This is a VERY important point. Everyone is fawning over San Antonio. They have Duncan at $10M and Ginobli at like $7M! That's a straight up unfair competitive advantage, though not illegal, when we are paying $20M to Howard. I am also very concerned, as I have realized the offensive player we are paying that money to. Yes, Howard is great on defense. Save the playoffs last year, I have not seen him 1) consistently create his own shot & score when single covered in the post and 2) successfully pass to the open man out of the double team. The dude looks horrible in the post. I didn't see much of Howard before he came to the Rockets, and I just assumed he had more skills. So, we have $20M (38% of the cap) going to a player who isn't even a legit 2nd option in my mind. It's just a much worse situation than I thought we were going to have when we were pursuing Howard.
Oh, please. You are being silly. First, being an even adequate rim protector is going to get Deandre freaking Jordan a max contract. Howard is better than him in every way. Offensively, he's absolutely "a legit 2nd option." Forget your mind. It can't be trusted where basketball is concerned.
Howard is not being utilized well within this system. They treat Dwight like he is a legit post player and force feed him down there way too much. When Dwight is being utilized properly and playing more to his strengths, he is a very productive player. Dwight relies to much on his athleticism though and I wished he would have development more skills over the years. He is really a rich man's DeAndre Jordan. With solid, deep team around them, Harden and Howard are still good enough to contend with.
He's not a good shot creator, no, we need more shooting and motion to compensate for it. Basically McHale or whoever is in charge needs to figure out how to give him enough touches to keep him happy while still running a real offense. Running off ball screens to get him a mismatch before posting him up, stuff like that. SVG had it figured out. The guy has never shot below 57% from the floor with very high usage, we will get there eventually.
I'm telling you - it's the ugly truth that homers just can't stand to realize. When you need a bucket, you cannot be confident that dumping the ball into Dwight in the post will get you it. Really, if it's not a dunk, odds are the guy's going to miss it. When I finally just accepted it, my expectations for this team became a lot more reasonable. I don't expect everybody to accept it, because it means our chances for a championship the next few years are not nearly as good as everyone wants.
Listen to the Mavs rant kid. He's right in every piece he said about Dwight. He's not that kind of player. We have to run plays for him which we don't. I joined this forum due to the rage I had with the crappy old players they surrounded T-mac with. Now they surrounded Harden with Young crappy players. See a pattern. It's all bull****. This is just for profit business. Like Daywalker said, nothing less and nothing more.
I agree on Dwight. He's a finisher, not a shot creator. The problem is we only have one shot creator - Harden. Maybe two with Canaan.
I'm not sure how adding mediocre role players somehow make you have a system, but in terms of depth, the only "deep" team that have really advanced in the playoffs have been SA. OKC? Miami(previous years)? Portland? Indy? No depth, no depth, no depth. All rely on starters for the most part. Even the Detroit team that everyone points to for being able to build without a star? That team went 6-7 deep. Only the Spurs have won on depth. Everyone else won on stars.
Dear. god. I don't know where to start. Your analysis of the teams you listed is completely wrong, I don't even know what your rationale was to cherry pick the teams in that manner (including Portland on there?). You don't think that Indy, Miami (I recall a bunch of vets signing for the min just to play with Lebron), OKC, LAC, were deep? Go look at every team that has won a championship, and name me one that didn't have a competent bench with vets. Joey Dorsey, Black, Garcia, Papa, Dmo, do not even remotely fit that mold. Give me some of what you are on, because it must take a lot to take that mindset.
It's not like we are that far off from being a deep team. The frontcourt situation -- the total lack of distance shooting, and the fact that Dwight demands constant post touches -- is the biggest problem. Imagine if we add a stretch 4 who's good for 30-36 minutes a game, then for the remaining PF minutes you have your choice of Donuts/Black/Jones depending on what you need and who's playing well. (But not Dorsey, never play Dorsey). Those guys have an easier time finishing because they're not dealing with Dwight's defender too, and their efficiency goes up. It wouldn't be a worldbeating PF rotation, but we don't need one to be contenders.
That Miami team had no real depth, the first ring it had 3 starters + 1 ok guy in Battier, and Miller played the playoffs well (but missed the regular season for the most part), the 2nd one it had Allen, Battier had regressed to scrub, although Birdman turned up for a bit off the playoffs, but they were really running 3 + pray for 2.
Howard looked pretty damn awesome in the post in the playoffs last year. WE NEED to go down to him, because it will be necessary when the game slows down in the playoffs.
Scalabrine Eddie House Stephon Marbury (2009 version) Mikki Moore The "vaunted" Indy bench that you somehow think is super awesome DJ Augustin Tyler Hansbourgh Ian Mahimi Sam Young And for good measure Pete Chilchut Sam Cassell (2nd year version, averaged 9.5ppg that season) Charles Jones The guy that Charles Barkley don't know existed
