McHale: We want to try to give Ömer close to Thïrty mpg

Delfino was not a power forward either; and neither is Parsons. Yet they were options; just like Asik is an option...

I just hope McHale lets him shoot the jumper.

 

as you said to CH, "This would be a good argument if it weren't for one thing. "

You are only talking about one side of the court. On the defensive end, neither one of them will stand out as "a sore thumb" but will rather stand out as monsters. "Possibly the entire time they are on the floor together."

There are offenses that we can use to accommodate them on the offensive end. But there are very few offenses at the opponents disposal that can deal with both of these defenders on the court together....and a stretch 4 is not one of them.

 

Which one of Howard/Asik is a good shooter??

 

The important thing is we will try to make it work. Because we want to keep a top-10 defense and we want Asik to be happy playing here.

 

Please let this happen! Neither of them has much of a jump shot from any range, though, right?

 

What current NBA offense has ever encountered two of the top 5 post defenders and rebounders in the league, Howard and Asik, on the court together.

Have you ever considered that every NBA team is going to have to scout us and design a game plan against us unlike any other of their opponents, just to try to decide how they are going to play against a Howard/Asik defense and rebounding team? McHale has a very disruptive card in his pocket.

Allow me to tell you a story about Refrigerator Perry. Mike Dikta was eventually asked about Frig. He said, "If I can get the opposing team to practice one hour against stopping Frig on the goal line, then that is one hour less than they have to practice other things."

And this is no gimmick. This is going to happen. A Lot!

 

Talking about things Rockets still need to figure out, McHale mentioned who will take Delfino's minutes, and who will be backup 2 guard. Nothing about the 4. WHAT ABOUT THE 4??

 

Are you kidding me??? Big dude with the curly hair can light it up from outside...only he just does it in practice. For some reason people think he's a center exclusively and so they say to each other "no, we don't want to encourage that" all the while curly-haired dude can light it up like PPat. Also he can hit the three, but...that's a secret too. Shhhhh. The Rox's newest secret weapon will be unveiled in Taiwan!

 

It all comes down to one thing: can Asik catch the ball. Last year he had bad hands - with Dwight on the court he will have to catch several close passes and then finish with authority. If he can do that, we should be fine on offense. Oh, and it would be great if one of them could develope a 10 foot jumper.

Guarding the perimeter is no problem - Dwight can do that and even Asik has shown that he has really fast feet (google a youtube video that shows his pick and roll defense when he guards the ball handler).

In the end Asik is clearly at least our 4th best player - you want him on the floor for a long period of time. 15 minutes a game he will be the lone center, the other 15 minutes he will anchor the defense and need to catch passes from Dwight when he is double teamed. Asik knows that, so I hope he works on his hands and perhaps on a short jumper.

 

Thanks for the link Carl, I never imagined that they would really think about playing Asik that many minutes. He might not be able to play that many minutes against every team but I think there are a lot of teams that he can play big minutes against. To be able to mix things up from a very big team to a small quick team is a great advantage for the Rockets.

 

dueruem

 

Many people overlook the fact that we will be playing the two league leaders in rebounds last year. Dwight was #1 and Omer #2 if I'm not mistaken. So you're looking at Two monsters on the board who when played together may be too overwhelming for the opponents to handle.

I'm just glad we won't be seeing the small ball idiocy with Delfino at the 4.

 

With two rebounding demons at the glass, the guards will have peace of mind just firing away from long range.

 

Omer's attitude is promising in the interview

 

Instead, we should give him less minutes and put posters and signs everywhere with the slogan "STAY" ... :grin:

 

15 min of Twin Towers is not too much, it can work.

First, as Howard said, whoever gets the rebound, the other guy should commit to runnning to the other basket to see if something easy develops.
Second, if there is no easy transition, the next option is feed Dwight in the post, position Omer on the other post for offensive rebound, and have three shooters out. It is doubtful the defense will double DH off of Omer, most likely they leave one of the shooters.

The one thing that is out when the twin towers are in, is the dribble penetration. There is just not enough space for that.

But 15 mins of solid defense, solid rebounding, potentially easy transition buckets off said defense/rebounding, and if not, steady diet of DH post-ups should work quite well.

Of course this is just theory, they will need to execute it. If DH and Omer start fighting each other for rebounds, bumping into each other and not being comfortable in general, that is another thing. But in theory it should work.

 

I noticed that too. Omer's attitude is much better than media day. I'm sure McHale has conveyed some plan to him - even if its to keep his minutes the same.

 

Asik is a perfect fit for this team...

1. backup for howard - 48 minutes top rim protection and D at C position
2. in case Howard is injured
3. allow for howard to play less minutes to stay more healthy, for playoffs etc.
4. Allow Howard to play more careless defence not fearing foul trouble...
5. TWIN TOWERS - there are some important opponents/teams/matchups that will absolutely be killed by TWIN TOWERS
6. Asik is part of the rockets young core - CHEMISTRY
7. Rockets offense even without Harden(let alone with dwight and harden) was top of the league thats why rockets dont need more offense, but more defense because without Asik or Howard defense and rim protection totally colapses...with asik the defense was amongst the best and without him amongst the worst teams in the league.

 

In the modern NBA both guys are centers. We all know what a PF is Carl, no need to argue that point.

I remember when we first acquired Howard, Morey seemed very close minded to the idea. I think they are just playing politics here and saying they will try it out but realize it will be very challenging on offense to have both these guys on the floor. It is an experiment and in the pre season that is what teams do.