how'd he want out? he was the person that got d12 here. he's also the locker room guy that is the leader (according to bullard). the defensive issues come from harden and jones in the playoffs. lin in the season was ok but he did a solid job in the Portland series. also, our defense went down when we lost our assistant coach. Ariza is better defensively but that's it. Parsons was better in almost every category.
I feel like I'm in the minority of people that are excited about this years team. Can Harden's defense actually get worse? IMO, Lin's few contributions were nullified by that stinking jump-in-the-air-no-look-pass that almost always ended up with the other team. Parsons either had a hot night or not. And even when he wasn't the Rockets still were scoring 100+ I guess what I'm trying to say is fewer turnovers and even a slightly better D will vastly improve this team.
The problem there is whos going to be your 2nd scorer when Harden is cold? it used to be Parson or Lin. Dwight's post game is just not reliable. Offensively this year is all Harden, given his past playoff performance we might be in trouble offensively comes playoff time. Especially when we dont play a systematic basketball which is even more inconsistent. Last year, when Harden was off, or even not playing. Parson and Lin had career scoring night. This year other people need to step up. We made a slight upgrade d but a huge drop off in o
Assuming Ariza can stay consistant with his numbers last year, tossing the ball down to Dwight a little more often, and maybe Bev taking (& making) more shots. Please don't bate me into Lin bashing, but I said his contributions were typically nullified by turnovers. Tell me more about your crystal ball that says Harden won't show up in the playoffs next season. It was a bad series overall. I'm just really optimistic about next year.
I don't totally disagree .... but that bench is probably the NBA's worst , if nothing else the least experienced.
I say threw 'em to the wolves and let's see what they can do. Your argument that because they're young, they won't be good is invalid.
we're not done yet on trades and signings. if you look at things objectively in the playoffs, lin was better overall than jones, injured bev, and harden regardless of his turnovers. i agree though there needs to be a 3rd scorer on this team than ariza. i'm trying to be optimistic but really it's a disappointment right now. it will get better.
I still can't believe Ariza is back like a bad penny. And Joey Dorsey. I figured he was working at a car wash somewhere. And Ish Smith. You can't really call the Rockets a "team" right now.
We were mediocre last year. Now? We have a depleted bench but a lot of potential that can be utilized immediately but we need to add more veterans.
I loved last year's team too, but they were living on borrowed time. The only reason it worked is because Parsons (and Bev) were on rookie salaries, and Lin and Asik were still around from Plan A. (Plan B being the Harden-Howard team). There was no way Lin or Asik were going to get paid what it would have taken to keep them next year. And Parsons could only have stayed if Rockets were willing to accept him as their third max player. So in a way this break up was inevitable, even if hastened along by unfortunate Chris Bosh waffling and Mark Cuban jerkiness. Also, as great as last year's team was, they always made me nervous. They never seemed like they had completely come together; there were those 19 point halfs and so on. So in a way, I agree with those that are looking forward to next year's team. Much better to move forward and build a firm foundation with players who will fit into a long term framework for a championship contender, than having a stable of really great players, who aren't going to be around that long, and who are sort of stepping on each other's toes at times.
That's just selection bias. I can't find it right now, but Torocan had a great post that used the SportsVu data showing Lin didn't do that very often last year.
