First things first... Happy Saturday my fellow ClutchFans! Been a longtime member ('06)... and believe it or not, this is my first thread! As you can see, I don't post much at all. But like most of y'all, I'm on here ALL the time and enjoy reading others thoughts/opinions on all things Rockets-related. Now to the point.. I was a fan of getting Howard. I gotta tell ya... I knew he would be good for us, but I didn't know he would be THIS good with the way he's been playing the last couple months. Anyhow, at the time of the Howard signing I did feel bad for Asik. He was tremendous last year in his first season as a starter for us. He played a major part in taking us to the playoffs last year. If we never had him last year, we probably don't make playoffs... If we hadn't made the playoffs, we probably wouldn't have been able to get Dwight. Ironic how that works out, rite? So... If Asik had just accepted his role as a backup (and had been healthy all year), do you feel the team would be stronger/have a better record at this point in the season? It's been great having one of Howard/Asik out there for the full 48 min these last few games since Asik's return. This is what I was looking forward to all season long when we landed Dwight... Thoughts/Opinions???
I think the team would be more dominant than it is now if Asik would have accepted his role earlier. We may even have had a better Twin Tower attack also. They would have worked out the kinks by now.
Omer Asik and DesTroy Daniels. Best two player nickname. Trade Dwight and Harden, move Asik and Daniels as starters so we can use the nickname
Yeah, but now Omer is playing catch up. If he would have been playing this whole season, we would not have had as many problems with teams like Memphis, Dallas, OKC, LAC etc.
The story of Asik has not been finished. It has all been foretold in the holy teachings of FTARH.... Spoiler
If Asik had been healthy this entire year then we would definitely have more wins. How many more wins I don't know, but we are a stronger with him. As far as him not accepting his role, I don't think it has made much difference. I think he missed a couple of games right after he was pulled from the starting lineup because he was pouting. But, after that I think he had a legitimate injury, and since then I think he has been playing with effort. Now that Omer is healthy, I think this team could really have a nice run here at the end of the season. Now that Omer is back and playing, I think the fans need to get behind Him and the team. It appears there are no hard feelings toward Omer from any of his teammates, so I think we should all move forward and just enjoy the rest of the season.
I am so glad everything played out the way it did. Frankly, things like this is what makes the team stronger. We see that this is something that everyone has put in the past and are performing that way. That is not to say that Asik still does not want to start somewhere else. But, he understands, without a doubt, that his value is only where his performance is. If he cries around on the bench, no team will want him.
Tbh he has a very good point, because our team just started AWFUL in tems of 3pt %. And since then it only got somewhat better but still it's way to low considering our style of play. I always thought, that despite the limitations and difficulties, TT was imposing on the team if just our 3pt % would have been as good as last year we would be dominating nearly every single match. Now you could argue, that the TT is a major, if not THE reason for our bad 3pt %. I would counter by saying it hasn't been proved, that the TT lineup was significantly worse during that stretch..we scored more but it was more because we were used to score like that last year (without TT back then) and so it seemed to be the better choice.. The Question is would I have stick to TT even though it had worse +/- by far? Yes I would, because even if we would have lost 3-4 games more back then (and no, I don't think it would have been more) but imho we would have been far more dominant and versatile by now (ofc the injury would have still prevent us from implementing it properly so hard to say what would have happened). With Asik setting hard screens on the top, and Dwight either setting some 'soft' ones in order to roll to the basket or getting position deep down the paint we would be very hard to stop. Asik's defender might decide to ignore him and double Dwight ofc, but I think Asik getting the ball away from the basket would not be a disrupted offense because from what I have seen he really started to show glimpses of good passing, either back to Dwight who would be alone with his defender again, or to one of our (hopefully good) 3pt shooting perimeter players. He did that to Hamilton and Harden several times now in the past games but he also could deliver some passes to cutting guys like Lin and Parsons. Using multiple screens (and I really love Asik's screens) can do wonders, pairing those with elite penetrators like Harden, and to a lesser extent Parsons and Lin is golden and imo CAN NOT be prevented continously, especially considering Howard is an Alley-oop machine waiting around/inside the paint for a lob. just my 2 cents..
smh.. edit: I always thought, that despite the limitations and difficulties TT was imposing on the team, if just our 3pt % would have been as good as last year, we would be dominating nearly every single match.
With that being said, I think we would have about 4 more wins this season if Asik bought into the idea that he is a very valuable part of our winning a championship. I think now we are more likely to get further in the playoffs because of some of the adversity. I would gladly sacrifice those ~4 wins for a deeper playoff run.
Who knows what might have been...no one. We do know this team is in much better position having Asik in the rotation than not. He clearly makes the Rockets a better team. Who knows what will happen this summer....but let's enjoy the team we have now and support them as far as they can go in the playoffs. I'm really looking forward to the remainder of the season and especially the playoffs....and Asik is a big part of that.
Great point. I also believe Asik was a major part of our team last year during our playoff run. Without him, the Rockets wouldn't have even sniffed the playoffs. That being said, I'm happy he's still a Houston Rocket and I'm looking forward to another playoff run towards our third championship. Go Rockets!!
Maybe a little better on the defensive end by having always a good defender for the entire game. Also would have help us during those games where Howard seemed out of it or got in foul trouble. I say at least 5 more games than we have now but maybe 10 idk imo
But it was also a blessing in disguise, without Asik's attitude and "injury" Tjones wouldn't have come as a started and showed us what he has. Sometimes he disappears but that's understandable this being his 2nd year. Also Dmo didn't really have any minutes early on and even when Asik and Greg were injured he didn't get minutes till Garcias was too and Casspi was playing horrible. So I'd imagine he wouldn't have gotten much playing time with Asik playing.
I've enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts/opinions on the matter. And thx to those who gave my first thread ever, 5 stars... I agree with most in that we would be more dominant at this point in the season, I'm taking a guess and saying we could probably be 4-5 more wins better. Maybe we would've even worked out the kinks of the Twin Towers project. One thing I didn't think about was the progress that T-Jones (and DMo for that matter) were able to make this year, with Asik being out. So everything happens for a reason, but I'm satisfied with where the team is at right now. Everyone is healthy now and gearing up for a long, successful playoff run! Oh... and on a side note, Hamilton has been a terrific addition thus far. Well done, Morey!
I Honestly think we'd be right with San Antonio right now but they've also had their own problems too.
