When I say this it doesn't mean that Lawson and harden won't ever be on the floor together . I just would prefer to start the game off with bevs defensive intensity on the opposing point . Bev off the bench means that some of a bit of his intensity will be wasted on a backup guard . Whereas Lawson will shred a backup pg and be OK on d against them . Again there are situations where Lawson and James will both be on the floor but at this point I want bev starting .
Unless Lawson is the next coming of Manu Ginobili you don't trade for him to bring him off of the bench. You start your best 5 players at their respective positions and Lawson, despite his off court troubles, is better than Bev.
The backcourt would have no defense and Lawson's ballhandling skills would overlap with Harden's. I think having him as a high minutes backup guard makes a ton of sense. I think they will absolutely experiment with Lawson as a starting PG and Lawson as a Harden/Ginobli type high minutes 6th man.
I think Lawson could play exactly like Manu off the bench. I'm sure his defensive effort will be better here , but playing bev against second stringers is a huge waste of his talents . I want my defensive ace out the going hard from the tipoff against these elite western PGs . Then I want Lawson to come in and make them work even more on defense and absolutely shred second stringers . This of course all depends on the pace the rockets want to play at this year , but I bet that bev will be starting game 1 .
Rockets are absolutely stacked now. As long as Dwight remains healthy, they are top three in the West. Natural progression from Harden as he enters year two of his prime. Capela, Jones, and DMo should all get better. Bad free throw shooters has gone done and good three point shooters as gone up. 1. SAS 2. GSW 3. HOU 4. LAC 5. OKC 6. MEM 7. NO Scrub teams fighting for that last spot.
My pre-season ranks are as follows: 1. GSW - standing pat off a 66 win, championship season 2. SAS - 55 wins while adding a superstar in LMA and a wily vet in West. You also have to factor in, however, that they lost Splitter, Cory Joseph, Aron Baynes. And more importantly, Duncan/Parker/Ginobili are all a year older. The cliff has to come at some point for those guys. My projection is 57 wins for them. 3. HOU - Going into pre-season it's unfair to ask them to beat the expectations of the two teams above. But I will happily set my homer mark for expected wins at 58. Where's the hole in our line-up now? You got offense and defense returning from what was your weakest spot in the rotation in last year's playoffs. 4. LAC - Strong starting line-up as usual, and now the bench has two feast or famine guys in Stephenson and Smith. 5. OKC - How can we project them this low if Durant comes back healthy? No other team ranked above them has a hole in its starting line-up the way OKC has darkness playing their SG spot. Also, where's the interior defense if they're gonna give Kanter huge minutes? 6. MEM - Sorry boys. Behemoths only in 2016.
The Rockets made it to the WCF with two 37 year old point guards. Beverley and Motiejunas were injured. Lost Josh Smith Added Thornton and Lawson Beverley/Lawson Harden/Thornton Ariza/Brewer Motiejunas/Jones Howard/Capela That's a pretty good ten man rotation for the playoffs.
People are seriously sleeping on OKC. If Durant comes back healthy, that team is stacked - Westbrook, Durant, Kanter, Ibaka, and a 3 pt shooter to be named later.
SMH at some people here. 67 wins and a ring, while having one of the statistically best teams of all time is now a FLUKE? Warriors will be 1st seed again, 2 at worst.
1.) Warriors 2.) Spurs 3.) Rockets 4.) Clippers 5.) Thunder I feel like any of the teams in the top 5 could win a ring which is insane, I also feel like the seeding between the 5 will be a complete toss us up depending entirely on health. OKC will probably be a little rust early on in the season with Durant coming back from injury, having a new coach and new teammates to adjust to, but by the end of the season they may be the best team in the nba, any of the top 5 teams in the west have the potential to be the best team in the nba. Then 6.) Grizzles 7.) Pelicans 8.) Suns / Jazz
remember our injured starting lineup beat the clippers healthy starting lineup. lawson upgrade > pierce upgrade
You guys are giving way too much credit to the other contenders. Morey has gone out and massively upgraded a team that was a few plays away from making the WCF a close series. Here is who we've added to that playoff rotation. Lawson, Beverley, Dmo, Thornton, Dekker, Harrell, Alan Williams. We basically replaced Josh Smith, Pablo and Jason Terry (hope he's back as a 6 mpg third PG and veteran leader) with Lawson, Beverley and DMo. Josh Smith was one of the guys who brought playmaking off the bench, but he also brought a lot of turnovers. Morey replaced his playmaking ability with one of the top Assist/Turnover guys in the NBA in Lawson. GSW really couldn't improve. SAS to me didn't really improve since they lost some really good role players in order to add Aldridge while their big 3 all just got a year older. No doubt, they have a good team, but it's not better than the Rockets. 1. Houston 2. GSW 3. Cleveland 4. SAS 5. LAC That's the top 5 NBA teams. Houston should challenge for #1 overall seed this year.
GS is the champ until they are not.....but we can run with anyone. I like us with Lawson better than SA with LA
Last year's Rockets with DMo, Beverley, and Lawson beats the Warriors. Keep in mind 3 of those losses in that series were close. You don't think those 3 players make a difference. GSW didn't make any improvements.
The same reason why you just put Lawson on the bench. It is clear that none of us know how to coach let alone put a starting NBA team together. Aka GM'S Aka Armchair Coaches Aka NBA scouts Aka Owners Lol
