For the last 4 roster spots: *Donatas Motiejunas *Greg Smith *Marcus Camby Barring a trade the 3 above almost guaranteed to make the squad leaving these 5 competing for 1 roster spot and 1 d league stash: Aaron Brooks Omri Casspi Reggie Williams B.J. Young Robert Covington These 5 will need to play their butts off. It's certainly not decided which of these 5 get to stay in some capacity so they all really do have a chance based on their performance before the required roster freeze. Lots of competition will be fun to watch. Good stuff.
I don't agree with the SF rotation. Garcia is so much better than Brewer, and with the depth in that position, Parsons is going to get alot of rest. Also, Howard is not getting 24 mins a game. He's our 1st/2nd best player, he's getting at least 32.
I don't think this is realistic because there are 11 guys in this rotation. I don't recall that a team has ever had a 11 man rotation. Teams mostly go with 8 or 9 guys, with the others only getting involved in cases of injury or blowouts. Sometimes coaches even go with 7 when there's no one else on the bench they trust (Mike D'Antoni used to do it, IIRC). Hubie Brown's Memphis team went 10 deep and this is the biggest normal rotation that I remember coaches run. 11 guys results in minutes that are way to scattered and players not getting enough time in specific 5-man groups to develop chemistry. Even if a coach wants to hold down his starters' minutes, a more logical, and common, solution is to just play the 6th, 7th or 8th man more rather than getting a 10th, 11th or 12th man into the game. At a glance, I doubt that Motiejunas, Jones and Smith will all get 10-18 mpg at PF, with Dwight Howard also getting minutes there. It is far more likely that there will be a competition for PF minutes and only 1 or 2 of these guys will get the PF minutes (with the remaining going to "small ball" lineups or the Dwight/Asik frontline).
Then why would you play Aaron Brooks? He had one really hot shooting year (39.8% from 3 on a ton of attempts), but his career 3 pt % of 36.4% is quite ordinary. The 3 pt% of the entire NBA in 2012-13 is 35.9%. There is a reason why he's signed to a minimum wage contract. Brooks and Chase Budinger are both members of "guys who look like higher % 3 point shooters than they actually are" club.
He can score in different ways apart from shooting. He is no longer the player he was against the Blazers in the playoffs, but he may be able to contribute to the team.
Video looking forward to Rockets 2014 season. Not sure this belongs in this thread, but it is so much fun, and it shows some of Rockets' key players. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02daVxfypPc
I'd want to limit Harden's minutes to 32 if possible though at times when game are too tight then he can have as much as he wanted. The reason is to preserve his body for the playoffs. I think two of the major issues that Rockets and Harden faced during the playoffs are fatigue and injury (however small it is). A 9 - 11 players rotation would be good for our starters. I like how Pops rested his big 3 so that he can preserve them for the playoffs. Even Heat conserves LBJ and Wade for the big games.
3 points. 1. Heres the embeded version Spoiler <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/02daVxfypPc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Spoiler 2. lol at 1.27, Dwight dunking all over Omer 3. There isnt a Dwight highlight from his Laker days, which made me lol
In my hypothetical rotation Garcia is getting 16 mins total, 6 minuets more then Brewer and Howard also IS getting 32 mins. I know a 11 man rotation isn't most likely what where going with but i can't say that any of Motiejunas, Smith or Jones don't deserve to be in the rotation right now either. As the season comes we'l see who's deserving of the mins.
Assuming no major trades or player acquisitions, these are the top 10 guys: PG: Lin, Beverly SG: Harden, Garcia SF: Parsons, Brewer PF: Jones, Motiejunas C: Howard, Asik And we'll see "small-ball" lineups with Beverly, Lin, Harden, and Parsons on the floor together, and perhaps on occasion lineups with Howard and Asik on the floor together.
I think he was looking at what is likely to happen, not what some posters believe is best. If Lin is on the team when the season starts he will be the starter regardless if we think Bev is a better fit or not.
I disagree. I think Asik and D12 easily get 12 minutes together a game and there is no way the Rockets want to over work Howard, limiting him to 32 minutes a game on average makes a ton of since when you have Asik to get the other minutes a game. That limits the possibility of re-occurring back issues for Howard and keeps both big men fresh throughout the games and the season. 28 minutes a game for Asik seems completely doable, perticularly when you already know that the Rockets are goi g to try and make him happy.
A better way to project MP/game is based on players minutes for the 82 games. Assuming Brooks plays 410 min for the season, he then accounts for 410 min/82 games or 5 min/game. Harden averaged 38.4 min/game for the games he played, but based on 82 games, he played 36.4 min/game. After you tally all the players, they should add up to 240 min. Asik played 30 min/game, so 28 min/game isn't unreasonable.
I agree, but there is not much happening right now so I can see the appeal. Having said that, the Rockets under Morey have usually had a vastly different rotation in March than anticipated in October. Some of this was that the Rockets were rebuilding, but some of it is that Morey has consistently found players that surprised and stole minutes. I anticipate a number of surprises. I still expect Parsons to play nearly half his minutes at the 4 and I don't think Howard and Asik will be on the floor together very much at all.
