It's kinda like: IF: Luc being out during the WCF didn't rate a mention AND: CP3 being out merely leveled the playing field cuz Iggy was out THEN: Luc being gone is "a big loss" that ruins our offseason! See? Media narratives all make sense now, right?
What did we really lose from last years team? Luc was a non-factor in the playoffs. Ariza is an aging player that was a liability on offense during the playoffs. I think the Rockets will survive.
Weird view. Ariza and Luc are better than Ennis and Green. Whether Luc contributed in the playoffs or not, when healthy, he was a huge part of the change in our defensive identity. Even if you think Ennis might improve in this system, it's a reach, so again, a C or D grade seems fair to me.
Luc couldn't dunk, make a layup or shoot a 3 when it mattered most. Luc was a head case at the end of the year. Green played his mins vs GS and it went 7.Trevor has always been up and down and has a TON of miles on him. The Rox went with a younger Ennis who may give you similiar production. Carmelo and Tucker will play the 4. The Rockets return their top 4 players ( Gordon, Capela, Paul & Harden.) I just don't see where the panic is coming fron especially when there are resources and time to make other moves.
The Rockets a much better than lst years team. Crazy how most fans on here cant see that. Melo, Ennis, Knight, Chriss, mcw > rhyno, ariza, luc.
Now you see, I have a slightly different point of view on that. I think that the biggest parts of the change in our defensive identity were the two OTHER new guys we brought in, the ones who were actually the TWO BEST DEFENDERS ON THE ENTIRE TEAM: CP3 and PJ. Take those two guys and toss a couple of new capable defenders (Ennis, MCW) into the rotation and we'll be just as good defensively. Melo takes over the Ryno role of providing offense, except for one thing: He's actually really good at it, and extremely unlikely to ever be trigger-shy. THEN you throw in a talented PG in Knight and an athletic freak project in Chriss and you have a definitely upgraded team. We may not win 65 games again this year (although we could), but come playoff time we'll be better than we were last year.
If you believe in Defensive Real Plus/Minus stats that ESPN puts out (I don't really), then note that MCW is 6'6 and has been no lower than 11th for PGs (5th at the highest) for the past 4 years. When you count all guards, he's between 10th-20th. MCW is 6'6 and Luc is 6'8. We didn't get MCW to be a backup playmaker, as much as we got him to be a switching, perimeter defender. We can certainly criticize his shooting, but the dude is also athletic ... as much as Luc, and can dribble better. All those drives by Luc off of perimeter passes that we loved, MCW may very well do better....despite the popular video of his dud drives....as the lane will be more wide-open than he's ever seen, before. If his perimeter defense is as good as advertized, then we just have to find a way to get 15mpg contribution from a non-3pt shooting guard like GSW gets from Livingston, from Luc-style drives/cutting, MCWs proven transition game, and wide-open corner threes...plus some quality ball-movement passing. He will get his chance ...
Here's the absolute most important thing about last year's team: We got to the WCF and almost beat the GSW dynasty despite two of our key regular season rotation guys being totally, absolutely useless by that point. Because of injury and confidence problems, Luc and Ryno gave us NOTHING AT ALL in the playoffs. Ryno's per-game playoff averages: 8.6 MP | .350 FG% | .475 eFG% | 0 FTA | 1.2 RBS | 0.5 ASSTS | 0.3 STLS | 1.7 PTS Luc's per-game playoff averages: 16.6 MP | .250 FG% | .292 eFG% | 0.8 FTA | 2.4 RBS | 0.5 ASSTS | 0.7 STLS | 2.8 PTS Yet we were still a bum hammy away from winning it all. That speaks volumes for the system and the talent of the guys who DID show up. I'm more confident at the beginning of this season than I was at the beginning of last.
I just wonder why Ariza and Luc didn't get this much media love when they were actually on our roster... lol! and Melo is gonna make his detractors look foolish this year... an MDA offense, with Harden pulling the defense and CP3 dishing him open looks... Melo is gonna have a great year... (prob then sign a lucrative deal with another team in the offseason - and then flop again - lol)
Lol Melo has been so overrated by the media now he is underrated wtf. It was just 1 year ago he was the key to a championship formula for Westbrick now he isn't even as good as Luc Mbah Moute who is only making 4M a year. I'm not the biggest Melo fan, but at vet min he is of the best values in the league, easily worth 10M in the open market probably more. Most of these analysts forgot both Ariza and Luc were trash against GSW, they weren't difference makers anyway so losing them won't hurt.
"Who would you rather have? Player A: Production worth $8 million, earns $15 million Player B: Production worth $5 million, earns $1,621,415 That’s a version of a thought exercise I’ve long considered worth pondering for NBA team-building. The short answer is it depends. What’s the opportunity cost of picking the superior player, Player A? Player B provides more value per dollar and could allow the team to upgrade elsewhere. For the Houston Rockets, the answer is clear: Player A is preferable to Player B. The Rockets wouldn’t open cap space anyway, and their title-contention window is open now. The better player should be the priority. At least if winning is the only concern. But real money matters, too. That’s why Houston lost its version of Player A (Trevor Ariza) and replaced him with a Player B (James Ennis) and, with other similar moves, lost ground to the Warriors." Let's rework the question to: Would you rather have player A worth $8M and 2 or 3 unplayable scrubs... or 3 or 4 guys worth $5M earning $1.6 ea... then factor in depth of roster and age of players... I'm good downgrading from Ariza to Ennis/MCW/etc - if it means not having to overwork our stars and enduring more MDA short rotations...
