though not as versatile as last season defensively, it still surrounds harden with 4 guys who are able to be plus defenders
Coincidentally this is headline news right before a Butler trade. Don't think Gordon wouldn't approve of being a guaranteed starter in Minnesota. Not that the Rockets need his approval, but historically speaking, DM tries to make it so the person being traded is going to a good situation. He's also the quietest/stays to himself mostly, and the Rockets core wont feel like they're losing a friend. Win-win
Not a bad idea, but it reeks of coordinated PR fluff to ensure Gordon doesn't get his confidence shot like Anderson. Why would the team even bother to mention this to the press lol. Does indicate to me that we're out of the Butler sweepstakes though.
Some thoughts on this structurally though: Harden and Gordon have already both sacrificed and came off the bench for their team. Makes it easier to suggest that Melo do it when it’s coming from people who have themselves. Also, baiting Melo with the promise of more shots with the bench unit is a significant carrot to dangle. I don’t remember who I was debating with about Covington coming off the bench for Philly, but pairing Ennis and Melo is similar to the vision I had laid out for pairing Covington with Saric/McConnell/Bayless/Amir to mask some defensive deficiencies there. Other team’s second units typicall only have one real “scoring threat” guy, and if you have one wing to cover him the rest can be mitigated with good transition def and solid rim protection.
In all fairness, the press surely asked about Gordon's role this year, considering he's the main guy mentioned in all the trade rumors. So the team probably wasn't volunteering the info out of the blue, but merely responding to a question.
Could be true, but when it's not part of Q&A and shows up as "Sources say" it is pretty much the team volunteering information imo. I'm not mad they're doing it. They seem to have mishandled Ryno, his confidence didn't have to be shot that bad, and I don't care if he should have been mentally stronger. The management's job is to get the most out of their players and win the championship, a confident Ryno - who started all of 2017-2018 and half of 2018-2019 on potent Rockets teams - could have helped off the bench against the Warriors if he weren't demolished. It's easy to say it's on the player - and I agree with that - but I only care about wins and they should do whatever it takes to win more. It's good that they're learning from their mistakes. Gordon when motivated is an excellent piece who does damage against the Warriors. I've been touting the idea of starting him since we lost Ariza. But I see him guarding 2's while Harden will guard the lesser of the two forwards. Harden often plays better defensively against bigger guys and that move alone (putting him on big wings and stretch 4's) is likely to reduce our defensive bleeding. Gordon is more than capable of guarding the lesser of the opponent's PG/SG. As a unit, I like how that would work.
I think Gordon starting is probably our best 5 , but I'm curious what that does to backup guard minutes . knight isn't healthy and we have to keep James and Chris' minutes down .... having Gordon play big minutes off the bench is one way to do that . Not saying we can't figure out how to manage mins if he starts ..... just that it will be harder . Right now I think the odds for the starting "3" are split evenly between 3 people . Ennis , Melo , and Gordon all have a good shot at "winning" the job . Also I think that the starter could definitely change .
I like the idea also and share the same concerns. I'd guess the rotation (without Knight) would be something like this: PG: CP3 30, JH 18 SG: EGo 32, JH 6, GG 10 SF: JH 8, JE 26, GG 14 PF: PJ 22, Melo 26 C: CC 30, PJ 10, Nene/Chriss 8 That would give the 3 guard lineup about 8 min togheter. Also, Melo would play only at the 4 spot, as coach MDA hinted. Knight could eventually eat up minutes from every guard and wing (CP3, EGo, JH, JE and GG). If (huge IF that I don't expect to happen) we get Butler, just plug him instead of EGo and the rotation remain the same.
the backup guard minutes go to GG who gets a bigger role this year and potentially a few to MCW w/ Knight being out for now
I agree with you that it's up to management to find a way to get the most out of everyone on the roster. In Ryno's case, though, I don't know how realistic it was. I think what did him in was us becoming more and more dependent on our switch-everything defense as the season progressed, and Ryno knowing that he just doesn't have the skills as a defender to do well at all in that scheme. When his job was hitting threes and grabbing a few rebounds while guarding a slow-footed PF, he was fine. Once he had to try to keep up with Curry, Wall, Lilliard, etc. on the perimeter, he quickly became a lost soul. I'm still baffled by how much that affected his willingness to shoot, but it almost seemed like his realization that he had such a lack of modern defensive skills made him question his abilities as a player in general. One of the saddest seasons I've seen from a Rocket, because I really liked Ryno and his offensive game fit very well in MDA's system.
