What y'all think of Courtney Lee? Solid player, can knock down 3's, defend, finish, and even handle the rock a bit. Heard his name mentioned on a Rockets podcast *edit* I see a poster (@DustinS ) already discussed him previously. I think Lee would fit in very well in Houston.
I saw your edit. Yes he would. The stats I liked the most were of speed and distance. He is running out there like a small forward. I believe bleacher report posted a tweet today. "Rockets are now 4th in Pace." They put; "seems like just yesterday I (they) looked & the Rockets were middle of the pack." I believe Harrell/Capela/Koufos could make things really tough on other NBA teams. Space and Pace.....in Space City. I haven't verified the Pace yet.
Does anybody think that we need one more shooter than a big man? Onuaku could be ready for spot minutes for NeNe/ Harrell/ Capella at the end of the season. I really like Bogdanovic for KJ and a 2nd Round Pick.
@BigMaloe per ESPN.com Real Plus-Minus .......................Gm...........mins............ORPM.............DRPM...............RPM.............WINS...... Koufos.............38...........19.6..............--1.47...............2.80..................1.33...............2.00...... per basketball-reference.com ............................eFG%...........Rbs.................Blk%.........DRB%.......ORB%..........TRB%...... Koufos.................59%........5.8 (19 mins).......2.9%.........23.5%........10.9%..........17.1%..... One thing I noticed was frequency 36.3% on cutting. He could get the ppp higher I guess. I thought 0.94 would be good. Post up was frequency of 15.3% at 0.91 ppp. Al least that's better than D12 at about 29% frequency with 0.85 ppp. FT's need work at 52%.
I like Courtney Lee. I pushed for the Rockets to get him this past summer. I wish we never let him get away. Then the Rockets signed Gordon. What did the podcast say? Gordon salary w/Lee salary is the issue.
Anyone know what the roster size is next year? It's going up to 17, but all at once? We got Gentile & Zhou Qi and maybe Llull, and 3 picks coming in. Seems like 1 or 2 picks are tradable.
Yeah it's crazy the fit. I just didn't realize. Eliminate the post ups and everything he doesn't offensively is perfect except leap above the rim like capela/noel but much more efficient. Ft's don't bother me. 52% is still over 1ppp which is around league average for a possession.
a D' Antoni Center doesn't have to be a traditional center...can set good and hard picks, can roll with mobility...passing and shooting from the elbow is a plus...the athletic one that can catch lob passes is a plus plus...and we need a legit backup
backup PG/combo guard is also a need..we need a backup for EG and Bev...a scorer who can thrive the coach's offense
I currently live in Napa and I have season tickets to Kings games, you cannot just rely on the stats. Koufos is really not as good as his numbers show and he's definitely not elite PnR. Like Jatman mentions, he takes forever to gather and finish at rim. He is somewhat crafty in the post but his lack of athleticism is surprising. No one will shed any tears in Sac if Koufos is traded and this team is dying for talent.
RobKsports posted a player on "Miami Fire Sale" thread. Willie Reed. http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ht5fv6x Shows promise. Give me a moment to post numbers.
Some sites list Willie Reed at 6'10" & some say 6'11". NBA.com/stats x Willie Reed (16/17) 13.7 mins ...............................freq..................ppp.................eFG%.................league percentile.......... Transition .............7.0%................1.00.................57.1%........................(blank)..................... PnR (Roll-Man).....16.4%..............1.19..................66.7%........................80.3......................... PnR (Ball Handler)......................(N/A) Post up...................7.8%...............1.10...................57.1%........................91.4........................ Cut..........................25.8%.............1.39...................73.3%........................73.4....................... Off Screen.....................................(N/A) Hand Off........................................(N/A) Put Backs................31.3%.............0.88...................45.9%........................21.3...................... per basketball-reference.com (32 gms 13.7 mins) ........................ORtg...............DRtg.................Blk..................Pts............................... Willie Reed.......121.................105.................0.8.....................5.1.............................. ESPN.com Real Plus-Minus x Willie Reed (13.7 mins) .............dis miles........miles offense.........miles def.......avSpeed...........avSOff..........avSDef.......... ................0.93...............0.49.........................0.45.....................4.09..................4.30.............3.92..... Willie Reed salary 16/17 ($1.01 mil).......(player option x 17/18 @ $1.08 mil) James Johnson 16/17.....38% (3P%)........(UFA this summer)
Lineup would look like this: ..........Capela/Reed.............(Morey chance to see Reed similar to Jordan Hamilton) ...........Ryno/Nene/Harrell ...........Ariza/Dekker/Johnson ...........Harden..(Ariza....difference between 6'5" SG & 6'8" SF...nothing if 6"8" SF can shoot)Ariza 38%( 3P%) ...........Bev/Gordon Other Reserves: Brewer/Chinanu/Wiltjer/Bobby Brown
per basketball-reference.com x Willie Reed (16/17)13.7 mins .......Blk%............DRB%................ORB%..............TRB%................... ........4.5%............22.9%.................15.2%..............19.0%...................
The guy on the podcast (I can't remember which podcast it was - might have been Locked On Rockets) was saying how much he liked Lee and how well he would fit with the current squad. I haven't really studied the trade idea, so I'm not aware of Lee's contract and the issues that would challenge our front office if they tried to acquire Lee.
It doesn't make sense to me that people are prioritizing a big. Seems like there's panic about the big man situation because Capela has been out and it will have been our longest injury. If you think about it rationally, when Capela is down, our rotation is Nene and Harrell. When Gordon or Beverley are down, the rotation is Gordon and Brewer or Ennis. Would you rather have this at C: Harrell/Nene or Would you rather have this at SG: Gordon/Brewer or Gordon/Ennis or Beverley/Brewer or Beverley/Ennis Even if our STARTER goes down at C, we can manage temporarily without him. If Gordon goes down long term, we are seriously f'ed. I think that has to be the priority. I would be horrified if we went through the deadline without shoring up the backcourt. Front court, I can live with. Even Onuaku and Wiltjer might be able to help in the last 20-25 games much like Capela his first season, who most thought was garbage at that point.
What would Denver's asking price for Wilson Chandler be? I have strong doubts about being able to snag a star this offseason. He is on a 2 year deal and has been playing exceptional. Would Brewer, McDaniels and an unprotected first be enough for Chandler and Gee? Or would we need to toss in Dekker? What about Gallinari?
You You bring up some valid points @Mathloom. Is there an "all of the above option." I can only speak for myself. Preferably I would like to strengthen both SF & C. In post # 1154, I asked what is the difference between a 6'5" SG & 6'8" SF.......well a lot if it's Harden. Let's define SG (Wikipedia): says [It's a player who's main objective is to score pts for their team....in the NBA usually they range from 6'4" to 6'7".] In the Rockets scheme Ariza fits that description well since he shoots about 38% from 3 & provides defense. So the PG position actually has Bev/EGo & Harden. SG has Harden/EGo/Bev & Ariza contributing. PF has Ryno/Nene/Harrell/Dekker/Ariza contributing. With those 3 positions I feel the Rox just have to manage to get by. I would rather have Payton III over Ennis & Brown on the roster.....but Brown is a friend of Harden. Ennis probably will be moved as the Rockets may need that roster spot. So let's discuss SF. Ariza/Dekker/Brewer/KJ: 4 guys but 2 are essentially non-factors vs elite teams. With Ariza helping to defend difficult scoring SG's....it tends to leave the cupboard bare at SF. Brewer fans here have been recently inspired; but don't kid yourself...liability on offense & defense. I can discuss that at another time. Center: Capela/Nene/Harrell/... Ryno/Chinanu. Capela was playing about 24 mins when he was healthy earlier in the season. Half the game. I believe Dekker has hit the rookie wall because he hasn't played this many mins & games in his life. The NBA season is an 82-game marathon. So Capela comes back....does he get exhausted come playoff time? Nene is being protected like he is 44 years old. See Nene record on injuries & you understand. Harrell is 6'8"....gives you mins at Center; but can you count on Harrell to log in major mins at Center? Ryno: see defense & injury history. Chinanu; let me discuss him in another post after this one....within 30 mins. Key point for me is addressing future of Center position while approaching the trade deadline. Many of our foreign fans want the position reserved for Zhou Qi. How many years will that be? From what I saw this past summer; a couple of yrs. He needs about 25-35 lbs of body mass added on. Capela gets pushed under the rim vs prime big men in the league. Partly because of strength & partly because of experience (or lack thereof). Price of free agent centers is outrageous nowadays. We all saw Mozgov get $16 mil a yr this past summer. Mozgov & Koufos numbers are about the same....Koufos is half the cost. Tyler Johnson got a ton $ in free agency last summer as well (SG). So the Rockets might get a mid-level guy or 2 lesser players. So the chance the Rockets are active in free agency this summer are small, even less chance if Brewer & KJ aren't moved soon. Forget about big star (Rockets would like Durant to consider the Rockets & opt out); but I doubt that happens as most of the team would probably be lost. I want to talk about the playoffs & matchups...... Con't....
@Mathloom lets talk playoffs. We all saw the Rockets go into the playoffs in 14/15 with Jet & Prigioni @ PG. People laughed that the Rockets didn't stand a chance vs the Clippers & CP3. CP3 missed some time & wasn't 100%; but they lost. Everyone suspected Curry struggled on defense; but the Warriors did a good job of hiding Curry on spot up shooters (last yr in the playoffs the Cavs exposed this issue). Mismatches are what the elite teams are looking for. Elite teams will try to force a switch defensively & then isolate that mismatch. Example is Curry against Capela near the 3-pt line. In the case of Prigioni & Jet....it was Shaun Livingston. He towered over Jet/Prigi & backed them up, backed them up, & then turned around and shot over them for basically an uncontested 8-footer. With Jet on his heels; Shaun 6'7" rose above 6'3" Jet/Prigioni. Brewer became our counter. Teams have moved away from post ups; but use them against mismatches. Not so much to get points in the post; but to open up a 3-point shot. EGo plays better defense than I expected.....Warriors will try to force a switch of Durant on Bev/EGo. Cavs will try to force LeBron on Bev/EGo. EGo is solid....not easy to post up. Wolverine will bite them on the kneecaps. Which PG brought in will not be abused in the playoffs? Avery Bradley would be ideal because he plays like 6'6".....but not available. Courtney Lee works....but salary. I would try to get by with Harden and hope Bev & EGo don't get hurt. So now what if teams go "All-Big" or "All-Small".....I could use San Antonio as an example; but let's go with a young Utah team as an example. Utah in the playoffs could go all big: Exum/Lyles/Favors/Whitey/Gobert. Exum (6'6"), Lyles 35% (3P%..6'10"), Favors 40% (3P%..6'10"), & twin towers of Whitey/Gobert. Now Favors is 40% on 2/5 attempts. Will he shoot more by seasons end. They could insert Hill at 6'3" (49% 3P%) instead of Exum. Take out Whitey and insert Diaw (34% from 3)....Rockets would counter Capela/Nene/Harrell/Harden..?? Dekker/Ariza?.....Chinanu? Koufos or a Willie Reed might be a good move. Especially if you can nab James Johnson as well. Utah or San Antonio "All-Small" can be left for another day. *Side Note...Harrell/Nene shooting 50% from 3 at the moment....marching Favors.
