Where Do the Rockets Go From Here – The Power Forward Position

I think that's a little much for Aldridge....they don't even need Parsons with Batuum and definitely Lin is not needed in Portland either, but I see what you saying. The price to attain any top pf will be high.

 

What facts? You have no facts to indicate that Howard and Asik can't play together. I only bring up Smith because he has no shooting ability, but we all know that Howard is a million time better than Smith. I think Howard and Asik could dominate together. Howard obviously had a vision of this before signing with us as he was rumored to want to play with a guy like Asik and has stated that he does not want him traded, according to Morey. Harden also does not want him traded, so obviously the players envision something here.

 

What is the argument here?

Does Morey value 3 point shooting at the PF spot? Sure.

Will Morey not go after any significant PFs who doesn't "project to be an above average 3 point shooter"? Doubt it. Morey met with Josh Smith (as either a back-up plan for not landing Howard or to play with Howard) before likely deciding that the money he got from Detroit was too much to pay. Smith does not project to be an above-average 3 point shooter (or even an above-average 2-point shooter outside 5 feet of the basket really).

Morey also drafted Royce White, who did not project to be an above average 3-point shooter. You can probably throw Thomas Robinson into the bunch, too (though I am not sure they really intended to keep the guy instead of just flipping him). Heck, one can hardly be confident that Jones will develop into above-average 3 point shooters based on their college numbers (33% from the shorter college range).

Yes, the Rockets have signed a bunch of 3 point shooters after Dwight Howard chose to join the team, but these are all minimum wage guys. Just because 3 point shooting is a very important, perhaps paramount, factor when you are choosing among minimum wage free agents hoping that one would pan out it doesn't mean that 3 point shooting will be a similarly large factor when you are considering much more expensive players with much more proven talent.

 

Again, you are not looking outside the box. You are just considering the obvious. You are failing to consider innovation and possibilities. You are failing to consider that our coach is one of the greatest big men of all time and that these guys are being mentored by the best big in rockets history (who played alongside another 7 footer in Ralph Sampson). I'm not saying that they can or should play 48 mins together, as I actually do see us playing Parsons at the 4 and Garcia at the 3 a good amount of time too. But can they play 15-20 mins together and even dominate at times depending on matchups? Absolutely. I think we have a lot of lineup options and McHale will put the best players out there depending on matchups. It's not just as simple as saying we always need a 3pt shooter at the 4, because this is simply not the case.

 

This topic is going south faster than I thought.

 

But what about defense? The paint would be congested with Asik and Howard together so Harden, Lin would have a tougher time scoring in the paint. However, on the defensive end we'd also be a nightmare to score on in the paint. We were one of the best offensive teams last year and one of the worse defensive teams. Even if we lose something on offense with Asik and Howard together we'd gain tremendously on defense. The experiment is worth a shot and it could just work!

 

The bottom line here is that we need to stop putting Morey and McHale in a box, thinking that they only look for one type of PF (a stretch 4). They are looking for the best players to help us win games and hopefully a championship. If Asik and Howard starting together provide this, then they will indeed start together. We will find out soon enough.

 

Ersan Ilyasova would be perfect.

 

Lol

Well I understand what you are saying and agree with it.Even last year most would agree that the Rockets valued the 3 point shot and spacing of the floor. Morey's players he has chosen suggests he is planning more of the same.

 

Obviously we need to have Asik and/or Howard on the court at all times. What I envision us doing is starting both and then using substitution patterns to also utilize Parsons at the 4 at times and Jones or D-Mo at the 4 at times (whoever has taken the bigger step forward). Howard should play 35 mpg and Asik should play the 13 mpg that Howard is on the bench. They would therefore play on the court together say 15-17 mins, giving Asik 28-30 mins per game of playing time.

 

Once you sort out the small forwards, there's not exactly a glut of available players who fit this description at all.

 

I'd rather start players who deserve to start. Asik deserves to start. Unless D-Mo or jones have taken a huge step forward, neither deserve to start.

 

On the contrary, it's actually Morey who researched and concluded that the 4-shooter spread formation is the most optimized use of talent, given the market today.

So for Morey to change his approach, you'd have to replace a player with someone of higher talent to make up for the lack of fit. The question becomes how big a talent upgrade does it have to be?

 

Actually, Asik covered several of these guys and did a pretty good job. I specifically remember Asik covering Aldridge (both on the block and at the elbow) when Aldridge had success against Houston's smaller defenders. Also, here's a video showing Asik covering Duncan (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZxypRIKVNc). In fact, Asik was often covering the opponents better offensive big last season, even those with shooting abilities. He also covered "PFs" when the opponent go small (often to match Houston going small) and the "PF" (example: Duncan in the video, Miami often ran with Bosh at C) was the only big man in the opposing team's lineup.

Asik and Howard are two guys with more than adequate lateral quickness defensively to cover both PF and Cs. Now, do you want to play both of them together if the opposing team go with, say, Kawhi Leonard at the 4? Probably not, but this is why you have the other players like Casspi, DMo, Jones, etc. for. You watch whether a particular matchup is working and make substitutions. No one is saying that Asik and Howard will play every minute of every game together (or even 50% of the minutes of every game together). In any case, we are not talking about Yao Ming trying to defend Carlos Boozer here.

Anyhow, you can talk all you want about what you think works or not, the bottom line is that trying it out (which the team will) is the only way you come close to knowing for sure. Plenty of things work on paper but not so much in reality.

 

How big a talent upgrade? Ummm, Dwight Howard perhaps? McHale plans to put Howard at the 4 and Asik at the 5.

 

Great post Carl. I like your outside the box thinking. Asik can guard many PFs and so can Howard with his athleticism.