For all interested - I voted for Casspi, and not because he's my countryman (or being a COF) - It's a deliberated, calculated pick , and I stick by it. First, I disagree with OP's selection instructions. You need a 10-12-player rotation to succeed in the playoffs! Just watch SAS, MIA, and the rest of those who get far in the post-season. I think we should select 3 guys. Criteria: 1. Assuming that PBev & DH12 are healthy - we're booked for 1 & 5 as OP said. Since Harden will play some 40 min per game at the 2 - we mainly need backup for the 3 & 4 positions (mostly the latter). These 2 positions are also where we have our 2 lesser defenders, relatively (Harden can play good D when he wants to. Jones, as seen in the spoiler below, and Parsons at times, are the relative liabilities). 2. Playoff is no time for testing - You need players who are familiar with the team and the system 3. For playoffs you need to emphasize THESE qualities, IMHO: Toughness, Health, Effort, Size and Experience. 4. To go with our team's strengths (For those who still remember Howard's game) we really need perimeter shooting to spread the field. Hence - I would take: D-Mo: Plays the 4 | One of the best in D & Effort on the team lately | Great Size | No Health issues | Lacking in Experience and Toughness | Played a lot with the team and produced high +/- Casspi: Plays the 3/4 | High on Toughness and on Effort | Healthy (missed one games due to injury this season) | Best 3PT shooter among 4s (Yes, even now!) | Veteran Experience but no playoff history | Ran a lot with the team: Best +/- per 48 minutes off the bench (4th in the team overall!) Garcia: Plays the 3 | High on Toughness | Best 3PT shooter off the bench | Great Experience plus some playoff time | Sometimes lacking in Effort but rises up to the playoff challenge BTW - My 4th pick would be... Canaan: Since Lin will play 2 occasionally, I would add another PG Spoiler Stats about defensive lineups: I. If you sort our 25 most frequent lineups in decending order by Defensive Rating (Best defense to worst defense) - TJ features in just 1 of our top-10 defensive lineups, but he features in 6 out of our 10 worst defensive lineups... - If you check lineups featuring D-Mo - He's in 4 top-10 D lineups, and only 1 bottom-10 D lineup. - If you look at Casspi - He's in 3 top-10 D lineups, and only 1 bottom-10 D lineup. * Now, you may be tempted to think that it's all just a matter of 1st vs 2nd string (i.e. - it depends on who you get to play against). Well - It's a factor, but it's not ALL about that! Just check out the split of better/worse-D lineups featuring Howard, Harden, Parsons & PBev - they are more evenly spread than TJ's (6/7, 8/9, 8/9, 2/4). On the other end - Check the split of better/worse-D lineups featuring Asik, Garcia & Lin - they are not as one-sided as with D-Mo & Casspi (5/3, 2/2, 6/5). II. If you rank our 25 most frequent lineups in decending order by the Field Goal % that they allow opponents to score (Best defense = allowing lowest %) TJ again features in just 1 top-10 defensive lineup, but you can find him in 7 out of 10 lowest defensive lineups.
I'm trying to think who exactly Douglas is? The bench rotation will be randomly selected on matchup like it has been all season. In order of most to least chance: Casspi, Garcia, Hamilton, Canaan and then Covington. D Mo should get minutes automatically behind T jones most games.
I did. Except for my long explanative post below, ther's another reason - Omri has always been a great "first-timer": He was great in his NBA carreer debut in SAC (15 points, I believe) He was among the quickest rookies off the starting blocks in his first year He was spectacular in pre-season and impressive at the start of the season I have a feeling he will be just as fast in grasping what playoff is about and rising to the challenge. --- BTW - I totally agree that Casspi looks bad lately, but if we view the whole season in perspective - he probably had less off-nights than D-Mo or Garcia had... Remember - Cisco really got slaughtered here in mid-season... So, the surprise about Casspi getting picked is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction off last night's game, or a short stretch of games from the last period of time.
When Casspi plays significant minutes we also seem to suck. He absolutely shouldn't play in the playoffs. It should be our starting 5, Lin, Garcia, Caanan or Daniels
In the playoffs your best players will play heavy minutes. Expect each starter to play something between 35 and 40 minutes per game. That leaves something between 65 and 32 minutes left. Lin will probably take at least 20 of those minutes, so we have between 35 and 12 minutes left. Asik should take at least 12 minutes, so we should have between 23 and 0 minutes left just with our starting 5 and our two main bench players. No way are we going to include more than 2 more players in our rotation. Of course the other guys will get some playing time in garbage minutes, but if you are talking about main rotation, I could even see us going 7 deep. You want to have a rhythm with these guys, and you can`t really develope that if you only play for 5 minutes. We will probably add at least one guy, that can play the 3 (like Garcia) and maybe another 4 (DMo), but I really don`t see us playing with more than that. You want your best players on the court for as long as they can. That`s the way every big team plays in the POs. And we have 7 very good players, and we will probably want to maximize their time on the court.
I voted Garcia and Casspi. The reason is very simple. They are the most experienced among those players. The second reason is the fact that Harden is playing increasingly as a playmaker, which makes it easier to play without Canaan. Garcia and Casspi are also the best defensive players of them. Garcia is good at steals and blocks and Casspi in rebounds and steals. Both can shoot the three. Garcia seldom goes to the rim and Casspi is bad at that. I can't understand why he doesn't want to dunk like he used to do in SAC. However, that is not something the Rockets need from them. There are enough players for that purpose.
Daniels provides serious floor spacing, but has almost no experience with the rest of the players. He'll only get minutes if things aren't going well, but if we make it that far we'll be up against OKC or The Clippers at some point, so we are guaranteed some situations that aren't going well...
Haha I totally forgot about Asik with D12 back. He obviously will be in the rotation. Idk about DMo he's been almost as bad as Casspi lately
Bev/Lin Harden/Lin Parsons/Garcia OR Hamilton Jones/DMo Howard/Asik I do not think DMo will be very effective in the playoffs, but he'll have to get some minutes at the backup four spot. Garcia and Hamilton should be the only ones at the backup three, Garcia has proven himself in the playoffs last season so I'd lean towards him. PLEASE NO Casspi, or any of the Vipers.
I managed to pick the majority just like everyone else, this is a no brainer. Garcia and Dmo. Garcia adds the toughness we need. Yes he makes bonehead plays at times, but way less then Cass, and Hammy doesn't look interested at all. Garcia can get streaky and that is very dangerous, and always does great to get into Durants head. And well Dmo brings size and hustle. Can't teach that.
McHale chose to go with a rookie D-leaguer who already played over 44 minutes in Daniels in the forth quarter over Casspi and Hamilton last night. That speaks volumes of the confidence he has in those two aka none. Lolol Garcia is a no brainer, especially after last year's playoffs. McHale already trusts him regardless of how bad he has been this season. He gets my vote. Casspi is understandable no because he just isn't talented enough and makes too many mistakes. He will only get playoff minutes if someone is injured (knock on wood) or if it's a blowout. I would like Hamilton to get some playoff run and I voted him as one of the two because I do think he is our best back up swingman we have, but if he isn't knocking down shots like he has been the past few weeks. He still plays okay defense but we need someone to knock down shots. DMo won't get much time. He will probably get his rotation minutes the first game or so in the playoffs, but unless he show up and has a good game, McHale won't play him any further. Similar to Jones last year. He got to play some of the early games but he wasn't productive so he didn't play anymore games after. McHale will probably go with TT or small before he plays DMo Canaan is a no, unless someone gets injured (again, knock on wood). Minutes are already tied up with Lin and Beverley. McHale would even play Harden at the point if it came down to it before going to Canaan. I don't think Daniels is ready yet. I would like to see Covington. He has the length and looks to be an average defender and rebounder. But he won't get any minutes unless it a blowout. Lineup: Beverley / Lin Harden Parsons / Garcia Jones Howard / Asik Beverley and Lin will share the PG minutes with Lin playing back up to Harden. Parsons and Garcia will hold the swingmen positions. Jones will get some minutes but will mostly either be Garcia or Asik, depending on situation. And Howard and Asik at the 5, of course.
