On second thought, if Cannan isn't ready at all, which is very possible for a rookie 2nd rounder, then we might have to keep Brooks as a 3rd stringer. That makes the last cut a little more difficult. Hoping we can get something for Greg Smith.
Thanks Clutch! Could the podcasts be done on a weekly basis? Makes my daily drive work commutes through LA traffic a lot more tolerable! Wasn't sure if it was The Cat or Lance who mentioned but I loved the point said where the Rockets could use the Lin/Dwight combo pick and roll combo as a Plan B when Harden is out resting.
Nice pod, I think I look at the roster shake out a bit differently though. A. Greg Smith : it needs to be noted that Smith is a few month younger than Covington / Canaan / Dmo, if you put that into perspective, and the fact that he's as cheap as the former 2, then you should see every reason why he should make the team. because as it currently stands, he's clearly the best NBA player out of those 4 by a considerable margin AND he's the youngest. B. Camby : last year did happen you know, this isn't the 2012 pre season, this is the 2013 pre season which came after Camby hardly being able to get on the floor and was horrendous when he did, that he got out played by Kurt Thomas who retired late in the season, that he played 3 min in 3 games in the playoffs with Tyson Chandler hurt, that he made less than 20 buckets all year and shot well under 40% from the field.... those all happened.... yeah he wasn't healthy but he's also 39, it's not exactly the same as saying a 20 some year old wasn't healthy. We'd be lucky to get a barely better than last year version of him, which would still be horrendous. Camby came with the agreement that he's going to eventually transfer over to the front office / coaching role, don't see why that shouldn't happen sooner rather than later. especially with him being unable to go in the pre season. The Rest: yeah I see Williams seemingly being the likely guy out as the point you guys made on how the vast majority of minutes for the guards will simply be split between Lin / Bev / Harden, so there's basically room for 1 more guard at best and if we assume that's Brooks, then Williams look the most suspect. Of course, it could easily be that one of Brewer / Casspi plays horrendously in camp. but certainly at this point Williams seems to be on the hotter seat. I would suspect that it's Williams and Camby not making it, with Camby it's merely more of a retirement thing. after last year I have an extremely difficult time seeing him still playing on a team by this year's playoff.
So what's the run-down on Covington? Don't know too much about him, but the staff and players all speak highly of him.
Covington is basically a tweener 3/4, has a bit of a skill set for both, but most notably that he's a good shooter. He says he sees himself more as a 3 in the NBA but played the 4 in college out of team necessity. there is a decent chance that he is one of those guys that didn't look good in the NCAA's usual slow system but could look a lot better in the NBA's free flowing opened up offense. his skill sets fits the bill, and at least the talk from the team seem to be that he's living up to that so far. Essentially, best case would be that's a poor man's Parsons. which would obviously be great.
Undersized but has length and uses it well to collect blocks and steals. Great outside shooter. Questionable defense but he could improve on it. Has potential as a face up scorer. Went undrafted because he had a bad senior season coming off a knee injury and didn't play in a super competitive conference. Classic Morey signing, basically. I assumed he'd spend most of the season with the Vipers but McHale already mentioned him as a potential option at the 4, he might get a shot this season (at least earlier than DMo and TJones did last season).
On the issue of Asik and Howard playing together the number one priority for Mchale, despite what he says, is to have one of them on the floor at all times. Hypothetically, if you played them 30 mins each, that's just a 12 minute overlap. Add 5 mins to Howards PT and 17 mins tops. 17 mins of Omer-Dwight doesn't sound too bad against the following teams: 1) Nuggets (early reports suggest Chandler will be moved back to SF.) 2) Mavs (Yeah, I'd like Dwight guarding Dirk.) 3) Bulls 4) Celtics 5) Clippers 6) Bobcats 7) Nets 8) Cavs 9) Bobcats 10) Lakers 11) Grizzlies 12) Pistons 13) Suns 14) Pacers 15) Magic 16) 76ers 17) Kings 18) Spurs 19) Wizards 20) Jazz 21) Raptors For some of these teams you want Omer-Dwight as your principal backcourt. For some of them you want dwight guarding the dangerous PF to make sure they don't pick on TJ and D Mo (I would even add LMA- Portland to this list.)\ And for some of these teams... honestly their defense sucks so much that our offensive dip doesn't matter. Then there will be situations when the Rockets will be up by 15-20 and you want to keep the opposition from going on a run that'll cut the lead. Omer- Dwight. And of course if Mchale keeps the long game in mind, might start Omer over Dwight to rest him. And people forget that one key aspect of our offense is getting the stop/rebound and then running. Omer's gonna get a ton of minutes. I predict no worse than 25mins per game when the season is done.
Thanks for the hard work done on everything on this site Clutch! You really should look into doing a podcast every week or two. Podcasts are definitely a growing thing in this country. I know your probably busy all the time with the work required, so thanks for everything you've done. Great podcast to hear.
Not sure how well Harden and Paul would have meshed on the court together since both are so ball dominant...but can you imagine that? That would have been one of the most talented backcourts in at least a decade or two, no?
Great points on TJ being more Dwight-ready having already played with Davis. I wish I could say the same for Motie on team Lithuania, but he looked equally confused as to what his role is as PF. Still rootin for DMo though, I think he has more offensive versatility that has yet to be tapped. and.... AB is poised for a comeback, book it!
The Rox are in win-now mode. They will keep guys who can contribute in the playoffs over development projects. I think Canaan will be cut before Brooks. Brooks has a few prime years left and Canaan will not be prime for a few years.
this also means all those that had to apologise to that british fellow 'meeks' , can now un-apologise.
That was a discouraging discussion. Lin has been making every effort this offseason to become exactly the player the rockets want him to be: 1. extensive 3 pt shooting drills 2. losing weight to max out speed and to min the possibility of future injury 3. working on his left hand Despite all of this, mchale remains enamored with beverley. Add to that, morey was ready to pull the trigger on moving lin and signing chris paul. In scrimmage, lin does exactly what everyone has hoped for, going strong and finishing to his left and the only thing mchale has to say is to reprimand the other team for 'not playing defense.' Lin is right: this org. does not believe in him. He's resigned to it but jesus what more does this kid need to do?!?
