25 Games In

Am I the only guy that cringes when Tony pushes the pace. Like he runs so recklessly I don't even think he knows what he is doing. He is fast yeah but I feel like he runs like a chicken with his head caught off.

OP- great post. Just one quibble, Tony isn't a PG he is an undersized SG & a inferior one at that.

 

After the Harden trade I expected 45-50 wins, despite most here still talking about a bottom 5 team. So far, many things have gone according to what I expected. The play of Asik, who I called a "potential DPOY candidate" before the season. The play of Parsons, who I compared to Iguodala in the off season. The general outperformance of the youngest team in the league. However, a few things have not gone as planned:

1. Team defense. With solid to elite defenders at 4 out of 5 positions and anchored by Asik, I expected our team defense to be top 10. Currently we are 19th.

Generally I have dismissed the myth of "youth" negatively impacting this team. The logic is that young teams are usually bad simply because young players tend to be bad. If you assemble a team full of good young players, like the Rockets have, you get a good young team. This is why my expectations of them have been disproportionate compared to many other fans. However, one area where their lack of experience HAS had a materially negative impact has been team defense. While solid individually, fitting within a scheme has taken longer than I expected(duh, in hindsight). The good news is, for young players, team defense is the last thing to click. The ability is there, with time this will fix itself.

2. Patrick Patterson. I have never expected anything more than solid from Patterson. I thought he showed glimpses his rookie year, and gave him the benefit of the doubt last year due to injury. Despite shooting a solid percentage, quite good on jumpers, and scoring at a decent rate, his overall impact on winning has been anything but solid so far this season. If you keep up with any sort of adjusted +/- or other advanced stats, Patterson has been by far the biggest drag on the team. His defense has been passable, the problem has been his offense. Despite shooting well, he is far too passive to be a threat to opposing defenses. This is why he is so damn wide open all the time. This kills the spacing for our primary creators Harden/Lin. Yes he has made some 3s, unfortunately that has not forced defenses to adjust their spacing enough to help our offense.

With Morris, we are going to be hurt on defense. But offensively, he is an actual threat who attacks. We are better off as a team.

3. Jeremy Lin. By far the biggest reason why we are not on a 45-50 win pace so far has been Lin playing below my expectations. Which was building on last year, near-allstar caliber. Fitting next to a dominant ball-handler has been the primary issue. Without Harden, I have no doubt he would be putting up big numbers and helping the team more than he is currently(even still, he is currently helping the team quite a bit). Of course, we would be a worse team overall without Harden.

The good news is that despite all the hand wringing around here, these two are going to be perfectly fine. I did not expect it to be this difficult, to look that bad at times. But in the end, it won't matter because they will figure it out. The coaches will figure it out. By the end of the season, Jeremy Lin will be playing at a near allstar level, and more importantly with room to grow. More than any other player currently on the team, Lin is the X factor right now. If he plays at a level he is capable of, this team will win at a 50 game pace. And there is no "if", because he is already starting to.

 

lol, I used to feel exactly the same way. It wasn't unil I watched him push at that beakneck pace quite a few times without getting a turnover that I realized that he seems to know what he's doing. In that respect he is very reminiscent of Rafer.

 

Yeah I would prefer TD to not be in the court without either Lin or harden to be the primary ball handlers. If he's knocking down his 3s, he's a solid performer off the bench. Plus, the Lin, Douglas, harden line up seems like it could be effective when the go small.

 

Agreed. And I like the fact that the opposing team is basically forced to catch up to Douglas, thus tiring them out faster.

 

Try using this http://www.hotspotshield.com/en

It will change the location of your internet connection

 

A really good thread. I do expect the Rockets to come crashing back into reality with a schedule heavy in away games and the WC. It will be a painful learning experience. But learning experiences are a good thing if you have a young team. Not so much with the Rockets roster from last season.

TD has been good. Lin is a little worse than I expected. Harden is, well Harden. Hard to find a complaint there. But the big thing is the improvement since the early season. While many Clutchfans were distraught over the team in the early season, I had expected it. No coaching staff can cobble together anything but a basic offense in the 3 days they had after the Harden trade. The coaching staff have acquitted themselves well this season.

Harden and Lin playing together finally? It is going to be a season long struggle. Harden is better in every aspect of the offensive game than Lin, but that does not mean that Lin is not invaluable. The two of them and the coaching staff are just going to have to figure out how to make it work every day because it shows so much promise. For instance Lin could completely violate the OKC double on Harden. And this 50/10/13 line from your back court is just insanely good.

The other strong points of the Rockets are Parsons/Asik and Smith/Morris. More than competitive with everyone but the teams in the final. So that leaves the problem of the power forward. Unless the rookie is a top five pick you cannot reasonably expect them to come into the NBA and have any impact. I feel reasonably confident that D-Mo will be able to step in before the end of the season. If he does not then I think Jones can be counted on. D-Mo is probably better in almost every aspect on the offensive end than Jones. Unfortunately defensively Jones is just sturdier than D-Mo. Jones has the physical mass to be a force in the NBA. D-Mo has a great amount of finesse. It should be interesting.

And I would like to focus attention on the McFail people. Your lack in understanding of how an NBA team is put together is special. Not in a good way. Your ignorance leads you to those psychotic highs after two games to the despair after 10 games. Basketball is a season. It is not a death match. Just think about it.

 

I think after this gauntlet of games coming up, a lot of ppl and the coaching staff will see whats possible for this team.

 

I think Asik is getting tired from the tempo of being a starter. He didn't play as much with Bulls last year. I expect him to play a lot better next season after working on a few things in the off season.

 

I am not known for my political correctness. If I get to far out of line would you bring me back to reality? Bima already does this, but having more than one person looking after you cannot be a bad thing. Right?

 

Scoring-wise perhaps, but I feel that Lin is the better passer/playmaker as far as getting teammates good shots. Jeremy makes those around him "better" more than Harden does whereas Harden is the far superior solo weapon.

Harden is a good passer but he rarely makes the same kind of football passes on the break or fullcourt dishes like Lin does. Jeremy also always seems to get the ball to people right at the hoop. I think quality of assists stats show as much.

 

freaking royce white was suppose to fill that hole with the guards rotation which we have now. bloody Royce white.

 

I think Harden's passing tendencies is best described in that recent Bleacher Report about him: that he's not so much "pass first" OR "score first" as he is "free throw first". I think the mentality is that the FT made by Harden is the highest % shot that he can give his team.

However, imo, that gets the team less involved on offense, which means they tend to be a step less involved on defense, which means that the team isn't humming along as well as it could be... and you get a little too much ball-watching. Instead of players being on their toes for a catch or an offensive rebound or a fast break.

 

Nice Game of Thrones shout out! I would also like to point out that John Snow seems like a b*stard and is overlooked and unassuming, but we all know that one day he will be King. The Rockets are John Snow right now. They have to go through some hard times, experience a little success and a lot of failure, but eventually they will be in position to crush any that stand in their way once they grow and come into the knowledge of who they really are.

 

Great thread and very good posts by pretty much everybody around here

 

We could discuss this based on advanced stats. I am good with just sitting back and considering your opinion. Best to you.