Kevin McHale: I'd like to get a rotation of 9, maybe 10 guys

Jones definitely has a shot at being a really good player and a couple of preseason games does not change my mind, one bit. The thing that irked me was that he was "looking for his" a bit much. But then again, so has Casspi. I'm not quite sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing, but if Jones hit his shots, my guess is that the feelings on the D-Mo vs Jones issue would be radically different today. Jones is one athletic mofo, though, that's for sure.

 

Harden will be playing close to 40 minutes, unless it's a blowout

 

Harden at least 38 minutes, and Lin should get 36 as well

 

they always mention Dmo's scoring and touch around the basket and forget to mention he is a defensive liability one on one, and can't rebound consistently to save his life (that guy is a 7footer and cannot really box out consistently).

Players have to cover for him, and that wears other players out.

 

Well considering hardens defensive ability

 

West has always been a solid defender, he isn't what he once was, (at the same time he's bulked up the last cpl years and is a lot more physical than he once was) but people are comparing the collapsing defense from the nba's most efficient defense with playing against the work in progress that is their second unit.

Jones shot was off yesterday, that was about all that he did wrong, he blocked shots that led to fast break points, he rebounded well, he did a fairly good job denying entry passes, his man defense was ok, but he shot like ****, and now people are saying "this guy shouldn't be in the rotation".

*shakes head* there are gold fish with better memory and attention spans than some fans.

 

He is playing better defense now because of the players around around him but he is still a bad defender. He's never been regarded as good in that department.

 

For defensive rebounds, didn't we have a discussion earlier regarding how most rebounds are the kind that other teammates would also have gotten?

Having Dwight Howard will mitigate greatly the need to have a second top notch rebounder in the lineup. I mean look at the history of teams with Dwight Howard: they've always had more success with a rangy type four than a second bruiser/effort guy. I'm not saying that DMo is rangy, but I am saying that his rebounding deficiency will be compensated much better next to Dwight than Asik.

 

Nah.. for me it's still a shame that guys like Parsons and Casspi can outrebound this guy.
Howard hasn't played that much. Dmo was practically all by himself a lot in the last 3 games.

Dwight has not rebounded that well either but he had 9 seasons of experience which I cannot say of Donatas.
He will spend more time with the 2nd unit so he'll probably have to rebound next to Asik.

 

If he can't rebound, he will never get his trade value up to get that 3rd allstar.

 

Jeremy Lin
James Harden
Chandler Parsons
Terrence Jones
Dwight Howard
Patrick Beverley
Omer Asik
Francisco Garcia
Omri Casspi
Donatas Motiejunas

This should be our 10 man. Take D-Mo out if it becomes 9 man.

 

Dwight gets a pass because of his experience but DMO gets no pass with his inexperience. You are obviously biased against DMo by looking only at his rebound stats. Rockets out-rebounded their opponents in every preseason game. It's a non-factor that needn't be placed under microscope.

Some of the Pacers fans were impressed by his performance. You can visit their forum GT.

 

Agree with the 10 guys as the ones with the best chance of being in rotation. Right now, I am guessing DMo and Jones are locked into fighting for the starter spot, but also to remain in rotation. I'm a little surprised by McHale's comment in that I expected him to more want a 10 man rotation, but would settle with 9 if 10 players didn't prove to be rotation worthy. With as much as the Rockets want to run, they will need guys to give the starters rest.

 

Dmo seems to boxout pretty well though, he just doesn't seem to go hard for the ball usually. His defense 1v1 is pretty alright, hes just terrible in pick&roll defender.
People talking about caspi rebounding? u noticed that pretty much every rebound he got was deadball. In other words his rebounding rate is doesnt actually correlate to him being good rebounder.

 

Not sure why so many people are so high on Brewer. Both he and Smith can be solid at times but they both lack some serious intelligence and it shows on the court. That being said, I would assume Williams will be gone for sure with the last guy being a tossup among Brewer and Covington.

 

I don't get the ragging on dmo. He is a good looking young player that looks like he's improved over the off season. I would think a talented, hungry young player with the skills and frame dmo has would be a guy the fans would get behind. Oh yeah, he gives 100% effort on the court and runs the court better than some guards.

Whether he starts, comes off the bench or doesn't play....I hope we keep him around. He's the kind of guy that can be very valuable for a franchise.

 

I was not impressed but I saw he kind of improved but not to the extent that I would compare him to a dead eye shooter such as Ryan Anderson.

I don't think he has made a lot of three pointers so far and I watched every game. Never seen one go in.
His D..... seems improved because he does not get pushed around easily any more but he is still not good enough IMO.

If he is a consistent scorer, he will find minutes.

 

Blowouts. There are perhaps 10 teams in the NBA who will be dominated on both sides of the court by the Rockets this season. I see the possibility that the starters play below 35 mpg just because it is easy to rest your best players when you have a 20 point lead and have Asik on the floor.

 

The Lin/Bev situation is odd, and I think it would be terrible to alternate their starts. From a personal coaching standpoint, that does not breathe confidence into your guards. Either start Lin and bring Bev off the bench or start Bev and give JLin significant bench minutes. They need to know their roles before the season begins.

Personally, with this group, Bev is the better fit, but Jeremy has paid his dues and deserves minutes, even if he isn't as versatile as Bev. I wish he would take some of what he learned from Dream and post up a few times. He has the body type to be an Andre Miller/Mark Jackson/Chauncey Billups post guard, but has yet to try it.

My boy Cisco:


You can check my posting history (if you really wanted), but I made it clear that the BEST part of the SAC trade was acquiring Cisco. I was a fan for years during his SAC days because of his shot and toughness. He is extremely underrated, even now. He can create his own shot, much like K-Mart, but he hasn't had to yet. I'm hoping his role increases.

However, we've gotta give Reggie Williams a shot.

He had a terrible season last year, but the dude can flat out score and shoot the ball.

In our offense with all the doubles on Dwight and James, he would be near automatic.

I wish we weren't stuck with DMo. I am just not thrilled with anything he does on the court. It's so inconsistent. I'd rather have Camby taking his minutes so he can watch and learn.

At least with Greg, you know you're getting defense, toughness, rebounding, some scoring and, yes, fouls. However, at least his fouls are hard enough that it's not an automatic "and-one" every damn time.

Chandler Parsons has been fantastic if you consider all that he does that does not show up on the stat sheet. He is going to be amazing this year.

I don't know if people have considered how well he moves without the ball. Having Dwight in the post allows him to cut more easily and get easy buckets.

I wish he and Dwight would do the old' give-and-go alley oop play that works with forwards. I loved how Barkley and (dare I say the name) Quitten used to do it. Chuck would be in the post, Scottie would cut down the middle and Chuck would throw it up for him. The defense had trouble catching on because Chuck had so much attention on him, much like Dwight.

Either way, this team looks good, and underrated as usual. The analysts don't want us to do well, obviously, but that bodes well for the underdog role that our team thrives on.

 

This is completely debatable. His effort is one of the things that drives me crazy. If he gave 100 percent all the time, his offensive decisions and defensive liabilities would be overlooked.


A REAL FORWARD that gave 100% every damn time was Luis Scola. DMo isn't in the same breath.