[ESPN: Insider] Hollinger Player Profiles: Houston Rockets: 2012-13 roster

As for Asik getting into foul trouble, I've seen this point repeated in a lot of places in discussing his transition from the bench to the starting lineup, and it's a natural thing to bring up, but this seems to be something very much within Asik's control. Because his defensive fundamentals are all there. He defends by using his positioning and moving his feet, instead of by lazily reaching in, or biting on pump fakes or jumping at everything to try to block it. Last year, Roy Hibbert averaged 4 fouls per 40 min, while Asik averaged 5 fouls per 40, but the difference was that Asik knew he had fouls to give because he was only on court 15 min per game. In that way, I don't think Asik's fouling rate from last year is a reliable indicator for projecting his performance this year.
He's a beast the way he moves and smothers people just by having his arms up looming over them. He also moves amazingly well for a big man when defending out on the perimeter.

 

The 7'6" center we used to have was a damn good shooter.......or have your forgotten?

 

We don't have a backup center. And the one center we have has never been an NBA starter. So one or three of those nine PFs will have to chip in. It will come down to who can guard the opposing center. I'd say Patterson is probably the best post defender among those guys at this point.

 

wait. we have nine PFs now? Maybe we should play five at one time with White as the PF (point forward). Think about all the mismatches we'd have.

 

He didn't have the range that Donuts "appears" to have. You all are misunderstanding. If we didn't have Asik, I would let Donuts take a shot at center, but since the Rockets already spent big money to cover that spot, I would rather have Donuts on the court. He is quick, mobile, and can "face up" and shoot.

 

Isn't it scary? We can have an entire rotation that consists of PFs only. :grin:

 

You forget that JVG spend a lot of effort to get Yao in the low block rather than playing the stupid Detlef Shrempf role or high-post passing/shooting Brad Miller role. Note: Hakeem, Ewing and Robinson were just as good mid-range shooters as Yao.

Donatas has longer range.

But you see...if Donatas moves out like he does to shoot, faces up and runs classic PF low-post moves, plus runs the fast break like he loves to do, and he is playing with Patterson who then must play the low block, then the other team will put their center on Patterson and their PF on Donatas.

And Donuts and PPat won't switch in defensive transition, so PPat will actually be the center and clutchfans.net will call him the PF since he is shorter than Donuts and we can't deal with the fact we have an undersized center on the court, despite the fact he has Sasquatch arms and an immovable tree trunk of a body.

Patterson is our PF/Center. Deal with it. Let Motiejunas grow as a PF like he has been doing for the past two years.

 

Lmao! Dude said that sheet! Props for the laugh

 

I stopped reading after his ridiculous projection for Lin. It's very likely Lin's gonna be playing close to 40 minutes a game every night, so he could very well be a 20 ppg, 8apg, 3.5rpg point guard. That would make him a top 3-5 PG statwise. I think kid's got a lot of upside, and think he will average in the higher teens points wise, but 20 and 8? smh

 

i'm too excited to see T Jones!

 

He never said Lin is going to be playing 40 minutes a game. You just got to do a little bit of math to get down to about 36 minutes which is typical starters minutes.

 

I did calculate Lin's numbers at 36 minutes according to Hollinger's projections and it came out to 20 and 8. I just think that's seriously way too optimistic. I'll be doing backflips if our PG was putting up those numbers, but that's just not realistic IMO

 

Who said Donuts has to play back to the basket when given minutes at the 5?

 

no need to shake your head. thats probably because of his stats from last year.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/linje01.html

per 36: 19.6/8.3/4.1

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i was hoping to see what he can say about Machado. =/

 

Lin's advanced stats look amazing: nearly 20 PER, .140 WS/48, .55 TS%, and .478 eFG% for a 2nd year player. ON 28.1 USG%! Ridiculously efficient (if you ignore turnovers). Crazy.

 

I dont think it's unrealistic for Lin to get 8 assists....he's going to have several options and versatile players to pass to. That being said, the 20 pts may be hard to get.

 

Dunno if a 5 or a 4 is going to be running PnR with Lin this year, but Lin's assist rate will be helped this year by having stronger perimeter shooting teammates in KMart, Parsons, and hopefully Lamb.

Compare this to Landry Fields 3P% last year: an atrocious .256%, playing 28.7 min per game.
And overall, Knicks were 10th worst in the league in 3 pt percentage, even with Novak's blistering .472 3P%, at 18.9 min per game.

I cannot count the number of times that Fields was open on the 3 pt line after receiving a pass from Lin but didn't shoot it. Almost like a set script, he would jab step then attempt to slash, since he had zero confidence in his jump shot, which was completely broken last year. So many potential assists were wasted this way.

Houston's assisted perimeter shooting this year will certainly be better than that.

 

This is a hard year to predict for the Rockets. Lin is going to get a lot of opportunity to score and dish assists. Motiejunas is a power forward for now. Hopefully, he either improves his shot or he devotes more time in post.

 

just now...

 

Thanks Izak I was wondering why D Mo article is missing