Now he has a new "logical argument" Apparently the Rockets aren't a championship contender because the Rockets are too short. Tell that to the 6'9" Hakeem Olajuwon & the 6'9" Robert Horry/Chucky Brown. Or maybe that was the key to those 96-98 Bulls teams... Luc Longley being over 7 foot. Yeah that's it. There are alot of arguments to be had about Dwight (inconsistent post play, un-professionalism in Orlando/LA), but having enough size to play "championship caliber" basketball in the NBA shouldn't be one of them. The Phoenix Suns went deep in the playoffs with AC Green and Barkley, the Rockets with Hakeem and Horry/Brown, Miami with Bosh & Anthony, etc. etc. Dwight & Jones' combined size is a pretty dumb argument. He should have stuck with the 3 point shooting argument.
We are focusing on other players , stats, etc. Instead of looking Asik the man himself. Let me ask - do you think Asik is a better player now or what we saw in the first 8 games and first half of season ? What is he doing better ? Why is he performing different? How is the team doing when he plays heavy Minutes now? my answer is this he's healthier ..He's motivated .. He's much more in shape and mobile .. He affects games directly.. He frustrates whatever big man he covers because he's taller and moves .. He is scoring some ..starts fast breaks beautifully ..teammates are enjoying playing with him ..actually involving him with the offense ..He's blocking shots ..helps when teammates get beat..The team is playing well with him SO THIS ASIK is different. Just like you've asked to watch those first 8 games then please watch the last 8 games and tell me he's not different I'm not saying start him ..tjones has earned that spot for now but if you sit him back to back up playing 10-12 minutes it's just not correct and hurts the team Dwight needs to adjust for the TT He's had a front row seat to watch Asik perform huge lately .. I believe without this combo working in some fashion we will not make it to WCF or beyond Asik is.gone anyways after this year and I want to win it All this year.. call me greedy but Asik is a valued piece in that
It's about as dumb as the argument that 5 HOF coaches didn't make lineup changes and win a championship. That's why I posted it. Has nothing to do with this team or what this team has to do to win a championship. However, just for the record. Hakeem was over 6'10. Bosh is over 6'10" and Green and Barkley didn't win a championship. So keep digging.
Heat Bosh is 6'10 but the rest of their PF/C are either 6'8 or 6'9, Maverick ( Shawn Marion actually played the 4 and is still playing it today). Dwight is 6'10 but the got him list as 6'11 and Jones is 6'9. We have two 7 footers backing them up, so we are freaking good. I have not seen Pop change his starting lineup going into the playoffs ever.
Great post and thank you for redirecting. No question he is. Attitude has turned around 180 degrees and he is busting his a... out there again just like last season. Flying around defensively, covering a lot of ground. He wasn't doing that early. He was just meandering around, not contesting. Because he's stuck here and he realizes what his previous agent told him was the wrong thing and it most likely cost him the opportunity to be traded elsewhere. It had the opposite effect of what he wanted. Now he's going to try to make up for it and put himself in a position to increase his trade value heading into the off season and in the process hopefully win a championship. Very well. Since the 8 game debacle the Rockets are 13-3 (.813) in games that Asik plays 20 or more minutes. That's pretty good. You're right on here. Jones didn't really earn the starting spot. It was given to him. He wasn't even in the rotation to start the season coming out of training camp. Be that what it may, he has managed to play the bulk of the 4 minutes simply because we had no one else. Asik was gone, not even in the picture at all. That left Jones/DMo/Casspi competing for minutes. Somebody had to play. They put Jones in there. And we played well enough for him to continue to play. But you are right. There's no way they can take the 3rd to the 5th best player on this team and sit him down except for 15 minutes a game behind Dwight and expect to win anything. It's self-defeating. And it also sends the wrong message about the organization too. McHale is going to have to have a short leash on Jones in the playoffs or it might cost him his job. Remember, Morey knows the math even though McHale is the coach and has final say-so on playing time. I agree with that. The biggest adjustment Dwight could help McHale make is by recognizing when they need Asik on the floor with him and what the matchups need to be. Dwight should show some initiative and approach McHale about using Asik next to him when they are getting beat down by LaMarcus and Lopez. Because that is coming. And Dwight should also be proactive about working the proper matchups by understanding that Asik needs to defend Aldridge and Blake while he hangs out down low on Lopez and DeAndre. Dwight could also really accelerate the process by yielding the defensive glass to Asik when they are in there. He'll still get a ton of boards. Nothing wrong with working with Asik defensively and letting Asik gobble up boards when he's in there. Asik on the other hand should recognize how he needs to play next to Dwight. He's the guy that needs to take the nasty defensive assignments on bigs that face up in the triple threat outside the paint area or that go up high and run pick-and-roll or pick-and-pop. Those should all be his matchups from Dirk to Blake to LaMarcus to Marc Gasol. Those are the matchups that Asik needs to be proactive in taking. He should understand that Dwight is also best when he doesn't have to concentrate so much on his man defensively and he can roam in space and help teammates. Ditto. It's all about this year right now.
Dwight was able to lead a team to the finals with his limited post moves and nonexistence jumper. He has also helped the Rockets to achieve the 50 win and possible deep run into the playoffs. Pretty darn good if you ask me Remii
Asik has stepped up, there is no question about that. His contributions are going to help the Rockets go further than anyone anticipated.
Maybe, but he's definitely not 7 feet tall. I've been fortunate enough to meet him back in the day at a champs sports meet and greet, and I can tell you if he's 7 feet tall, I'm 6'5" and not white. Point is though it doesn't really matter. Hakeem played 10 feet tall, and that's what really mattered. Dwight plays bigger than most 7 footers in the league, and that's all that matters right now.
A TT line-up with Howard and Asik... Lol.. Someone please tell me a team that won a championship with TWO big men that are offensively challenged _ besides Chicago. Good luck finding one...
Fair question. The Pistons teams with Laimbeer/Rodman come to mind once again. And Chicago did win 6 titles with very pedestrian centers that were not offensive minded at all and very limited offense from their power forwards (Rodman and Grant). Those Bulls teams were all built with bigs that played defense first and foremost and they ran off their defense. The Thomas/Dumars Piston teams were much the same way with Laimbeer/Rodman/Mahorn/Salley (just a bunch of nasty grinders) out there. I could make a lesser case for the 08 Boston team. Perk and Garnett were their bigs. Another team built on that defense as the anchor down low. Garnett did have his 17 footer though which is something that neither Asik or Diwght possess. But he really didn't have anything else besides that jumper. And he only shot 48% from everywhere on the court outside of the low blocks to the 3-point line. Boston mostly won that championship with their defense, only giving up 90 points a game and grinding teams down in slow half-court action on both sides of midcourt, forcing teams into long possessions and low shooting percentages. So there's some food for thought there. All those teams....Pistons, 08 Celts, and the Bulls teams were built around their D-E-F-E-N-S-E. Especially their ability to lock teams down in half-court defense and beat the crap out of them in the paint and on the glass. I personally see a lot of similarities to Rodman's on-court effect and Asik's. Both of them elite rebounders with the ability to cover a lot of ground defensively and make the opposing bigs miserable.
Rodman had a nice offensive game coming out of college but the Pistons were loaded with offensive players. So Rodman did what was asked of him, crash the boards, play defense and play physical ( the bad boyz style).
Asik may have had a nice offensive game in college too. What matters is what happens in the league. Rodman was a zero offensively for a career. Just a garage man. He's in the basketball hall of fame because of his defense and rebounding. (tip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip tip)
Again he played the role that they wanted him to and became damn good at it. Dude had an offensive game but the teams he played for wanted him to be the clean up man. You do know a lot of players have pretty good offensive games but their teams have them playing a role that better suits the team. Rodman embraced that role and became a HOF player because of it.
ASIK -- I totally agree that asik is the key to us making in to or past WCF this year and next. I wouldn’t trade asik just In case howard has to miss some time. The question is would he be down for one more year? he wont if its only playing 10-12 mins and having to sit on bench watching howard turn the ball over and have bad nights. Lin -- is the harden insurance because when he sits lin usually holds things down as the playmaker. People are saying canann is better already so maybe we should give it a try, trade lin with a cash and a pick and spend the $8mill upgrading the bench and a PF shooter for 2014-15 season. Trading lin for cap space could work but trading asik without getting a starter talent player back could really hurt us next year.
He played the role in the NBA that he could play. Rodman did NOT have even a decent NBA offensive game. IF he would have had that he would have averaged more than 7 points scored while playing 32 minutes a night. Exhibit A: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/X1i3VHKgvp0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Please don't tell me we're resorting to trying to prove that Rodman was some sort of better offensive player than Asik is........................surely I'm dreaming.
