Morey: "McHale will experiment with Asik at C and Dwight at PF"

Above average coach in this league in 2 years is a compliment to him as a coach. It is really hard to achieve both greatness in playing and coaching. Kudos. No matter what.
However, putting things into perspective. He couldn't stop the 6 game losing streak in year one and he could not prevent the Rockets to drop games at the end of the season again.
With Westbrook playoff the series could look very different.

I do not think saying this is an experiment is meaning 'the Ho/Asik combo' could be 'devastating'. It's the opposite. I think it is going to be a very slow and cautious approach. Only CF posters are assuming the best and when it does not work, calling to fire McHale.

It should work for couple of minutes on paper, if you want more.... then the rest of the league has to regress. I do not think that happens.
Why do I think that. Because neither Asik nor Howard is considered an offensive type of player. Their strength are too similar and less complimentary.
Howard is way better on offense but he needed players around him to work and shoot.
If he gets moved to PF, he has to learn the game from the start.
I do not think he is coming to Houston to be relegated to being a PF, a spot he rarely played throughout his career.
He is the superstar, actually a role player like Omer should be playing more like a PF if you think of the hierarchy.
You take away the strength of your best or 2nd best player while trying to strengthen a role player's position?! I doubt it.

Conclusion is again this duo is not a long time solution. Parsons has a better chance to play as a PF.
If it somehow works for 10+ minutes, I would congratulate the entire staff.

 

sometimes it's good to think outside the box and not always blindly do things in the way the "experts" say it should be done. could possibly come out with a pleasant surprise.

 

1. Why would he have "to learn the game from the start"? He spent his first 2 years in the league playing as a PF....it's not exactly new to him.

2. He came to Houston to win.

 

Rockets players said Asik had been practicing mid-range shots in practice all last year, but he was just afraid to shoot it in real games.

 

Well winning is not trying to make your role player happy.

 

LOL, it's not a matter of making him happy, it's a matter of doing what's best for the team and putting the best players on the court. When you have one of the top defensive centers in the NBA, it's foolish to keep them on the bench when you don't have to. It just makes sense to find ways to play Howard and Asik together occasionally so that Asik can be on the court as often as possible.

 

excited for the season!

imagine Asik as a bigger Pau Gasol!

playing in the high post, drilling 20 footers, making creative passes

if he plays the way Gasol does, he can average 4 assists a game!

 

At first I was like "No way" and then I was like "what"

 

I did see on DraftExpress one time that is said Asik was shooting the mid range better than expected. That might not mean much though.

 

Really? Asik? Mr. avoid contact at no cost can't get physical soft big man butter fingers be the starting center over Dwight? Man O man, I love Asik, but he's just too soft as a center compared to DH.

 

Man, this the first time I have seen a "soft" center become one of the best defensive anchors in the league and lead the league in total number of rebounds. Might as well throw in a double-double machine just for kicks and giggles. If that is what you get from soft players, sign me up for more of those guys!

 

What?

 

"Soft" in this instance is just slang for "white", there's no way that anyone who ever actually watched Asik play would say that he's soft.

 

When you look at the top tier playoff contenders that we are going to have to beat to get to the Finals...they all have power bigs and they consistently beat us last season from the interior when their bigs played together against our "small ball" teams. We were the ones forced to match up with them.

Small ball is effective, and very effective in fact against non-playoff teams that have mediocre big men, that are trying to play power basketball with inferior power players. We can dominate those teams with our small ball lineup.

Small ball is effective against a few playoff contenders that have power bigs. But very few.

Small ball is effective against other playoff contenders that try to play small ball with us...because we are better at it than most all of them.

However....when we played a true playoff/championship contender last season that had multiple skilled power bigs in combination with good perimeter play.....they consistently beat us. We simply couldn't match up with playoff caliber teams that played 2 power bigs on the floor together.


1. There are 96 minutes at the 4/5 that have to be filled. Dwight is going to average around 30 minutes a game. That leaves 18 minutes a game to fill when he is on the bench. Obviously Asik gets those minutes as long as he's healthy and not in foul trouble. That leaves an overlap of around 10-15 minutes a game that Howard and Asik would have to play together for both guys to average 30 minutes per game. Which means there's another 33-38 minutes where we can play small ball. Guys, there are plenty of minutes for both Asik and Dwight to average 30 mpg. And there will be plenty of opportunity for them to play together since they will very likely be the best defensive combination against teams like the Clippers and Memphis.

2. Marcus Camby is on this roster. You don't have to worry about burning up Asik and Dwight or one of them getting hurt by playing them together. Camby is the third legit 7-footer that can come in and spell minutes if needed. He is still a very, very effective player.

3. Remember offensive efficiency comes from 2 places on the floor...the 3-point line (hence small ball) and at the rim (playing power basketball at the rim gets you to the FT line). Of those 2 options....playing at the rim is the single most efficient offensive basketball play...because of the high shooting percentage down there and because of the defensive pressure it causes by putting the opponent in foul trouble AND also by getting on the FT line for more efficient possessions.

Great teams have the ability to do both. They crush it at the rim and they shoot the fire out of it from the 3-point line. And they also defend the paint and rim better than most anybody.

The most important area of the court that a team needs to dominate is the paint area...both offensively and defensively. Defensively there is no question that Howard and Asik will dominate together. Offensively...it's a matter of making it work. All you guys complaining that Asik and Howard are going to crowd the rim and make Harden an average player...think again. Harden is a superstar. Howard is a superstar. Asik is a very, very good player. Just because you can pull up a vid of a wasted possession here and there does not account for all the good possessions that we had when Asik and Greg Smith played together.

As far as Morey saying Dwight will be experimented with at the 4....remember it's all about matchups. 4 or 5? What does it matter? We should know that Dwight is a low block player only. And we should know that Asik has the quicker feet and is the player better on pick and roll defensive assignments. So put it together. When Morey says Dwight is going to play PF..he means Dwight is going to play in the low block area defensively and offensively and Asik is going to be experimented with out high offensively as the offensive high post center...and Asik is the guy going to be doing the dirty work on the opponent's offensive threat. If we are playing teams that run their PF out to the top of the circle or FT line extended on the side and they shoot the 18 footer...we're gonna run Asik out there and keep Dwight closer to the basket.

Watch it happen in the preseason. You'll probably only see little snippets though...because it's going to be difficult to get teams to match up to it without dumping one of their power bigs and going small themselves very early. But watch for it anyways.

Probably won't see it too much against New Orleans in the first preseason game. N.O. looks like they're gonna be running a spread the floor game with Davis in the middle and Anderson in the corner. At least that's what they should be running if they are going to give themselves a chance to win with Holiday, Gordon, and Evans outside.

But the next 2 games agaisnt Indiana and then later on the last 2 preseason games against San Antonio and Memphis would be games I would target to see the Twin towers concept in action.

 

Really? All the negative metaphors you use to describe Asik and then qualify your statement with "I love Asik" as if that is some ridiculous proof of how fair your critique is?

Soft?
Avoid contact at no costs? (I think you meant at all costs)

If that's what you think of Asik I don't think you watched him at all last season. Asik is certainly not soft and if he proved nothing else, he loves contact. He is clearly one hell of a physical player.

 

I said compared to Dwight

 

Yeah. He put his body on the line for the Rockets. There were a few occasions last year where he ended up bleeding. Didn't he have to play with a bandaged nose for a while? Also, he had to go through a lot of contact for hack-a-Asik. He's not great at finishing around the paint, but definitely not a soft player.

 

Asik has been great for Houston so far.. I even felt bad for him when we got Howard. He deserves to start. Not sure how this Howard at the 4/Asik at the 5 will work. I'd rather experiment with Parsons at the 4. But thats the good thing about our staff.. they want to try everything before they trade such a valuable piece in Omer Asik.

 

Wasn't a huge fan until I read that coachbadlee didn't like it... Now I love it!!

 

Great post. I hope people actually read it.