Rockets did take a step back with the trade though. We're definitely going to miss PPat hitting a good % of his jumpshots and decent % on 3s. Bev is inconsistent and T-Douglas averaged 9 pts and provided solid D at the point. I expect to lose a few games just because they have to adjust to different line ups and strategies. It's going to be close..
I agree with this. We are a bit more vulnerable now, in the short term. Id say the Lakers may very well displace one of the currently seeded teams. Question is, which one?
We went 7-2 without Patterson so far this season, not convinced we'll miss him much at all. Douglas is a -3.7 on court while Beverley (small sample size) is a +9.3. However I'm not convinced Beverley will take all the minutes Douglas played, rather Lin will get some and perhaps Garcia will get some with Harden doing the point duties during those moments. If anything we got better from the trade, we brought in a second rebounder, and a veteran wing who can defend perimeter players with size.
http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds Of course, we all saw how a team can go from 96% odds of making it to falling out completely, so.....
Yes but those 7 wins was with Marcus Morris beasting. Actually, the totally unnecessary Morris trade has the conspiracy theorist in me convinced that Morey actually wants to miss the playoffs this year. DM has never really traded players just to free up space, he believes in letting the prospects duke it out practice and gets the last guy standing. If you think about it, since we're gonna have a max player next year this will probably be the last time we'll reach lottery. Having a lottery pick will give us another trade chip to get that max player we need. IF T-rob blows up, package of him, lottery pick and Parsons should be enough to get just about any max player we like outside of LBJ/KD.
Good point. Perhaps unnecessary. But I think it became clear that nearly every 4 behind Morris has more upside. Moving Morris creates the room to see what can be gleaned from the likes of Dmo, Jones, White and now Robinson. If T-rob blows up, and he becomes expendable (not worth keeping), he wont be worth much to anyone else either.
The Lakers vs. Blazers game is one of the worst ever in terms of officiating. The refs are doing everything they can to get the Lakers into the playoffs. What a disgrace.
Next 5 games will tell which direction they are headed @Dallas @Denver Minny Atlanta @Oklahoma City doable and competitive
