I was thinking about our current roster and realized that we are good enough to beat all the contendors with the lineup we have. Ab and Klow Kmart, jtaylor,cbud Ariza,battier,cbud Scola,hill,patpat Yao, miller The lakers lineup is Fish, blake Kobe, sasha Artest, walton Gasol, odom Bynum, odom We have one of the best kobe stoppers in battier and if yao is healthy we can have miller play pf to match the laker size. Our pgs we have the advantage and sf we can bet on arrest shooting the ball after hogging it for 23 seconds. We match up well with their starters and our bench is superior. now The heat Chalmers,arroyo Wade miller Lebron Bosh Big z pitman Again we match up well. Ab will light up arroyo and chalmers. Lowry will drive right pass them. They can also play decent d on them. Battier and ariza can take on wade and lebron. We've proven that we can stop these guys. Granted that now they are together and can be tougher to stop but it is still doable. Scola better than bosh on d, hustle, and bosh could have a slight offensive advantage. Our center position dominates their center. Yao miller kill big z. We are also much deeper than them and our bench will destroy theirs. Basically with La we will get the rebounding and the height back since Yao is back and we will have martin playing with us for a whole year AND our young guys have gotten more experience. All of this allows us to compete with them. With Miami, we know that their starters can't play all 48 minutes so even if we can't stop them, we can weather the storm and burn their second squad. We have the defensive assets to stop their big three which allows us to compete and we have Size in the frontcourt in Yao which could hurt them. Let's just forget trying to get a superstar here by trading away our assets. Let's go to war with the group we have. We don't need to bring in a star.. because we will make a star out of some of our young players. Never underestimate the heart of a champion. LET'S GO ROX
Since when are there only two contenders? How do we even know Miami will be one? How is scola better defensively than Bosh? Since when have we proven we can stop wade? He always lights us up. And the offseason isnt over.
The lakers are the team to beat in the west. Miami is the team to beat in the east. Scolas hustle at d makes him better defensively. By contendors I meant the teams to beat in each conference. Apoligies if the title was misleading.
Good post Rednation. I would only say that Ariza plays Kobe better than Battier at this point in his career. I know the sample is small, but Ariza was terrific defending Kobe the last 2 games I watched.
But that's what's great about this team. If one of them guarding kobe isn't working, you can just put the other one on him.
Lakers have one major ingredient for winning in the playoffs which we don't- a closer who is willing to carry the team on his shoulder and win the game for his team. In this era, this player has to be a wing who can handle the ball. Unless Brooks becomes a better closer than Kobe by the playoffs next season (Lakers would probably guard Brooks WITH Kobe and switch Fisher on to Martin like they did against Allen in the Finals on the final shot), I'm not confident that we will be able to impose our will in crunch time on the Lakers. Also, can Brooks (our best perimeter one-on-one player) overcome his inability to make good decisions when Yao is fronted? What will we do on offense after we waste 20 seconds of shot clock trying to get Yao the ball? Do we give the ball to Scola and let him go one on one against a bigger guy in Gasol or Odom? Do we try to let Martin or Brooks shoulder the load and go one on one against Fisher? You mentioned that Battier and Ariza can take on Wade and LeBron. Will both of our offensively challenged small forwards be on the court for 40 minutes each game? Wade and LeBron will surely be roaming off of them and wreaking havoc on our bigs and the rest of our sets with their athleticism and help defense. Playing both would torpedo our offense. Frankly, our only chance of limiting their superstar wings is great paint defense. Namely, a great shotblocker in the game at all times. Will Yao play enough minutes? I very much doubt we have bigs on our roster who are up to the task... I disagree with the assessment that Scola is better than Bosh on D. I have seen too many times when Scola just lets his man go to work on him. He's great on pick and roll defense, but is a nonfactor in shotblocking and too unathletic to bother someone as long and athletic as Bosh, who is also a good shooter. Bosh had to conserve his energy on defense in Toronto in order to carry the offense; now in Miami, he can play a complementary role on offense and exert more energy on defense, making it very likely his defense improves next season. With Miami, you seem to be hoping that even though their starters might be better than ours, our bench will be better than theirs. Well, their starters might be playing 40 minutes a game, while our best player might only be able to play 30, tops. Their starters against our bench is not going to be pretty. I noticed that you used the slogan "Never underestimate the heart of a champion." You must be referring to the Lakers because this Rockets team hasn't even had the experience of getting out of the second round yet, let alone won a championship.
Yes LA has a closer in Kobe but remember that game against the suns where the great closer got saved by artest. He threw up a shot over a double team. The truth is that he is the best closer in the game but if we play good enough d on him we can force him to shoot a bad shot in crunch time. If he hits it.. then we got to accept it cuz he is kobe. Against the heat you said we need great paint d to stop the wings and need a great shot blocker. Sure if Yao gets the minutes he is the one but we also have guys like luis and hayes who are willing to step in there and take the charge. I disagree with the starters against the bench statement. When our bench comes in they are fresh legs who are instant offense and will run. The heat starters will be worn out and will not be nearly as fresh as the bench when they are against them so the heat starters against our bench might not be so bad. And what you said about what we are going to do with few seconds left on the clock when Yao is fronted. You answered that yourself. There are unlimited possibilities. I would let AB go one on one with fish because he is faster. And the rockets do have Heart.. they showed us that last season.
So what you're saying is that we should just accept that they have a better closer than us? Instead of trying to get a closer? I'm sorry but the odds are just better for the team with a closer than the one without. I'd rather we get one. The shotblocking element leads to much lower opponent shooting percentages than the taking-charges element. You pick up more fouls and do not bother shots in the paint as much taking charges as you do with shotblocking. Just look at our defensive rankings from two years ago compared to our defensive rankings last year to feel the impact of shotblocking versus charge taking (we probably took the most charges in the league last year, too lazy to look it up) You have a good point. But are our aggregate possibilities better than the opponent's aggregate possibilities? I'm not so sure.
I like your assessment, but before we can begin to think of facing the Miami Heat in the finals, or even the Lakers in the WCFs, we have to consider how we stack against the other teams in our conference. In the West we'll face tough teams such as the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spur and OK City Thunder, and when it comes time for the East, there's the Boston Celtics, the Orlando Magic and the Chicago Bulls (Just to name a few from both sides). Don't get me wrong... I like our chances against any those teams, but what good will a lineup that is designed to counter a specific team be against any of the aforementioned teams? But in terms of your post... This. I would switch Ariza over to Kobe and Battier on Artest to gain the advantage. Kobe, although still Kobe, has lost a step and Ariza's quickness and length can "even" the playing field. Battier would frustrate Artest with his fundamental defense (We all know how bad Artest is on the dribble), forcing him into poor decisions. I do agree our PG's have an advantage, but iconoclastic brings up a good point... This is why I agree we need a "go-to" guy, which could be filled by Yao, but the verdict is still out on that one. I know it's been butchered on this thread, but more than any other position I would love to upgrade the SF/SG with Andre Iguodala or Danny Granger (Iguodala being my top choice because I believe we could keep Brooks/Lowry in a trade. I'd give Philly Battier/Hill/J. Taylor/Jeffries/Andersen/NY Swap or A 1st rounder for Iggy. I think this exchange benefits both teams and gives the Rockets phenomenal depth. This would also allow for a possible Martin 6th man Let's face it, the man needs his minutes lowered). Yao/Miller/Hayes Scola/Hayes/Patterson Ariza/Iggy/Budinger Iggy/Martin/Budinger Brooks/Lowry Even a Kobe/Artest defensive combo would have difficulty guarding the line ups Rick could throw out with that rotation. We don't necessarily need a person with tremendous court vision. Rick's system is all about movement. If our guys hustle to their position, it eliminates the need for a court vision passer and increases the need for more fundamental and hustle players. Feeding the ball into Yao is a completely different story, though. Good thing is, he is a big target. :grin: As for the Heat... Hypothetically speaking, we meet the Heat in the Finals. We are then able to counteract Lebron and Wade with Ariza and Iggy, respectively. Lebron and Wade will also tire trying to gaurd Iggy/Martin/Ariza/Budinger, but we'll have other scoring options in Yao, Brooks and Scola. Not to mention we would still have our X Factor: Kyle Lowry
The real question is how to play against Philly and Indy. These two teams for the last few years have had a great strategy against us. Consequently, resulting in losses that affected the mental being of the team. I say that if we take care of these teams this season that we will officially be in the running for contender consideration To be a contender you must have a great roster, and be strong physically and mentally. I say we have 2/3.
I'm very interested in seeing how Adelman attacks the fronting defense on Yao this year. I believe we are going to seriously punish teams for fronting Yao, becasue we have both shooters and slasher's. One disadvantage you have of fronting is that you leave the offensive player in a better rebounding position and that player can easily box you out, or you can move your defender away from the basket to open a lane for a slasher. We're MUCH more equipped to handle fronting than we were 2 years ago against the Laker's and Blazer's. Teams are going to have to find new ways to guard the Rockets this year which is one reason I'm really excited for this season.
Maybe our advantage with Yao will shift to a high post pick n' roll, rather than having him bang down low. With the number of slashers we have, the defense will collapse on the offensive player's move to the basket leaving Yao open at the high post. Or kick backs to Yao off of pick n' rolls at the high post. We leave the middle of the paint open for our players driving in and for Scola to have room to work with. And like you said... if Yao gets fronted we have shooters and slashers with a big man that can box out the defense to give them room and get also grab rebounds.
I don't think Phil Jackson is dumb enough to think Kobe can guard Brooks. In fact, at the moment the Lakers don't have anyone on their team that wouldn't get lit up by Brooks.
