Best in years? Definitely better than last year. Better than 2017-2018? Nope. That team length height and could play multiple styles. Gordon was a 6th man and we had the ability to throw Ariza and Luc at opposing teams. I am happy to have Woods and boogie but I'm still not sold on the sf postion. We still need to add shooting that has length at the 3.
I still would like to know why did the pistons sign jerami grant for 60 million for 3 years when they had christian wood sitting right there already on the team and would have been a little cheaper.
I like to be proven wrong but the Rotation of House and Gerald Green at the three spot is not going to cut it if we want to challenge the lakers. We badly need an upgrade there or atleast way more depth. Rockets I am sure know this better then anyone.
Yes, I like the potential depth of this team over the 2017 team. This Rockets team has more volatility with injury concerns with Nwaba and Gordon and Cousins... but if even Nwaba and Gordon are 100% this depth is potentially better in my opinion. If Nwaba is healthy, the Rockets can go 9-10 deep and if Cousins is back and productive, there will be rotation players not getting minutes. I would love to have a SF that is 6’10” and a lock down defender and three point shooter as well but the Rockets couldn’t find one... still they have Harden, House, Gordon, Brown and even Nwaba to get minutes there. I personally am more concerned about PF, but the Rockets are not finished. Wood has some mental lapses but he brings the length and size the Rockets have lacked defensively. Brown is a good defender that is very physical and has upside to be even better. Nwaba is an all NBA defense caliber defender that can cover almost any 1-4... The Rockets added defensively. To this team from a depth perspective.
Grant as a defender is a level above Wood. Grant is a very rare defender because he has the quickness and instincts to cover elite 2’s and 3’s at a very high level. However he is also strong enough and long enough to defend elite interior players at a very high level. While Wood can block shots and is very long and is one of the few true post defenders with the foot speed to defend the perimeter, he isn’t going to make life hell for LeBron or AD or Leonard like Grant can. The Pistons also believe Grant will be a 20+ point a game scorer being featured in Detroit. Wood is less of a sure thing... and for a team like Detroit with cap room at the time, it makes sense to spend 6 million more a year for a sure thing.
Nawaba and Wood are fantastic. Much better than just RoCo and I’m a huge RoCo fan. Cousins? Who knows. Could be good. Probably an average center considering defense.
Grant is just a way, way worse player than Christian Wood holy Jesus. Really isn’t debatable but lucky for you, you’ll be pleasantly surprised when the season starts and this becomes obvious. The NBA has no idea how to defend Wood in the context of this team. He’ll open up the season on fire, like 2013 Harden and cool down as the league adjusts. But the very first games will set the tone and create his reputation.
I will be very happy if Nwaba can be a productive player for us. Let’s hope he’s recovered enough to give us at least 10 minutes of defense. Anything else would be gravy. @Nook
I was against it at first, but Rockets need to trade Russ to upgrade starting 3 and 4 spots. https://tradenba.com/trade-machine ORL: Thaddeus Young, Danuel House + Bulls FRP CHI: Russ Westbrook, Eric Gordon HOU: Otto Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Tomas Satoransky + Bulls SRP Sign & Trade Shaq Harrison with Bulls for Chris Clemons and SRP or rights to Yusuf Sanon. Shaq Harrison/Sterling Brown/Ben McLemore James Harden/Tomas Satoransky/Gerald Green Otto Porter Jr./David Nwaba/Jae'sean Tate Aaron Gordon/PJ Tucker/Bruno Caboclo Christian Wood/Boogie Cousins And Tate should not be guaranteed a spot, especially if a better 3/4 or stretch 5 available.
Yes ofc we are better, would be way better if we had Roco and had traded Gordon instead. I hope he has a better season.
Would be nice If we do trade Russ I hope we do it better than when we traded Cp3 for Russ. We need to be up front about it and hopefully Russ is on board. Especially I hope Harden is on board if we do trade Russ. Chemistry is important and communication too. When we brought in Melo that created some tension between Harden and cp3 and with the team. I remember when Dwight and Harden just kinda didn’t get along and we had a bad season after going to the WCF. so things can go south if the core isn’t on the same page.
We need cerebral defenders. Wood is a shotblocker and people automatically think the world of flashy plays. Derozan once told in an interview it was so hard to overcome Lebron because he was so cerebral, knew more Raptors plays than their own role players.
First of all, I'm not even counting Boogie as an addition. I'll be shocked if he isn't injured and waived before the season is over. Second, aside from the fact that we swapped GMs and coaches, lost Covington and lost quality depth in Rivers and Green, OUR STAR PLAYERS DON'T WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE! How in the world will be better if that's the case? Does anybody remember Dwight's last season when he apparently didn't want to be here anymore and Harden was also unhappy?
After thinking about this, the roster isn't as important as the system change. The other players stepping up is the challenge on the shoulders of Silas and GM. How this team enables the role players to do that is the big problem that's difficult to solve. Especially against the teams that have more talent on paper. What changes everything for me is at the last 5 minutes of a playoff game, whether the entire team is just staring at Harden shrugging shoulders, asking him to bail out the whole team or not. If we do everything through Harden, because nobody on the team is good enough to relieve pressure off of him, this team won't get to the Finals. I'll hold out hope of improving the actual roster, there's still tradable pieces left here to improve upon.