[CBS Sports] Did the Houston Rockets get better by subtraction this summer?

If we do nothing and Canaan is still with us at the start of the season....he is going to go explode into the rotation! And we will wind up playing a lot of Canaan, Bev, Harden on the perimeter. Canaan is a better player than Lin.

 

Agreed.

Fans look at our roster and see a lot of guys that they just don't know what they will do so they immediately go with the pessimistic view. Chances are even if the guys we brought in don't completely replicate the production of the guys we lost it's probably going to be 80%+ of that production, with the possibility of actually doing more.

 

lol

Lins a scrub.

 

Been saying this since the beginning.

Yes we lost Asik, Lin and Parsons, but Asik was not a good fit on this team (and he barely played half the season) and Parsons was replaced with a 3&D player.

I think Lin will be our biggest loss because we dont have someone who can step in and make plays once Harden goes out. Enter Nick Johnson.

 

Johnson is going to be a decent NBA player in the future. But he won't be ready coming out the chute. Enter Canaan. Canaan is a better player than Lin is right now.

 

Looking forward to the day when established chemistry creates synergy.

Been a long time.

 

The only playmaker we lost was Parsons and that's a stretch to call him a playmaker

 

Meh, Parsons was never a play maker, he got all his points from kickouts from Harden & Lin penetration...he's a system guy.

 

Good post!


My question is not if we're a better team. It's are we a better PLAYOFF TEAM suited for the postseason. The answer is, hell to the no. Nobody on our bench outside of maybe Daniels is a possible difference maker. Great teams all have 3 or 4 guys that provide a certain level of productivity off the bench. I was hoping we'd get Shannon Brown, Omeka Okafur, Jarrett Jack, Shawn Marion type of guys. But Morey passed up on all of them for guys like Joey Dorsey.

 

The Magic 8 ball has all the answers.....

 

IF is the biggest two letter word in the dictionary.

 

do you consider OKC a great team? and I'd say the starting 5 now is a better playoff team since it added more defense. the bench is a progress yes and has plenty of question marks but i doubt it looks the same as it is now by the time the playoffs start next year.

 

Well, it'll be different than coming into the season full of stars and looking like a championship team on paper......

I'm excited to see what some of the young guys can do, if / when called to up their game to the next level on a nightly basis.

Bring it DMO!

 

How does somebody go from questioning playoff ability to comparing to the great teams? Seems like false equivalency to me. With regards to Joey Dorsey, don't you think salary considerations played part in that decision?

 

Harden and Jones will likely improve. Ariza's an upgrade over Parsons, simply because we need his perimeter D more than Chandler's playmaking. Howard's still at an age where I don't think we need to worry too much about his skills atrophying.

The big concern is that we've lost injury insurance. But on paper, this team should be no worse than last year's squad. I think we'll be 2-4 wins better.

 

I'm super excited about what we are bringing to the court this year.
Terrence Jones, D-Mo, Canaan, and Daniels are all about to turn up with break out years.

And our starting line up w/ Ariza instead of Parsons is going to piss off a lot of Rockets haters. Beard-Bev-Trev-Dwight-Jones is going to make even elite teams look like a tasty pork chop. I'm confident in this.

3&D Trevor > Parsons

Casspi is gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarbage. Any walk-on baller from the street could have done better than him last year, so Pap is a huge upgrade.

Lin. Where to begin? We lost a play maker? Which play was that? Bounce pass to Asik's shins? Dribble into the paint and pick up your dribble and look around for a teammate to bail out your bonehead move? Man I love when that play gets made. Or the jump in the air with no one to pass it to and then turn over the ball. Also on my short list of favorite plays.

Replacing Lin's production is easy. Replacing Lin's many shortcomings would be pretty impressive. Thankfully though I think Canaan on his worst game this year won't give you the typical headaches we suffered with Lin last year.

As for Asik, if we want to replace him, put a 50lb weight vest on Dorsey and write "MOPE WEIGHT" on it. Then duck tape some paddle boards over the palms of his hands and then grease them real good. Then tell Dorsey he only needs to play 30% of the season.

Yeah we are so worse this year than last year.

 

We lost some talent, but most of that talent was redundant. We needed it geared more towards wing depth, shooting, and defense. Us being better is contingent upon a number of moving parts working together (which can pose problems), but I believe we will play a more well-rounded game with a more even rotation.

 

The Rockets are in my doghouse this year. They have a lot to prove if they really want to make this writer look good. After this crazy off season, I'm feeling rather lukewarm about this season's prospects. If they can make the playoffs and get pass the first round then I'll believe it.

 

Have to totally agree with you my man, I ditto everything you say and with Harden, Jones, Howard and Beverly all playing together last season should help big time this season. Implementing Ariza shouldn't be a problem and defensively I'm still waiting for Morey to hire a good defensive coach.

 

The fact that we have Bev in the starting lineup and often preferred his defense to Lin's "playmaking ability" shows how much confidence we had in his as it was.

I do honestly believe Canaan can fill that role at a better rate than Lin especially because of the fact that defenders will have to stay honest to guarding the 3 point line the way they didn't have to with Lin.

Opens up tons of more driving lanes for our other perimeter players and even our mobile bigs.

Losing Lin won't hurt us and neither will losing Parsons. But we still need a 3rd star to be true championship contenders.