If the Asik/Howard combo can work on offense, then this team is as good as any in the west

The problem with Asik is that he is basically a minus on offense. He bobbles passes, forgets to finish strong, is not particularly athletic or fast, and is not a player that opposing D need to worry about. Sure they can't simply leave him open or he will just dunk it in, but he is not someone teams will need to game plan for or even pay particular attention to. Much of his and the TT's success this year will depend on how effective Harden and Howard draw triple coverage together to pull a defender away from him and for one of them to dump the ball to Asik. That said, the third defender can also come in off Parsons and Beverley, both who are higher on the offense ladder. Asik's best bet is to simply stay out of the way on offense and rumble in for an easy pass when his defender leaves him.

 

I prefer to forget about the "Twin Towers" name thingy and look at it this way: play Howard as much as possible, play Asik as much as possible. It's a good plan.

 

I'm not even sold that this combo would work on defense. Rim protection will be elite but with the whole league shooting more and more 3 pointers these days and small ball becoming increasingly popular, it's hard to tell if it will really work out.

 

I too didn't think it would work. If the twin towers continue to work at this pace throughout the season, this team is going to the finals.

 

I really loved what I saw defensively when both are on the court though. A lot of times Parker seemed to give up even bothering to try and penetrate. He was just like screw it, jumpshot.

 

After those last two preseason games I think it can work. Not because they'll be great offensively with that unit but because they could be the best defensive and best rebounding starting unit in the league. Then you come in with Lin, Casspi, and Garcia firing away off the bench. It's a potent team in all three phases.

 

I think if this frontcourt is to work, we have to force teams to play our style.

We had Greg Smith and Asik in the regular season for a long while, but we had to adjust to OKC's style in the playoffs immediately after the first game. Although, defensively, Greg Smith is not even close to Dwight.

So we need to absolutely dominate the rebounds, shut down the paint, and play aggressively near the perimeter so teams don't beat us with 3s. Make teams live or die by the mid range shot.

 

All the Asik/Howard pairing has to do is break even for ~12 minutes. If they can do that we'll have elite rim protection for the full 48 minutes, and our other lineups will be enough to bury just about anyone without wearing down over the course of the season.

 

If the target of Asik/Howard is only break-even, why not just let Asik be backup?

 

A big IF. But yeah, if it works, we'll be dominating. Our PF problem is solved. And we don't need to trade Asik anymore. And we can develop either DMo or TJones while contending.

Like I said elsewhere, the PG situation will work either way. Not so with the PF situation. I am holding my breath.

 

A problem i see with the TT lineup is the lack of paint spacing which means a lack of driving lanes. Asik/Howard will have to step outside of the paint whilst the other performs a PnR which effectively takes them out of the offensive options.

Although Bill said last season, Asik has been practicing a little extended free throw line shot which the team wouldn't let him use.. Could this be the answer?

 

They can work out.
Yes, we are not that sharp offensively with Asik in the line up, but we can compensate it by DEFENSE which win champions!

 

Three things i worry about are:

- opponents finding wide open 3's
- stretch 4's
- two guys on offense w 50% FT%

I don't worry about the offense stalling because we'll always have good transition w harden, parsons, and beverley.

 

I have argued for months that the offensive problems playing Asik and Howard together far outweigh the defensive gains. (Against CHA tonight anything will work, even 4 on 5). However it would be a dereliction of duty for McHale not to try it out. Against some teams lineups it may have advantages. MEM and IND come to mind. But only if they play their starting lineups. But what would happen if IND decided to play Paul George as their power forward? On defense you have Howard chasing around George all over the court (a battle Howard will never win) and on offense Howard struggles with Hibbert and Asik is easily shut down by George. And Harden's paint penetration off of the dribble is nonexistent because of the extra interior defender. But I love this time of the year. All of our questions will soon be answered.

 

Howard and Asik are amongst the best pick-setters in the league, should be able to give Harden all the space he needs to get any shot off, no problems...

 

I feel like its more of a it doesn't hurt the Rox THAT much having Asik on the floor. He doesn't score but everyone else contributes more with his defense and rebounding.

 

Howard is our pf.

If teams go small on us, we can go smaller. Lin, bev, harden, parsons, dwight.

There are tons of combinations really.