I'll admit that I wasn't expecting much from Casspi and was lamenting the loss of Carlos Del3no, however, Omri has taken advantage of his minutes in the first 3 preseason games. I'm optimistic that he'll actually improve our front-line depth. Last night when he was in the line-up with Chandler it was actually a pretty interesting combo and one I think we'll see during the season. Omri is not only a good shooter, but he's shown good court awareness (180 pass to Parsons was fun), sound rebounding skills and better defensive presence than I anticipated. His length is an advantage both on offense and defense. I think Morey has gotten us a steal, who will be a sound 7th-9th man in the rotation. Nice job OP on getting us ready for "Israeli Hombre!"
One cannot rationalize the irrational. We sports fan "lean" towards being irrational. Meanwhile, back at the ranch - - it's been a good EARLY start for your countryman and my team's player. Let it keep on keepin' on.
If you bring a guy in and he plays knocks-your-socks-off well, you hire him. Otherwise there was no point bringing him in in the first place.
I think his game is very similar to Chandler Parsons, he runs the floor very well, he's very long, has sneaky athleticism, good catch and shoot guy who can get hot if you let him get in rhythm, and he's at his best as a role player within a fast paced free flowing offense.
I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong for wanting Casspi off this team. I may have even wanted him off this team for non basketball related reasons. After watching him play and put in work, I am glad he is on our roster. I hope him the best and hope he can give us good contribution off our bench in our main rotation! Let's Go Rockets!
the guy has been ballin and is showing an aggresive nature, not shying away from making plays and taking shots. I don't expect him to play like this during the regular season against better competition but he doesn't need to. He just needs to knock down open shots and play smart. So far in the pre-season he has been a play maker, he's grabbing rebounds and knocking down shots. I think he can do 2 of those 3 during the regular season in a role off the bench and be a very important spark to this team. I wasn't thrilled about aquiring him but it looks like a darn good move now. I'm way to excited about this season.
Just wait until the COFs start demanding Parsons be less greedy and take fewer shots, demand McHale give Casspi more minutes, and fill every game thread with shouting when Casspi isn't on the floor in the final minutes of the game.
I see OC as getting rotation minutes at the SF and small ball minutes at the PF, especially if D-Mo cannot increase his 3 point % by5% and Jones cannot add 7%.
As an experienced COF, I can tell you that you don't need to worry about that too much. Every once in a while there will one or two Casspi fans that randomly come into the forum and do these things, but those usually disappear as quickly as they came, and most Casspi fans, while admittedly we do have some bias, know how the NBA works, and our expectations are rather realistic.
This place is already bad enough with LOFs. Imagine COFs trashing Parsons. Imagine AOFs trashing Dwight.
The fact that we are rooting for Casspi which represents our country doesn't mean we are not realistic.
As (another) one who followed Casspi every single minute in his short NBA career I want to share my 2 cent on what I expect his contribution be for the Rockets this season. Casspi will not get the 20+ play minutes he got on the pre-season games. I expect him to get around 10 minutes or less. Casspi contribute, in any team he played, only if plays 20+ minutes, thus I expect you will see a huge difference in his regular season numbers compared to what he provided so far. When Casspi realize he does not get enough time, he tend to force his shots (as he forced to do in Cleveland) and cause his percentage to fall down... Casspi plays fast that will shine when he has a quick ball passing roster around him. Also despite what most of the fans think, he is a solid D player (just follow the last 2 games and watch Chris Copeland score when he was guarding him). All in all , if he gets the play time he needs, he is able to contribute close to DD almost every night. Also, don't forget that Francisco Garcia was his mentor in SAC and they he like him as a team member and mentor...
