Get out of my face with this corn. A “best 5 players” lineup probably goes CP-Harden-Gordon-Tucker-Capela but early in the season that unit seemed to have very little synergy. Didn’t seem like D’Antoni ever set that rotation up either, really felt forced. In chess, you have to set an attack up first...you don’t just throw the Queen out and say this is my attack. I understand injuries have forced their hand a bit but at the same time, Gordon is not a forward. I mean, please don’t take this the wrong way but he was outstanding as the 6th man. As the full time GUARD who backed up both CP and Harden. As a starter, not only do I feel like he’s kind of average AF but the production off the bench has lost its steady hand. Green is a streak shooter. Ennis is barely playable, not expecting (or getting) much contribution. Who else is even worth mentioning? For the sake of appearances, someone has to tell him (and PJ Tucker why not) to chill the heck out with the screaming and stank face at the refs. First of all, it isn’t getting him even one call, probably quite the opposite. Secondly, it’s so clearly in his head that he isn’t even concerned with finishing a play and that’s just beyond not okay. Thirdly, I always felt it best to let your team leaders speak in depth to refs and he is not one of them. Finally, uh, brodudeman, you’re only Eric Gordon. A little humility please. Some self-actualization might help that broken ass shot too. As I said, I know injuries have forced their hand a bit but this also ties into another short story: short rotation. This team so clearly took a hit on the depth chart at forward. Anderson, Ariza, Moute...enough has been said about that but early on it seemed like they were finally going to embrace some youth, embrace a longer rotation. Clark and Hartenstein are not saviors but the team didn’t trust them to push through typical rookie troubles, instead, buried them on the bench and G-league. Desperate, they got House who did only everything they asked of him, including if I’m not mistaken getting Harden going. Buried him. And now we find ourselves in need of help at guard, forward and center and they turn to who? Clark, on the road against maybe the best team in the league at altitude, throw him into a raging inferno and yank him back out for making a couple mistakes. Things he should’ve pushed through early in the season, if the old hat dared to invest an ounce of confidence in the guy. And by the way, is missing a rotation on defense a bench worthy offense now? I enjoyed seeing CP demonstrate and teach Green and Ennis on the floor, accountability why not, but they didn’t get yanked. Green actually responded with a block, too little too late but a response nonetheless. And how about Hartenstein? Fresh off of looking like a G-league hall of famer, after a half of Jokic getting everything he wanted, well, I guess it time to turn to another guy we’ve mismanaged. And he’s just trying to push through, hustle through his youthful mistakes but this is what he should’ve been doing in November/December. Instead, he gets to mop up all the blood Jokic spilt? Come the hell on man. That’s called putting guys in position to fail. That’s on the coaches. I don’t care if they trade for Jesus Christ. I don’t care if they buyout Michael Jordan circa early 90s. This team is flawed in its leadership and it’s really, really hurting them. And it’s like a super easy fix. Send nene home, give Hartenstein real minutes, Clark real minutes, HOUSE real minutes now so that maybe by playoff time they’ll be “trusted” players. Or like, we really gonna pretend that Harden and Faried are on the same page? The trade/buyout that isn’t coming is going to be the savior that only Harden is capable of being? Wes Matthews haha, get real. CP-Rivers Harden-Gordon House-Green Tucker-Clark-Ennis Capela-Hartenstein-Faried Maybe not all 12 every game, but if coach can’t find consistent minutes for 10 guys every night then maybe we need a new coach. This post is taller than last night’s starting lineup. Thanks for reading.
that's what annoys me about this hold House hold up. it would push Gordon back to 6th man and that would help us out tremendously with balance. It'd make Rivers the 7th and Green the 8th man. Ideally, Green would be the 9th/10th man off the bench which would cut down on our reliance on his streaky-ness. When Capela comes back then Green becomes the 9th man off the bench. (barring any injuries of course) I'm still in favor of trading Gordon as I shudder to think of relying on him again to put in 15-20ppg on a good % in the playoffs.
I think he's kinda wasted starting next to Harden and Paul (which is something may also happen if we somehow trade for Beal btw), but the alternative as today is Ennis...maybe we should start Rivers or even Gerald (even though he's not playing well too).
Our best lineup with a decent sample size is Capela, Tucker, House, Gordon, and Harden CP3 and Harden haven't coexisted on the court well at all this year so I would have CP3 lead the 2nd unit off the bench. This will reduce his minutes since MDA won't accidentally leave him in too long in the first quarter.
Are it could be cause cp3 was hurt this year n everybody sucked at the start of the season it's silly to say cp3 n harden cant coexist when they just did it last year a a tune of only losing like 6 games when cp3 harden n clint played....it just mind boggling people think this
Either Eric Gordon or Chris Paul has to start at the guard position. Can't have two midgets in the starting lineup, especially playing as a SF. We need to plug House back into that SF position ASAP and then get some more long 3+D wings (not 6'5" dudes that Morey loves for some reason) to make Green, Rivers, and Ennis irrelevant.
I think if you have Harden Gordon and Paul on the court Harden takes more of the Forward role than Gordon. I’d much rather Harden Defend bigger players. And as far as offense goes I don’t think it really matters who is playing what position.
I don’t think MDA cares about position labels 1-3. Offensively they spread them out. Defensively they switch anyway. Efensivelynthey shoikd start with EG guarding the opposing two guard. Harden guarding SFs. But again it all switches. I don’t like this approach.... like everyone else... too many defensive problems and rebounding problems. Start a real SF. Have EG come off the bench.
Fingers crossed Morey finds us someone us someone this week that will eliminate our coach's obsession with this small ball starting lineup once and for all. I absolutely hate hate hate the midget 3 guard lineups out there on the court. Next time he does that I just want all our cheerleaders and fans screaming out in unison, "Rest James and CP3, play two guards instead of 3. Rest James and CP3, play two guards instead of 3. Rest James and CP3, play two guards instead of 3".
Never was a fan of ultra small lineups. I don’t believe lineups featuring CP3/EGo/Harden or Rivers/EGo/Harden will be successful over time...& definitely not in the playoffs. I have a sneaky suspicion D’Antoni sold Morey on a bad bill of goods (pushing the smallish lineup) and thus we (Rockets) skimped at the SF spot over the summer, and it continues as the season goes on. MCW was a big project for small price wing experiment. Ennis had potential, but looks completely lost with switching defense. House is good enough, but money has been tied up in Knight/Chriss, others. 5-man lineups..........................games played.........minutes.....ORtg.....DRtg.....NetRtg.....Reb% Capela/Tucker/EGo/Harden/CP3: 18 .................................132.......108.6.....115.0....... -6.4........48.1 Capela/Tucker/Ennis/Harden/EGo: 17................................124.......107.8.....105.3...... +2.5........49.1 Capela/Tucker/House/Harden/EGo: 10...............................75........101.8......91.8...... +10.0.......59.2 https://stats.nba.com/lineups/advanced/ I’ve proposed trades for: Covington, Bojan Bogdanovic, others. Rockets would be a very dangerous team with at least 2 decent SF/Wings. IMO. House would fit the bill if money could be worked out. G Temple could pass for one. Wes Matthews could pass as another. Wes has been playing SF and doing it well over the years (SF backup for us).
Eric Gordon is not playing SF, he's playing SG. It's Harden playing SF. We're hiding Harden on the opponent's worst scoring forward. What we're testing out is how we match up against the Warriors with this line up, which in theory is not too bad: On defense, we go: Capela vs Cousins Harden vs Green Tucker vs Durant (this will be a problem if we don't have another guy with greater length to throw at Durant) Gordon vs Curry (to avoid CP3 foul trouble and getting worn out) Paul vs Thompson On offense they have a serious matching issue, which is that if Thompson guards Harden then Durant has to guard Gordon, and Curry has to guard Paul. Not to mention we are going to put Cousins and Curry in PnR constantly.
Right, maybe I misunderstood I was talking about best 5 players on paper, something they were even mentioning on broadcast as a lineup they thought would crush opponents. Of course, it would help if 3/5ths of that proposed lineup were healthy enough to work out the obvious kinks when they did have those 5 but the health issues are well known. I have no doubt a House lineup was our best 5.
They should go back to the old CP3, Harden, EG rotation and start Ennis or get another SF through trade. The starting lineup will have better defense and 2nd unit have much more fire power.
It’s weird right...positions became numbers...roles blended...now any title is more what you play on defense than offense. Even at that, they try to switch almost everything. Harden is the point on offense, defense, he’s usually on a bigger player. Small forward doesn’t seem correct for Harden either! Even calling him a SG or 2 is weird.
