http://hoopshype.com/columns/johnson/howard-asik-combo-will-not-work The NBA is a fad league and we are in one now in relation to analytics. This way of running organizations has become a staple within sports in recent years. Baseball started it and now basketball has embraced it totally. This is actually nothing new. Teams have historically copied the patterns of successful franchises. I reflect back to fads that dominated front offices' thinking in the 80's and 90's... First one was playing big point guards like Magic Johnson, Reggie Theus and Dennis Johnson. After them, players like Paul Pressey, Robert Reid, Clyde Drexler or Nate McMillan all of a sudden were running their teams from the point guard position. Then it was the deployment of twin towers. We saw combinations like Robert Parish-Kevin McHale, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-Mitch Kupchak/Bob McAdoo, Hakeem Olajuwon-Ralph Sampson, David Robinson-Tim Duncan... Teams have definitely continued to employ big point guards, but the twin-tower usage has been inconsistent and has rarely produced great combinations other than Bynum-Gasol not long ago. This brings me to the situation unfolding in Houston. I love the assets the Rockets have accumulated in such a short time after dismantling their team a year ago. I love James Harden and the potential of Chandler Parsons. I love the role players that will play unselfish within this move-the-ball, stay-out-of-Harden's-way system. Getty ImagesBut I see major problems if the Rockets think they can create a twin-tower system with two perennial brick layers from the free-throw line like Dwight Howard and Omer Asik. Nothing about this combination excites me other than the fact they will take up space defensively and fight for rebounds. McHale obviously is rolling the dice into thinking he can manage Asik's minutes and keep him happy. It is going to blow up if Asik's attitude is still about starting and minutes played... Which I suspect it is. Harden is probably cringing at the thought of having to navigate perimeter defenses and then avoiding two players who feel like they are in Antarctica when stationed outside the paint. This will only work if Asik is a backup. Howard will put up monster numbers without Asik's presence and it will get better if they trade him for a power forward that can knock down a perimeter shot and make at least 70 percent of his free throws. If the Rockets could get a third team involved, maybe they can sway Portland to acquiesce LaMarcus Aldridge's private trade demand or take an elder statesman in Shawn Marion. Yes, maybe I am grasping at straws. But I do know this Howard-Asik duo does not work and the Rockets are making a grand mistake trying to see this through. The Western Conference is extremely deep and a slow start early could mean no home court again in the first round. If Asik is on this roster at the start of the season, I think they struggle early. They will then risk tension in the locker room if they decide to bring him off the bench and have him sitting in crunch time watching Howard. To his defense, Asik worried about this very situation when Howard was acquired. The Rockets will only have themselves to blame if this nightmare scenario materializes... And I suspect it will.
This article should of been written the day after we got Howard. now it seems like a copy and paste job of ideas. Journalists really need to stop being purely subjectively about Omer's role on this team and try to use statistical data to help with their ideas or instead stop making bold statements like the title suggests.
I don't think it can work as a starting lineup but I do like to see it in stretches. Defensively, that combo can be like Yao+Cato which was a force.
hoopshype doesnt know anything omer is improving his outside shot this will be like the twin towers w Dwight being like Hakeem and Omer playing like Sampson Omer will be raining jumpers this year and really open his game up. imagine is he players like a younger Pau Gasol passing the ball, hitting jumpers, opening up the floor for dwight to work on his hakeem like moves cant wait for the season to start
The main thing is, even though most teams play some kind of small ball, the road to the Finals goes through Splitter/Duncan, Ibaka/Perkins and Gasol/Randolph; the Twin Towers is gonna come in handy in those games.
didn't they watch last year and see how high Omer would set his picks to free Harden? or how good a passer Omer is on the move to the other big?
What a terrible article, a 5 year old could have writen it. I do believe that the twin tower combo will not work, but we have to try at the beginning. But this article is terrible.
All you need to know is that he refered to Kareem and Mitch Kupchack as twin towers. Not even Parish and McHale were refered to as twin towers because only one of them was listed as a 7 footer. Both Ralph and Dream were listed as 7 footers hence the Twin Towers. As far as I remember Sampson & Dream were the first ones to be called the Twin Towers because they were the 1st pair of 7 footers to start in the league together. By the way, before someone claims they actually put a tape on Dream and know for a fact he is not 7 feet tall, it doesn't matter. Dream came into the league listed as a 7 foot center. Sampson was listed as a 7'4" center. Regardless of what is true or false the nick name Twin Towers was based off of their listed height. The article is pretty much crap in any case and I'm still kicking myself for reading it.
Too long brotha, way too long. But if i may get to the crux of the matter, I believe this is an excellent problem to have. We shouldn't adjust when we haven't even tried it out yet in preseason. Last time I checked we complained about how small we were, now we are complaining we are too big. Life must be good.