Vernon Maxwell! All of our players are too nice. If you look up and down the lineup, I don't see a dawg anywhere. I thought Matthew's was that player but he hasn't had a defensive charge call since he signed his contract. I think they need to surround Wood with more physical players along the frontline. KJM, Tate and Sengun are too slight. We are consistently being out rebounded and out hustled.
We need to get rid of wood, tate, kpj, Augustin, theis, and maybe nwaba to contender for other assets. We have to choose cuz we can't all pay them later and most aren't in our future. Jalen looks like a new man out there and he needs to be the weakest defender of the starting five. We have a long way to go but i am enjoying the process. Christopher can't guard caris levert, drue holliday, or chris middleton, only Eric Gordon can. So chris is not necessarily the lockdown defender i was hoping he would be. He doesn't have the lateral movement of gordon, but He's definately a keeper, his D is good enough. until we get that point guard who is a lockdown defender and 3 point shooter next to green, gordon, christopher and jalen can all be the combo guards who bring the ball up the court. We don't need a traditonal point guard in our ball moving offense. out: wood - defense sucks and though he can space the floor, he's not a great shooter to make up for his defense. we need defenders around jalen tate - can't shoot the three well enough and probably never will, so he's nothing but a bench piece off of a contender augustin - hopefully can get a second rounder for him, clear salary theis - can't shoot three well enough, good enough for back up on contender, decent contract for the right team nwaba -- good contract and valuable on right team kpj - unless his three point shooting has magically improved under john lucas isn't a keeper, even then i view him as a bench piece for offense and decent defense. keepers: green, sengun, christopher, garuba, KJ Martin, Gordon unless a great offer for him i think since most likely no one is trading for wall, we can play him next year and make the playoffs. He'll be our temporary point guard since we need to do well next year.. but yea, if vernon maxwell part two suddenly falls out of the sky, we need two of him. One of my favorite rockets of all time, but we need a lot more than that.
Matthews has got the Maxwell DNA he has been in a fight to stick in the league. Now that he has his footing he can grow his game in his role
It would be pretty silly to get rid of KPJ whose defense has become above average. He was killing it before the injury. Tate can play defense as well, although he probably should come off the bench. Wood is what he is. Trade him if you can get value.
i don't think its silly to get rid of KPJ. he's going to ask for too much money and we already have green. above average D aint good, he needs to be a great one. Tate can play D but aint a good enough shooter. We're going to have salary cap issues coming up if we pay KPJ too much, so if we can get a first for him, i'm all for trading him, instead of losing him for nothing. We want to have open cap space once wall comes off the books and tying money into KPJ probably isn't it. But i am going to give him a chance until the deadline to change my mind.
I think we need a true 3, and not a 3&D guy. I'm thinking of someone who can provide offensive punch and match up on all these switches that the current NBA rules mandate. They have to be physical enough (and of enough stature) that they can rotate on to a big. I might even be looking for a 3 that can play 4. The body type of Pascal Siakam, Mo Harkless, or Tobias Harris come to mind. In my opinion, a steady diet of 3 guards with either Sengun/Wood (or even Theis) is a losing formula. Now granted that might be okay at the moment. Consider all our guards Gordon/Augustin/Porter* Matthews/Brooks/Nwaba Green/Christopher Think how much more success they would have if we only had to play two of them? When you start looking at our frontcourt, Tate and Martin are both interesting matchups, but undersized. And our centers are already smallish. Of course, if I'm greedy I'd like another reserve PG since Augustin seems committed to chasing his own numbers. While Christopher as PG would be nice, he's a year away from being a year away at that position. In fact, JC might be suited as a very small forward at the moment (which compounds our problems of being too small on the court).
They don’t have to extend him this year. He should play out the year. Above average and getting better at virtually every aspect of the game. Why give up on him so easily? For a middlin FRP no less. Pretty silly in my opinion. Tate is a role player that won’t command much money and won’t return much in draft capital. So there is really no hurry to get rid of him either.
What if the plan is for the rockets to get a high pick next season? Then flip the switch the next season after? Playing the 4 rookies from this season and 2 next season could potentially give you a pretty awful record with designs to make a lot of improvements going into their 3rd year along with hopefully a top free agent coming in at a needed position.
i'll be watching till the deadline and may change my mind. i just think he'll want too much and won't be content being a sixth/seventh man type. Green is the future.
the plan is to get a high pick next year. In moving all those players we should hopefully get some talent AND picks. i think we can sniff the playoffs next year. my point is that those other players aren't in the long-term plans IMO.
I don't think you trade Wood. You got to keep him, we need someone bigger along side him and Tate is not it.....he's better served coming off the bench! I thought Kelly Olynyk was perfect, however he didn't provide enough defense but I would love Myles Turner; can hit the 3, plus a rebounder and shot blocker
I put more weight on the opinion of anyone in Qatar over @ashleyem, Sengun is a prodigy. I don't like putting Rockets players against each other, it does not feel right. But trying to hate on Sengun while justifying it with Wood is better is stupid af. Sengun already is a better player all around, actually got drafted and then dumped his translator a few days right after draft night. Wood is quite the opposite....
