ClutchFans Game Thread: Knicks @ Rockets 10/4/2016 (PRESEASON)

how was preseason for us last year? if i remember clearly, we looked pretty lethargic and unimpressive..

my favorite preseason was the start to the 13-14 season...those late night games in the philippines and tokyo were pretty cool..

 

Dumbest post of a series of dumb posts in real time...maybe half of you should wait until the game is over to declare the entire season and team a bust ? This team as composed right now is going to rocket to 50 + wins minimum...

 

Here's proof that Melo derailed MDA in NY.

http://nypost.com/2016/10/04/dantoni-happy-to-talk-nyc-coaches-but-dont-ask-him-about-carmelo/

Melo's 'hero ball' is the antithesis of D'Antoni's system. If your star player wants his shots
and plays, then a 'share the ball' concept bogs down. (Right Dwight?)
Linsanity was proof of the system's success, but it didn't last long once the spotlight was taken away from Melo.
MDA ends up taking the blame for their demise and people said his system doesn't work.
Sort of same thing he ran into in LA with Kobe. Welcome to Houston Coach!

 

yeah we looked bad and we were making fun of other teams for "trying to win" in the preseason.

 

glad this preseason is queiting some of the very vocal houston haters (im talking about all you hyper-pessimistic fans that frequent this site).


yes, we probably won't win a nba championship this year but we will be hella fun to watch and i'm really excited about that considering last season our team looked horrible "night in, night out".

 

KJ looking like he deserves to be in the rotation.

 

The difference in this offense is spacing and off ball movement. Offense was so gimmicky last year.

This team feel fluid now. Will be something to keep an eye on moving forward.

 

the full highlight vid doesn't include highlights of wiltjer all that much...

is anyone able to compile this or link a vid?

 

Only watched the highlights from last night's game, but watched Sunday's game - Harden already through the 2nd preseason game looks like he's in mid-season form. He doesn't seem to be rusty or slow and doesn't seem like he's having to force anything.

If the Rockets keep making shots like they have against stronger competition and have 15-20+ point leads in the 4th, expect Harden to get more of the Curry-type treatment in the 4th.

 

Everyone worried about Harden's over usage. Last night: 28 pts on 11 shot attempts and just 30 minutes of play. Oh and 11 assists and 6 boards. We are looking Warrior-esque, at least in the style of offense....tons of 3s, tons of assists, high fg & 3pt%. We sure do look a whole lot better than what the Clippers rolled out last night. We might jump out early and start surprising some people real quick.

Edit: Oh and I thought Knicks was supposed to be a super team, and that a Gordon-Harden backcourt couldnt guard elite PGs like Rose....

 

and these were the super team knicks? hahahahahahahaha

 

we should really limit harden's minutes until the season starts...don't want to run the risk of injury, and i'm curious to see how the team could function on its own

 

lol wut?

 

Yes, but I don't trade Ariza because of this as you've suggested in another thread. I want Ariza's experience on this team. Only way I trade him is if it's for a clear upgrade to the roster.

 

It DOES seem that the game comes easier for James with D'Antoni's system.
He doesn't have to work as hard doing 1-on-1 ISO plays every time down the court.
He gets help with a high screen and can drive the lane or dish off to an open man

Sure seems like this team is having fun

Loving the addition of Ryno and Gordo so far

 

Well nice first game that really shut up the haters and debbie downers. For me I had a really good feeling at the very start when you had these old-ass coaching staff doing fist bumps right before the game began. When the coaching staff is so relaxed they start clowning around, that's when you know the training camp kicked ass. Compare that to Mchale who looked like he aged 100 years and Bickerstaff who's turned white during the preseason. Speaking of the coaching staff, I like how everyone kept talking about the Rox new offense but in reality it was really similar to last year, get out to transition, look for the open guy, go for 3s and points in the paint. The only changes I saw was that the Rox aren't allowed to ISO and milk the clock, my guess is injecting good offensive players like Nene, Gordon and Anderson over guys like Dwight and Josh Smith had way more to do with the much better looking offense than the new game plan. I love Dwight and Smith, but the problem last year is the team 100% reliant on James to make plays, when he played bad the team couldn't score pts. What was actually noticeable to me was the defense, unlike last year everyone where everyone moved in slo-mo and dragged their feet around, in this game everyone was very light on their feet and even guys like Anderson and Gordon who aren't known for defense were contesting shots. Maybe its because since they played fast paced, their training focused a lot on building cardio which helped their stamina on defense as well?

Speaking of Anderson, this game pretty much validated what majority of the posters were saying: Nene and Gordon are ridiculous steals and makes up for Anderson's market rate (ie overpaid) contract. If Nene and Gordon are healthy I can see Rox getting a seed, maybe as high as fighting Spurs for 2nd seed. Anderson is ok but a part of me really is wishing we just kept Beasley and then signed another player at another position of need with Anderson's money. Well whatever, right now I'm just really happy Gordon signed for 6M and Nene signed for vet min. The young guys looked good, esp. Capela is growing up fast I like his passing, aggressive play and fluid motion on the court, dude is becoming a beast and will totally become all star caliber if he stays healthy. KJ looks a lot more comfortable now than in the summer league, I guess he's not ready to be the main offense yet but is comfortable being the 4rth/5th option.

I also feel really sorry for Porzingis, this guy reminds me of rookie Yao so much he has so much potential. The problem is NYC didn't build around him, they're still clinging to Me-lo and even added more ISO guys in Rose and Brandon Jennings. In the preseason everyone called NYC a super team in the East but they're all just high profile chuckers, no wonder they got beat down in this game no one on the team can shoot straight. I wonder how Courtney Lee must feel he's like one of the best players on their team but a lot of guys make double what he does LOL.

Finally, Harden is getting the Westbrick treatment and he is looking pumped. No more trying to score against 6'6+ defensive specialists, now all he has to worry about are 6'0 shrimps who are also bad on D. He also doesn't need to always lead the league in scoring, Harden can just draw the D and pass the ball outside since the Rox have much better shooters now. Sure the opponent can put their SG/SF defenders on him, but that just gives Gordon/Ariza/KJ or whoever is on the SG/SF spot a mismatch since he will be guarded by a smaller guy.

 

He only deserves to be in it if Harden's is in there with him. Thus far, any time with Harden off the court he has looked awful.

 

There's not much to feel sorry about for KP. He just turned 21 and still very much learning the game and is already a pretty good player. But in now way is he ready for a team to build around him unless you want to be a losing team year after year like Philly. NY will soon enough be built around him when the time comes but right now there's really no reason to. A lot of over reaction to yesterdays preseason game concerning NY.

 

ESPN doesn't show "fact highlights." They 1st develop a story line, a hook, and then attach the facts/game action to the story.

Perfect example was the Bulls/Bucks highlights the other night. They were ALL Bulls, Wade,Rondo,Butler etc and then when the highlights are over....Bucks win. Yes, the Bucks win the game, but not 1 highlight was shown. Why? Because the "story line" was the "new Bulls!" Garbage.

 

Pretty fun to watch the scoring go wild after that awful offense last year - I could not force myself to watch it and I have been known to stay up for every west coast game we had! Harden, Gordon, Anderson, Nene and Ariza would make me happy to start. Clint, Bev, Corey, Pablo, KJ, Wiltjer, Montrez and whichever guard shows up. Wiltjer needs some time with the 1s this preseason and he could shine.