1. Adrien is very active and he showed some toughness. 2. Papa has a bad first half being the first game for a rookie never played in this country, but much better in second half, should be good for his confidence. Feet is slow, expect him will have major struggle on defense early on, but could improve. 3. Dmo, seen some improvement on offense (as he did in summer league), D is still below average, feet is still slow. 4. Ish Smith, bad and should be cut, he has NO confidence to take wide open 3, which is a big NO NO in this offense, and he ran pretty bad fast break also. 5. TJ, TBD, I will give him the benefit of the doubt for couple more games, he earned this right last year. 6. Nick Johnson, decent and solid on defense most of the time. I expect him to replace Cannan latest by Xmas. 7. Troy, did not see much, TBD. 8. Ariza - best Rockets last night, stay healthy.
I think the spot is up for grabs.... Put all the dogs in a room and throw a bone in there and see who comes out with it... Right not TJ is the weakest link, D-Mo is the best option off the bench, especially with junkyard dogs like Dorsey and Adrien... I am curious to see Clint play... But right now TJ is playing himself on the bench or out of Houston. T_Man
The issue is this : what you saw Dmo last night, the points he scored, were mostly in the paint, and almost none of those were offensive rebound or put back. That means he will not be able to score any of those when he play with Howard. Dmo likes to shoot 3s, which basically means TOV and fast break for the other team. Dmo is a worse defender than TJ and a worse rebounder than TJ also.
well I would counter a lot of what you said but what's the point when a lot of it is just what you made up in your head...
I think jones will start, but I think Adrian will end up getting more minutes than jones by the end of the season. Adrian is a tough and good defender and that's what we need when playing griffin, love, gosal, ect. Jones will start but Adrian will soon come in to replace and jones, papa, and terry will be the leaders of the second unit. Adrian doesn't need to score big when running with harden, howard, bev, and ariza. Jones will do a lot more damage offensively falling back into the second unit as the game continues. DMo will be Dwight's back up, but I think he might be traded when Morey comes to the deadline
Yes, young players are inconsistent. But I don't buy the "last season was his rookie year" argument. He spent his rookie season in the D-league. That's what ROOKIES do when they are not ready for the NBA game. That's also true for DMo and many other guys such as PPat before them. Plenty of rookies don't get to play much. The Rockets send them to play in the D-league instead of sit on the pine. You can't say players start to be "rookies" only when they play significant minutes in the NBA.
Jeff Adrien will be the most consistent defender and rebounder by November, December and people would still call him undersized
Really not understanding your comment to my post.... I never said start D-Mo.. I said bring him off the bench... So help me out here.. T_Man
I think Dmo is here to stay. He has the ability to play the five with his height and can shoot. Tjones is the odd man out. The preseason game should have been evidence of that. Our starting pf needs to be the player that compliments Dwight in that position. Robert Horry nor Thorpe were what some may think as superstars but they complimented Hakeem. Hedo was no Bosh nor is he a Kevin Love but he fit next to Dwight like a glove. Another thing about Hedo was that he was consistent. If Dmo can fill a Gortat role he will be a key back up/ 6th man especially as Dwight starts heading towards his older years. Tjones is just not showing improvement.
Weakest link or not, Adrien and Jones should be rotating the starting PF spot See what fits the best.
It beats sitting on the bench playing 3 minutes garbage time every 5 games or so. Lots of "rookies" do that and people never say they don't start being a rookie in their first year.
are any of those said "rookies" even worth mentioning? half of them are probably out of the league or struggling to play overseas. Point being last year was TJ's first year as a starter and the first time he got consistent minutes as a starter so yes he could still be considered a "rookie".
If we are going to be better than last year well have to have our 4-man shooting the 3-ball efficiently.
So are you suggesting we jam a square peg into a round hole, or that we get rid of everyone we currently have at the 4 and get new players?
