Morey: "McHale will experiment with Asik at C and Dwight at PF"

Which is why we need to acquire a stretch 4 who can play D and rebound. Personally... Love (not so much on D, but who knows, McHale could work his magic on him), Horford, or Z-Bo fits the mold. I know this isn't the random trade idea thread, but the this thread does have to do with our offensive system and its good to discuss all scenarios.

 

Play Asik at C on defense and at PF on offense. I have a feeling Asik shot e dry bit as well as DMo last year from midrange, which he should only have to do a few times a game. The rest of the time he can just wait for the dump off or putback.

 

Corrected

 

If this works (which I really hope it does), it will surely put some of the "Fire McHale" sentiments on the board.

Its not easy for McHale, but he's got such an awesome arsenal, any coaches dream. A young energetic, future contender with awesome penetrating guards, good 3 pt shooters and now the 1st and 3rd rebounders in the league.

I am so excited about our defensive rating and the number of offensive rebounds and hence second chance oppurtunities we're going to get this season. DH misses the rebound, then Asik will be able to get it somehow. Imagine being a guard trying to drive up towards Asik + DH. their mere mindset will alter their shot.

Basically, as many ppl have raised already.

Compared to last year, playing them together will:
Defense +++
Offensive rebounds ++
Defensive rebounds +++
Offense -

While I think our offense will have to rely heavily on 3pt shooting from parsons / PF / harden / lin / bev / garcia, i think it might clog the paint for drivers like lin / harden. Perhaps TO will decrease for both guards and assists increase...

 

won't work but you gotta at least try.

 

The Rockets coaching staff (w/ the help also of Olajuwan now who was himself one of the original Twin Towers) has two whole months to work up a scheme to try to get this thing to work. You have a lot of top minds going at this right now so just because you, as a Clutchfan, can't conceive of it as working that doesn't mean there aren't others out there with deeper vision...

What makes a coach great is--among other things--his ability to think outside the box and get schemes to work which other coaches aren't able to get to work or, would be unwilling to try or even consider. Doubting won't get you very far; at least if you try there is a chance... What else does McHale have to do this summer? Play golf? Kudos to McHale for "experimenting".

 

Harden WAS redundant with both KD and WB on the floor. THat was why he had to be 6th man, OKC can't start the 3 of them together because that was just a waste of Harden's talent.

Not sure why everyone is so against DH and Asik playing together, you even have people actually making the argument the two of them on D would be awful.

Anyway the point is the Rox are giving it a try before dismissing it, which is the correct way to go about things.

 

I hope McHale can prove he is the long term coach for the Rockets.

 

It won't be the optimal offensive lineup but the two will sure shut down the lane to interior penetration. Maybe it's worth giving up some offense to put a lid on the rim against high percentage shots in the paint.

I could definitely see the Rox using this as the defensive lineup in close games in crunch time.

 

It's all about match ups. Asik/Howard can easily play with and and either have the advantage or out right dominate most C/PF starting combos IMO.

Spurs: Splitter/Duncan
Grizzlies: Gasol/Randolph
Thunder: Perkins/Ibalka
Nuggets: Faried/McGee
Warriors: Lee/Bogut
Clippers: Griffin/Jordan
Heat: Bosch/Haslem
Pacers: West/Hibbert
Nets: Garnett/Lopez
Bulls: Boozer/Noah
Knicks: Bargnani/Chandler
Hawks: Milsap/Horford
Bullets: Nene/Okafor

Asik and Howard absolutely laugh at the notion/suggestion/assumption that they can not play with or even dominate most if not all of those Power Forward center combos. Even if Asik and Howard start/finish games together I would assume they would each spend most of their time on the floor without the other.

Teams like the Thunder and Heat would not leave their pitiful PF/C combos on the floor for long against Asik and Howard. The Heat would likely insert Battier for Haslem while the Thunder would likely move KD to The 4 spot in an attempt to create a mismatch on the offensive end. Houston could counter by moving Garcia or Parsons to the 4 while moving one of Howard or Asik to the bench.

Howard/Asik would not spend 48 minutes on the floor together just because they start together. All NBA teams try to create mismatches during games.

I think most on this forum think the Clippers PF/C combo is pretty good so I don't see what the panic is regarding an Asik/Howard combo. In this thread/poll http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=241645 it was overwhelming that posters thought an Asik/Howard combo was better than a Griffin/Jordan combo.

 

You forgot about Bosh and Oden

 

It's about both having Center-ish habits of clogging the paint for guards to slash. Howard has to run around more and take his defenders with him.

 

Oden is just hoping he has gotten healthy enough to make the team. I don't think any logical person has him penciled in as a starter just yet. But of course even if Greg Oden started for the heat, both Asik and Howard would put a monumental Arse Whooping on him on the court.

 

Adelman's high post offense would be perfect for this because Ömer is a fairly capable distributor. Better facilitator than finisher.
Unfortunately they changed the coach and I am not so sure if the players remember the plays from the past. Oh snap they weren't around when Adelman was here. Only guy that has memories: Chris Finch.

 

It's way past time to get over Rick Adelman, he is not here anymore and McHale has proven to be an outstanding coach himself.

 

it's going to work. not that many fours that can shoot the three ball with sniper range. if a team wants to counter by moving their three there, then you adjust accordingly. it's not inorganic chemistry we're talking about.

 

Above average coach yes. You can take a look at Coach of the Year rankings.
He calls this an experiment because that's what it is.

I am not questioning everything but I have to agree with Shaq. Dwight isn't nearly an offensive machine that Shaq was and he doesn't seem to have the best BBall IQ to develop a finesse game so far.
Can you teach him in one offseason? I am not going there.

And yes Asik is a defensive beast but borderline horrible on offense and giving up layups in series.

 

I would still like to see Asik anchoring the defense on that second unit. If they bring in Asik to run with Dwight for a minute or two then rest Dwight and leave in Asik to start the second unit rotation then I'm all for it, but would hate to have them both resting at the same time.

 

Regardless of the starting rotation, I don't think the Rockets will play a minute of basketball this season with out Asik or Howard on the floor unless the game is no longer in question or unless there are foul issues.

Even when the Rockets had Dream and Ralph starting games together, Bill Fitch did not sit them both at the same time. When Dream went out Ralph slid over to center. When Ralph went out, Dream stayed in the game.

 

The thing about this though is that Mchale was just a rookie coach last year, and if you compare him at the end of the year from the start it was night and day...not just for him but the rest of his very young coaching staff as well. And considering they're hired by DM, I think they're receptive to using $ball data, which is a good tool in measuring if lineups are effective or not.

I mean, data is already publicly available which tracts the best 5 man combination on a team, DM's in house $tech could probably analyze way more than that. If they're saying it could work, there's probably a significant amount of data which says a DH/Asik frontcourt is devastating.