[GRANTLAND] With Dwight Howard in the Fold, What Is Omer Asik's Future With the Rockets?

Wasnt Zach - it was this guy: @BKoremenos

Irony is that Clutch gives him a shout-out for an analysis this fool lifted off of Clutchfans! He's some freelance writer in Wisconsin, you can tell from his other articles that are not nearly as in depth that he's not a very good basketball analyst. He definitely scans this board.

Hey Brett - glad we could help your freelance writing career!

 

Trade for K Love or keep Asik!!

 

Sorry about that. You're right. And yes, when I read the article I wondered if he had perused our discussion.

 

^^Congrats on your first publication, Lou!! :grin:

 

He copies some of your posts verbatim as well. I mean, it's pretty ridiculous. Shoddy Journalism if you ask me.

 

Look, people here can keep fantasizing about a big 3 all they want, but Miami has already chewed on and spit out any big 3 put out against them. What we do know is that the Spurs and Pacers took them 7 games with a center providing elite paint protection. So we take that formula, and make that 48 mins of paint protection instead of 38, and make them suffer all game long.

 

It looks like one of the posts from a different thread got shoved into the first post of this thread somehow...

 

I'd keep Asik for the simple fact that dominant defensive big man doesn't grow on trees, but PF that can shoot seems to...almost every west team got a PF that can shoot 3s or atleast midrange jumpers.

GSW: Lee, LAL: Gasol, PHO: Morris twins, SAC: 2Pat, DAL: Dirk, MEM: Randolph, SA: Duncan, MIN: Love, OKC: Perkins, POR: Aldridge, NO: Anderson, UTA: Milsap before trade.

 

Perkins is hot garbage. I think you mean Ibaka

 

Having Asik off the bench is a huge luxury. He is both Dwight's backup and injury insurance. If we trade him for in a lateral move for a PF and Dwight gets injured for a long stretch, we might not even make the playoffs. I don't see the point in trading him while he's under contract. Improving the PF spot might be a necessity, but not at the cost of Asik.

 

True, however you can (try to) use teams downing the pick&roll to your advantage, for example by clearing out the weak-side corner and overloading the strong-side, setting up an open lane to cut towards the basket for an alley-oop.

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Of course this is a "special" and won't work more than once a game, if that, over an 82 game season.

I probably would not start Asik myself, however I do believe that Asik and Dwight can be effective together in certain match-ups.
If you guys care for this, I could put together some more sets or actions that the Rockets could effectively run with Dwight and Asik on the floor together.

One action that does not require a floor spacing big the Rockets already used last year:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/S750a_7y774" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Of course that will be Dwight, not Patterson ducking-in and sealing his man. If Harden gets denied on the wing, you can swing it and simply run a side/angle pick&roll with Parsons as below:

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/lpoe4Ps48vc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

... or simply feed Dwight in the post.

 

Yes please! Anything to help me better understand this beautiful game! Plus, so I don't sound like a total ass when I post stuff.

 

Call him out. Twitter is powerful.

 

THIS...is it just me or has the average NBA fan gotten a lot smarter? Or maybe I just should have joined a fan forum sooner. Thanks a lot Hmmhmm for the post and the videos. I need help in breaking down the game.

The writer of this article is no Zach Lowe but I do appreciate that he tried to break it down. I feel like traditionally, sports writers focused more on human interest stories and chasing leads. I'd much rather read about game analysis with a more hands-on, stat-based approach.

Anyways thanks a lot to all the "good" posters and the Clutch Crew for running this site. I have watched/played/talked about basketball my entire life but didn't realize how little I knew until I joined this site.

 

Which they shouldn't be. Try a lot of pick-n-roll for a change.

 

Hakeem & Otis - 2 power bigs - Otis was really a center but was so big he could easily play PF. We need Asik at the PF, IMO, or at least spend a half season seeing if he can play it as the two of them try to mesh. I see it as an opportunity and not a negative.

 

You don't need 2 big guys to pick-n-roll. Where do you suggest Asik will be standing if Howard pnr with Harden? His man will stay inside and protect the rim no matter where Asik stands. Asik can't make an outside shot, his man won't leave the rim for him. On top of that, if Asik stays inside, he will clog the path for Harden to drive in.

 

As the author suggested:

1. Put Asik weakside baseline. If his man leaves him, he flashes to the rim for the finish or offensive board.

2. Put Asik top of the circle weakside and incorporate in Memphis' solution. Look for the backdoor from the player spotting up at the 3-pt. line weakside with Asik flashing out there to set a screen. Secondly, if the back door isn't there, then the perimeter player cuts it off, Asik turns and receives pass and hands off to the perimeter player circling back around as Asik sets a pick for him.

 

1. Although plausible, Asik isn't quick enough nor does he have the hands to catch and finish it well.

2. Asik doesn't pass well to be efficient at this play. I don't recall we have much success with that last season. Memphis can do that because Gasol and Randolph are exceptionally good passers at their positions.

It may be ok for Howard to do those. Let Asik do the pnr, but then in that case, we are not utilizing Howard's strength in pnr.

Point is Howard-Harden pnr becomes less efficient because of Asik's presence, since his man will always just guard the rim.

 

1. Asik is one of the best offensive rebounders in the business.

2. Asik does too pass very well. However the hand-off play really isn't a pass anyways.

3. If Asik's man simply is going to guard the rim, that is an easy play to adjust to. Just let the two bigs (Howard and Asik) collapse to the cup. I'll take Howard and Asik battling at the rim against any other 2 bigs in the league.