Assuming the best for him personally, professionally he is a huge boost to this team. In what role though? I've seen and heard enough people say Beverley is the right guy next to Harden, doesn't demand the ball, shoots the 3 ok, hardnosed defender. Now we've got a guy who can handle, drive, assist and make his own shot...is that guy better served trying to do what Lin couldn't (be a playmaker but 2nd banana) or better served as the guy for the 2nd unit? I think leading the 2nd team, with guys like Brewer, Dekker, Jones, maybe Harrell and Capela...those guys would absolutely juice the floor and run almost anyone off the court. I think that's where he's got to carve his place out first...before they can even think about playing him with the 1st team guys who have actually been together long enough to form some chemistry. I can easily see some 3 guard small ball too. Lawson/Bev/Harden as the combo. I don't think many teams outside of Golden State are going to try to push the Rockets into a small ball lineup.
Probably going to be like a Josh Smith situation where they probably start him at first because... well... the talent. Then go from there with fit. Either way he's going to have his minutes staggered with Harden most likely, but he's going to obviously play a very key role. I don't really see it mattering all that much. If he ends up being the starter than that's a very good think cause it means he's really developed chemistry next to Harden & those two are playing well off each other. Having star players that actually play well off of each other is a thing of beauty when you can get it to happen.
Sounds nice but the Rockets see Lawson on the level of Dwight and Harden so all three will receive the Big 3 treatment so they all will start. I understand strategy though. Spurs brought Ginobli off the bench but I don't see us doing that. We will focus on making the opposing Star point guard work hard on defense from the start of the game get a bug then go on to blow teams out.
I think personally it would be best to run him off the bench like a Manu Ginobli type player. However, Lawson may not respond well to that role. Agree with dobro about the start and going forward after a few experimental games.
Everything that we talk about for now is just in theory. But I think I like the idea of starting Beverley and bringing Lawson off the bench. Keep in mind that Lawson would average more minutes per game than Bev. Maybe doing something like starting Beverley for the first 5-7 minutes. Then bringing in Lawson. At the end of the first quarter/beginning of second, when it is time for Harden to rest, bring Bev back and play a two PG lineup. That way, Lawson would still be the playmaker. After a couple minutes with that, bring Harden back in and let Lawson rest, playing Harden and Bev together again. Something like that? Obviously, Harden and Lawson are our playmakers. One of them should be on the court at pretty much all times. Even if Lawson gets starter minutes, it just seems like it would be much easier to stagger their minutes if Beverley was starting!
Can I just reiterate how excited I am? I recognize this is the obvious sentiment, but if Harden plays like he did last year with a player like Lawson on his side. He will def get the MVP if not the Finals MVP. Everyone outside of this forum and may this city still disputes and refuses to believe the magnitude of Harden's contributions and how much he actually had to carry this team. It's unbelievable how just adding one player at the cost of shedding all our fat makes our team dramatically better. Harden - Terry nearly took on Curry - Thompson. Just imagine Harden - Lawson - Bev. It won't be a contest. My only true concern is okc because we didn't face them last year with a healthy durant. But SAS or GSW? We played them and nearly beat them if not actually beat them. Our bench is outstanding and so long either Lawson or Harden are always on the floor, our team will be constantly in attack mode. Literally can't wait until the season starts
I agree. Let him start and then go from there. I'm interested to see our lineup when Harden and Lawson are on the court together. Do we focus on more 3 point defense with: Beverley/McDaniels Lawson Harden Ariza Howard or go big to help with penetration: Lawson Harden Ariza DMo Howard By the way, I love that we have a legitimate answer for Golden State's small ball now.
I don't get it. People talk like Harden is a combination of Durant and Westbrook, and takes 35 shots a game. The Rockets desperately need a scorer and playmaker in the starting lineup. The Ginobli comparison is flawed because we have Dwight, not Duncan.
Starter or not, Beverly has to come back down to about 20 minutes a game. We need 20 minutes of Mr. 94 feet focusing on what brought him - defense. I'd start Beverly mainly because most of the opposing WC guards are top notch and his defense will help and possibly tire them and then have Lawson come in and run ragged. Bev (20) Lawson (28) Harden (32) Thornton (12) Brewer (4) Ariza (30) Brewer (18) Dmo (28) TJ (20) Dwight (30) Capela (18)
It's hard to predict how players play with each other. I assume the coaching staff will test things out in training camp to see how the lineups work together.
^ agreed. What is really going to matter is who finishes and now we have a lot of flexibility in that regard
I still go back to that 3 guard combo we used vs OKC back in the playoffs. I dont have the stats with me but it seemed to work out in our favor for the most part. We matched OKC's lineup, could have won some of the games (games 2, 3) I can see McHale going 3 guards with Harden, Bev and Lawson.
Lawson will be the starter...His vision far exceeds anyone NOT named Harden. And his handles are far superior to James...Beverley can have a more prominent 6th man role, and his energy and grit may play well with a Brewer/Thornton combo...
This isn't similar to the Lin/Beverley situation where both had their strengths and weaknesses but were pretty comparable overall. Lawson is a much better player than Beverley so in my mind you start him. I agree that your substitution patterns should try and keep one of Harden and Lawson on the floor as much as possible but I think that the two together will cause real problems for defenses so you have to play them together a lot too. One of the main reasons Lawson was acquired was to make it more difficult for teams to just focus on Harden and that doesn't work unless they are on the floor together. You're correct that there's lots of speculation on if Harden and Lawson can play together or not, but I don't give that much credence There's plenty of cases where ball dominant players have successfully played together so I'm not too worried. If you look at last year's stats, Harden had a usage of 31.3% and Dwight had a usage of 23.3%. Now the question is can you add in a Ty Lawson and his 20.6% usage and keep everyone happy? All you have to do is to look at some recent examples and you'll see that it can certainly work. The OKC 2012 team that went to the finals had Durant 31.3%, Westbrook 32.7% and Harden 21.6%. The 2014 OKC team had Durant 33.0%, Westbrook 34.4%, Martin 25.0% and Ibaka 19.8%. Last years Cavs team had LBJ 32.3%, Irving 26.2%, Love 21.7%. The Miami Championship team from 2013 had LBJ 30.2%,Wade 29.5% and Bosh 22.7%. The Miami team that lost in the 2014 finals had LBJ 31.0%, Wade 27.9% and Bosh 22.6%. In fact, last season Josh Smith had a higher usage rate (24.5% with HOU) than Lawson (20.6%). In the playoffs, Smith's usage jumped to 27.9%. Smith's absence leaves plenty of room for Lawson to do his thing. Harden played most of last season with a guy that was more ball dominant than Lawson. There's plenty of cases of high usage guys playing together so I'm not worried despite the naysayers. People tend to think that Harden has the ball all the time for the Rockets. While he does have it a lot, it isn't out of line with other superstars. If those guys can play with other ball dominant players then I don't know why Harden can't. If you are convinced that Harden and Lawson can play together (like I am) then it's a no brainer, you start Lawson. He's clearly a much better player and he'll make it harder to defend Harden when they are on the court at the same time.
Personally, i would like to see a Lawson/McDaniels tandem off the bench. The Beverley/Harden tandem is effective.
Hey 2K people, has anyone made the latest roster in 2k15 and ran it yet? I can tell you that it is ... very satisfying. Lawson & Harden are a 2-headed assists & buckets beast. 2 vs 5. Just too much guard for the other team to guard. And Lawson-Harden-Ariza is a torrential downpour of threeeeeeeeees. And Lawson-Harden-Brewer-Ariza-Dmo is fun to run also OK...pretty sure I helped elevate this thread
