Power Forward Carousel? Destroys confidence or make players work harder?

The competition adds extra meaning to the regular season games.

 

PF by committee isn't really a choice. TJones, DMo, TRob, and Smith are all too inconsistent to make them the permanent starter/backup at this point. Whatever improvement one would get through consistent minutes would be offset by their complete ineffectiveness on a given night.

As others have mentioned, they all have different strengths and weaknesses to their games, which allows us to matchup based on what the other team is doing. We only need one to develop into an all-star for Morey's experiment to be a success....anything above that is gravy.

The only constant in our front court right now is that when Asik comes out, we get torched on the defensive end.

 

This.

 

I think it's interesting to think about the advantages of doing it this way in the playoffs. One thing that makes playoffs interesting is you have a lot more time to prepare for your opponent. With the way the Rockets play, we do not have a set line up. Any guy's name could be called. TJones/Torb (similar IMO), Smith, DMO all are VERY different players at the four. It really helps add a some spontaneous advantage to our game. It is not a HUGE advantage, but one nonetheless.

I know that's not what this thread is about, but I am not going to make a whole thread just for this one thought! haha.

 

Depends on the players but we need a rotation in order to help them develop their talents on the court. Although with this coaching staff the only ones guaranteed regular starter minutes almost every game are going to be Parsons and Harden so....

Actually, he got the playing time because Jones was injured around the time of the trade. Also when Robinson is hot, kid is quite good at rebounding and actually seems to control the ball dribbling then some of our SFs though his offensive game is still quite rough. There is still not much of a question which of our PFs has the most potential if properly harnessed.

 

I'm going to rep you just because all 4 of your favorite teams are my favorite. Add the steelers and pirates and we could be brothers!

 

It will only destroy confidence if the player has a history of producing at the spot. Right now it's a battle for the starter spot since they're all rookies at the spot. Confidence comes from previous success of position. If they never had a long history of that, you could say that there's no confidence to be destroyed.

 

I honestly think it is too late in the season to make any adjustment. When you replace a starter, the other 4 have to adjust to the new line up. If this is beginning of the season, then yes, let them compete. You should stick to one person until someone much better come up.

You have to understand, everyone has good and bad games. Just because one has a bad game, now he is suddenly not "working hard". That's BS. This is not a test where 2 + 2 always equal to 4. We are talking about the best of the best and the only objective is to get that max contract. If a player is satisfy with his rookie contract, then this player will not last in the league for long. Probably get canned by the end of his contract.

TRob probably questioning himself now. He has been busting his ball in the last few games, now he is replaced by Jones, who was left to riot all season. Back to the original question, yes, McHale kills his players confident.

 

It was not a carousel until the trade deadline.

 

I think its good to have some seasoning given to the whole bunch. When playoff time comes, different matchups may require different guys. It would be a nice place to be in where you could call on Jones, Dmo, TRob or Smith and feel confident about them.

This said, Jones is the latecomer to the show. I hope he gets some significant minutes before the regular season ends.

 

I have to believe this is all setup by design from Morey himself way before the season started.

The Moreyball PF experiment-

It seems evident to me that with Morey's knowledge of economics, Morey most likely believe in free market capitalism in a pure sense where pure competition breeds the best results in a market. In this case, he was able to test this with professional sports, and hardly ever able to be tested in the NBA.

The major problem is, in this limited job market(the Rockets open post positions... most notably the starting PF position), its hard to find pure competition because of investment teams have in their starter which typically is based on a well... lets call it an educated gamble most of the time.

-Insert Scola amnesty.

The Rockets knew they would have 3 first round picks(in a draft with a slew of talented high upside PF's), and a high upside Euro stash PF coming over. What better time to see if this philosophy could work in the NBA job market. Morey probably said, this is our time to really put this to the test in the world of basketball to see if it could work. Just another reason why amnestying Scola was taken into account.

You have the ability to bring in 5 recent high upside draft pick big men(3 rookies), let them battle it out for a season, and the cream of the crop will eventually rise to the top. In the meantime, the market (wins) would breed the best results in on the court production.

So did it work-

Well, it sure didn't fail. The Rockets, despite not getting a true star to shine at the PF spot, have had consistent production at the spot with players that normally would be allowed to slump, or have periods where they dont give full effort, are not allowed to do so in this setup because even not-so-smart rookies understand that there is a guy right behind me who is working his butt off to steal my minutes when I spot producing. Whoever gives us the best results wins minutes, until someone else comes up and out-performs me.

At some point, the Rockets are going to have to "settle" on someone long term. By the time we should have enough data to show who was clearly head and shoulders better than the other guy, and who wasnt. And in the meantime, the production the Rockets get at that position should be solid.

 

I thought D-Mo looked good against pretty good against Kings. I definitely saw improvement from other games, though he did have some problem defending the paint when Tyreke Evans got hot in the third quarter..

 

I like it now. My hope is that they're sorting out the rotation during the remainder of the regular season, with the goal of something steadier in the playoffs.

 

Royce white faints

 

I've seen these power forward carousels at the mall, they are for little kids, and cost $1.25 a pop.

 

Unless you are an established star in this league, the coaches always go with whoever can do the job.

This is a man's league with guys paid millions dollars. If your heart is too weak for it, then you are in the wrong business.

 

Who are you talking about? The Rockets have no players under 21.

 

Again, the Rockets have some serious young talent at the forward position. Let the best man win. The rest are either backups or trade bait. Just the way it is. My guess is that when the dust clears, Smith and Jones will be playing the most and DMo and TRob will be back ups. But you never know. All a matter of who develops the quickest. Out of the group, somebody is going to be traded for another piece of Morey's "pie."

 

I feel like D Mo is the weakest out of the 4 , this is how I think things will eventually work themselves out

Smith ( Backup Center ) he has the Body and tenacity for it but only needs to work in his fouls , plus he will always be available to slide in the 4 with Asik for a BIG lineup

T.Jones ( Starting PF ) he is the best out the bunch and has the unique combination of Being a scoring threat , defender, and rebounder I think our starters will benefit greatly from the second chances he can provide

T.Rob ( backup PF ) he has a high upside and I think his year 2 will show a lot of it with a offseason to develop. I could even see T.rob taking the starting position from Jones seeing that they have a similar game , but I think his high energy can serve us better coming off the bench and playing with Greg Smith similar to how they did the mavericks game.

D.Mo ( Backup SF ) I think he has a high upside just not as high as Jones and Robinson at the 4. He is a skinny guy and gets worked by stronger 4s because he isnt a banger and never will be. His shooting is inconsistent making him a liability if he is only playing because of his ability to be a stretch 4 . I think his best position would at SF behind parsons. Especially if Delfino isnt resigned or traded next season. His athleticism for a 7 footer might cause a lot of mismatches at the 3. We always compare him to dirk so lets use him like dirk as well. Hopefully he learns from parsons sitting behind him and develops a stronger defense.


Just my 0.02

 

I don't know how any one can have a strong opinion on how the coaching staff handles the PF options on the team when everyone here mostly has a different one themselves.