There are a lot of players that produce better than any Rockets PF that aren't stars. Parsons is one of those guys and he plays a lot of minutes. In ten minutes a game at the three, Delfino just doesn't suck bad enough for me to think SF is weaker than PF. Parsons has been outrebounding the starting PF on a per minute basis, gives a ton of assists, and scores at an okay rate. The Rockets get average scoring from SFs and above average rebounding and playmaking. The Rockets are average at scoring from PF, but weak at rebounding and playmaking. The Rockets do so well at SF because Parsons plays so many minutes. The Rockets are paper thin at SF, but Delfino isn't a complete slouch.
How many dirks are there? I think someone like Tim duncan would be better. I'll settle for a Blake griffin though.
Says who? Watch the game. We will have two PFs on the court, A LOT. Especially if you agree our "backup center" Smith is actually a PF in a two PF set.
its a team game, and what is the correlation with morris starting and our offensive output going through the roof? morris is quicker than PPat, has better range, more mobile, and better on the fast break. i think morris has a lot to do with our current success. i love PPat too though. damn, i hate it when a player goes out with an injury and looses their spot. makes me sad, but morris has been shinning. shinning i say.
Fair enough. I just don't think Delfino should be your 6th or 7th man. He should be your 9th guy at the end of your rotation. I guess I've always believed that you should not have a big drop off if one of your guys is hurt unless that guy is your star player.
Good question. Morris is clearly a better offensive player than PPat. Like I said earlier, what worries me about Morris playing the 4 is defense.
Well...you are probably going to have to get used to this. You know me,,,when it comes to PT management debates I am always siding with Coach. Why choose a 5-game win streak to ignore Coach by suggesting another rotation? so, by your logic Worst case is: "your star player" is hurt. Next worse case is the "big drop off" of another player. Just between me and you: Who is the "big drop off" of another player. Have you considered Asik or Lin?
If it were me, I would let donuts and jones battle for that spot. Paterson and morris are just guys with low cielings.
No other dirks in the league, but someone who has some of the same attributes is Ryan Anderson. 6ft 10, Can shoot lights out, good offensive rebounder, decent defender. Him next to 2 playmakers like Lin and Hardin would be downright scary. Can't find a better fit at pf fit for our team. Not to mention he's young with upside.
Objectively speaking, the Rockets are roughly the same strength at PF, SF, and PG. They are vastly above average at the SG position, slightly above average at the center position, and basically average or a bit less everywhere else. I think the young talent at the PF position is what's driving the perception that the PF position is weak. When honestly, Morris isn't any worse than Parsons or Lin relative to what other teams have. I would not be surprised if Morey surprise everyone and upgrade at a position other than PF. Because it's hardly the only place we we're not strong at.
Easy, having a stretch PF is nice and all but the leagues has like 100000x of such guys, starting from Charlie Villanueva all the to Rashard Lewis. However what we need is someone who can score consistently when the defense clamps down and yet still be tall and quick enough to give at least average defense. MM does a good job offensively but he's too short defensively. PP is good defensively but is afraid of contact and so just shoots jumpers and doesn't rebound. TJ and Dmo could be the key to our problems but they aren't getting PT. If you don't believe the weakest position is PF, consider that Ryan Anderson would probably make us a top 4 team in the West right now. That's how weak our PF spot is. You know our rotation really sucks when Mchale has to put Parsons at the 4 at the end of the game.
You're forgetting that PF is a strong position in of most teams, you have guys like Landry, David West, Scola etc. who are not stars but could go off when your PF doesn't defend. Also, having a weak PF means we usually lose the big man battle, that means the other team gets more rebs or gets to close out the lane, making it harder for Harden and Lin to score. I don't believe we're weak at the SF position, Parsons does a good job defending and contributing across the board, he's certainly a much better player than PP or Morris. PG's playing well as of late, even this game wherein Lin was off I'd still say the PF is the weakest spot.
Players that can play SF for the Heat: Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Shane Battier, Ray Allen and Mike Miller A few of them are old and have seen better days (Miller, Battier and Allen to a degree) but those are quality players. Players that can play SF for the Thunder: Kevin Durant, Kevin Martin, Thabo Sefolosha, Perry Jones and Jeremy Lamb. While Jones and Lamb are both projects at this point, Durant is proven, Martin while more of a guard is a legit scorer and Sefolosha is a proven defender. Not going to go into the Lakers but let's take a look at who the Rockets have as potential SG: James Harden, Daequan Cook, Carlos Delfino Tony Douglas and Jeremy Lin. Two of those players are supposed to be point guards, one is your starting PG. Don't care how you slice that outside of Harden, Delfino is the only player listed that would even be considered a legit backup for other teams in contention might sign off a waiver wire for SG/SF depth. When your best back up SGs are either your primary backup SF or backup PG, neither of which are elite in any category other then taking 3 point shots that seems like a weakness, compared to having a variety of PFs.
I would agree if offense was the only thing that counted. In the other half of the game Parsons is just about an all star.
Parsons defense this year has not been on par with last year's. If he was, there wouldn't be so much annoyance with Harden's lack of D. But Parsons is not that versatile, "put him on the opposing #1" lockdown D he used to be. His offense has also been very hit or miss. Perhaps injury's the issue, perhaps too much on his plate. I love him going forward, but he's been quite inconsistent. While Morris as a starter has performed quite well on both ends of the court.
Not criticizing the coach's decision. Our wing positions are thin. Delfino is the only viable backup option, unless you want to play Morris at the 3 (which I still want to see whether it would work). The only other option is Cook. So it's not the coaching. It's the roster. That's my point in this thread. We need more help at the 3 than at the 4. Either get a star SF and let Parsons be the 6th man, or get a better backup than Delfino. Right now, we have Delfino and Douglas backing up the 1, 2, and 3 spots. That's very thin. If either Harden or Parsons is hurt, we'll have to play Cook heavy minutes. I was thinking about Parsons. In order of biggest drop off: Harden (star player, inadequate backup) Parsons (inadequate backup) Asik (I rank his importance just a tad below Harden; Smith is an adequate backup so far.) Lin (not as important because of Harden) Patterson/Morris (lots of depth at this position -- the whole point of OP)
