serious and with Yao on the floor Martin will have either 1) more space to score/open looks or 2) shifting defenses which will result in him getting to the line more the only "untouchables" i can see on this team are: Yao Martin Lowry Scola Scola being a RFA i dont believe will be traded after he is signed/matched unless some team out there throws him a lot of money then I think DM is forced to let him walk. All the other guys on the team? Just pieces in Morey's master plan.
Why is Lowry untouchable and AB is? If this is the case, my guess is that DM does not want to overpay AB when he is going to seek a new contract. Lowry would be much cheap than AB, and the score from AB can easily come from Martin and others when we have Lowry on the floor.
Put aside the clear link Morey is drawing between free throws and those three, do you really think Morey would leak his intentions about next year's starting lineup via twitter?
Lowry does all the things DM values if Lowry had a consistent jump shot (which has gotten better this year but needs a lot of work) he probably would have been the starting PG. In a pure "PG" sense he is a better PG than Brooks is, but not a better scorer. Also since Lowry is a RFA if he accepts another team's offer sheet there are restrictions on where he can be traded...if he accepts the qualifying offer from the Rockets (so he is a UFA next season) he has a 'no trade clause' as well AB at this point is valued highly by other teams, IMO a bit too highly (dont get me wrong he is a great player and i love that he is a Rocket) Morey will surely try to capitalize on that and get someone back that will fit adelman's offense and his vision. AB brings scoring, a lot of it, but not much else to the floor and with Yao back next year while AB will get much better looks he wont have as many opportunities to score since Yao will demand at least 12-15 shots a game and more touches.. Those shots/touches have to come from somewhere. Right now that would mean AB, Scola, Ariza. Scola like Lowry is a RFA unless he gets a huge offer elsewhere I dont see him being moved and there are restrictions as to how you can trade a RFA. Ariza was Morey's first real big MLE signing and while he hasnt been 'great' I think he has met the team's expectations and then some once Martin came on the team and Ariza went back to a role/position he is most suited for. That would leave AB being a piece that can be moved esp since there is a more than capable person behind him in Lowry to take that spot.
Lowry will be back next year. It doesn't seem like other teams value what he does nearly as much as the Rockets.
Exactly. I wouldn't call him a system player, but he's far more valuable to us than he would be to almost any other team based on what he does. Especially with the amount of talent at PG in the league.
Yeah I agree with this. However I don't want to see Hill go, he could be the perfect 4 alongside Yao.
As mentioned above, Morey was talking in regards to drawing fouls. The only thing we can draw from this is that Morey thinks Yao may play at a high enough level to draw plenty of fouls.
I would like to know Morey thoughts on our defense, which is atrocious!!! We can't compete with Yao if our defense doesn't improve. Since Sacto, Aldeman and his coaches are horrible at the defenisve end. We can't get 1 stop let alone 3 straight stops. TR Dunn might have played D back in the day, but he is clueless in today's NBA. The Rockets need a defensive strategy coach on the bench. We have the main culprits as follows: AB - sticks to screens like glue JJ - Fouls faster than Chuck CH - 2 short to guard any 4 or 5 with skills, they just play over the top Scola - 2 scoops of cement in his shoes... no lateral movement whatsoever Chase - Seems afraid or disinterested in playing D
Yes, plus that the rockets games were not on ESPN/TNT TVs, then if GMs are going to look at his shooting percentage for three, it is quite low. So we should be able to keep him at 4M dollar price.
Yao's game was never based on athleticism. It was always based on hard work, skill, and height. I have no doubt Yao will be at least 80% as productive as he was pre-injury, with the decrease in production due to a decrease in minutes and not because of his game.
Lowry's jump shot is about the same. He's left wide open and can't consistently hit the shot. This is the only reason he isn't a starter. He's D fish back in the day w/o a jumper. Lowry... change your jumper form, practice shooting more or always be a backup point guard
He is talking about free throwing percentages... the guys are great at drawing fouls and will get production from the free throw line. Morey stresses this as a factor in basketball and loves when games are won at the line. He's not dissing Brooks at all, just complimenting the other players.
What Morey's getting at is that between Martin, Lowry and Yao, we should be putting ourselves in the bonus pretty early. Once that's done, Yao becomes unstoppable -- you can play off him and watch him score, or body him up and risk the foul and his 80%+ FT shooting.
It will never be what it was back in the JVG days, but it's very important to note that 4 of Houston's top 5 best defensive players have all missed large chunks of time this year - Yao, Lowry, Ariza, and Battier. The decreased defensive presence has a lot to do with the fact our poorest defenders happen to be the healthiest. I agree that our team defense needs to get better, but I'll say that watching this Houston team play is infinitely more entertaining than watching some of those low scoring JVG slugfests - especially the close games where Houston's offense looked sooooo bad when they HAD to get a score.
Except we had a higher defensive rating with RA, Yao is the reason why we are struggling. Shane is a shell of himself since he can't funnel players into Yao. We use to be one the best teams at protecting the paint, now...
