I agree we definitely need another ball handler and creator out on the perimeter but bringing in Lin as an example is just laugh worthy. The chump was addition by subtraction. Ideally you'd have someone run the 2nd unit and let Terry be the spot up shooter - a role he has been playing for majority of his career. Who is the ball handler with the 2nd unit now? Josh Smith? LOL
Really? There are definitely people making the point that we'll be fine rolling forward with Beverley as is. Also if you actually read that post you'd see that Beverley doesn't post positive metrics on the offensive side of the ball. And in actuality this is not offset by his defensive contribution. The team actually did better with Canaan as a starter. Hell the team did better with Jason Terry as a starter. Now does that mean I necessarily think Canaan is the answer going forward? No. But it sure as hell isn't Beveley. I'm aware that the Rockets will jump on any talent upgrade available when they can. It was great to see reports that Morey is looking hard to upgrade the PG spot and has repeatedly attempted to nab Dragic. But to say I'm arguing against a point that no one is making is dishonest or ignorant. There have been tons of posts in this thread that say "Beverley is fine because it's not his job to play pg; Harden is our pg." This line of thinking is ridiculous. As mentioned by many posters over and over, how anyone can watch this team and think we don't need another play maker is beyond comprehension.
The so called second playmaker is urgently needed for this team is just an illusion. Hate to crush your pipedream but this is the fact. Dragic is averaging about 4 assists this year and Bev is averaging 3.3 (this was checked about 1 week ago). Dragic is playing in a team with no dominate inside C and ran an offense with much faster pace and with more shooters while Bev is in an offense when he was not even an option to handle the ball most of the time. Look, I get it, Bev is not the best PG in this position, in fact, when you talk about the top 8 teams in the west, we are probably having the worse PG among them in terms of total contribution from both offense and defense. Bev is never a good individual offensive player like Lilliard, Westbrook; and he never will be a good passer like CP3 or Rondo, and he also doesn't have the experience like Parker or Conley and probably never will reach their level. But at the same time, he never requested the ball like those guys and those guys never played with James Harden, except Westbrook, and that James Harden is totally different than this James Harden. If Morey can work out a trade to get any of those top 7 PG in the west, by all means, I will agree go for it (IF he wants to). I am more happy than anyone to welcome CP3 to be this teams starting PG. If not, other than just saying Bev sucks donkey ass, what other options this team will have? Given we will not sign Bev next year and use that 5-7 mils option to sign a free agent or work out a trade, what kind of names people are looking at? Calderon? Sessions? Nelson? Felton? Or Lin? LOL
Just checked his numbers. Career FG% : 40.6%, this year : 38.8% Career 3 PT FG% : 31.6%, this year : 24.7% Career assist/game : 2.5, this year : 3.4 Personally never thought he is a good or above defender, I doubt many people will disagree with me on this point. Good news is he will be cheaper than Bev, I think he will be one of those guys who will be a backup PG in a lower tier team making 2-3 mils per.
I'm watching videos of Norris Cole's assists for this season. A lot of them are to spot up shooters at the 3-point line. He's capable of finding a cutter into the lane with a bounce pass. Most assists to Miami bigs start at the left or right elbow; not exactly indicative of a PG who can make the entry pass to the low block. I did see one pick and roll assist to Haslem.
If we had gone all in on Kyle Lowry would it have been even possible for us to get Ariza as well? Lowry would've been the perfect fit for this offense. Its too bad Toronto wouldn't let him go.
I'd say the same for you. Your hatred for Bev is borderline delusional at times. Not only that, I don't think you fully comprehend the key ingredients a team needs to win a championship. Dragic is NOT a championship caliber PG. He can score, but he doesn't defend and he's not a ELITE assist man. Our starting PG needs to atleast contain the other WC pg's. Bev does that on most nights, Dragic will never contain anybody. Our "playmaking" PG needs to come off the bench behind Bev. We will not survive a playoff series with Dragic allowing Lillard, WB, Parker, Curry to score at will on us. Would you rather Bev score 13pts while holding WB to 16pts on 6-13 OR Dragic score 17pts with WB scoring 40pts on 15-25?
and your only points to bring up are pretty much based based on individual matchups. beverly will get exposed in the playoffs as he has already been this season against many of the top teams if he is still the starting pg come playoff time. beverly shutting down the top pgs in the league atleast 4 times to win a playoff series. yeah not happening. you put down dragic like he is complete trash when he actually gives good effort on the defensive side. but to some around here, you either have to be a lockdown defender to actually be considered good defensively. didn't know an all nba guard could be that bad. beverly can only hope he will be as good as dragic one day.
B-E-V-E-R-L-E-Y. Jesus. And I still don't understand why some of you operate as though there has to be a choice between Bev and more of a playmaking PG. A PG rotation is just that -- a rotation. You know, of multiple guys.
The Lin point was an extreme example of guys who need the ball, you don't need a true PG anymore, Harden is our PG, we could use an efficient 2nd creator, but it doesn't have to be at the PG position. Everyone needs to broaden their focus a bit. DD
I def don't think it has to be a PG -- I think most people zero in on PGs when identifying potential trade targets just because that's where you traditionally find facilitators. Hell, I was hopeful Kostas could be that guy at the start of the season. Not sure what happened there, but uh.... yeah, I'm thinking no. This is part of why the Warriors have been so successful, IMO. They have a handful of guys who can make plays, and that skill isn't limited to their guards, either.
In terms of talent, almost everyone has to agree Rockets are top 3 most talented teams in the game. But the issue is this team doesn't seem smart enough. If we had a smarter team, Beverly would be perfect.
I don't understand all these discussions. You don't need ANOTHER guard to ease the playmaking because that defeats of the purpose of the inside out game. What we really need is a Dirk/Aldridge/Lebron kind of player where when the outside playmaker get stopped, you have an inside playmaker. Why is everybody so stubborn on needing an actual PG?
I think most people are focusing on the PG position because it's arguably our weakest point in the starting lineup right now. We already made moves to strengthen the 3 (Brewer) and the 4 (Smith).
Sorry to ask, did you really watch Rockets game lately? Those guards DID SCORE AT WILL ON US. Beverley's D is very overrated. he couldnt even guard Cory Joseph.
Bev is slightly better on offense than he was when he took Lin's job, but also not as good defensively now as he was then. Overall he is still the same, a great BACKUP PG. I believe if he had stayed in that role from the beginning and only been playing around 20 minutes or so, he would have had less injuries and we would be less worried about losing him this coming off season. I still don't think any team gives him more than 6 mil per season. Bring Bev off the bench behind a Dragic or a Lawson and this team skyrockets to one of the favorites to win it all.
