It holds little water to me what awards a player has won and what a person is 'known as'. Garcia played great defense during the regular season and playoffs. That is meaningful. Johnson isn't known as a great defender (not that it matters).
Why? You listed starting players, not backups. Parsons is that guy on our team. Youre trying to give WJ a role he isnt good enough for.
I listed the caliber athlete we need. On our team the athletic wing-defender would back up Parsons/Harden. Since we play a lot of small-ball with Parsons as the stretch 4, we can plug in our stopper at the 3 depending on match ups.
Forget all this specialist cr*p. In basketball, the players play defense AND offense. You need two-way players. I like the 3&D player, for which Garcia qualifies. I don't know about this Wes Johnson.
There's also the fact that I have no freaking clue why the OP thinks Wesley Johnson is a good defender based off a freaking DraftExpress profile, as opposed to three years of play where he has shown himself to be terrible at just about everything basketball wise.
You do realize of course that Garcia's draft profile is about as relevant to his usefulness to this season's Rockets team as a pair of nuts on a butterfly. That draft profile is over 10 years old and doesn't account for player growth, physical maturity, or game experience and learning how to play the NBA game. Last year, for the 25-30 games we had Garcia told me he is a solid defender and can play well against the top players at the SF spot in the game today. It also showed me he has become a clutch shooter and improved drastically on his 3pt shot. I am beyond happy that we were able to resign him. He will be huge for the Rockets this year IMO
I don't necessarily agree with us needing Johnson, but I have to give RocketsTerps props for sticking around and offering a solid defense of his argument.
The Rockets don't need better wing defenders to be successful on defense. They just need to try more on defense. Parsons for example didn't try as hard on D last season compared to his rookie year. Harden wasn't trying on D when he had to carry so much offensive load. With Howard and his likely 18-20ppg, both players will no longer need to carry as much offensive load and play harder on defense.
My point is you listed guys who are that effective because they start and play big minutes. If we had players of that caliber, they would start, not be back ups. We can't use the same blueprint because our star is at the 2, not 1 or 3 like most of those teams. The key is the defense at the starting point guard position. It is pointless to have a def stopper at the backup swing spot when we cant afford to sit harden or cp for too long.
Wes Johnson isn't anything special on D though, he doesn't exactly have a Gary Payton level of reputation on D. In fact, I don't think Johnson has a reputation on being anything but a lottery bust. Garcia oth, proved his worth last year when he defended KD just about as well anybody has ever done while still being very effective at the O. Plus, can we even afford this guy? Parsons and Garcia are already soaking up major minutes at the wing and PF spot, we shouldn't be givign out contracts more than the minimum at this point.
I'm surprised this thread has reached two pages, Wesley Johnson has not proven anything but be a bust. I do give some props in that there is merit in heading towards the direction of a wing defender who can shoot 3's well, but I don't think Johnson is that guy.
Corey Brewer was considered another Minnesota lottery bust until last year. Today Minnesota resigned him for $15 million while red nation mourned. I'm just saying, get in on his potential now before he figures it all out. With the low dollar amount we have left we can only afford players who are calculated gambles, not finished products.
Of course. However, Parsons can't play the entire game; will play a lot at the stretch 4; could be in foul trouble and need relief; God forbid an injury. We need a BACKUP athletic wing defender to compete at the highest levels. Every elite team has one. Wish we drafted Kwahi Leonard instead of Marcus Morris.
So, once again, are you going to get around to actually proving that Wes Johnson is in fact a wing defender, or are you going to continue to rely on a draft profile as your sole evidence? As for Brewer, I'm not seeing a whole lot of "mourning" and more "wtf Minnesota".
yea seriously, only reason Minny went after Brewer was b/c there were rumors that we were after Brewer.
