Capella is somewhat proven at the least! Did you see the playoffs? Give him another somer with Dwight Hakeem dikembe, who knows Yao and mchale definitely have knowledge to share. Ever notice mchale does not usually like to play rooks.... the others Id agree with.
Sorry I love Otis Thorpe but Dwight Howard would be on the floor. Robert Horry - as a 2nd year man was so impressive that - the Rockets tried to ditch him for Sean Elliot. Ariza pushes him for the starting spot. Especially if Howard is on the floor, you don't even need his length. Then it just becomes bloody murder on defense even with Harden next Smith - they can gamble for steals, with Howard and Hakeem to clean up underneath. Game over.
Those are my two choices. Even the media had us slotted to play Jordan and the Bulls that 96-97 season. Brent Price was a great player when healthy probably would've taken the starting spot from Maloney if not for injuries.
IMO that 08 opening roster beats most rosters under ideal circumstances. And ideal circumstances are all we are looking at right now. We'll see how things work out.
But when you have Horry, you win if you have the last second shot. That's worth something. Of course, no one is going to show off Horry's playoff numbers. That 7.9 ppg isn't exactly impressive, but he scored 10.8 ppg in 9 career game 7s that he played. He raised his game up when it counted. Hopefully, Trevor can do the same.
Ah, the Wafer and Rafer days. Good times. On paper, I think deepest team we have is right now. Although that is kind of on the assumption that Dekker and Harrell are reasonable contributors. It's the first time in as long as I can remember that we have come into a season without a deficiency that I felt needed a mid season trade to address. This is the 15 I want to go war with in June.
It's funny, the 08-09 "Opening" roster is definitely the deepest roster on there, but I STRONGLY prefer the playoff roster from that season... because at the end of the day, you knew that team was going to scratch and claw and do whatever it takes to win. And when it came down to it, those guys freaking D'd up and banded together. I hope this team is willing to band together and do whatever it takes to win.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I like this Rockets article as it involves a discussion of Larry O’Brien <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/deepthoughts?src=hash">#deepthoughts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/notjackhandey?src=hash">#notjackhandey</a> <a href="http://t.co/EjZqahohqk">http://t.co/EjZqahohqk</a></p>— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) <a href="https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/634767680147484672">August 21, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
If for some reason every player on the team panned out, we would definitely be the deepest in the league.
I'd lean towards the team at the start of the '85-'86 season as the deepest ever. It had "future dynasty" written all over it. The national media essentially declared just that, except in Boston and LA. That team just needed seasoning to start racking up the trophies, taking the Celtics to 6 games in '86 against arguably the best team in the history of the league. Fate, luck, or rather lack thereof, had other ideas.
8 years ago... "Why do people think Ginobili who is a top 10 SG in his prime is coming off the bench?" Because sometimes, it's what's best for the team.
Our current roster is definitely one of the deepest at the guard and small-forward positions - we have enough reliable ball-handlers to have an offense that is always clicking. However, we now offset that by not having enough PF/C depth. This past '14-'15 season was our deepest front court that we've had in a long time: Howard/Motiejunas/Capela TJones/Josh Smith/ There was a lot of flexibility in terms of players at different positions, insurance for injuries, and pretty much a durable player available all the time since he joined us in Josh Smith. Putting his erratic play aside, he was a big bolster for that big-man rotation. We lose a lot of depth and flexibility without Josh Smith. Our current foursome is not the most reliable wrt injuries, and we have one less option who can kind of get his own shot. Maybe Ty Lawson offsets it, but I have to see it to believe it. I'm optmistic about this season, no doubt! But our 08-09 team was more well-rounded & deeper thanks to adding Artest & Scola's consistency
I've got an idea! Let's roll those guys out as our starters and then when we're down by 10 in the first quarter coach calls a break, lights drop, and then the Superman theme song comes on and when the lights come back up, Howard, Harden, Lawson, Ariza and Motiejunas come out on the court and $hit gets real. Would be fun just to watch the opposing teams reaction and the fans would be going crazy with excitement! NBA Drama baby, like the WWF. LOL
No Rockets team will ever be as deep as any team Dream was on. Hakeem instantly made a team a contender. However, on paper we look deep. The only position that we have a deficiency of talent and experience is that the 4. Chuck Hayes gives you leadership and defense, but we've needed a scoring threat/pick and pop player ever since the Rockets switched up the offense. Fingers crossed! If we had DMo or TJ shooting like Scola, we'd be unstoppable. Luckily, DMo has a soft touch and seems to be getting better. Dwight solidifies the 5 spot, but again, I don't know if he's a guy you can give a game-winning shot to. He doesn't have Hakeem's footwork and shot-variety, nor does he have the offensive skill set that Yao had. What he lacks in offense, he gives back on defense. That's a nice change up in comparison to the years that we were destroyed in the paint. Oh Kelvin Cato, how you were fool's gold after that outrageous contract... One more upgrade or additional depth at the 4 and we look scary. Josh Smith made us a better team because of his inside-out game, and I think we're going to miss his offense. DMo and ____ will need to have a great season to get us back to the WCF.
