Melo -- B -- while he gave effort on D, he's just not all that effective and our team defense seemed to suffer when he was on the floor. on offense, his 3 has looked good but his midrange shot wasn't falling in ISO situations. this might actually be a good thing if we're able to convince him to just eliminate this part of his game altogether lol Clark -- A -- he hit his 3's at an insane clip, played solid D, was in the right place at the right time on both ends, and moved the ball well on offense. i think he may be able to contribute rotation minutes by the 2nd half of the season. the key obviously will be his ability to keep draining those 3's MCW -- B+ -- played a great floor game even though his 3 wasn't falling and then he got injured, like always Ennis -- B+ -- he's still very foul prone which could be an issue keeping him on the floor in 4th quarters. but he was very active chasing the ball, great in transition, and his shot looks like money right now
hart and chriss both seem unplayable at this point. and it's funny they're both complete opposites of each other. chriss is actually a decent perimeter defender able to stay in front of even point guards, while hart can't even stay in front of 4's. chriss is completely clueless on PnR while hart seems to have decent court awareness. hart hustles all day while chriss looks lethargic. they both get C's from me
All reasonable. The difference is I'm heading them relative to expectations, you're ratng them based on impact.
Hart completely lacks lateral quickness and isn't quick either unfortunately. Otherwise, he would be a very good addition to the team.
fwiw, AD made Top 10 "Wins Added", on a team who went 0-5 in the preseason. lulz. That means, make AD beat you...and he won't. NOLA is Rockets first opponent
Wow, Ennis is about to show the world that he is on Antentokounpo's level. I've seen enough, the numbers are clear.
Clark - A Biggest surprise of the camp for me. His shooting is unsustainable, so he probably looked better than he actually is. However, he was in the right places on both sides of the floor, and that is definitely repeatable. Glue guy that allows stars to shine. One of those guys that scores 5 points, 3 rebounds, a block or a steal and ends the night +30 in a 10 point win. Hopefully we hang on to him and not let him get away like a Covington. MCW - A Rockets are going to use him in a Roberson like role, with some added playmaking. Won't be spotting up for 3s, but instead attacking closeouts or cutting to the basket. Against GS you will see them try to hide Curry on him, expect to see at least a couple back cuts for layups. Another way to mitigate his lack of shooting, something OKC does with Roberson, is to use him as the screener. Since his man is sagging off so much, its an open shot for whoever is coming off that screen. Those are ways to soften his weaknesses, where he is gonna make his money is defense, steals, blocks, offensive rebounds, hustle. I think he will more than make up for the loss of Luc. The issue the last couple of years has been health, so missing the last 3 preseason games has been concerning. Melo - B Overall good buy-in. Still not sure how he is going to take coming off the bench in the long run. His body language/activity level seemed to be better the first two games when he was starting, but could be my eyes lying. As for his play, his 3 ball looked good, but the pump fake into one dribble pull up still needs work. Looks like he is thinking too much, since Rockets don't like that long two, and he's also adjusting to a new shot where he pump fake side steps for a 3.(CP3 went through the same adjustment) I'm ok with him taking those long 2s occasionally, especially when there is nothing better. He shot around 45% from there the last few years before that % fell off a cliff in OKC last year. The shot that he needs to eliminate is where he isolates from long 2, especially against a good defender, jab steps pull up. That is a bad shot. In Melo's prime I can understand the purpose of this move to setup his drives, but nowadays he is too slow to drive by anyone so there is no additional reward to this move, just a bad shot. Good news is that we have yet to see this in preseason. Speaking of ISOs, Melo's biggest value IMO is actually going to be mismatches against GS. Rockets attack switches by isoing Harden/Paul against opponents bigmen - this has generated the highest iso efficiency in the league(history?). This advantage dissipates against GS with Draymond at the 5. The Rockets instead hunt Curry on switches, and even though Harden vs Curry is still a mismatch, it does not generate close the efficiency the Rockets are accustomed to against bigmen, thats why the Rockets offense fell apart in the playoffs against GS. However, Carmelo in the post vs Curry, after hunting him on a switch, is an intriguing option now for the Rockets. Hopefully this can wear Curry down, generate fouls and kick outs if doubled. If nothing else, this added option will benefit because Harden isoing the entire game will take a toll. Ennis - B- I think Ennis' defense is overrated. It is a bit helter-skelter, Brewer-like, undisciplined. Some fake hustle, like chasing that backcourt violation with a full sprint when clearly the ball was going out of bounds(why waste your energy?) Some people bring up that youtube video of his supposed defense against Harden. Watch it, the Grizzlies doubled Harden off of every pick and roll, thats what affected him, not Ennis' defense. I think Ennis' offense is underrated. He is close to a 40% shooter from the corners, and one of the most efficient finishers in transition in the entire league. Particularly his shooting, he hasn't had nearly the amount of open looks Harden has given Ariza, so look for a significant uptick there. I do question his basketball iq and feel though. His first shot as a Rocket was a forced long 2, and there was another shot where he was in the wrong spot when Tucker kicked it out, and had to brick a midrange instead of the open corner 3. Ennis is still new to the system so he still has time to familiarize himself. Overall if he can just be a net neutral player, someone who does not hurt the team, a filler, the signing would've been a win. He is penciled in as the starter, but look for him to play no more than ~25 mpg, and have Gordon close the half and fourth quarters. Hartenstein - C His first stint was an A, and his last game was a D. His first game he showed he had desire to play at this level, and that he was not afraid, which is big for a 20 year old. In his second game he got scored on basically every switch. I still think he has the pedigree and feel to be effective in the NBA, the problem is that the league and particularly the Rockets are moving away from lumbering type centers as they switch basically everything. The key to Hartenstein sticking around will be how much he can improve his lateral quickness. The early reports of him staying infront of Harden in practices were encouraging. That last preseason game getting lit up by someone I already forgot was less so. So far it looks like Clark is already ahead of him in the pecking order, so look for him to play in only in certain matchups. Chriss - D One thing to note about both Chriss and Hartenstein is that both have been used as stretch bigs for most of their careers up to this point. Because of this, they have struggled in the pick and roll game both in setting screens and effectively rolling - Chriss moreso than Hart. This is excusable and correctable, and not the reason for his grade. What really got me down on Chriss was a stretch of play after being blocked back to back by Myles Turner, he seemed to have completely given up, both in his body language and engagement. And this was a preseason game, where results really shouldn't matter. If you can't handle getting blocked in a preseason game, how are you going to react in a playoff atmosphere, much less Conference finals against the greatest team of all time? Since then we have yet to see Chriss again, out with this mysterious ankle injury. It is a shame because his trade value has the most upside out of almost anyone on the roster as long as Harden/CP can make him look even semi-playable. I don't think the Rockets have given up on him yet, but personally, there are some things that are excusable - like bad play, but you never give up - especially fringe players trying to make the NBA. Overall you can see why the Rockets believe they have improved over last year. Especially with Ennis starting, you are basically retaining everyone's role from last year and swapping these players 1 for 1. Ennis/Ariza - This is a clear downgrade. I would be happy if Ennis can be 50% as effective. Thing is, Ariza was probably 50% effective of himself in last year's playoffs shooting 36% from the field and 28% from 3. Yet the Rockets were still about to defeat GS even with this version of Ariza. So how big of a downgrade is it, if the postseason is what matter? We'll see how Ennis performs under the lights. MCW/Luc - This is a lateral move IMO. But even if I am wrong, this is a huge upgrade to the corpse of Luc that showed up in the postseason. We'll see how MCW's health holds up. Melo/Anderson - Enough said.
excellent, by far the best and most thorough analysis here. regarding melo i noticed the same diff in body language from when he was initially starting, and at the time actually thought it might have been on purpose -- i mean if he wants to start then showing coach he's not as good off the bench would be in his interest agree on ennis' defense as well. he has a bad habit of reaching and using his arms instead of moving his feet. not nearly has intelligent as ariza both on man and team defense. maybe he improves those habits a bit as the season goes on with the coaches trying to keep him from racking up fouls. but in the playoffs when the pressure ratchets up, players usually revert back to what they've done all career. and chriss' attitude after getting swatted by miles was very disappointing.
many good points. disagree with the ennis 50% of ariza thing given that ariza's performance last playoffs was more or less in line with the 2 playoffs prior. not too surprised by ariza's struggles at times given his reliance on athleticism, minutes played throughout his career, and age. MCW should be able to contribute better than 2018 playoffs luc, but i don't think he can be as effective as regular seasons luc
