Davis has enough problems trying to guard his own man, so now he's going to play two guys?. Jones averaged 21 ppg on 64% shooting last year vs Davis. Asik has never been able to stop Howard and Davis doesn't do well against Jones. Now that they're playing together they are somehow going to be a major problem?
Asik and Davis should be a good frontcourt IMO. Good defense, good rebounding. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. NOP should be a better team than last year, but they are a long way away from a lock to make the playoffs. Holiday/Gordon/Evans is kind of a mess of a backcourt. They had problems with injuries all year last year. I would still put them around 7-10 in the West next year.
Lol good joke. Iranian players suck IMO. But it was a joke lol. But Asik isn't as good as he's hyped to be. And I'd take Ariza over Evans anyday. Only position that I'd take the Pelicans over the rockets is Power Forward. Beverly is about equal to Holiday. Bench could either be equal or better for the Pelicans. Just have to see how DMo pans out.
Not saying Asik is better than Dwight in defense. But adding Dwight brought us to 12th best defensive team can be hugely due to Asik is much better backup than say Greg Smith as a backup. How soon we have forgotten how bad our defense was when Asik was off court 2 years ago. Same will appear again when Dwight is off. Then we will all miss Asik.
No, but having a good backup center does. We were 13th last season with Howard as starter, 16th the season before with Asik as starter. But Howard had Asik as his backup more than half the games. Asik had a committee of Smith, Patterson, Aldrich, and Moteijunas as his backup.
Asik isn't hyped to be anything. He's a proven commodity. He proved how good and valuable he was when he started and played meaningful minutes for us 2 years ago in a competitive Western conference filled with good big men. In terms of rebounding and defending the post he's about as good as they come. Now he's going to anchor the Pelicans Defense while Davis can roam free and help from the weakside. It's going to be a bad time for opposing offenses. Beverley is NOT "about equal" to Holiday or anywhere close for that matter. Holiday is younger, taller, has actual PG skills such as court vision, ability to handle the rock and he's able to create for himself and others. In addition he can finish with both hands and he's a good defender as well. Nobody can question the fact that Holiday is a starting PG in this league and he's somewhere in the middle of the pack. As for Bev, there are teams with backup PG's that are better than him. If you're season is riding on the likes of how D-Mo, Canaan, an NBA journeyman reject turned Euro Journeyman and a 2nd round rookie are going to pan out.... I think even the most glass-half-full fan has a right to be skeptical.
Yes and we were 22-12 (.647%) in the games that Asik did not play. We were 32-16 (.666) with Asik . There wasn't a huge dropoff with Asik out of the lineup and we basically had no backup center. We'll be fine.
The problem is that Davis pretty much just roamed looking for blocks last season. That's why his man scored so many points. Jones averaged 21 per game vs Davis last season so if I was the Pelicans I might want to have Davis worry about his man for a change and forget helping Asik.
I am truly excited to see how the N.O. combo performs in the coming season. IMHO, Asik's damages on the offensive end is not his scoring but more on the rebounds to get his team the 2nd chance. He will be an headache if we don't box him out of the paint properly.
If they are healthy they are a much better team,I actually think they make the playoffs and get that 7th or 8th Seed.
I'm afraid Asik might embarrass and shut down Howard. I forecast Howard will have some bad games against the Pelicans.
