Where Do the Rockets Go From Here – The Power Forward Position

Actually, it's not so clear. If we base it purely on who Morey has obtained, then this is true. But Morey went after both Melo and Bosh with max salaries knowing full well both shot a lot of inefficient jumpers. There's a difference between looking for a particular trait when getting role players. But when you're talking about stars, Morey basically go with the "I'll get them first and then figure things out later" approach.

In other words, I do believe Morey would prefer players like Casspi or Delfino as stretch 4s over someone Reggie Evans. One of those brusing, rebounding 4s with no shot. Once you get down to the role players, then you can talk about fit. Talk about whether you want to focus more on offense(floor spreading softies) vs. defense(scrappy guys like Jared Jefferies that can barely hit layups).

But once a player reaches what Morey considers to be stars, he's definitely not picky. Now, it is possible that Morey doesn't consider Aldridge a star because of all his volume jumpers. But I believe Doc Rocket did drop hints that the Rockets are looking at Aldridge during the whole Dwight saga.

 

No

You don't know what kind of DMo we will be seeing this next year. You can speculate though.

 

Bosh/Horford/Love/LMA are all pipe dreams, yes, but I disagree that acquiring them would a waste of money. You pay premium for elite players and whichever (near)-max players the Rockets would trade for would be a huge upgrade over any of the current PFs.
I do not believe for a second that Morey wouldn't trade Asik, Jones/D-Mo (and Lin, if needed to match salaries) for one of the (near)-max PFs, if one became available.

Ilysavoa and Anderson may be "good enough" playing next to Dwight, but neither of them is a plus defender. Bottom line.
Their positive impact on the team's O may be (much) greater than their negative impact on the D, but good defensive players these two are not.

Amir Johnson took 13 3-pointers last year. Only 29 in his 8 year career. Not sure if it's reasonable to expect him to suddenly be a consistent 3-point threat.

If you are referring to me, I tried to address this here: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showpost.php?p=8197921&postcount=56

Again, I just believe looking primarily at shot locations and related shooting efficiencies and PPS to determine who fits and who doesn't is too narrow a view.
It's not that I don't value 3-point shooting. I very much do. I just don't believe it's a necessity.

CH put this better than I could have:

I also don't think the recent acquisitions are a definitive indicator. We know Morey went after Bosh not too long ago and I very much trust Clutch that the Rockets were in talks for LMA.

Btw, if you don't mind me asking, which PF would you be looking to acquire -- reasonable or pipe-dream.

 

Yes

It was also known that Morey was looking at getting Josh Smith if he couldn't get Howard. There was no way that he could have even tried to get Aldridge if Howard didn't come as we had nothing we could have offered to get him.

 

If our lineup worked with Greg Smith and Asik starting, I don't see why it wouldn't work with Asik and Howard starting. Like McHale has said, you just need to get spacing from the other three guys. We would have two elite defenders and rebounders to go along with a great perimeter player in Harden, Parsons who can spread the floor with threes, and Lin who can create plays for himself and others. I think this could work.

 

i think Dwight at PF is a good solution

he can be like Otis Thorpe. They have similar builds

 

I agree that Morey would absolutely make the trades you described. The real question is what if the other team wants substantially more than this? What if the price for Aldridge was Parsons, Asik, Lin, Beverley, Jones plus 3 future 1st round picks with no draft protection?

 

OK

If Portland would make that trade and Morey would go for it then it would be a done deal. Since it hasn't happened I am assuming that neither wants this trade at that price. I do think Portland would grab a deal like that though.

 

Are you sure about that? I just looked and Greg Smith started 10 games last year. And from what I remember, they played quite well together.

 

According to NBA.com: http://www.nba.com/statistics/plusm...on=22012&split=9&team=Rockets&pager.offset=25

Asik and Smith played 227 minutes and 58 seconds together, the Rockets scored 496 points and gave up 459 points during this span.

The table includes only included 2 of the most frequently used 5-man lineups involving Smith and Asik-- more specifically, it includes only the two starting lineups used by the Rockets during the last 10 regular season games in 2012-13, when Smith played starting PF (Parsons missed 5 of these games for health reasons and Garcia started in his place). It does not include any of the minutes that these two played together with any other 3 teammates.

 

496-459 in less than 5 games? That's very effective. We should have used that lineup more.

 

They started 10 games together. Check the rockets stats. Asik started all 82 games and Smith started 10, so they had to have started 10 together. Also Greg Smith had consistency issues which limited his court time and we also had Patterson and Morris which were our two PFs before being traded. But my point is not really about Greg Smith, it's that Howard could start at PF since Smith is a much lesser version of Howard and Smith and Asik started 10 games last year with success.

 

I am not sure the other minutes were "trash end of the game" lineups. Some of them may just come during the course of the normal rotations with, say, Beverley came in for Lin for a few minutes in the 1st qtr before one of Smith and Asik got some rest. Others may come with Delfino subbing in for either Garcia, Parsons or Harden, if the Rockets played, say, Garcia and Parsons as the 2/3. There are just a lot of permuations of lineups.

Also, the 20 lineups listed in the table you included total roughly 2114 minutes. The Rockets played 3956 minutes total last regular season. There are more than 1800 minutes not counted. I am not sure how comprehensive your list is. Also, I wouldn't assume that the 1800 minutes not listed are all meaningless "trash end of the game" situations.

 

Small positive effect on defense and rebounding? That's a huge understatement. This is two of the best rebounders and defenders in the game. On offense, Howard can run the floor and can finish, Asik can set nasty screens for the three perimeter players, and either Howard or Asik can abuse the smaller defender on them. It's outside the box, and not the "stretch 4" that most people think we need, but I think McHale makes it work. My only real concern with both of them starting is free throws.