[O'Connor] Sources: A three-way deal was discussed to send Robert Covington to Houston

covington is a defensive player that nobody else on the rockets is. the closest person is PJ.

the reality is you just can't have 2 non shooters next to harden. we've already seen this time and time again. that shouldn't be new to anyone.

 

I would just flat out disagree

Last year we had rivers and Clint on the floor ... rivers shot 32% for us last year . We also played Clark .. who had a poor percentage .... and yet we still won plenty of games

The year before that we had an AMAZING Roster

In 16-17 we played sam dekker 75 games and Corey brewer 60 games .....
And we won 55 ****ing games

Russ is a better player than any of those guys

Clint should be better now than he was a few seasons ago

James has done nothing but continue to improve his game

Our offense has been fine at times this season with Russ and Clint on the floor at the same time . Clint has been banged up and inconsistent, maybe he’s regressed I dunno .

Russ’ OKC squads have been middle of the pack offensively post Durant ... that’s WITH adams. When Durant was there the offenses were great .

This idea that we are gonna be 30th offensively if we play Russ and Clint together is crazy

 

What I think is sad for the fact we had Covington a few years ago and didn't want to develop him

 

rivers barely plays and he can still be a threat as a shooter. you shouldn't disagree. you can't have multiple big minutes guys playing next to harden that can't shoot. we've seen that year after year when houston never had a real stretch 4 and they had a traditional center. this is nothing new. it just becomes a nightmare for harden

you're bringing up bench guys playing limited minutes. WB and CC are not guys you bench like them or play less than 20 mins.

that's where the joke of WB being the center stems from in the first place. he's essentially the non shooter in the lineup that used to be CC prior to this year. but it's not just one anymore. it's both of them especially being big minutes players. that's a problem

 

If we didn’t know it last year, we sure as hell know it now.

To have two guys that can only make layups, you damn well better be the number 1 ranked defense.

You are killing your super star’s swag otherwise.

2018 the winning lineup was

Paul
Gordon
Harden
Ariza
Tucker

Gotta get another 3&D, or perhaps 2 more. Not worth paying 15-20 million for a guy that can’t be a part of our death lineup.

 

It would be INSANE to trade Clint AND a FRP with the key thing coming back as Robert Covington.

I know the board is going to **** on DM if he does "nothing"... but that is my MUCH preferred route if these are the types of deals being presented.

 

Agreed, but it’s been like six years now believe it or not. Time flies!

 

I remember he was awful his last summer league and pre-season here.

 

And the fact that we developed Capela and might trade him to get Covington back.

 

lol what do you mean we've seen year after year ?

Yes we play alot with a stretch 4. I just dont get where the idea of nightmare comes from ? specifically it being a nightmare for harden

14-15 we had linueps with Corey brewer, josh smith, DMo, tarick black, Joey dorsey, dwight howard ...

Ive literally cited situations in 4 out of the last 5 or 6 years where weve had " sub-optimal " shooting linueps on the floor and yet managed to win games. Did we win a chip ? no ... have we won a chip playing small yet ? no ...

What is an instance of lineup with 2 non shooters we've played that has been so bad Harden sucks ? Because i can find a game from this year where russ, james, and HARTENSTEIN share the floor for significant minutes and we win. oh and james scored 44.

It might be better to play shooters if that player is also as good of a defender as clint , as good of a rebounder, or can finish in the paint. Otherwise you are giving something up. James is good enough that we can have a fine offense even if you dont completely surround him with shooters.

Thats like saying having james russ and giannis would be " a problem" IN your world we'd trade giannis for covington or another PJ because they are bigger shooting threats.

 

He was out of shape and had no J.

 

i guess you forgot the years of playing fake stretch 4s with the likes TJ/Josh Smith and co next to Dwight and believe Harden didn't actually have nightmares seeing how clogged the floor was.and how difficult the game became for him

how can anyone that has watched this team closely in the Harden era not see the difference. simply just track how much better the team gets when you add more and more guys playing next to harden that can actually stretch the floor. its not that hard

lets act like harden hasn't seen traps all year or harden focused zone coverages guys. he's just fine

 

lol dude i dunno what you are taling about .

Howard era Harden still was putting up 27 a game efficiently ...

The main difference in James game now is that he has essentially doubled his 3pt attempts.

Furthermore James has always been a great pick and roll player , so the idea that the paint was super clogged and he couldnt get to the rim is absurd.

 

It’s quiet

 

Don’t know what I’m talking about go back to the playoffs. That’ll refresh your memory

this should be a sticky tbh.

 

I'm confused now.

so youve only been talking about playoffs this entire time ?

are you talking about in 13-14 when harden was 24 ? or 14-15 where we went to the WCF despite injuries to our starting pg and pf ?

in the rest of the year's weve had a stretch 4 and a pg who is a good shooter.

16-17 we got schooled by the spurs
17-19 we did great

but there are so many other factors that changed besides " cant play harden with 2 non shooter's" . like changing the second best player from a disengaged over the hill dwight to a still viable cp3.

 

what in the world? who really cares about anything besides the playoffs and winning at the highest level. that's been the bar. if your bar is lower than that then we can stop now. again see my post above

 

it's this simple and what the rockets are going for @RudyTBag

people are taking it as a dig at CC but it really isn't. he's just the unfortunate piece that has value that will get you what you need. you don't build the same exact team around wb as you would cp3. that just isn't it