I don't think E.G. Is really that hurt. He's sitting on the bench in his playing jersey along with nene. This strikes me as a way to get him rest for after the allstar break and playoffs. We have seen what e.g. Does for this team and how effective he can be. Rockets are being smart they know what he brings that don't need him for these games right now. I would like to have him on a nene type restriction till the last 5-8 games of the season before the playoffs. I don't mean I want him playing 15-18 min a game let him get his 30-33min but rest him on b2b or the games agains teams that we should beat. I think they should be giving Gordon 15 games off for the rest of his time here. Just the smart thing to do and have him fresh for the playoffs. Nothing wrong with this SA has been doing it for the last decade with there top guys.
I'm pretty positive this is enforced rest for Jordon. If this was for the playoffs, he'd be in. Anyways, 60gms+ is all we can ask. Dude's usually injury proned. But with this said, I really hope Morey doesn't value the cohesion THIS MUCH that he turns down a good trade. If we can get a better backup swingman and PG, at the very least look at it. We have so much **** rotting on the bench-- Ennis, Bobby, Kj, Brewer, and Witjler--. That's too much, that's 1/3 of our team.
I have to disagree. when was the last time a team won a championship without being in the top 10 on defense? we've got a championship level offense, we need to pair that with a top 10 defense to be a legit contender. the trick is to improve the defense without sacrificing the offense. the best place to do that is at center since that position has limited offensive responsibilities in MDAs system while being a major weakness on defense. additionally, unlike adding another offensive player, adding a defensive center will help on both ends since rim protectors help start fast breaks. now, i agree that we're too thin. brewer has no business being in a rotation. ideally we would replace him with another scorer, which will help even more during games that gordon misses. we could also upgrade ennis with a 3/D player incase beverley gets injured. but i still think those guys will be insurance policies because once the playoffs start and the rotation tightens, gordon, dekker, and nene will be the only bench players getting minutes. upgrading nene is the only move that helps our playoff rotation. the other moves are just in case of injuries.
Well when's the last time a team with the pg as the best player won a ring? By your logic we should trade Harden because he's never gonna win a ring since Magic was the last dude who won a ring as their best player...and he was playing center when they won. If you look at history though there should have been 2 champions that didn't get crowned due to being robbed in the playoffs, the Kings under RA and PHX under MDA. Both didn't feature top 10 defense, but they could've won based on their offense if only they didn't get screwed by the refs. The only important thing in the NBA is to be exceptional, other teams are great at both offense and defense but since Rox can't be great at defense they should just focus on offense. The only players who can improve the team defense significantly would be franchise level Cs like Davis or Kristaps. How do you propose we get that guy with the assets we have? Ibaka won't be the difference maker you're thinking off, how come Magic defense is still bad with him anchoring the middle? Obv he can't do it alone, so how much will he upgrade the defense when his partner is Ryan Anderson in the paint? You think Ibaka can stop Lebron or Kevin Durant from scoring 20 pts a game? I mean lets be real here, working on defense is what Morey had in mind which is why he wanted a defensive minded HC when Les Alexander overruled him. Well the Rox went on to become 3rd seed, that just shows you the power of enhancing your strengths vs fixing your weaknesses. You want to go away from the formula and go back to the "working on weaknesses" bit, I just don't think that's the optimal way to improve the team. When Gordon's back tightens in the playoffs or Anderson's shot becomes unhinged that rim protector you're thinking of won't do squat in the playoffs, we need more scorers so Harden won't get overwhelmed when 1 of the 2 other scorers on the team go offline.
The rockets defense actually has been top 10 since after the first Kirk 10-15 games. I think next season with more cohesion this team will be ranked in the top 10 in defense especially if we add another quality wing. It's not out of the question that they reach the top 10 by the end of this year if they keep playing the way they have since they've been back at home. I don't think this team is really that bad defensively. They have some troubles with big teams but there isn't to many of them anyways and teams like Memphis okc Spurs have done well against us but we've also built up double digit leads in every game against those teams. So it goes both ways.
he was playing center for their first championship lol he has a few others. and the last PG that did it was curry. in fact, harden is playing the same role as wade when he was his first. same as lebron, same as kobe, same as jordan, same as thomas. they're all the primary ball handlers and scorers. its been done before. my point is winning a championship without a top 10 defense hasn't been done before. could've won doesn't mean anything. the winners had a top 10 defense. i never said any of this was the plan lol. why would ibaka have to stop kd from scoring 20 points? can anyone? what does this have to do with needing a top 10 defense to win? when did i ever propose we get davis or kp? i didn't. i said you need a top 10 defense to win. which can be done with a better defense center other than nene. ok lets be real here, whatever scorer we can land for our trade-chips won't do anything to get us passed the spurs or warriors. both of those teams are top 5 on both ends. you've gotta find a way to compete with that. there has never been a team which was so overwhelming on offense that their defense didn't matter. now i agree that we could use another scorer as gordon/ryno insurance... we could also use a second all-star level scorer to pair with harden. but we are going to have to agree to disagree that we need to improve our defense as well.
Well my point is any center you can get unless it's a davis type of person won't improve the Rockets defense to top 10. I already said it Ibaka won't singlehandedly vault the defense into top 10 Magic doesn't have a top 10 defense with him anchoring the defense why do you expect Rockets to become top 10 defense just by getting a better defensive C than Nene? I don't know how you calculate defense but based on oddshark the Rox are way below the league average when it comes to opponent FG%, yet here they are at the top 3 seed in the West. How can adding just one guy move the Rox up all the way to top 10 from the bottom of league standings unless that guy was a Davis' level of player? Top 10 sounds good but then look at the FG% it'd just 3% away from best to worst you think you can't make up for that gap offensively? Offense and defense are not equal impact in today's NBA, people always say a good offense will beat a great defense in today's NBA so if the opponent is 3% better at defense than just surmount that gap with offense. http://www.oddsshark.com/nba/defensive-stats You shouldn't be prisoners to history, don't use the argument "it's never been done before" because the NBA now is vastly different from the NBA before. Nobody ever had a 50 pt triple double before this season either, didn't really mean anything. Before last year nobody ever came back from a 3-1 deficit to win a championship. I mean if the team defense was 11th instead of 10th it doesn't matter how good the rest of the team is you won't win a ring? That's just lazy analysis and thinking. If Lebron and the Cavs thought like you they would lose that championship last year. I already mentioned two teams that could have won a ring without being a top 10 defense if they weren't jobbed, that was done to show you it was indeed possible, just like it was possible to come back from 3-1 in the playoffs. The main issue with the Rockets right now is the lack of star talent rather than a top 10 defense or whatever else. I mentioned getting a wing scorer because in terms of salary you will get more talent or bang for your buck for a perimeter scorer than a traditional big man. As we saw with Eric Gordon, it's possible to get a near star talent for just 15M, whereas guys like Kanter easily made that amount even while being a moderately talented scrub. With 20M we can get another star caliber wing to pair with Harden, oth 20M might not be enough to keep Ibaka on the roster since that's around what Ryan Anderson is making right now and he might want more. If you're lucky, your wing player might actually help your defense, if we had a guy like Wilson Chandler or Batum at SF then backed by Ariza then the perimeter defense would be rock solid which can help you get your top 10 defense you are obsessing over. Btw Curry doesn't count because he's like the cherry on top of the cake when they won a ring, GSW had like 4 all stars on their team and they were up against Lebron and scrubs since Irving and Love were both injured. Take out Curry and put any other star pg and they still win that series easily. Hell even Lowry would win a ring that year. Lebron vs Iggy, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Curry lol wow that's a challenge. Your pg could be literally anybody and GSW is still favored due to having more stars and overall talent on the team. Curry is the MVP but he's not their best player, otherwise they would have won last year when Green got suspended. Draymond Green is their best player, he's the no 1 guy you would want to be on the team last year. It's even more apparent this year, GSW will survive without Curry but will crash and burn without Green this year. Even crazier Curry isn't paid like GSW's best player, he's making around 12M per year so he's getting paid like the 2nd or 3rd option. So that's why he's found championship success while other pgs have not, other pgs their pg-led team get paid the most whereas on GSW Curry isn't paid like one.
The 3 point contest lasts for precisely 1 minute. If he's worn out by that, then he should go ahead and retire.
Let Gordon rest as much as he needs. With 25 games left to go we're pretty much locked into 3rd seed. Yes, we're only 2.5 games behind the Spurs, but I don't think we'll catch them. What's important is that Gordon is in good form when the playoffs come around, just like Nene. Yes, it sucks that he's not an iron man, but we knew that when signing him. Our schedule is also softer now. We can survive.
so far you've argued that the suns and kings were examples of championship teams that didn't have a top 10 defense, and that curry wasn't the last star pg to lead his team to a ring. the fact is neither are true. secondly, im not sure why you take this so personally. you're telling me im "obsessing" over top 10 defense and that my thinking is 'lazy' is just because you're frustrated that you haven't changed my mind. it could be said you're obsessing over adding another scorer. using accusations like "obsessing" (meaning thinking emotionally rather than rationally) and "lazy thinking" are immature at best because you're addressing me instead of the points we're discussing. that is actually a sign of emotional and lazy thinking. i said in my last post we can agree to disagree because we've both made our points and there isn't reason to go in circles. all we can do now is wait and see who's right.
EXACTLY. I'd be fine with us sitting him the last week of the regular seasons just to improve the probability he's healthy in the playoffs. If we're lucky enough to have him clicking in playoffs we'll be very hard to beat
