I don't disagree with anything else you said, but this is a pretty bad example. Augustin* lit up Lowry for his career high a few days before, and has since lit up Chalmers, Rubio & Lawson in rapid succession. I'm sure guys could be better defending him, but he's also lightning quick and just a volume scorer. The kind I wish we had, tbh.
so Beverley put himself above the team. he doesn't want to risk injury, so he can land a FAT contract. He reminds me of Parsons ( I want to be a bigger focal point; ME over TEAM) Beverley has to go. Do not resign. Trade if possible. Beverley will be a throw in. We should do a struggling PG for PG with upside trade. Like the Brooks for Dragic trade that one year.
Bev was bad last night and I think we need an upgrade at PG, but... He's putting up about the same numbers that he did last year, other than his 2PT % going down from 47% to 42%. And since he only shoots 4.5 2PT FGs per 36 minutes, that's not a huge deal. This drop off was pretty predictable when we got rid of Parsons (and to a lesser extent, Lin) because we knew Bev would be forced to be more of a playmaker on offense, which he clearly is not. And if you're saying his D has dropped off too - well, again, that was predictable because he's now having to expend more energy on the offensive side of the ball. So I try not to be too hard on the guy, because he was put in a situation where no one really expected him to succeed. That's why I'm really hoping we can get a better PG and have Bev come off the bench to play 20-25 minutes of intense, hard-nose basketball so the fans of the Rockets can once again fall in love with him and stop with the negativity.
Beverely would be lethal limited to 20-25 minutes and just told to attack. The Rockets need two points at the deadline so they can free Beverley from those duties and run more small ball lineups. Any team with a good point guard just doesn't appear to be willing to give them up at the moment because they're all in the playoffs. Unfortunately, this is where the chase for Melo and then Bosh hurts you the most. I still think Lowry would have gone back to the Raptors anyway but I just wish we would have least made the decision much more difficult than we did. Need a magic trick from Morey again at the deadline.
If we got Lowry and could still get Ariza (I think the math still works), that would be an absolutely killer 2-way team. Lowry would draw enough attention with or without Harden to give Ariza a little more space to be effective offensively. I have always been a Beverley fan but the past 2 months has made me really question that. He often goes for the aggressive defensive play rather than the smart one, struggles to stay in front of his defender, and aside from a few flash-in-the-pan games where he rains 3's, he has been a zero on offense. He would be much better playing as part of the bench mob with Brewer and Smith. Now that would be a disruptive bench that would just wreak havoc on most other teams' second units. If that means trading Jones, Papa, that NOP pick, and whatever else to get a decent 2-way (or hell, a decent 1-way) PG, I'm all for it. I wanted to believe Bev could be a championship-caliber PG, but these days he looks totally lost.
I really hope we can make up an upgrade at the pg spot before the trade deadline bc Beverly is def not suited to be a starter in this league
Increased minutes combined with the loss of secondary play makers (Parsons + Lin) made this fully predictable. Beverley's style of defense (aggressive on-ball) isn't sustainable over 82 games playing 30 mpg, especially if you're asking him to have play making duties (which aren't his strength). And this doesn't even factor in how the loss of legs (extended minutes) are killing his jump shooting. It was noted by more than a few that the lack of secondary play makers would create serious weaknesses in this team. Harden has stepped it up to make up for some of those deficiencies, but can you really expect Harden to sustain this for 82 games and STILL expect him to be remotely fresh for the play offs? And what happens when we hit the premium defenses in the league and they take away Harden or Harden is having a poor shooting night during the play offs? I never thought we should have matched the Parsons contract, and was perfectly fine with trading Lin (on the assumption that Bosh was going to sign), but the entire scenario was based upon having a legitimate play maker or two to bolster the offensive flexibility. And No, I don't count Dwight Howard as an offensive play maker... if anything his desire to post up constantly when it's clearly NOT a strength actually hurts you against better swarming defenses). Yes, Beverley's numbers have fallen off but he's being asked to play to his weaknesses instead of his strengths. If you want him playing killer defense, you need to reduce his minutes to reduce his fatigue. And if you want him to be effective offensively, you need additional players to reduce the amount of defensive attention that he'll receive. As it stands now, without some serious help on Offense, I worry about what condition Harden and Beverley will be in when the play offs roll around. If I'm playing against the Rockets, it's pretty easy. Leave Harden on single coverage, play strong ball denial (to fatigue him), attack him ruthlessly on offense and pack the paint. Harden will get what he gets, become increasingly fatigued over 48 minutes and now you're forcing the rest of the team to create. Harden needs help, and until that happens good luck winning when the Rockets encounter the truly deep squads.
The pilling on of Bev is huge right now and is warranted because of his play of late. However, as I've said throughout this thread and in other threads, Bev really should have never been put in the spot he is currently in as a starter. Again, originally he was brought here as an insurance policy at the pg position and was thrown into the starting role because it didn't work out with Lin. I also remember the organization waiving Shaun Livingston in 2012 to go with Tony Douglas and Scott Machado. Livingston has done quit well in backup roles with Brooklyn and Golden State and I'm not sure if Douglas and Machado are still in the league. The bottom line is since Dragic left, the front office has done a poor job of getting a legit pg and instead focused their efforts on chasing stars. This dream team fantasy of the front office is unrealistic and has handicapped the team because of it. The Rox are still damn good because Harden is playing like one of if not the best player in the world this season, but because of lack of balanced parts around him, he probably will be worn out by playoffs unfortunately. I'm hoping Morey can right this ship and get Harden some legit, play making, guard/wing help finally. It's a must at this point.
Maybe I'm just seeing things wrong... but for about 65% of the time he's playing it seems to me that Beverley's role on defense has changed from last year. He doesn't seem to even be concerned with hawking the opposing PG all over the court unless the opposing PG is a bad 3-point shooter. It seems like he's focusing on guarding the 3 and funneling the penetration to the left or right side of the basket instead of playing man-cornerback. That isn't on Beverley. Not saying he doesn't have limitations offensively or that he's playing at the same level on defense, but I'm definitely seeing him deployed differently on defense. Maybe it's the natural evolution of the scheme or maybe he's lost a step due to injury and the coaching staff has to alter the scheme to give him a crutch. He was so confident on offense last year. Penetrated more. Finished better. He's got to be nursing something.
maybe its time to try out shved? shved is tall so he may be better on d than can.. idk, i dont see us getting a major pg upgrade in a trade it might be better to deal with the growing pains with a tall better ball handling shved
This is actually a really good comparison. Streaky shooting, streaky defense. Not good enough to make you content with him as a starter, but still just barely good enough to keep his spot. Is this 2007?
I cringe when he hops. Why does he do that Steve Francis thing? Maybe not this season, but we NEED to address the PG situation in the summer at very latest. Sigh. What was Morey and McHale thinking? Yes, predictable.
He just needs to focus on defense, and shoot 3s (preferably the corner ones) when wide open. Forget the playmaking.
