Currently, what is this team's biggest skill weakness?

Josh Smith went to LAC because he didn't think he would get PT for the Rockets. I know this is an appeal to authority, but Josh Smith is more afraid that he won't get PT on the Rockets than LAC. I don't think Josh Smith is afraid he can't beat Jones for PT. If Motiejunas is the starter, he isn't likely to play more than Blake. That leaves Capela, Harrell, and Dekkar as the likely person(s) Smith fears.

If it is Capela, I doubt defensive rebounding and defensive paint presence are the Rockets two biggest weaknesses.

Dekkar is difficult to judge as he's not even played an NBA summer league game. Harrell, not an NBA game.

Guys play in the offseason against each other. Smith knows something...or it could just be the Rockets pissed him off some how.

Okay, I'll take my tin foil hat off now.

 

Hard to tell without seeing this new cast of players on the floor and how they produce.

 

I picked def. reb. because when Dwight sits or if he gets injured again, we will need to either rebound by committee or hope DMo/TJones get much better at attacking the ball and boxing out.

3pt shooting is also a minor concern, but I'm hoping Thornton and a returning JET will help in that area.

As far as FT, now that Dorsey and Smith are gone, D12 and Capela are really the only bad FT shooters...

 

Biggest skill weakness? Hmmm

A
L
C
O
H
O
L

 

A strong rebounder outside of Dwight (specifically a strong rebounding pf)

People hope Dmo can improve his rebounding, but rebounding has historically been one of those inate skills. He isn't aggressive on his rebounding, BUT he boxes out his man which is good. Jones is very aggressive for the rebound, but doesn't box out at all.

Harrell's scouting report also notes he's issues defensive rebounding (beast rebounder overall, but doesn't box out).

Capella has the aggressiveness and length to be a great rebounder, but will he be strong enough to dominate the boards to make up for Jones/Dmo poor defensive rebounding? I think that Capella is still a year away.

A strong defensive rebounder is what will let this team be a truly amazing defensive team. Dwight will be able to be that shot blocking demon consistently without having to worry about the rebound. This issue was exposed big time vs GSW and that Portland series.

We aren't terrible at it, but defensive rebounding could use tons of work.

Also I think we need one more knockdown shooter somewhere on the bench to give the offense a boost. Man if Delfino was old Delfino, he would be absolutely perfect for this team.

But besides those 2, this team is very very potent if we can be completely healthy. We have a great one-two punch in Harden and Lawson. Dmo is an amazing post player and he is at worst our 3rd scoring option. Dwight is the 4th option for gods sake. If he can be the post player he was post January his first season here, that's more than enough.

Ariza should be a much more consistent shooter this year because he won't have to play as many minutes. Harden showed what he can do on defense early on, but faded as season went on. Lawson will help us big time in resting Harden and keep steady playmaking on the floor. Beverly NEEDS to be old bev on defense. Since his miniscus injury, he hasn't been the defender he was.

Everything we need to win #3 is on the team, we just need to stay healthy.

Also those who bash Mchales offense, our offense looked a lot smoother in his first year here. That happened because we had a couple of true PGs despite having mediocre offensive talent around. Harden is a great playmaker, but he only recently has gotten somewhat better at running an offense. With a real PG in Lawson, ball movement will be much better.

 

The problem is a correlation of 3's and perimeter defense. Our best defenders aren't great 3 shooters and our best 3's shooters aren't great defenders.

Dwight's postgame and FTs are still a problem. If he could fix just one of those, he'd be great.

Our turnovers will decrease with the addition of Lawson and overall FTs will improve with the subtractions of Josh and Joey.

 

Energy

 

McHale, is that you?

 

stickiness

 

I agree, and I don't care about the order. ;-)-

As some of the other members have said, some of this has been addressed by Morey (under the constraints he's under), and we'll see how that plays out. A lot depends on the further development of our young bigs, especially Donuts and Capela. I wanted to add that I think this is a good topic. Basketballholic might be irritating some times in his responses to people and I know he can go off the reservation from time to time, but he does know basketball. When he discusses that without getting too sarcastic, and starts a thread that's worthy of discussion, perhaps if we left off the immediate "Oh no! Here's another pain in the arse bbholic thingy!" he might begin to dial that stuff down and the discussions can be more about what we love, Rockets basketball and related topics, and not so much personalities. Sometimes it becomes a self-feeding loop of arguing back and forth, going off into something I simply don't give 2 cents for. I love history, but not the kind of history that gets tossed into what could otherwise be good discussion about a nice topic. Just a thought.

 

This may be the wrong place to put this, but does it appear to you that Hardens game flourishes when Dwight sits and vice versa? When Dwight is in the paint he takes away from Hardens driving to the basket. They don't utilize their strengths enough to me when they are on the floor at the same time. To me when Dwight was hurt last year and Dmo was in, we played a different game and we had some nice runs during that time. Just an observation, didn't know if anyone else felt the same way.

 

BBallholic is Caspi only fan. I will never forget how he used to talk trash about every PF not named Caspi. Who wasn't even true PF. You can check Caspi's signing date and holic's signing date, they should match.

 

I voted perimeter defence. Our backcourt will have of the worst defenders for their position.

 

Defensive rebounding

FT shooting

3PT shooting

Perimeter defense

In that order, if we can get a 4 that can get defensive rebounds, shoot FT's and 3PT'ers we'd basically big fixing nearly everything.

Perimeter defense can be fixed with coaching and proper rest, Beverley, Ariza and KJ are all good defenders, if they can be used and rested properly we will be okay.

 

I wouldn't worry that much for 3 point shooting because Lawson will help tremendously on that. When you have an elite playmaker like him, passing the ball on the sweet spots, and ON RHYTHM all the 3point% of the roleplayers will improve.
And getting rid of Josh Smith and Dorsey will make the FT shooting less attrocious.
But perimeter defence has become much worse.
I know that Harden is capable of playing defence but I'm not banking on that. Because defence is a habit and noone has turned from an atrocious defender to an elite defender.
And Lawson's defence can't be corrected.

 

lawson's defense is probably a lost cause, but harden was actually a good defender in college and a decent one his 1st couple years in the league

 

it is a lost cause because of physical limitations. Harden doesn't have this problem but he doesn't have the mindset. The mindset of defence is half the goal. I dont' know if he has lost it or what but right now it's hard to get it back in my opinion. He is used to the mindset of the star that is the prime offensive weapon. And to cover for Lawson , a team should have ELITE wing defence.
More and more you hear lately the myth that in the modern NBA perimeter defence doesn't matter as long as you have an elite rim protector and you funnel the guards on him. That isn't true in my opinion. Because then you get your center with quick easy fouls and they are out of the game fast.

 

And big booty strippers

 

Stretch 4