Did not load the images, maybe due to my office web security. But I understand your point, the thing is I really like having size at the PF position, even with the recent movement to 4 tweeners around the league. So, while I agree with you on reach, and accept we shouldn´t call him undersized. Maybe what I try to say, using your comparison as well is we don´t know anything about him or Dekker yet. I trust Morey, but development is not linear, we don´t if and when these guys could be useful. At least from my understanding on these guys, we don´t even know if they have some shooting, something we have requested from TJones and Dmo
Don't know about this year, but last year I think our biggest problem was turnovers. Let me rephrase that. I think we were highly inconsistent, which let to an often insurmountable number of turnovers. That was caused by several factors. 1) in general high turnover of personnel. Starts with different roster at beginning of the year, (good) additions during the season, and injuries. All of those let to people playing with people they are unfamiliar with. 2) Point guard. Love the beard, but he is not a point guard. Doesn't even have to be a true point guard, but a two guard handling the ball all the time is going to lead to trouble. No to knock JET (got so much more than we had any right to expect), but the fact that he went from playoff starter to preseason third string PG says so much. 3) Josh Howard. Was so happy to get him and there is no doubt (none) that he won games for us. But the guy is inconsistent as hell! On a team as strong as the Rox appear to be, I think you are better off with somebody who brings a "5" every game, rather than a 10 one night and a 1 the next. I think all of those issues have been addressed and expect a pretty good year. Though do want to say we got to the Western Conf Finals, really on a couple of coin flips. Difference between finishing second seed and sixth was one game. No taking the win against LA away, but can't plan on a huge come back/epic collapse every series. We could be a lot better this year and have a worse overall result. Wouldn't that be a b****.
Gotta disagree with you on Howard. For all the Dwightmare and press bashing in LA and Orlando, he has been nothing but professional since he joined the Rockets.
Howard on the court is no clown. He does make mistakes from time to time, fouling and getting baited into throwing elbows, but the guy has done nothing but clean the glass and play balls out D. Off the court he likes to have fun with his life, the some of you hate him for that but I've got no problem with a guy enjoying his life if he isn't hurting anyone. now his free throws.... WEAKNESS
Mommy, bmd says Terrence has a long neck. bmd says terrence has a long neck. bmd says Terrence has a long neck.
Biggest strength appears to be wing depth for an uptempo game. I suspect this is will allow Rockets to be able to adjust between small and big lineups based on matchups. Harden-less scenarios could go from scary to fun if Ariza can play PF and McDaniels can make open threes. Biggest weakness is health; keeping guys on court.
Just a few things off the top: - FT shooting - rebounding - a stretch 4/5 that's a reliable FT shooter, consistent 3 pt shooter (talking Bonner, Ryan Anderson, Ilyasova type)
Let me clarify. He's a pro, a good guy, and has been very successful in the league for a long time. The bashing was way overdone. Calls for him to change are pure ignorance: he is who he is, you can't change a guy's character like that and make him someone he's not. But he hasn't won a ring and you gotta ask: if he was wired differently, more like Tim Duncan or the Gasols, with his talent, could have he gotten there? I think so. He's missing a little something and the margin at the top is that small. A little more concentration, more focus, more of being in the right place at the right time, not turning it over, making a few more pct points on his FTs... These types of things could have made the difference. I am not saying, like some of the talking heads, that he would never win. But, it is a weakness... BTW, Shaq was a clown, too. Under PHIL J., however, Shaq upped his focus just enough to win. That's what we need here: strong leadership from the coaching staff to keep this group's concentration. It is not coming from the players, as far as I can tell...
Strengths: Transition Offense - Man-o-man, I'm excited to see us get out and run this year. Last year we saw too many fastbreak opportunities either get botched or result in low quality pull up 3's because either Terry or Ariza were handling the ball on the break. With the addition of Lawson and the return of TJ to the lineup we should see a lot more easy scores in transition like the 2013 season when Harden first got here. Imagine a lineup of Lawson, Harden, KJ, Brewer and Dwight/TJ scoring relentlessly off of forced turnovers and rebounds. Too many dunks. Wing Depth - Between Harden, KJ, Brewer, Ariza we have 4 guys who have proven to be NBA quality players on the wing. Mix in a possible resurgence from Thornton and we should be set to withstand foul trouble or minor injuries to any of our guys. Neither Harden nor Ariza should be among the league leaders in minutes anymore leaving them fresh for the second half of the season and the playoffs. I expect their shooting efficiencies to be much improved over last years. I don't expect anything from Dekker this year, but who knows maybe he'll shock the world. Chemistry - It seems like our guys REALLY like each other and DM the GM did a good job of bringing almost everybody back. I think our team "gets" how we want to play and we should be even better on O this year now that everyone knows their role. Dwight isn't going to be asking for post-ups, everyone knows this is Harden's team. Terry and Ariza seem like good guys with championship experience whom our guys respect. Half Court Defense - Dwight and Capela are excellent rim protectors and TJ is no slouch either. Our wings should play hyper aggressive knowing that there will always be at least one and sometimes two defensive backstops that cover for them. Plus, between Harden, Brewer, KJ, and Ariza we have 4 guys who are proven at playing the passing lanes well and creating transition opportunities from steals. I worry about individual post ups against our PFs but only SA, LAC, and MEM (I'm probably even overrating them here as Z-Bo has been in steady decline for a couple years) are set up to exploit that. Weaknesses: Consistent Shooting - This is pretty minor, but for a team that relies so much on the longball, we dont have any knockdown 3 point shooters. I'm talking about a guy who you assume is going to make every wide open three. Your Korver, Redick, Danny Green types. I would love at least one, maybe even two 40%+ type shooters. Out of all of our guys MAYBE Thornton is the closest to that but I don't see him getting many minutes barring injury. I don't consider this a HUGE weakness since we shoot such a high volume that our guys are bound to make plenty, but if we go cold at the wrong time we could be in trouble. Rebounding - This is the one that really scares me. Most of our bigs have shot blocking instincts, which is fine, but it leaves their man uncovered on the offensive glass. TJ is the biggest culprit here forgetting to get a body on Dwight's man way too often. D-Mo boxes out but doesn't have the strength and vertical athleticism to get many rebounds in traffic. If this continues to be an issue for us we may have to send a wing or two to crash the defensive boards which could hinder our transition game. In a perfect world TJ becomes that second double digit rebounder that we need. This is the one to keep an eye on. Free Throws - Not much needs to be said here. Dwight and Capela are still "Hack-a-player" candidates which sucks. Our guys just need to step up and hit at least 60% or teams will continue to try that BS strategy against us. Up until his last year in Orlando where things fell off a cliff Dwight was abuot a 60% FT shooter. Idk what the heck happened. Capela seems like he is young enough to be ok either this year or next. Transition Defense - This KILLED us last year. I was glad to hear Terry harping about this during the opening of training camp. I think a lot of our struggles last year came from fatigue and in a way, we have addressed this by adding depth and getting a few key guys back from injury.
NewAge, I didn't mean to be so dismissive of your obviously thought out reply. I hate finding myself guilty of something I make fun of others for doing. Besides, I may be changing my answer.
Free throw shooting and not having a pure shooter on the team. I wish we had a guy that you could not leave open for any reason.
Our lack of a true 3 point specialist. Would be nice to have one of JJ Reddick, Kyle Korver, or Danny Green on the team that shoots the most 3s out of any other team in the league. All of our players can shoot 3s but a minority are above average at it. Oh and FT % is definitely fu**ed off.
I´m not afraid of the 3ball, seems to me this team believes in law of averages, spacing will be better with more slashing coming thanks to Lawson. This should improve Ariza`s %, which also got better once we had players to let him rest (Brewer), and also allow Harden to shoot more 3s. I would also agree with specific matchups ath the PF. We could use Capela a little bit there, but him and Howard together, it makes me cringe just thinking about the spacing there
