I would love for McHale to roll out a he starting lineup of Canaan, Harden, Parsons, Asik, and Howard just for the fun of seeing all the Rocket combos that will work with Howard, Harden, and Parsons on the court.
Who will it be? Probably Lin and Motiejunas. I think McHale will be hesitant to change too much from the status quo at PG, and he's made it clear that he prefers DMo over Jones (I also think DMo is a better complimentary player). I do like Beverley and Jones starting though, just because it pushes the offensively gifted Lin and Motiejunas duo to the bench for a scoring punch.
My point is there wasn't a drop off starting Beverly. The first team still dominated. So if the first team is going to dominate regardless. It makes since for Lin to come off the bench.
That's what happens when two great defensive centers plays each other. Howard lost this battle, he got blocked 4 times? LOL
I understand, but I think there is a drop off starting Bev. Just happens Pacers had a lot of turnovers to mask it. We scored a lot off the turn overs, but I think we had some trouble with the half court offense.
I wonder if Howard noticed as well. I haven't seen the game yet, so I really can't comment on if it was due to just situations or him not getting the ball where he likes it.
Bev has had a year to get transition to NBA style ball and he's ready to be same type of start he was in Eurocup. He's your starting PG. DMo's hurting but even so I think the PF start goes to Jones.
PG and PF spots are the weakest on this team and it really doesn't matter who's going to start at those, as long Howard and Harden rock
Unfortunately, I think for the Pacers game, the +/- is fool's gold. The Rockets' team defense still looked out of sorts with Beverley+Jones in there. There wasn't the same defensive dominance we saw in the Pelicans' game where the entire Pelicans' offense looked discombobulated by our starters' defense. The Rockets were lucky that the Pacers started out ice-cold, missing most of their open jumpers while George sleepwalked handing the Rockets the ball three times. Those aren't the sort of luck you can bank on from game to game. I reckon McHale had to try something after how bad the bench looked in the Pelicans game, but it may very well be a matter of taking the cork from one hole to plug another. Unless they don't mind Dwight coming off the bench, I think despite the PR, Harden+Asik as supersubs may prove best for the team rotation-wise. If they are open to Dwight coming off the bench, then they can start Harden+Asik instead and have Lin+Howard as supersubs. Harden is simply the least teammate-dependent of the three, and individual offense works better against bench defense. Either something like this: Game Start Lin Parsons Casspi D-Mo Howard Early Sub Lin Harden Parsons Howard Asik Late Sub Beverley Harden Casspi Jones Asik Or slightly worse as this (due to individual offense having to go against starting defense): Game Start Beverley Harden Parsons Jones Asik Early Sub Lin Harden Casspi Howard Asik Late Sub Lin Parsons Casspi D-Mo Howard Will maximize team production. Some encouraging signs we saw this game: McHale was smart lining up D-Mo's minutes with Lin's; Harden looked like he's trying harder on defense; by shifting the offense more toward Harden and less toward Howard, the Rockets' offense while running the Harden+Howard+Beverley lineup did not look nearly as bad as last game. Hopefully those positives continue throughout the season.
Great Breakdown I agree 100% jones is the best option at the 4 both Offensively and defensively I was impressed how well he held a very good David West our starting lineup against the pacers is our best starting lineup IMO
The best starters would be Bev and jones but for political reason$ I see Kin starting with Bev getting more PT
I went with Lin/Jones but don't really feel strongly that way. It's nice that we don't even know who the starting PG/PF will be but can still reasonably expect to win 50 games.
