There has been ample opportunity given to developing Jones and DMo this season. They have been developed about as far as they can be developed this year. They are what they are. Good enough to help us beat poor teams when put on the floor with one or two of our best players. But not good enough to help us beat the best teams in the league when they are put on the floor for major minutes. You are implying they can't develop unless they are at the front of the rotation. That is false. And this organization is TRYING TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP THIS SEASON. Their expectations are for us to compete for a championship this year. Competing for something means you have a chance to accomplish it. You are downplaying the expectations of Morey and the front office.
Just play Dmo and TJo more - it will be better for the team overall in this years playoffs and going forward. DD
We can play them more down the stretch in trash games against lottery teams that aren't trying to win. But when we get to the playoffs we'll have to play them less if we want the team to keep playing.
TJ is a really good player but the problem is that he needs to be able to play as a stretch 4 for this offense to really click. When his jumper is on, its clear how well the rockets play.
You have opened your cards and made it clear you do not know what you are talking about. We have seen Asik and Howard on the floor together and it doesn't work. We have seen small ball and except in specific situations it doesn't work. The reason we lose to good teams is because they are over all better than us. Yes we can upgrade every position except the 5 and 2 but your rotations suck and have been proven to do so. We have won at a much better clip with DMo and TJones. Your points about DMo and Tjones while wrong were at least arguable. You should have stopped while you were ahead or not far behind. Your inability to zip the garbage coming out has exposed your stupid argument.
Unfortunately Jones does not understand how to play modern NBA defense. This severely hampers his usefulness. Fortunately Jones is still young and so there is plenty of time. D-Mo is starting to put on clinics on how a big man plays defense. There is a lot of Asik's style in him, and he seems to have learned well. He obviously is very intelligent and coach-able.
Small ball has not worked this season very often as the Rockets don't have a wing backup and Lin and Beverley have not played well together. Basically the option is to play something that may not work in postseason or play something that is being stopped in the regular season and hope it magically works against tougher defenses. I'm hoping DMo plays a lot more in postseason as he drastically improves the Rockets defense.
Except for the tons of data showing the Rockets play poorly with twin towers and Lin and Beverley lineups performing worse than the Rockets average despite rarely being used against starting lineups. Edit: I get it. That isn't a "single" fact.
It took all of 3 or 4 minutes of those 6 minutes for BG to take Jones out of the game with foul trouble. After that, Jones just didn't get his head back in the game. Honestly, I'll admit that I made that comment before watching the recording of the game, saw the score last night, and made a pretty wild guess that its "All Jones' Fault" based on the logic you vomit all over this and many other threads in the GARM. However, it doesn't really change my point. Whether BG played or not, the Clippers are one of the two best teams in the NBA since January 1st. You know who the other team is? The Rockets. The point is, against really good teams, he's going to look like a 2nd year player. Against bad or mediocre teams, he's going to look like a future star. The value of him as a player this year for the Rockets is probably somewhere in between which in the holistic view of this season and potentially postseason for the Rockets, is very important. Look at the loss of Beverley as an example. If you put him in a one-on-one tournament with all the PG's in the league, would you be able to tell me that he is a "Championship Caliber PG"? No. However its what he does for this team in that ROLE that matters in the big picture. You seem to think that the Rockets will implode solely because Jones has 2nd year player games every once in awhile and you think all bigs need to shoot 40% to be adequate. I disagree. He's going to do enough good things to out-weight the bad things that will in the end, be a positive for this team in that ROLE. That's what has earned him the confidence thus far from everyone in the organization from the owner, to the GM, to the coach to be the guy they trust moving forward. They didn't ask for Basketballhollic's opinion... sorry. If you think Jones is the single catalyst for success or failure of this team, no offense, but you are not very smart when it comes to basketball. Harden and Howard are going to take this team where they are either going to go or not go, and the role players just simply need to do their part. So far Jones/D-Mo, Bev, Asik, and Lin have done that. Injuries will dictate how much more guys like Lin, Jones, and D-Mo have to be relied on past their normal abilities at this point. Ok.... back to vomiting your non-sense at everyone on here. Have at it.
Tons of data is the first 7 games of the season??????? Please. We have way more tons of data on what happens to this team when we run Jones out there against the championship contending teams. He is not ready to help us win a championship.
To piggy back on this. What does small ball really mean for this team anymore? -Play without Howard or Asik on the floor?.... Are you crazy? Is that what anyone wants? -Play with 2 PG's? .... because we get any better with Harden off the court? -Play without a traditional PF and move Harden to Forward?..... because Lin, Hamilton, Casspi, and Garcia have really produced that much better this year than Jones and D-Mo? If for some reason the Rockets had another elite guard, or a guy like Delfino was still on the team and healthy, I'd say sure, go small at the 4, but the problem is the Rockets aren't fortunate enough to have that kind of talent, and in all actuality, the 2 PF's the Rockets have will most likely give more than the other aforementioned players, and the stats back up that eye test. So I guess that brings us back full circle than. If you claim you want to go small, are you willing to take Howard and Asik off the court at the same time and live with whatever happens on the defensive end? That's really what the small ball argument comes down to this year. If they have either guy on the court, I would think its safe to say, you really aren't truly going "small-ball".
If Bev gets healthy, Lin/Bev/Parsons/Dwight/Harden will be your closing lineup. Show me just how bad the Bev/Lin backcourt combination has been with Harden/Parsons/Dwight are in hte game and I'll show you how just how good Jones has been against the playoff contending teams this season.
The crux of the matter is that the Rockets are getting adequate coverage at the power forward position for under $3M a season. That is critically important under the new CBA. McHale has two very different options at PF. Jones the hyper athletic big who flashes all over the court. And D-Mo, the super intelligent center to be who is playing much in the Asik mold on defense. For $3M a season it is a good place to be. For this season the Rockets have who they have. Morey and the coaching staff will sit down after the season and critically assess every Rocket on the roster. And then Morey will decide what off season moves are needed. No one on this board has either the knowledge or the intelligence or the experience to become involved in that process. Leave it up to the professionals. That is why they earn the big bucks. I know of no stats that say that Jones is anything worse than an average power forward in the NBA, even though he is still in his second season in the league. I know of no stats that say that D-Mo, since the beginning of 2014, is not a huge plus in the NBA. Their future is bright. BBaholic needs to chill and actually pay attention to what serious, experienced posters think. There are dozens of people on this board who actually have a pretty damn good idea what they are talking about.
Casspi has been the best small ball option and can used at PF while Harden and Parsons grab a breather. I think a Casspi-Hamilton combo at PF-SF might be the be a decent small ball lineup for the Rockets to use to grab a breather.
Also how in the world can someone say with a straight face that Jones and D-Mo aren't championship contender, but completely leave Beverley and Lin out of the conversation at PG (which is arguably a more important position). If you are going to campaign against one player because you don't think he's good enough to contend with him on your roster, you need to be applying your logic to other important roles as well like PG, 6th man scorer, veteran locker room guy etc. (maybe that's the problem actually... maybe Garcia is a championship caliber "Locker Room Guy"?) Anyways, I'm stoked about the future with these guys, and can't wait to see how they progress over the Summer even though we still could see growth in the short term here in the next few weeks to help in the playoffs (even though I'm officially getting concerned about some of these injury issues but hopefully its nothing serious).
