[Lowe Post Podcast] Zach Lowe talks Rockets w/ Howard Beck

@Deuce called this podcast yesterday noting Beck always follows up big articles with talking about it with Zach Lowe

Here's the thread of the article

Harden is Everywhere

 

Positive talk??

 

Yeah Howard Beck wrote that great piece on the Rockets and they use that as a way to discuss the Rockets on the Lowe Post. Great pod!

They discuss certain quotes that didn't make it into the story, too. Like apparently Jamal Crawford thinks that Harden is sort of like Baron Davis in terms of upper body strength.

 

Interesting, Lowe said Harden isn't much better than Lowry yet Morey gets so much credit for basically trading Kyle Lowry, Steven Adams and Jeremy Lamb for James Harden when Wizard didn't even want to trade Beal for Harden. Really good GM.

 

Haven't listened yet, so not sure what he was trying to say. But the idea of Harden not much better than Lowry, imo, is a good example of just not believing what your eyes tell you. Harden is more than a little better than Lowry.

Lowry catches up a bit because of his defense, but imo just a bit, because of the impossibility of being that amazingly more impactfull defensively as a PG in today's league. Meaning Lowry does play better defense, but in a league where every night he is going up against Steph, Russ, Wall, Walker, Lillard, Kyrie, IT, CP3, Conley and others, where

That said, if the point is just that Lowry is also an incredibly incredibly good player, and a top player in the league in that tier just below that current top tier, than that's true.

Also, DM traded Lowry for the 9th pick from Toronto. That was an independent move. He didn't trade Lowry AND Lamb as part of a "deal" for Harden. If you wanted to look at it as one move, than you can say he trade Lowry - but NOT Lamb - in essence for Harden.

DM is a good GM. But imagine how perception of him would be different if he traded Lowry for that 9th pick, picked Lamb, and the Harden trade never materialized!!

 

Lowe is usually accurate, but I'm really surprised he said that Harden isn't much better. Lowry is basically Chauncy Billups. Huge difference between a player like that and someone who could be MVP.

 

Lowry is 2nd in the league in RPM, when he isn't playing Raptors are terrible(-3.6 points per 100 possesions). On the other hand Raptors are +9.8 points better when DeRozan is on the bench(Lowry+bench lineups perform much than DeRozan+bench). I'm not sure how sustainable it is for Lowry to shoot 45% from 3pt on such volume, but if he does that he isn't much worse than Harden.

And my point about that trade was that nobody offered much for Harden, yet Morey gets credit for trading twice as much as any other GM would(he could probably trade less to get Harden).

 

Saying Morey traded Lowry and Adams for Harden is a stretch. Both players out performed their value at the time. And I still make that trade.

The argument to say it wasn't the most lopsided trade ever is fine. But that doesn't mean you don't do it even if you have a crystal ball into the future of Adams and Lowry. Historically, it takes players like Lowry combined with 1st rounders to land the MVP tier players.

And as @JayZ750 said, Lowe was confused where the Lamb pick came from. You can't say both Lowry and the pick for Lowry can be used in analyzing the trade.

 

Not if you are a crazy Rox fan like many here because Beck clearly said the Rockets can not win against the GSW in the playoff.

 

Actually both Lowe and Beck are not watching enough Rox games and somehow they both went the route of : the Rockets defense is around 10-12 in the league which is rock solid.

They probably never watched how the Heat scored in that game.

The defense is a big issue for this team.

But they both are right though, this team's key is to outscore people, and hence when we are missing Anderson or Gordon will even go into a minor slump, we will struggle.

 

As with all stats, and advanced stats, this is definitely a credit to Lowry, but caveats needed. What type of rotations are they using, who they have on their bench and how they're using them, and who is with Lowry and when, how many minutes Lowry plays (37 mpg), etc.

I like impact stats... because ultimately the goal is to score more than your opponent. And I'm in no way trying to diminish Lowry's performances or success.