I agree with that. on the podcast there was nothing negative said about Lin, and the majority of the discussion was about harden. i found the podcast extremely good.
Gasol's age is an issue, I agree. However, he should still be a top player for the duration of his current contract, 2 years, and that's all you are committed to paying him for. In any case, I think the point is that if (a) one of the true elite guys (Dwight, CP, etc.) isn't available either in trade or free agency (remember, CP and Dwight can get significantly more $ and 1 more yr from their current team) and (b) you had a choice between two stars a tier below the elite (Pau, Josh Smith, Millsap), all else being equal, it is probably preferable to go with the guy with 2 years on his contract than one year.
Good podcast. Thanks for doing this. Everyone has their own opinions, but I don't understand the Lin-Dragic-Lowry comparison. Sample size aside(Dragic has similar amount of good games in that stretch last season BTW), Last year Lin has the highest PER among those three, and the second highest clutch PER among all PG's in the NBA. Synergy sports has Lin and Dragic about tied in the ranking in terms of overall PPP allowed, and they both ranked higher than Lowry in that category. So overall the statistics suggests Lin is indeed on the same level, if not better than Lowry/Dragic last season at a younger age. I'll say this though: Just like Patterson in his second season, I seriously doubt Lin is 100% back phsically based on what I saw. If he can't recover well enough, we should expect a good but not great season(at least in the first few months) out of Lin.
Great points, and thanks for the kind words. Yeah, I think Lin is CLOSE to the player Dragic is. I just like Dragic's defense better and like his 3-point shot better as well. Given their respective ages and contracts, though, I'm just fine with Jeremy Lin being a Houston Rocket instead of Goran Dragic for the next 3-4 years. (I personally think that Kyle Lowry is extremely good, but I also realize that Lin is younger, more marketable and has the potential to surpass Lowry in the not-too-distant future. Obviously, I hope that he does.)
Hey Bima, doesn't Harden remind you of Maxwell in terms of quickness and explosiveness? Playing with Dream, his main role was to get Dream the ball and hit 3s, but I was wondering how the old like 1991 Mad Max would do in this era. I think Harden is better offensively and most like will not beat up suckers in the stands. Both have no hesitation in terms of jacking up shots. I like that.
Do you guys realize that Harden was personally responsible for over 60% of our offense in the first game? Here's something else to think about. Harden consumed 43 possessions. That is 43 possessions where he either shot, assisted, got fouled and shot free throws, or he turned it over. On all those possessions he used, we averaged 1.488 points per possession (PPP) and a total of 64 of our 105 points. That leaves 41 points produced by the rest of the team, not involving Harden, in the remaining 66 possessions for a PPP of 0.62. You know what that means??? Harden needs help.
After two practices with this very young team. That speaks volumes about James Harden. But yeah, he could use some help besides what we saw last night. He won't be able to play that many minutes every night, and we shouldn't expect that kind of production every game either, of course. We need a decent bench and a quality 4 to take the load off of both Harden and Lin. We may actually have a good PF on the team, one who hasn't played yet. God, I hope so. Time will tell.
Thanks for posting this. I do agree that Harden needs help but at the same time there was a lot of deferring to Harden. Justifiably so because he was going off. This was also against a very weak defensive team. I noticed Lin was open a lot on the weak side in the 4Q while Harden was going off. Against better defenses, I expect Harden will swing the ball more to Lin or another open man for shots.
Morey was playing for a star or bust. He landed the star but he's now surrounded by a cast that was destined for the lottery. I'd like to see the team succeed this season but the bench is pretty bad, and of course the plan was never to be a contender this season, just to land a franchise player for the future which Morey has successfully done.
Offensively there about the same but defensively Dragic's dribble penetration defense is alot better. Dragic is a tad better playmaker bt not by much.
@charles_zed: how can you tell that our bench pretty bad? we haven't play tjones, white yet DMo.. we just saw only Douglas(bench) and Morris (starter) , that doesn't mean our bench pretty bad, until they all play then we can decide.. Hopefully not..
Harden doesn't need to swing the ball more. He got 12 assists and probably had another 2 or 3 passes that would have been assists if the shooter hadn't gotten fouled or missed a wide open look. Harden's passing and teamplay is sensational. The problem is going to be when other teams collapse on him and take him away. You gotta have that next guy that can get his or two guys that can play the two-man game as effectively and efficiently as Harden does. I think Lin has it in him. But one guy can't carry a team the whole season by being 60% of the team's offense. That's a recipe for a player that is broken down and worn out before he's 27.
Love the win but honestly Coach M, better not destroy Harden. He average 31 mpg on 21.6 usage last year. We know usage going way up toward 30%, but I really don't want to see mpg be more 34 mpg. If cause some loses, so be it. The Rocket still need 1 more tier 1 player and probably couple role player away from being Top team.
Sure but against tougher defenses he will have to swing the ball more because he won't be getting the same easy looks as he was getting last night. And you are right other people will have to step up & start taking some of the offensive burden away from Harden. But my point still stands that the Pistons game was a statement game for Harden. I don't think it will be like that anymore as teams start to scout & tougher competition steps up.
I agree that this was a statement game for Harden. As a Rockets fan I am rooting for the whole team. I know we have favorite players, and that is fine too, but let's focus on the team as a whole. Harden played an extrodinary game, but once the scouting reports come out, they are going to expose some of his weaknessess. I notice that he doesn't go right. Don't you think that the other teams have watched tape on him while he played with OKC. I am sure they are revewing the tapes now. So let's not kick the other players to the curb. We all knew going into this season that we were in rebuild, so let us not forget that after one game. I do think that the Rockets is going to have all eyes on them this season and we will be a fun team to watch. I think as Lin said, the Rockets have to have to establish their identity as a team first, once they do that the, I think we will see other players stepping up big time. I like that that they the players are using the word "Family". To me that is huge. The Heat/Thunder started out this way. I like this forum, it is one of the better ones. What I don't like is when members point out the weaknessess of some of the players, they don't point out the strenghths. So let's all keep the faith, and take one game at a time.Peace
