The days of him being underrated died last season. The reason teams are shying away from him is his "injury", attitude, and his balloon salary next year.
Omer looked rusty tonight , but still wasn't a complete waste. He set terrific screens and played pretty good defense. He has never had great hands and tonight he fumbled / didn't get a couple rebounds that he would have gobbled up last year. I'm really excited to see O off the bench once he gets back in shape. Maybe just Maybe having an elite rim protector on the floor at all times really allows the rockets to be more aggressive on D and play up tempo more. I i have one complaint about Howard so far, It's that he goes for too many blocks instead of just getting the reb. Anyways that was off point, but i think having those two contrasting yet intimidating rim protectors will enable the rockets to really take off.
I believe Omer is injured, not as the alleged faking an injury. He's been playing down-to-earth basketball in the past season, helping the team get into playoff. Glad to have him back on court and hope he shake off all the rust ASAP.
His physical injuries aren't fake. When he puts in a good effort, it's obvious that he still has value. He wants to start, and that is not happening here. We don't need sulking behavior. He played well off the bench in the game, he needs to accept his role.
Omer was rusty tonight, and even though he was winded with only 11 minutes, it was awesome having him back. With Omer & Dwight off the floor it has always been a total layup drill for the opponents. Watching the game today, I could see the Bucks had to work hard for their points when Omer was guarding the rim. With a little more spring in his step, I'm sure Omer would squash a few more of those second chance points and grab a few more rebounds. His positional defense is still there after all that time off. I'm one of those hoping he buys in and stays. With Lin/Casspi/Dmo/Asik as the second unit we'll see close to 0 drop off on either offense or defense vs. other teams' bench units.
Who is this Asik guy???? On a serious note, he could teach Dwight a thing or two about setting screens. He is REALLY good at it. Dwight seems much more interested in the "roll" part of the PnR than the "pick" part. If Dwight did not set such lazy screens, he would be more effective in the PnR.
Great to have asik back ! On offense all he does is look for screens, he was even way past the 3 point line trying to set them a few plays.
Asik, Motiejunas, Casspi, Lin is a great bench. They really need a back up 2 behind Harden though. I guess the way they handle it gives Lin and Beverly enough time to split. I'd really like to see a Von Wafer-esque guy, a sprinter to take on the few minutes here and there, see if you can't catch lightning a few times.
It amazes me when I see NBA players set terrible screens. It's such a simple and easy thing to do, and it makes such a big difference that I'm surprised NBA coaches let their players get away with it. I would get pissed even back in middle school when teammates would set crappy screens that didn't really do anything. It's like they were going through the motions and not actually screening a man. And they'd leave too early, not waiting for me to run my man into the screen. Same thing Dwight does.
Agreed! A lazy screen completely negates the effectiveness of one of the oldest plays in the book. The sad part of it is Dwight is so good at the "roll" part due to his insane athleticism, that he hurts his on self by setting lazy picks. Dwight needs to watch a lot of film of John Stockton and Karl Malone when they lived by the PnR under Jerry Sloan. We could easily do that with Dwight and he could easily average Karl Malone like points.
i just watched the game...and i must say ASIK is THE BEST ON BALL SCREENER IN BASKETBALL...its like a freaking brick wall..thats why lin had such a great game ...those good ball screens help alot..Dwight is more of a slip screen type of center...he barely makes contact..its great to have him back...48 mins of rim protection
I've been taught 2 types of PnR screens. One is a hard screen like asik does. This is biased towards getting the ball handler open for a drive or a shot. However the screener gives plenty of time for his defender to catch up and get between him and the basket, making for a hard roll portion of the PnR. Since asik is terrible at catch and dunk, I can see how he prefers the hard screen. Then there's the "soft" screen that Dwight does. This is the true PnR play with both options. You're supposed to run up, barely make contact on the screen and immediately roll before your defender catches up. This is harder for the ball handler, because he has a smaller window to time his first step. However, when timed right , you have the ball handler and pick man both running towards the basket at the same time. Since Howard is great at catch and dunk, I can see why he wants to roll quickly and look for a pass. That being said. Howard sets his screens a bit too soft, even for the PnR. Also, our ball handlers are terrible at timing the first step on Howard screens. I've only seen lin and harden successfully make a PnR with Howard, and even then they are often late on taking the pick. You have to take the pick just before Howard arrives to set it.
You seem to forget all the fouls that asik got called earlier for his hard picks. The officials were specifically watching him on that so his picks were not effective. Hopefully the refs have forgotten about wha they were told to call earlier in he season and let asik do his hard picks but Howard should continue to do his soft picks
