http://www.nba.com/powerrankings/ #14 Pace: 93.6 (20), Off: 105.4 (6), Def: 101.4 (19) The Rockets' top three lineups are a plus-37 in 83 minutes together, playing ridiculously efficient offense with Kyle Lowry leading the league in assists per game. But it looks like their bench will again be their Achilles heal. They've got a tough week ahead, with two games in L.A. and a home-and-home with OKC. http://espn.go.com/nba/powerrankings #11 Last Week: 15 Two guys who were ready to get going: Kyle Lowry averaged 17.0 ppg, 9.3 apg and 6.3 rpg before his 18 assists against Atlanta, while Kevin Martin just scored 73 points on 48 shots in the first back-to-back-to-back of his life. I think considering our back-to-back-to-back against some good playoff teams from last year and playing well this year, between 11 and 15 sounds about right. Discuss
According to nba.com, Rockets lack depth and have a weak bench. I have to agree. It doesn't count as depth, if you have 10 scrubs off the bench instead of 5 quality backups and 5 scrubs. It should be "Achilles' heel" not "Achilles heal". NBA.com has bad editing.
I wouldn't go that far, Lee abd Patterson are good players, and I'm sure some of the '09 picks and/or Morris will pan out.
Rank: 17 ROCKETS (2-2) LAST WEEK: 2-2 THIS WEEK: 4 games KEY GAME: vs. OKC That key game against the Thunder will be the second night of a back-to-back against OKC after they have an all-Staples Center back-to-back vs. Lakers and Clips earlier in the week. Won’t see a weak opponent until Game No. 9 vs. Charlotte. Quality wins so far vs. Spurs and Hawks, and Kyle Lowry has been studly. LAST: 14 http://www.sheridanhoops.com/2012/01/01/sheridan-power-rankings-week-2/
Give them time. Patterson, Dragic, Terrence, Lee, Marcus and Chandler possess enough talent IMO. They need to get it together real quick.
Do you guys really value those all that much? I mean they are no different than if someone here decided to put one together. I find them mildly entertaining I guess... DD
It's hard to get it together, when Terrence, Marcus and Chandler have been banished to the bench in a lockout shortened season. If they don't play within the next 2 months, half the season will have passed away with no playing time to mesh. Due to the compressed schedule, there will be weeks between practices. It's unlikely they can develop without any practices or game time. They only have shootarounds for most of the season.
We had that coming. Without enough time before training camp, summer league it's going to be tough down the stretch for rookies and unproven players. Still, I don't see them being so 'weak', especially Dragic and Lee. Those are proven commodities in the league....Dragon's shot is not falling.
I don't agree that the Rockets don't have depth. I think Lee, Dragic, Flynn, Parsons and Patterson are all quality players that are valuable. McHale's just sorting things out to see who fits his system best, so production is low because minutes are here and there. In fact, that depth is a big reason why their offense is amongst the league's best. They're a transition team, and you can't keep the pedal to the mettle without quality reserves that can contribute.
Dragic needs to review the last 3 games of 2010 when he compentently served as the pg in Lowry's absence. I don't know if his sub-par play is due to this being his contract year or whatnot, but he needs to go back to the effective pg he was last year. There is a noticeable drop-off in offense when the starters take a break, and we cannot have that. This team needs to be metal to the pedal all the way to be succesfull.
The problem isn't the bench as a whole, it's just Lowry not being in the game causes a huge dropoff. It's been like that for 3 seasons now. So it's on Dragic to step his game up.
McHale wants a 8-9 man rotation, so the bench will end up being Dalembert/Patterson/Lee/Dragic. All those guys are good. Patterson is just coming back from injury and bench performance may have been impacted by McHale experimenting with rotations. If the bench is our biggest problem, I think we're in for a good season. (Unfortunately, it's not. Our biggest problem is that we don't have a franchise player.)
I wouldn't mind seeing Scola come off the bench to give that second unit a true, consistent scoring threat. Not to mention, Patterson and Dalembert might very well lead the league in combined blocks per game if they played together. I see Patterson as a Robert Horry-esque weak side shot-blocker thanks to Dalembert's presence.
Regarding your post, I think Lowry is worthy of being called a franchise player. Let's be honest here, if the rockets picked him at number 1 instead of being traded for Rafer Alston everyone would have a much higher opinion of him. Chris Paul: 15.5 pts, 9.8 assists, 2.5 steals, 2.5 rebs 0.555% TS Kyle Lowry: 13.3 pts, 11.5 assists, 2.5 steals, 6.3 rebs 0.573% TS Deron Williams: 17.3 pts, 3.8 rebs, 6 assists, 0.486% TS Rondo: 16.5 pts, 10.5 assists, 6.0 rebs, 1.3 steals, 0.597% TS It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Lowry's play this season is franchise-caliber. I don't even consider the 4 games to be a small sample size, they were against upper echelon teams and to be honest, Lowry stats are similar to the ones he posted last year, hard to imagine him dropping off significantly.
