How effective was the twin tower at Rockets during the 90s? Will Dwight Howard be effective at 4? He is strong and mobile but can't stretch the floor and I know that is the concern but so wasn't Chuck Hayes. Paul Gasol played at Center at Memphis but after he got to Lakers, Jackson played him at PF and see how that turned out? Lakers played Twin Tower and won back to back championships. I know this has been discussed but does anyone really have a vision and analytics for this?
The twin towers lineup would not be for offensive purposes. This team was butchered last year by teams with two talented bigs that played in the interior. Go back and look how Indy, LAL, Memphis, etc. just chewed us up when their two primary bigs played big in the paint against us. A twin towers lineup is all about defense, getting stops and getting the 3 perimeter guys out on the break.
True....because there is a limited supply of talented bigs. That's the primary reason why the guards dominate. By the same token...when a team puts 2 talented bigs on the floor that know how to play both ends of the court effectively...those teams are very, very good. They dominate.
I was fairly skeptical at first, but upon reflection, we did use a Smith/Asik combo last season with success. Dwight Howard has a fairly similar play style to Greg Smith, so perhaps it could work.
The true championship maker would be if we could have a defensive and rebounding Asik that could shoot the 3-ball. Let Dwight patrol the interior offensively. Let the 5-man play up at the top of the arc and pass, pick and pop, screen and pop, and shoot 3's (Chris Webber) while having Asik's quick defensive feet and rebounding prowess alongside Dwight on the the defensive end. Defensively you let Asik take the opposing big that plays out high at the point of attack and you let Dwight ROAM. IF...only Asik could shoot the 3-ball, he'd be the ideal fit on both ends of the floor next to Dwight.
Good point: Smith and Asik got 228 minutes of playing time together, and per 48, their +/- comes out to Rockets 104.4 vs. opponents 96.6. That said, Smith is still a better foul shooter than either Asik or Howard. I'd like to review some tape of them together on offense.
Asik is already worth more than his cap number. If Asik could shoot to go along with his overall defensive skillset he'd be a max contract player. So, yeah, that would be nice to have.
#dwightmare3 he won't be happy playing PF he is the best PF in the league, no matter what he says and won't want to share time with Asik, he hasn't even practices yet and the organization is already putting him in a bad situation, let the man play center full time he chose the rockets to play center if he would have knew other this he may have never came here to be honest
Has anyone read the new Houston Chronicle interview with Coach McHale where he talks all about playing Omer and Dwight together, an article also now featured on NBA.com? http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/While-playing-to-Howard-s-strengths-McHale-still-4840981.php?t=7a029e2ef8cba496f0
The thing is he CAN shoot, from mid-range, he just so far hasn't been allowed to in games. PPat couldn't shoot from three until last summer Coach McHale said to him "start shooting threes!" next thing you know PPat was the Rocket's best option from deep, shooting nearly 40%. Scola can hit the three too, he just doesn't do it in games too often.
I would love to see Asik experiment with the 3-ball. I think he could do it if he set his mind to it. If he could hit 35% out there...he would be an absolute nightmare. And yes..he is worth well in excess of his cap number right now.
Two jumpers in this sequence. Along with 2 outstanding outlet passes and numerous other great plays. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FOm6dtTys_Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> That jumper has good form. I'd like to see the Rockets exploit it before we ship him out.
I hope we can see more of it too. However, that video has to be taken with a grain of salt: 1. Asik hitting J's is an exception 2. Orlando 3. There was no guard penetration while Asik and Smith were on the court. In fact, Harden wasn't even in the game. Lin drove inside only when DMo came in for Smith and set up on the perimeter. Therefore I expect the twin-towers tactic to be specifically for disruptive purposes and only as-needed. Also, the other three guys must thrive on the break above all else; perhaps Lin-Parsons-TJones. I would guess that you could get away with it maybe 10-12 min a game. Perhaps more against similar lineups like Deandre-Blake, Randolph-Gasol or Duncan-Splitter.
With reference to the video, you can hear Drexler say "no, you don't want to encourage that!" right after Asik with perfect form hits a jump shot. Asik has probably been hearing that all his life, from his coaches, from players, from everyone, from himself even. Heck, the guy is 7' 270 lbs meanwhile there are four other guys on the floor who can all shoot the jump shots, and so why would he be inclined to do anything except hang five feet from the basket? We don't know (and Asik himself may not know) if Asik is as good a mid-range shooter as, say, PPat, or could maybe even shoot the three. To really improve the first thing a player needs to do is open his mind, there are no "I can't" or "what if I fail" or "i'm too big to be shooting from out there". I like for example McHale's attitude. McHale wants this thing to work. He has vision where others can see only failure. Next time Asik has the ball at 15-feet out, is wide open, and doesn't shoot, McHale should bench him. Maybe then he'll take the shot.
Who knows, maybe Asik has developed a Scolaesque 15 ft jumper this summer so he can spread the floor with Dwight (Asik's shooting form is quite good as others have said). Asik/Howard on the floor together means Lin/Harden/Parsons can get out and run early without having to worry about getting rebounds, since the twin towers would swallow them all up.
What has to be taken with a grain of salt is the idea that Asik can or can't hit the jump shot consistently. We simply don't know. The video shows a jumper with very good form and with plenty of lift from distance. Your point #1 above simply isn't proven. Asik SHOOTING the J is what the exception is. As far as him hitting it, on the few attempts we've seen him shoot where he's in rhythm and open...he's been nails. He has precious few attempts to look at and even precious fewer attempts where he is shooting them from a wide open spot unrushed by shot clock running down. On those attempts...he's looked great. Just imagine. There's another vid of him hitting a long jumper with one foot on the line while he was in Chicago in 11-12. Just imagine. You want to talk about opening up the floor?? Look....we're watching DMO and TJones sling up the 3-balls. We've asked them to work on the 3-ball shot. Guess what?? TJones flung it up at around 26% for us last year after spending a bunch of time at RGV flinging up the 3-ball at less than 30% at RGV!!!!! DMO?? You just watched him in Europe. He clanked up a 29% on the 3-ball for us last year while nailing down an impressive 17.4% at RGV....after spending all season and the year before working on the 3-ball . What clip did he fire up the 3-ball shot over there?? Yep...less than 29%. 11-12 in Europe???? Less than 20%. I suppose you can say they're improving....hopefully. But.....why would we encourage those guys to work on the 3-ball, work on the 3-ball, work on the 3-ball.........but not even open up the possibility of Asik shooting the thing and holler and scream "NO!!!" and not wanting him to shoot it because "He needs to be under the basket." ...... where we can watch him stumble, rumble, fumble, and bumble the ball all over the out-of-bounds marker????? By the way...Terrence Jones??? Terrible form and release. He winds up like an old-fashioned swiss watch. It takes him f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get that 3-ball off. And then he knocks all the orange off the rim with it??? DMO...he loves firing it up!!! Clank, clank, clunk! I think it would be stupid for us to trade Asik without finding out whether he can develop the 3-ball jumper. Frankly, I think it is foolish that we didn't contact him the minute we signed Dwight and told him to start firing up a thousand 3-balls a day because we wanted him to play major minutes alongside Dwight. I don't know that Daryl and Kevin didn't tell Asik that. I am secretly hoping they did. Because Omer Asik armed with a 3-point jumper that he can hit at over 35% would be craaaaaazy!
But we do know that he wasn't that great with free throws, which certainly doesn't lead to a lot of confidence on consistently hitting jump shots.
