Here's some food for thought you might find interesting: James Harden outperformed Serge Ibaka defensively during FIBA.
Okay, but that's still not really relevant to the conversation I was having, Ibaka does have his flaws as a defender in that he can get faked into the air because he tries for the block FAR too often, but we're not comparing Ibaka to a good defender, we were comparing him to Jones.
I don't think you can put too much stock on McHale's statement about rebounding. If rebounding was truly his highest priority, he would have stuck with the TT lineup last season. And he wouldn't have played so much small ball lineups. The fact is, if having the best rebounders on the floor drags down the other aspects of the game too much, you'll have to yank it. Guys like Adrien and Dorsey just don't have enough offense to stretch the defense for the benefit of H&H. If they can teach Jones to be a better defensive rebounder and a better man-defender, then Jones is obviously the choice. But that's a big IF.
Sure. But don't forget that they actually tried to play Asik alongside Howard at the beginning. They gave up because the lineup kept putting us in a big hole after the 1st quarter. You can emphasize whatever all you want. But if the result is bad, you'll have no choice but to adjust. I wouldn't be surprised if Adrien or even Dorsey gets the starting job at the beginning if they do well in preseason. But my prediction is that it will be abandoned once the team has problem scoring on the other end.
Disagree that he's a cap clogger. A big that can protect the paint, score inside, and be somewhat effective from mid-range is a liquid asset on a 3 year $25 million contract.
I wanna see our new guys play during the preseason. Give the starting line-up a little PT because we do need to get Ariza integrated, but mainly I wanna see how our bench unit plays together, who'll emerge as the leader of that unit.
T. Jones will be your starter unless he gets hurt or traded. Dmo will come play backup center and PF. Dorsey will play backup center. Pap will come to off the bench and play stretch 4 and some 3 behind Ariza. Cap and Jeff will get mop up minutes.
Not when you have to move him out in a hurry. Lottery teams don't want him and contending teams ain't gonna trade for him to hand another contending team cap space to sign a max guy unless they get substantial assets to do it. We've already got one guy on a long term deal that wet might have to give away for cap space (Ariza). And Morey is holding his breath that Ariza doesn't fall off and become a boat anchor deal. Taj's contact goes thru 2017. No way Morey takes him on without moving out Ariza and/or picking up a first rounder for taking him. Morey may take on a guy like Ilyasova and take a punt on 2015 free agency. But he's not going to clog up 2016 cap space any further.
Adrien will get situational minutes. Kid flat out hustles..kind of reminded me of Landry. Outsized PF that just gets it done. All hearts. Capela will be on the Vipers.
it's funny how jones basically had no impact, yet had the highest +/- of any player on the rockets today (+6). just shows ya how incredibly useless that stat is... he ended up w/ 7 pts (1/2 FG and 5/6 FT) 2 reb 5 fouls 3 TOs lol
DMo improved more in the offseason than I would have thought and T. Jones looks like all he did was vacation. I'd be shocked if DMo doesn't win the starting spot. Yes, I know it's only one preseason game.
It's a preseason game. He played extremely well last season for a 21 yo 2nd year player. Give him some time to develop a bit.
I just remember those games last year when he would come out completely ineffective and throw up a dud for 20 min then the other games when he would get the team off to a good start in the 1q
