http://www.nba.com/reportcard/midseason/2015/rockets/index.html Dayum. Fran saying Dorsey has been solid. #2 defense.
A lot of us forget that our expectations for the rockets prior the season start weren't too high. We have done pretty damn well considering most agreed the Rox to a clear step back in the offseason by dumping 3 core players.
Frontcourt B+ When not out with a bad right knee, Dwight Howard has been solid in the middle and Trevor Ariza has been Mr. Reliable at the 3. Terrence Jones being out left a hole at 4, which led to a gamble on Josh Smith. how do you not even mention dmo as a starter?
^^^ About my above comment, I am talking about our bench without Jones. In other words, with Donuts as a starter. He lists Donuts as a bench player. With Jones back and at *least* as good as last year, if not early this season, then our bench is at least halfway decent. Donuts + Brewer is nice. Everyone else is meh. Would be better with Canaan if he could take all of Terry's minutes.
To be fair, 11 and 6 as a starter doesnt jump off the page. However one might expect a writer to delve somewhat deeper than the surface stats, to know about the defensive impact he had back in November, and the key offensive games he has pulled out when we were shortmanned. Some mentio is surely warranted???
It's missing a lot. I'm still thoroughly unimpressed with Smith's production. He still takes tons of terrible shots, still turns it over too much, still can't make a free throw. Brewer is nice, Canaan would be nice if he could get all of Terry's minutes. No one else has really even been worth mentioning... Terry can shoot sometimes, that's about it. I guess Dorsey has been solid, too. But yeah, on the whole, the bench is still awful. I think we're still well below the league average in bench scoring, and I can't count how many leads have been whittled away in the 4th quarter because the bench couldn't produce.
+1 Don't forget that before the season started a lot of the media was predicting us to be at the very bottom of the Western Conference or even the miss playoffs altogether. They would say that we lost two starters in Lin and Asik for nothing. We dealt with a lot of injuries during the first quarter of the season. We have already added two major rotation pieces in Brewer and Smith and have spent the time trying to integrate them. If I know Morey like I think I do, he won't let a trade deadline pass without making some kind of trade that he thinks makes the team better in some way. Probably using the NOP pick plus other pieces. Still with everything we have gone through this season, we are #4 in an incredibly packed and talented Western Conference and are within striking distance of winning the Southwest Division and the #2 seed. James Harden has emerged as a legitimate MVP candidate and has improved on both ends of the floor. D-Mo's great talent has finally materialized into on court success and he has shown himself a very capable big man for us. Ariza's shooting has frustratingly fallen off a cliff, but his defense has critical to help fix our perimeter defense, one of our biggest weaknesses last year. Jones had a great start to the season and is very close to coming back for us. There is still a lot of basketball to be played this season. IMO, the Rockets are still just a little bit away from being actual championship contenders, but the season so far has to be considered a success. And we have to hope that Morey will be able to find that last piece to complete the puzzle
If you take out some early games in which he admitted he was struggling with a knee injury, Dorsey hasn't been completely terrible. He's not a very good basketball player overall, no doubt about it, but he gets more criticism on this board than he deserves.
We've slipped to #4 defensively, but on the plus side we are 14th in offense after being around 20 most of the season. Getting TJ back should help out our offense a bit.
He's 16th overall in rebound rate. Just FYI Dwight is 14th. If nothing else, Dorsey is extremely valuable as a rebounder.
I would hold the rating with a grain of salt. Working under the assumption that it was indeed Fran who did dish out the ratings in addition the review; its not exactly the most objective opinion since he was with Houston/The Chron for so many years. I like seeing an A- rating for our team just as much as anyone, but I take that rating with cautiously.
31-14 is pretty solid after 45 games. They're on pace for 56-57 wins right now which is frankly more than I expected coming into this season. Although in fairness, that was before any of us knew Harden would have an MVP-caliber season, D-Mo would turn into a solid post player(although that's been cancelled out somewhat by T-Jones' injury), and the bench would be solidified by the acquisitions of Terry, Brewer, and Smith. That being said, there are concerns right now that need to be addressed(if possible). Howard's decline is the biggest worry since none of us know if it's due to injury, age, or a lack of focus(or a combination). McHale continues to do a poor job of getting the team prepared every night and making adjustments. The slippage in defensive effort since the first month and a half is an issue that continues to linger. And obviously this team needs another playmaker to take pressure off of Harden. Personally, I'd give them a B+ so far based on what they've done.
A lot of media outlets had the Rockets struggling to win 48 games before the season. Well, we have 37 games to win 17 lolol. A- is a fair grade. Explanations are very weak though. If the current Rockets team was the one that started a season, 31-14 sounds a tad disappointing. The fact that the team has made in-season trades and has missed time from 3 of our 5 starters for most of the year would make our grade an A, in my opinion. A+ if we didn't lose games to Magic, Pelicans (x2) or Lakers, and won at least one game against the Warriors. We could have been at 35-10, and within striking distance of the Warriors, if we took care of business against some teams we should have beaten.
