'll be something the team needs to keep an eye on, but so far I'm concerned. We're winning now because the competition is crap, but this isn't going to fly against legitimate Western Conference competition, and certainly not come playoff time. I think the team knows this, and that's why we're hearing a lot of PG trade rumors, and why I think a trade is bound to happen if Morey can get someone to bite on what he's selling. Unfortunately, as we all know, we have a lot fewer bargaining pieces this season, so I think there's a solid chance we're just going to have to ride the storm this season and be ready to react to the market at the trade deadline and then the off-season. Like it or not, that's the position we found ourselves in when Parsons bolted and we chose not to match. With Rondo playing, and playing well, his price just went up. I'm not really sold on Rubio. Just something to keep an eye on as the season unfolds.
I see 0 problems with our offense, distributing, entrance to the post, pen and kick, scoring in total. Why do we need more facilitators when we have Harden on the floor 30+ a night, and Kostas on the floor the rest of the time? Rather see the 4 shored up, facilitating isn't our issue.
We need a point guard. This Harden at pg **** don't work. Even as good as lebron and wade were, they still didn't run the point.
I've been saying this for a while. Some people here are still in denial. The Lin haters say that getting rid of him is addition by subtraction. And you know how pissing on Parsons has become CF's favorite pastime. The fact is, Ish Smith was our second best play maker after Harden. That's how desperate we are in this regard. Papa might be able to step up but I doubt he can fill the roles of Parsons and Lin last year.
Worst 2-0 team in the league. Am I the only person on this site that watched Chandler have the opportunity to beat San Antonio with a long open three and whiff? Wasn't this offseason about getting better for the playoffs, not in media popularity?
Looking like the lin trade might be a loss for both sides....Rox are going to be exposed when they face deeper teams.
Great thread....I couldn't agree more. Against the stiffer competition in the West we need to have more playmakers on this team. Harden can't carry the load for 48 minutes. I really think Morey will be forced to make some moves before the deadline.
Let's throw out some names of guys we can trade for. Maybe overpaid guys like Tyreke Evans. Look how well Dallas uses Monta Ellis. Lin in theory could create but being a book worm with no real world smarts, he consistently failed to use it on the court. That's not what this team needed. Theory means nothing on the court---- posters who have never played the game don't get that.
No, what we lack is movement on offense. The Spurs have trash on the floor at times, but they are always in motion. You'll never see 1 guy dribbling and 4 guys watching. It's always cuts, back screens, p&r....and that relentless motion translates to the defensive side as well. Forget the coach, I don't understand how the players aren't vocal about the lack of movement. We should have creamed this team from the get go.
We could probably scrape by if we had an actual motion offense, but the lack of a second playmaker is still concerning.
Will Bynum might not be a bad pickup. He was secretly a decent playmaker for years but nobody noticed because he was on the Pistons.
i was concerend about this but im gona wait and see what happens. right now there's only harden. need more than one though.
I completely agree. Hopefully we'll be able to swing rondo, but unfortunately I can only see us coughing up Terrence jones for him which would leave a very large hole at the 4
Agreed, didn't mean ti say we don't need a playmaker...I share the same sentiment as op, these two wins felt like the Texans first two wins last year...got the W, but horrible feeling about what the team showed. Idk if Daryl just screwed up or none of the stuckey/nelson/Williams type didn't wNt to join the rockets...but we did a poor job of collecting talent this offseason. For a lot of that game, 4 of our 5 players on the court didn't play pr barely played last season. (Cannon, terry, pap, ariza, black) That's scary...Dallas definitely has far greater depth that we do. It's not even close, we're just more top have with H&H
When Harden and Howard sits, that's where the problem lies. If DMo would only show up consistently, and our shooters are making their shots, I'm ok with Papa facilitating. Issue is can the bench unit defend?
