Dekker is not a bust, remember Capella at this time last year. He will go to the D-League and learn how to play the Rockets style of ball. Dwight and Capella may see some time together on the court until DMo comes back. This will be an interesting duo when TJones needs a break of is over matched. With Dwight back, our defense will look much better. Harrell has some promise, but he's going to need some time as well. I love our guard/wing rotation. With James and Ty running the show, it will be great to sprinkle in Bev and Thorn. I doubt Terry sees many minutes, unless its a blow out or injury. I can see KJ getting some minutes when we need intense defense. Ariza and Brewski in the SF/Wing mix make us strong. We have a good bench, I'm not sure we're the deepest team in the league, but once DMo returns we should be formidable against a variety of teams. Oh, I wouldn't be opposed to giving Joshua Smith some D-League time to develop and build an NBA body. He has some nice qualities that could pay dividends at some point in the season.
Who do you guys think is overrated/underrated on our squad? DMO is for sure underrated in this league. I don't think people understand the damage Capela is going to do on that rim this season. And people are also under the impression that having a DWI makes Lawson a boom-or-bust type player. (Which is ridiculous)
Yes we're one of the deepest teams in the NBA. Hopefully this season we can experience that depth for at least 85%. And especially in the playoff's. We go into the playoff's healthy, you can best believe we will win it all.
JSmoove will probably be on that detail as I'm sure he'll be getting his playing time by playing some 3 as well as 4. Either Clippers wings are going to over perform because they have a bunch of tweeners who can play 2/3 or 3/4 or they are going to fail with a lack of shooting.
PF and C are not deep enough. I like Capella but if (when?) Dwight goes down do you really want a second year guy who barely played last season suddenly on the hook for 30+ minutes a night? I know I don't. The same thing with Jones and Dmo. If one of them goes down we are suddenly very thin at the first or second deepest position in the league. We need one more big body capable of giving a solid 20-25 mpg and I will feel much better. I do think Harrel may crack the rotation my midseason even without an injury to someone else so there is hope there. He also brings a level of hustle and hunger that no one else on the front line has. We are also in a bit of trouble if Thornton doesn't pan out (KJ isn't ready). The closest thing we have to a capable SG to back up Harden is Brewer and I don't feel comfortable with him playing many minutes there for some reason. Overall, I feel pretty good but we are still not quite as deep as I would prefer.
We're pretty deep at center compared to just about every other team in the league. If Dwight only misses at most the B2B games(plus the suspension), that's 60 games he's giving us. Assuming Capela is available the entire season and D-Mo is back within a month or so, we can get by with Capela filling in and then going small when he sits. We managed to do it last year when we were relying on Joey Dorsey to play meaningful minutes. As for shooting guard, we've got plenty of depth there. Harden will be playing at least 34-36 minutes a night unless we have an average margin of victory that rivals last year's Warriors. Behind him, we've got Thornton and Brewer as well as Bev and Terry should we decide to go small. And that's to say nothing of McDaniels if he can improve his shot(or if McHale wants to go with more of a defensive look).
Capela looked rotation worthy in the playoffs. Capela has looked like a defensive force in preseason. I don't expect him to look as great in regular season as preseason, but he's still a solid backup. Motiejunas gives Rockets a great 3rd center option once he is healthy, Ariza, Harrell, and Capela are likely okay as the third, fourth, and fifth PF options. Motiejunas's injury hurts as he is in depth chart for PF and C. Thorton is likely first wing off the bench if Brewer gets hurt. K.J. is likely one of the best wing backups that needs two injuries to get PT during minutes that actually affect the outcome of a game. Heck, two injuries might not even get him in the game as Beverley might slide to SG with Terry playing all the backup PG minutes. The Rockets likely have one of the better collections of guys not inside the rotation. Rockets should overwhelm most teams even when they have some injuries. Problems with Houston's bench are that Motiejunas's health is very important as he is needed as a PF and as an emergency center and the Rockets lack a quality 6th man that can play in multiple lineups without much drop off from the starters.
Not really. I think GS and SA teams are deep and better. The rockets are deep, but we do not have enough proven players to win a big game. However, this year team is better than last year, but just is one of the top four teams in west. West is just too good to have any weak position, but our PF position is not strong.
