We are good enough in every phase of the game except one unknown

You know who'd help? Thon Maker.

 

I have faith in Clint, last year was his first year as a legitimate starting center. The experience taught him a lot and we will see a more aggressive and nasty Clint than in years past

 

Not to be cliche, but Capela is the X-Factor. He has the highest ceiling and at the times he reaches it, can impact the game for the Rockets the most in a GSW matchup. We saw this first had in their last game vs GSW.

For Capela, it is about consistency. And being consistent with energy. He can't allow himself to be bullied by Green and Adams.

 

I don't see an upgrade out there over Capela all things considered. So this is a moot point.

You saw when Capela was out how our offense became a tad bit predictable.

 

you spot on, it's definitely either him or the white Ibaka

 

nerlens NOEL!!!

 

Wonder what this board has more of; Max Kellerman opinion threads or Basketballholic "cleverly disguised Capela isn't good enough" threads.

 

Wait, are you seriously suggesting Wright is an upgrade to Capela?

 

Probably meant upgrade over Nene

 

Nope. He was responding to "I don't see an upgrade out there over Capela." He is legitimately suggesting that the bought-out journeyman center is an upgrade over someone with a 25.3 PER averaging 15/11/2 in 27 minutes.

Seems odd to me, but then I don't have his privileged access to insider data and insights.

 

Gotta protect ourself from Zaza in the paint

 

The key to our game is how we start it with Capela by attacking the paint with the PnR. When we methodically force the opp or pass to Capela his engine gets started for the 20/15 stat line. When we sub him out we go away from it. We shouldn't. Nene does it not as high above the rim but with more ball skill/timing. Now that we have Wright we have no reason not to keep the game this way with our 3 attack interspersed. Too much in the 2nd units we get into TO mode trying to brick 3s and out of the rhythm the PnR attack provides.

 

We're not the one making the choice, they are. The way they defend the pick and roll determines whether Capela gets the ball or not.

 

I agree that is what causes us to go away from it but that is part of where we go to sleep in games in not reestablishing it as quickly and it leads to those lulls of not pushing the ball and TOs. This has been much better this year but it still causes a problem in games. Look, we have a ridiculous record because the team has been historically great. When we have all of our people, we are virtually unbeatable. This is just one consistency that we can use to get better. We had been doing a better job of keeping TOs down. When we have the balanced attack like that it leads to those blitz runs of 20+ points in a couple of minutes that blows games out. I see this as more a playoff issue where teams will try to force us to abandon the paint.

 

The rockets switch everything and grab every defensive rebound. Teams dont get many second chance opportunities against us.

They don't need to do anything else on that end. So much of having a good D comes down to rebounding The Damn ball and not turning the ball over on offense.

The rockets have been elite at both for a while now. The added personnel in tucker, Luc and cp3 has helped alot dont get me wrong their all elite or very close to elite in tuckers case and helped the d out but imo its been the added emphasis on not allowing any second chance points.

When this team as at full strength with everyone healthy and playing they have proven to be a top 5 defense, hell they been top 10 all year with guys like cp3 ariza and luc missing significant time.

To me that says alot about this team on that end.

And lets be honest the only team we truly need Clint to be above And beyond is golden state in the WCF.

Lucky for the rockets Clint is substantially better than any center on the warrior's roster and thats on both sides of the court.

In fact i would be 100 bucks that clint nene wright and black would all see minutes for the warrior's thats. Their one true weakness since they ditched bogut for kd.

I like houston over golden state this year. When i watch both teams the rockets just look better.

At some point the 34-3 record with harden and cp3 together has to start meaning somthing. Thats far better than any stretch kd and steph has had as a tandem. I just think

A) ppl sleep on harden has every bit kds equal and clearly better than curry. Harden is a truely special player one of the best players of alltime.

B) cp3 impacts the game just as much as steph he just doesnt put up the eye popping numbers.

Klay and green are good but on no other team would they be seen as allstars. Hell green should never be an allstar. Hes a stud utilty player. A guy stars would love to play with but he himself and allstar player? Hell no.

Guys that get 10/7/7 are good players which he is but allstar i think not. Getting 7 assists a game passing to klay kd and curry is not impressive. Grabbing 7 boards as a PF is not great ryno gets almost 6 a game just as an example and 10 ppg once again ryno avg that or more every yr.

His defense is great but still i dont see tony allen or pat bev coming close to any allstar games and pat avg 10/5/6 last year and was 1st team all D on a 55 win team why no allstar luv? Lol.

 

It's highly debatable as to who is the worse defender is between Joe Johnson and Ryan Anderson - you could make a case for either but the point is, neither of them are high level defenders - Anderson never was and Johnson is a few years past being a few years past. OP should watch scrubs take JJ off the dribble with ease in the limited minutes he has played so far as a Rocket. The only reason they got JJ was because they can trust him more offensively late in tight games than Anderson - if we are going to talk about the Rockets, let's not talk about this fantasy version of the team where JJ can guard 4 positions.

 

In today's game I'll gladly give up paint points instead of perimeter points.

 

I could be wrong about this and old players have gone out and produced like younger guys. The medical possibilities are better than ever.

However, this team is still not build to contend in 3-4 years barring a Lebron surprise move.

The unknown is how much seasons are left for them guys to contend without much improvement.

What stars are going to join?

Are they going to inject top young talents?

Usually this talk emerges when the team has already won 1 or 2 championships but the Wild West is tough. Gotta be first to plan this things out.