lol Healthy we can beat any team. When we did play LAC I was not impressed with them. In fact I am shocked at how they seem to have regressed from last year. I am sure we can match with OKC and we will see when we get healthy and play them. We can beat any team if everyone healthy and to ruin the chemistry and what we have going is ludicrous. Noe I do admit that we should use that TPE if a nice piece presents itself but it must be complementary.
Brewer is ok. I wouldn't be mad at the addition, but I wouldn't be ecstatic either. I'd like to set our sights higher for now. I think Brewer will still be available come February. I agree that Brewer is great in transition on both offense and defense but I worry about his fit in a half court setting. His 3pt% is pretty bad (29% career) considering he is a wing that shoots about 2 attempts per game. I do like his awareness in cutting when his man falls asleep but without a true playmaking point guard in the second unit I don't see that aspect of his game really used since he'd need someone with great vision to find him. As far as his open market value... I see 4/30 as a huge overpay. Tony Allen has a similar skillset that has been showcased on the big stage in the playoffs multiple times and got $5M/year. I see Corey Brewer getting similar money.
Lance Stephenson has enough skills to be worth the risk for some team. In particular, if your team is going nowhere fast, has few assets to trade and can't attract a free agent even with cap space, you might as well take a chance on Lance if you think he has a chance to blossom. For the Rockets, though, I'd think the team has better options than Lance in terms of risk-vs-reward. They got trade assets, some flexibility on the salary front as well as what should be a fairly attractive situation for guys to join.
Rockets are in an interesting position and could go in a number of different ways. According to Morey teams were already calling on DMo and his play of late has likely increased his value. He could be the piece to being in that third star. Would you trade him for Horford for example? Then who the heck knows what's going on with Jones. Cannan and even Nick Johnson have shown promise and increased their value and of course you have the TPE and NOP pick. At the very least I think the Rockets pick up someone like Bass for the TPE. But Morey may sell high on Dmo, Cannan, NOP pick and swing for the fences. My bet? Depth move with the TPE for someone like Jeff Green or Bass. Unless someone really overwhelms Morey.
Bass fits in the TE, Green doesn't. That sounds good to me without having to give up D-Mo or Canaan for him.
I still think we are a player away. We need someone who can come in and create some offense off the bench. If Jones ever gets healthy he could be that guy, but we need a more reliable guy than a Canaan or Papanikolaou off the bench. Everything looks great now, but playoffs are a different animal. James is going to struggle out there trying to create and initiate the entire offense by himself.
And since the Rockets have had all of there starters for four games this season, what to you base your opinion on?
Just our roster and how we've been winning games this season. James has single handedly won us like three or four of those games. Our offense just isn't that good right now, even with the emergence of DMo. I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll get Jones healthy at some point before the end of the season, but being in the bottom 3rd in offense isn't a good look.
Fair enough sir. But I believe that as the Rockets start getting their rotation players back, many Houston games are going to become very boring because they will be blow outs. We will see.
I personally believe it's pretty encouraging that despite being out multiple starters and bench contributors all season long we aren't dead last. 20th is pretty respectable given the circumstances and with the top-2 defense we've been playing.
"Respectable" isn't good enough for where Morey wants to go with this team. Thus, he's working hard and will be aggressive in trying to make a substantial upgrade.
One thing about that... Delonte West plays for the Shanghai Sharks. Not sure that trade exception will do us any good in China.
comes to page 28.. hears exits quickly. DEC 19(or 21 or whenever that special date was) is coMing though. can ya dig
Minnesota play Brewer more like GS did Iggy last year than Memphis play Allen. Play him on the weak wing player and let him play disruptor, whereas Allen gets the "hard job" Who plays on Harden? Wiggins, Kobe? Wiggins, Durant? Wiggins, and so forth, for Memphis? Allen, I don't think Minny trusts Brewer's health (so are basically trying to pump his stats and keep from getting injured to trade him), playing the weak wing let's you play free safety a bit more (see Harden)
Agree. 3rd piece still needed to beat to beat Spurs, OKC, Portland, Memphis and GS in the PLAYOFFS where the game is completely different than the REGULAR season.
Legit point and true all. Gotta get that secondary playmaker or otherwise exploit Canaan's game to the max and get him dialed in as the second unit go-to guy. As far as the half-court stuff, I totally agree. He, like Allen, is abysmal as a half-court offensive player. But.......I don't think that's what we're aiming for. I'm looking at transactions and drafts and I keep seeing a theme. Force quick, bad shots and turnovers from the opponent and run and finish. I'm pretty convinced Morey is totally committed to turning up the heat defensively for all 48 minutes and running as much as possible. I think his theory is to MINIMIZE half-court set offense in the same manner that he wants to MINIMIZE the long-range 2-ball jumpers. That means getting as many disruptors in the game as possible. And that's why I think Brewer fits. I think the idea is you aren't going to beat the Spurs by running half-court offense and defense. Teams are playing into the Spurs hands by doing that. Because the Spurs are just so technically excellent. I don't know how to describe it but they're just special. They have the best chemistry I think I've ever seen in a championship team since the machine that was the Larry Bird Boston Celtics. I just don't think you can beat them playing that game. But.....like Magic Johnson's Laker units, you can run up and down and wear those old farts out......eventually...........if you are able to turn them over and force enough bad shots. But you're going to have to overpower those half-court sets by ratcheting up the pressure very high and maintaining it at a very high level for the whole 48. Kinda like those old John Thompson Georgetown teams did with the full court press the whole game. It's probably unrealistic to play 48 minutes of pressure. But with Bev playing 30 and basically picking up 3/4 to half court, and Ariza locking down the best perimeter player and Harden overplaying for steals with Dwight cleaning up the mess down low......it makes a lot of sense to bring in another high-pressure, athletic, fast defender. And Brewer is leading the league in steals and he is probably the fastest player in the league in transition. Tony Allen would get 4/30+ in next year's free agent market. The salary cap is going up, up, up. Brewer will get Ariza money this next summer.
