the pf contributions this year have been abysmal. not one of them has even come close to being a consistent contributor. blaming it on the coach is just simply finding a scapegoat but that's no surprise around here. The excuse of needing consistent minutes is just laughable. There's a reason those minutes aren't consistent. If you're not providing any positive contributions and constantly making mistakes you don't get rewarded with consistent minutes. Its funny how people gripe about how when players make constant mistakes they need to be benched yet when it happens now its oh they don't get enough minutes. And no Smith is not injured. he's just pretty much done as a reliable player in this league.
Unless they sign him to a bargain contract or he plays on his qualifying offer, he is gone. That's why losing that draft pick was disastrous. He's done nothing worthy of a huge long term deal. Limited sample size of good play, no playoff performances on the resume, and a huge injury red flag.
Capela has not had a good season...imho. He was thrust into a much bigger role than the Rockets envisioned for this season. He is still very young and has a real upside...but I havent seen much from him in terms of growth from last year to this year.
I'm not defending Jones and D Mo, I'm just not a fan of JBB's rotations and I think they hurt the overall product on the floor. Those guys NEVER looked this bad. They were both good for 13 and 7 at the very least in 30 minutes on good percentages. They often don't even look like NBA level players anymore.
Capella has been fine this year. For the first half of the season, he was one of only 3 positive contributors on the team. To have him behind Dmo, Beasely, Smith, McDaniels, etc. is downright silly.
that's just called regression which goes to the point of nobody on this team got better than what they were previously. Dmo hasn't been healthy all year and hasn't been able to truly play in about a year so that's no surprise. TJ just simply regressed. Really isn't much of any excuse for him and not much to say. It just extremely disappointing.
So let me ask you this. Are you ok with JBB's rotations and sporadic minutes distribution amongst the bench players? I don't recall ever seeing anything quite like this.
when it comes to TJ, Smith, Harrel, etc. its definitely what it has come down to. it sucks but its become a crap shoot with any of these guys basically. None of these guys has separated from each other.
Its about fit with the starting unit. Right now...none of the experiments at the 4 we've tried along side Dwight and Harden have worked. They each have become a shell of themselves. I really think Montrezl would do well along side Dwight, but his rookie status hurts him a lot. Beasley provides a real legit threat on offense more so than Josh Smith, Capela, and frankly (as much as I love the dude) DMo...They need production from the 4 in terms of offense. They dont play defense, so right now the team should be optimizing one phase of basketball...Lets get good at something...If this team can gel offensively, they become a very dangerous team...
But see it wasn't just those three. It was Lawson, it was Thornton, Jet, and now KJ and D Mo. You just can't build a solid bench and rotation this way which is why you don't see coaches do this. His level of inconsistency with his rotations and substitution patterns foster inconsistency on the floor. It hurts the product. Guys have no idea if they're even going to play and when they do get in the game they're looking over their shoulder the whole time.
You're dreaming again Snow, you do realize the game does slow down in playoffs but it also gets extremely physical, the other team locks in big time on your weakness's and does everything possible to take away your strengths and also rebounding in the playoffs is a huge part of winning. Its a war. DMO is coming off of back surgery and to expect him to get back to where he was last "regular" season is going to be difficult period, he's not superman and JBB having all his PFs stand out at the 3pt line is flawed IMO. DMO will not get into any consistent flow with JBBs volatile rotations and only Harden, Brewer, Howard and Ariza are allowed to play through any bad stretches.
I'm just strictly talking about the pf's and the rotations. But I'm definitely not going to just blame the rotations on why the Rockets are this bad this year. The issues are way bigger than that.
Interesting you could only think of three guys over a period of more than a decade. (There may be more, no time to check.) One was a franchise level player drafted #1, and allegedly a cash cow for the owner. The other got amnestied a year after he was signed a second contract.
