http://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...anikolaou-earns-back-playing-time/#29531101=0 In Saturday night’s win over the Heat, Rockets forward Kostas Papanikolaou looked to be regular in the rotation again after not having a lot of of minutes in a handful of prior games. “We have new guys so we have been trying lots of things,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “But I really wanted to get (Papanikolaou) back in there more. He creates a lot of things on the floor, he plays hard, he plays good defense. I wanted to try him in different lineups.” Papanikolaou said he was glad to see more time on the floor. He missed four games with a sprained knee before the Rockets picked up three new players so he has missed having a lot of time to play. “It feels like being alive again,” Papanikolaou said. “All I want to do is play and do whatever I can help my team win.”
He looks disinterested because all his minutes have been taken. I like him. Sure, his shot is either there or not, but that's true of every Rocket. He hustles, plays D, passes well. Unfortunately he's trade bait, so this is all moot.
Papa's will. I thought Brewer also played his guts out Sat. , but a little too late all around. Maybe papa should at least get a peek in the first half if things start going sideways Wed eh ?
If Papa ever starts hitting threes at 35-40 percent, watch out... I hope he is working tirelessly on that three ball...
He's not going to get any PT and it sucks I really loved papa but we don't have any place for him anymore
Brewer and Ariza are set in the rotation. papanikolou is on the outside looking in. Morey finds the players, McHale distributes the minutes. I am sure Morey and McHale discuss the philosophy, and McHale has a lot of autonomy in his playing rotation.
But Brewer and Ariza are pretty much clones of each other - actually I think Brewer is a better version of Ariza, TBH, he moves off the ball a lot better on offense. Our rotation is so unbalanced right now, too many 3 and D players and not enough 2 way ones. Only Harden and DMo are two way players on a consistent basis. DD
With Dwight out for the foreseeable future, we are going to have to play a "run and gun" type of offense, similar to our first year with Harden. With that in mind, I think K Pap is going to start seeing alot more playing time. He can run the fast break, stretch the floor and has gifted hands when it comes to passing. He will be instrumental to our success without Dwight
KPap was listed as a 6'5" shooting guard prospect out of Greece earlier last summer. He grew 3" and that probably messed up some of his coordination which explains the constant bricks at the beginning of the season. Did anybody not notice this? Or didn't care?
And that's a good thing to have. You can't get much better than a guard and big combo that are 2 way players. The supporting cast is enough given the salary cap limitations. It's the coaching staff that needs to be modded.
I really like KPap , he just knows how to play the game. So many things he does don't show up in the box score but have a big impact on the game. And I don't go "Oh sh!7" if the ball ends up in his hands and he has to do something other than shoot. If he can start to knock down that outside shot , he'll be hard to keep off the floor.
I agree. The Rocket championship teams had a lot of two way players who were decent on both offense and defense with the exception of Kenny Smith who was mainly a shooter, but he could distribute reasonable well.
You must be kidding. If we have too many 3 and D players on this team, we won't be so horrible on D of late. You forgot the fact that those 3 and D players constantly covering up the bad defense of Harden and the rebounding inefficiency of Dmo also.
It seems like every time i see Papa during timeouts he's hugging someone. Even had Keith Jones in a bear hug last time.
Nobody cared cause it's just made up BS. Pap hasn't grown in years and hasn't played a single minute at the 2 in his professional career.
