Maybe we should ask JB Bickerstaff? "Hey, JB, can you change the starting lineup to _________?" "Yeahhhhhh....."
When the 26 year old Beverly went down for the season all my hopes of at least winning a series or "possibly" two went down the drain. The 37 year old Terry was brought in as a situational guard for sniper duty in spreading the floor at moments when the rockets needed it and bringing some locker room veteranship at best. The thought of him as the rockets starting PG going into the playoffs makes me shudder, watching Tony Parker blowing past him like he was parked last night completely opened up the Spurs offense. I was never a big fan of Isaiah Canaan, but I would have rather seen his 3 ball and young legs chasing around the likes of Parker, Paul, Curry and Lillard come playoff time.
I completely agree with you. James effectively plays point for the team, but I think it's a perception thing that keeps everyone from starting him at the 1. If he's a PG, he gets compared immediately to all the other star point guards in the league. If he's a shooting guard, THEN he's doing a point guard's work without being a point guard and his assists look more impressive. Don't get me wrong; nearly everything about James is unbelievably impressive, but the reason they don't start him as a point guard is about semantics and perception. Nonetheless, I think the starting lineup should include Brewer, Harden, Ariza, Smith (who's always got a huge +/- number), and Dwight. The idea would be to fire a 50-caliber bullet at teams to cause massive damage. Leaving Brewer on the bench is like shooting someone with a 9 mm, and then saying well, if it doesn't hurt them too much, we'll try to shoot them again later with another 9 mm. Brewer and Harden would be a formidable and deadly combination, especially on the break. Brewer trying to shoulder the bench is too much. You just get dilution in both groups. Bench should focus on defense and stemming any bleeding until the offensive juggernaut is rested (reloaded) and can come back to fire more instant death into the opposing team.
Clint has shown that he can be can make over half his foul shots in both Europe and D-League. Right now, he just has a little rookie nerves to break through. Capella has only shot 15 free throws all season. Dorsey will probably get that many shots in one game come playoff time. I'd roll the dice and bet on Capella being better than 25% from the line in the playoffs.
This might be crazy, and with such few games remaining may be very late to try out... But what if McHale had the galls to start Kostas and Johnson along side, Ariza, Harden and Howard. While Kostas is coming off a long break...and was very rusty the game before...He does something that DMo did very well..."The Hockey assist" This I believe was an extremely underrated aspect of Dmo's game that really will be missed. Here is a hypothetical minutes played (240 minutes total) Min Played: Howard - 30 Ariza - 34 Harden - 34 Kostas - 16 Johnson - 16 Bench: Smith - 28 Jones - 26 Brewer - 26 Terry - 15 Prigs - 15
Unfortunately, there is no good answer here. - Prigioni has been terrible - Terry with the starting 5 seems to tire him out a bit and eliminates his usefullness off the bench - Brewer (along with Terry) was your 6th man. Starting him, he isn't... plus it's easy to say just make Harden your PG... but that's not what he is/has been. Harder to implement. - Johnson I like, but it's not like he's a creator, he's been a horrible 3 point shooter (like Prigioni), and he has 26 games under his belt. If I'm picking, I'm picking between either stay with the status quo from a starting 5 perspective, or start Nick Johnson. The later is obviously riskier, but at this point might be worth the gamble. I understand why McHale plays Prigioni... he rarely turns the ball over. But he also rarely does anything positive, and can't stay in front of his man. is the potential 1 extra turnover a game (with Nick Johnson) more damaging than the 16-20 minutes of non-defense (with Prigioni or Terry). Rockets have actually won with defense this year. Johnson is the best there. He's also a very good rebounder. Finally, it gives you some semblance of a bench rotation back. Harden played 24 minutes straight in the lineup from the middle of the 2nd to the middle of the 4th where he was -32 from ap lus/minus perspective. There's just no solid rotational chemistry anymore. Too many injuries, people in, people out. I don't see Johnson starting. I recognize it's a risk. But to give the backcourt combo's their starter/bench rotation back a bit, to get more defense in there, to get Terry comfortable again, etc... I think it's worth it.
