Welcome back, denniscd. I actually kind of agree. Loved what he did for us, was often our best PF, particularly defensively and running "point PF", but his athleticism seems to be going down.
Getting Lawson takes away the salty taste! Dmo and jones can hold it down, we REALLY needed a pg most! Who knows maybe Hayes is next? IMWT
Smoove, do you see what Morey was doing? If you had faith we could have expanded upon the Headband of Brothers. It could have been pretty.
With how fickle Doc is, he might waive Smoove. This is why your GM and your coach are not the same person.
We solved our PG problem (hopefully...pending Lawson's attitude) but now we have a even bigger hole at the PF spot.
Rockets had 1.5 playmakers last season with Harden (1) and Smith (.5). Now we got a full 2 playmakers. Smith isn't really needed anymore.
We can pick up chuck Hayes to do that we have more offense with Lawson on board. We will whip Clipper azz. Smith will be a liability with them watch.
He locked Blake only in the closing stretch of that game. He got abused rest of that game and the entire series by him. His defense was also terrible in the GSW series. He kept getting zoning out on rotations and was getting killed on the boards. Heck he was just awful in the entire GSW series outside of game 4. Josh Smith was touted as an elite defender when we got him, but I didn't see that consistently at all in him. He didn't even attack the rim as well I would expect. His footwork when he did attack was just non-existing. It makes me wonder how he was able to constantly attack the rim in the past with such bad footwork. But Josh Smith was a good player for us, but Jones can more than make up for that loss. With Lawson we won't need to worry about the playmaking ability we lost in Smith
he was one the most athletic players in the league several years ago. once that fades he will fade with it. kinda the opposite of duncan.
Blake was just exhausted in game 6, it wasn't just his offense that slipped, he stopped playing defense at all.
Griffin destroyed any and all comers the entire series...The Rockets had no answer for Mr. Kia. And the game six...situation was a result of the entire LAC team essentially giving up after going up 18 or so in the 3rd...The quarter which, Blake started to eat(and made a crazy flip shot basket). I love Josh, but a healthy DMo, and Josh doesnt have that opportunity to shine as much as he was able to IMHO. The Rockets missed the ability to generate cheap post offense with DMo, for whom they got a "creator/facilitator" in Josh Smith... Josh also was a monstrous Liability at the FT, as teams intentionally destroyed the Rockets and any resemblance of rhythm...isolating Josh. There is zero question that the 4 spot is NOW the weakest compared to the rest of the team, HOWEVER...They are still young pups, that essentially grew up last year...DMo helped generate offense when things stagnated...If Josh was bad...he was really bad. Finally people forget that the dude is a legit/lanky 7 footer...And if he was there, the Rockets have DMo on DeAndre, and have Dwight on Griffin from the start. The Rockets dont have to have a perfect roster, but they need something to assist Harden's offensive brilliance and Dwight's constant defensive presence. Golden state got by with Draymond Green playing the 4 and 5 spots throughout the playoffs, yet they still found a way to win a chip. It has been essential to have a good PG for all west playoff teams...Addressing the PG play was a greater issue..
While getting Lawson makes me feel a whole lot better about loosing Smith (We went from having a meh off season to a good one) I still see no positive in not retaining Smith. I don't feel like having Jones and Motie being RFA's going into next off season is a smart thing to do. I would have much rather Locked up Smith on a 3 year MLE deal and then traded Jones for a decent pick. I feel like now we will have to do a deadline trade sending Jones or Motiejunas + McDaniels for a solid PF who's locked up on a fair contract over the next 2 or 3 years. Both Dmo and Jones will get like at minimum 12+ million each (Thaddeus Young got 12 per).
