When DMo began starting his game improved dramatically. He and Dwight could take care of any frontcourt. Bev plays his buttt out. Not good, but tries hard. Sadly, right now Rockets look completely outclassed. Injuries happen. Let's hope DMo will be 100% next season come play-off time. Guy played hard all season long, looked healthy as a horse - couple days later operating table. Tough sheet.
Made this post on March 25: ::EDIT:: To be clear, I'm not trying to make an excuse for the Rockets' terrible 2nd round performance. Just saying that I think Bev would be far better than Terry/Prigs. I don't think it would have been the difference in the series, but he would have helped quite a bit.
rather not use these two as an excuse. teams are dealing with injuries all around. this team should be able to compete with the clips as is and not get run out of the building like they shouldn't even be in the playoffs. the rockets have played like they were just happy getting out of the 1st round. instead of taking their play up another level in the next round they regressed and didn't try to clean up anything. the problems are much deeper than just 2 players. its the team as a whole.
Losing Bev was a kin to Portland losing Wes Matthews. Wes Matthews arguably hit Portland harder because they have only 1 other real 2 way player, but still. The problem for Morey is, getting back Bev will not be enough for this team. We need a PG, who can create offense but ALSO play defense. That's why Canaan didn't fit. That's why Bev fits, but albeit not a perfect fit. If Rondo could shoot he would be worth going after, but honestly if he couldn't deal with Dallas how the hell is he going to deal with Harden? This is a very very interesting problem for us. Not an easy "Fire McHale" "Fire Morey" knee jerk like solution here...
This team deserves no damn excuses. They have zero mental toughness and have absolutely quit. This team has no real leaders. Bev and Dmo wouldn't have made much of a difference in this mess of a series.
It's easy to miss how important "role players" are or can be on a team until the playoffs roll around, and a good team and coach have a couple weeks to play you and adjust to what you do and don't do well. It also never ceases to amaze how much it matters who is and isn't on the floor or court for a team colors the perception of what "competitive" and "heartless" is. Haven't had much to say about the Rockets this postseason. Was not entirely sold early on with the idea of the Rockets trying to make Dwight Howard a primary low-post option. Howard seems willing enough, but he doesn't have the skillset needed to carry an offense from the low blocks. Tim Duncan is 39 years old and played the same Clippers front line on a leg-and-a-half...and he never could jump over a crack in the sidewalk when he was younger...and may have been the best player in the series for the Spurs. I became a bit more optimistic when Howard (reluctantly or not) accepted that, offensively, the team was better suited to him becoming option 2 offensively. Howard needs a set-up man on offense...or a set-up system. Something, outside of James Harden, the Rockets don't have...with or without Patrick Beverley or Donatas Montejunas. But the truth of the matter is that the Rockets were going to have to walk a fine line in order to have any lengthy postseason success regardless. With Beverley and Montejunas healthy, you may have a seven-man rotation that you could count on in the postseason (about what the Clippers have). Hard to play what-if games at this juncture. The Rockets have been without both Montejunas and Beverley for a while now. It's never easy to replace injured players anyway, but the Rockets have known long before the postseason started that they were going to be without those two. I want to think that they've had ample time to adjust to their loss...and have some other players step up to fill the void... ...but neither one of those things has happened. Playoff rosters tend to shrink anyway...a 9-man rotation goes to 8, 8-man rotation goes to seven... ...and given what we're seeing now, I'm more inclined to think that one of the biggest errors, personnel-wise, has been ignoring depth (particularly at the point-guard spot.). Especially if the idea is to have players around both Howard and James Harden who can shoot the ball. One interesting adjustment (and several people have suggested this) might have been to have Harden play point guard offensively more exclusively and more often, and promote Corey Brewer to the two-guard spot. Not as unconventional as it seems...Brewer is an adequate enough perimeter defender (replicating, to an extent, defensively what you lose without Beverley, and maintaining the consistency of a "3-and-D" player beside harden, theoretically)...and maybe he hits enough shots from the outside (knowing and having time to acclimate to the role) to keep defenses somewhat honest... ...but you still have the hole at the 4. Terrence Jones and Josh Smith are versatile enough, but Jones, in particular, has been virtually non-existent on both ends. And Smith, as versatile as he is, has always been spectacularly inconsistent. If you had an offensive system in place...like, say...the old triangle offense that Phil Jackson (or Tex Winter) used to run...and you had a forward who could facilitate ball movement like Smith can (Smith is a smarter player than he often appears, and can make enough plays and passes to grease the wheels of a offensive system). Most of this, again, for me, comes down to team identity. Just who are the Houston Rockets? They are obviously not what they're record says they are. And, it appears, that there are more than a few reasons why that is... Wow. What a difference a player or two can make, hm?
Bev not only brings much better defense than the grandpas, but he brings the fight that is sorely lacking in this bunch.
We lost since our two "superstars" are obviously flawed, one is fine skilled but too soft mentally, the other needs fundamental skills to be effective. Once these shortcomings are exposed, the opponents attack them without hesitations. I have no doubt Bev and Dmo can improve the line up also, but I think their presences can't change the course of a series. Teams only go as far as the leader(s) takes them. JHarden will still be challenged when game is critical facing physical defender in a ISO, and DH will still go to FT line in 4th QT. What Bev and Dmo can do? Only they can do is line up out of 3 point line and watch at those moment.
We'll go ahead and let the Mavs fans know that the Rockets' 1st round win wasn't legitimate, then since they were down 2 starters for most of the series. Pretty reasonable, actually, given how much of a poser this team is proving to be.
The Mavs were only down one starter, the other one quit because the coach was removing him from the starting lineup
I hope we Keep dmo... I used to be in the tjones camp but not anymore. Tj cant creat his own shot like dmo. More upside. Tj had his chance but id keep tj over smith. Dude takes some bad shot attempts
in itself it is true that losing bev and dmo hurt us, probably more than many think. but it aint the reason we lost to the clips so badly. that one was mental. and, dont forget, the mavs were losing 2 starters, too. dont see many mentioning it. so no, not a good 'reason'. shall i say one more time the clips were w/o chris paul in the first 2 games of the series?
I feel like even as tho Bev isn't your "best" PG. He is the guy with the heart and voice to push our team to win. Harden is a quiet leader, he has no voice. Bev will scream and push and show heart to the team all the time! we have nobody to do that right now
Bev is a horrible positional defender and was burned all year long because he doesn't know how to let up. That being said, I think Bev, much like Howard and Terry is a playoff performer and would have definitely help. I'm also one of the biggest haters of Bev on this forum. D-Mo is the third best player on this team and him going out cost us huge. No way would the clippers have just easily neutralized him without giving up something else. As for those complaining about his rebounding, I'm pretty sure Terrence jones pulled down less than 5 rebounds a lot of times this playoffs.
Would we have won game 1 with Donuts and Bev? Would we have won just 1 of the two games in LA with Donuts and Bev? I don't know. We can't know, and anyone who says we would have won at least 1 of those games is using pure speculation, but I'll say one thing in support of your OP, DD. I sure as hell would have liked to have had them on the court in order to find out. Damn, I am bummed out, big time.
Yeah, me too. I just think that we are super thin and flawed as a roster - especially on defense. The guys we attribute good defense too, are gamblers, they reach, but they don't play great positional defense (Brewer and Ariza) - and what Bev and Dmo did was play great positional and support defense, which helps the TEAM concept out a lot. Either way, I am super disappointed in how we have basically stopped moving the ball around, and cutting etc, the team seems to be in disarray, and that is probably the worst thing to watch overall - knowing that they don't believe themselves in what they are being asked to do. You can read it in their body language, they don't believe - and that is what is pretty bad as a fan to see. DD
