...I just realized that I did that arm wave and then I scrolled down and saw Ron Paul. ... ...I am very well trained by CF, I see.
Tag defense. Works very well on players that most of a team can possibly guard, but against someone like Randolf who you would never want to see someone like Parsons or Casspi on, it does not work so well at all. But Big Baby is out tonight, so Casspi is probably not going to get steam rolled.
Ugh Parsons is vaguebooking. Tell me, Leon, is life always this hard or is it just when you're a kid? Spoiler ALWAYS LIKE THIS.
Ugh, Vucevic is having his way with anyone not named Dwight Howard. I worry about the post defense of our developing bigs.
Casspi should stick to playing the three and coming off the bench. Nothing to do with tonights game, it's just that he is more suited for that role and that is where they have been having success.
If the twin towers are playing, the plan will be to slow the game down. They won't be looking to push the ball as much. So Asik won't need to run the floor. And Asik played 30 minutes per game last year where right when the shot came off the rim, everybody was filling their lanes, Asik was hitting the outlet immediately, and they pushed it. If they don't score with their first options on the break or hit the trailer coming down the paint, they go right into their offense, often times with Asik setting a high ball screen. Shot would go up and they are back on D. Rinse and repeat. Since Asik was able to play heavy minutes like that last year, he shouldn't have any problem this year.
Eh, I don't think anyone expected the hot streak to last, but it's heartening to see that even if his shooting is off he can help in other ways. I don't doubt that the shooting's there, it's not going to be on every night. My worry was that he was going to be a one-dimensional player. Looks like he can do more than just shoot. I don't know if he starts. I don't think he spends all of his time at the 4. I think he probably fits better with the 2nd unit. Much more experimentation needed.
Casspi missed his first 8 shots, couldn't even hit layups. He was getting contact but got no free throws from it. But he didn't give up, he kept hustling on D, rebounds, and attacking off the dribble. That's what McHale wants to see.
One thing that Casspi has shown throughout the last few years is that he is a near elite shooter from the corners and a below average shooter from the top of the key. What I saw tonight was him missing all of his shots from the top, and notice they were all short. The one shot he had from the corner he made. Casspi, and the coaching staff, need to play him more to his strengths, funneling the ball to him in the corners. Other than that, he looked fine. Moved the ball and continued to grab some contested rebounds. Still has to work on post feeding, which were the cause of all of his TOs, but that will come. Even on a night when he was 2/10, he still looked far better than any of the alternatives the Rockets have at PF. I think he will be the starter on opening night.
