So after all the preseason games have been completed. Lin 36 Martin 38 Parsons 38 Patterson 30 Asik 34 Jones 22 Delfino 20 Livingston 12 Smith/DMo 10 Watching the end of the 3rd and entire 4th was incredibly painful, the only guy that should get any chance to see the court is Dmo. I fully respect coach's decision too pull Lamb after just a few minutes, if your playing with energy and getting beat of the dribble time and time again, my god. I don't really know what role White and Lamb will have on this team, honestly they are probably incredibly talented players but need to be "the man" to be effective. If Lin starts regaining his confidence and form and we have no injury setbacks, an optimistic outlook would be battling for playoffs with an exciting brand of play for the season.
A crap I forgot about Morris, hopefully he can be given an opportunity to squeeze into the rotation early in the season, he was looking much more polished before he went unfortunately went down.
I agree with all that except I think Delfino will get more minutes (like 25-28). I have a feeling we're gonna go small a lot. Which is super fine with me.
So we don't play Lamb at all? And Royce White also isn't in the rotation at all? Come on mate. I am the most optimistic Rockets fan alive, but even I know that the reality is that this will be a roller coaster of a season. We still have a chance to make the playoffs, but with no bonafide superstars everyone will get a chance this season...except Morris.
Lamb's defense sucks though. This coming from a lamb fan, but that unit everyone was sucking on D. I wonder if Lamb was pulled simply just to get the other guys a shot. It was good because I think we know for certain now that Machado is a keeper and Forbes should be cut.
He was most certainly pulled to give showcase time for the other players, since this is their last chance to demonstrate their skills for other prospecting teams.
As much as I would love to see White and Lamb play because of the "potential" they could have, it just doesn't seem likely they will be given much time if any at all when the season starts, especially after what they have shown in this preseason. They need to start valuing the little things like moving their feet, boxing out and playing hard. They could take plays off in college cause they were the man and have wonderful scoring which ability. If they start showing this they will be getting more playing time towards the middle of the season and slowly work the rest of their talented game in.
Hoping Lamb takes some of Delfino's minutes... Hes not bad, but he's gonna shoot A LOT! Even if he isnt making anything
Besides the starting 5. Only Jones and Delfino have had consistent minutes. Everyone else seems to be experimental. It'll be interesting to see who gets the back up PG spot. McHale has tried Douglas, Machado and Livingston at the back up PG spot. I think Livingston looks the best but he has played the least. D-Mo and Smith will obviously get time cause we dont have any 5s behind Asik. Interesting to see what will happens to see how minutes are distributed amongst Lamb, White and Morris as well.
I believe Lamb is a shooter too, so....and Delfino is making a lot of his shots! Delfino's stroke is so pure. Also Delfino plays hard on defense, doesn't make mistakes, reboounds well for the 2, etc. Lamb will do all that too, just not this year.
Yeah, Lamb has offensive skills but McHale as he proved last year, won't play you if you don't play defense. Even Martin was forced to actually make efforts to get his normal playing time. White from what I've seen, is too RAW and could use a few weeks in the D-league. Especially during the longer road trips this season, once he has developed enough like Brooks he will be brought in to potentially battle for his minutes. Motiejunas I actually see him being active second most behind Jones among the rookies. His height and post skills gives him a decent advantage over other backup bigs. Smith will probably see more time at backup C but Motiejunas as he gets used to the game at this level will start to eat at minutes for either the PF or C position. Morris likely will be with the team but short of an injury may not see a lot of time at first. Frankly, we have way too many potential bigs, even if we trade Patterson or Morris during the season.
i say: Lin 35 Martin 36 Parsons 35 Patterson 27 Asik 32 Jones 24 Delfino 20 Livingston 13 Smith 12 dmo/white/lamb 6
