Just taking a look at the Depth for this season and it's clear either T Jones or DMo has to elevate their game for us to stay very competitive. Starters Patrick Beverley 10.2p 3.5r 2.7a James Harden 25.4p 4.7r 6.1a Trevor Ariza 14.4p 6.2r 2.5a Terrence Jones 12.1p 6.9r 1.1a Dwight Howard 18.3p 12.2r 1.8a Rotation Isaiah Canaan 4.6p 1.1r 1.0a Troy Daniels 8.4p 0.8r 1.0a Alonzo Gee 4.0p 2.3r 0.7a Josh Powell 4.0p 5.0r 0.0a Donatas Motiejunas 5.5p 3.6r 0.5a Scotty Hopson 0.5p 0.0r 0.5a Robert Covington 2.3p 0.7r 0.0a
the terrific FA that Les was alluding to was Bosh or Melo. He felt confident about signing one of the two. We didn't and now we move on.
Our starters look good enough for a 50+ win season but our bench is so lacking. I really hope Morey really goes out and find some real talent because the NBA season is long. If the Rockets really want to do anything this season, they will need some depth behind the starters. Injuries will occur and with an unproven bench, the Rockets will be in a lot of trouble and most likely another first round exit. I love Morey for his willingness to improve the team but its tough to find that 3rd star. I don't want him wasting the years of Howard and Harden away just to find a 3rd star. If he is extremely confident that he will hit another home run then by all means. But this is starting to look like the Tmac-Yao era all over again. A team with 2 stars that don't have too much depth. Daryl Morey wants to keep the cap flexible for that 3rd star because he believes a team that win championships have 3 stars. But I know that 2 stars along with a great cast and great coaching can also do the job. I feel that if Morey will focus more on building a championship team by adding talent and depth to the team and put more focus on the coaching staff, the Rockets will have a great chance at winning it all. The window to win with Harden and Howard is now and Dwight Howard doesn't have a few years to wait while Daryl is looking to strike gold. I know that no teams win championship in JULY and that there are plenty of time but I don't see Morey making any more improvements but adding a few lower tier talent on cheap 1 or 2 year deals. If that's the case then the Rockets 14-15 NBA season is most likely a wash. They will be competitive and make the playoffs but what's the point if they will most likely lose in the first round.
We can definitely do more damage if we had TWO top 10 TWO WAY players. It's just not possible unless James Harden starts to play more effective defense. If Harden put half as much effort on defense as he does on offense this team (as is) would be formidable. I hope we can add someone like Shawn Marion or another proven offensive player who can provide some good offense off the bench while still plugging in some good defense as well. I was really hoping we could land Boozer just so we could help Jones develop (through competing for minutes). It's funny you have the Lakers getting a lot of young players signing for cheap to stay in LA but not many free agents coming here to sign. If we end up not signing another major FA, here's to hoping that the Pelicans don't make the playoffs!
What Morey means but obviously can't say is that we need a 3rd elite player when our 2 stars are Dwight and Harden. If we had Dwight and Lebron, it might be a different story. As for adding role players, that isn't always so easy. Look at some of the contracts that have been handed out this summer. A couple of guys can eat up as much as a max guy pretty easily.
Uhhhhh why don't you wait and make this in mid Oct when we have a better idea on what the roster will be? Then we can judge. Makes no sense to do this now. Will only cause mass panic and give people a chance to say how bad our season is going to be cause Morey 'screwed up'. Let's let the roster get filled out first and then we will see our depth. Get the roster correct next time before you create a thread about it!
Depth Jam. The thing to avoid this year is overplaying Howard/Harden to the point where they get totally worn out come playoff time, or worse, injured along the way. Harden might be young, but you don't want to wear the guy out in three years of heavy minutes. He looked out of gas in the Portland series.
how is it depressing? look at that bench! we have the defensive beast in dorsey 3pt drainer troy daniels faster than lightning ish smith defensive specialist jeff adrien a canon for pg homeless man's dirk dmo mystery man in covington and hopson ex b2b championship era laker big man josh powell alonzo gee! the same first name as alonzo mourning! keep reeling in those cheap ass contracts morey! we know you cant get enough of them and neither can we! i wish i can have one of those cheap ass contracts
harden does play d, it's called a better offense. we don't win 54 games in the west with out harden's D.
Bench is thinner than a super model, but I don't see Morey killing his cap for anyone less than a third star, but it doesn't look like he'll be able to even offer near max, not even almost kinda sorta near max, so that leaves a sign and trade. But what assets do the Rockets have for a sign and trade? Not much. Parsons is gone. Their own first is gone. They still have the NO pick - nice, but hardly enough to convince a team to give up their star. At this point, all the Rockets can do is hope that one of their first or second year players kicks their game up a couple of notches, which would increase their trade value.
copying the blazers two seasons ago. good starting lineup, horrible bench. some kind of strange way to get back at them i suppose. whatever floats his boat i guess. you get em tiger!
I don't know what makes you guys think we had a good bench to begin with. 2013-2014: DMo (won't be better than the 2014-2015 version) Asik (very good, but underused for his role) Lin (average combo guard) Garcia (woof) Casspi (lmao) Hamilton (oh, so THIS is why Chandler Parsons and James Harden totaled 38mpg) Canaan (won't be better than the 2014-2015 version) Daniels (won't be better than the 2014-2015 version) Covington (won't be better than the 2014-2015 version) I mean, you were talking about a 7-man rotation of serviceable guys with experience, and that's essentially what it became in the playoffs + spot Daniels minutes here and there. So what if this year we ask DMo, Canaan, and Daniels to take on larger roles? Maybe bring Covington on for spot minutes backing up Ariza? In Adrien and Dorsey we are replacing Asik with 12 fouls at 1/4 the cost. We'll see how the rest of the offseason plays out.