With running like the Rockets do, McHale said he would need to find a ninth and a tenth guy to keep team from burning out in December. Here we are in December with only 8 guys since Patterson's injury. I think Jones will be helping soon, but that still leaves the Rockets needing a guy in my opinion on the wings. Is Cook the tenth guy? I've not been the happiest when I've seen him play. Granted with CSH not on Uverse, I haven't caught as many games as I would like and seen very little of Cook. Maybe more Lin-Douglas as a backcourt to rest the wings. I am worried the Rockets will run out of juice quickly if they don't start giving a tenth man token minutes to rest the wings. I love the pace. it gives the Rockets an advantage late in games against some teams.
We are definitely playing 9 men with token 10 men minutes. PPat is out right now though I'm all for giving more minutes to a rook when ready. But saying you are worried about wearing these young kids with our 9 man lineup and token 10 man minutes his overstatement I would bring down hardens minutes a notch in a rebuilding year like this I still fear our rockets history
Good thread! Even during games I'm worried guys are tired and we've lost OT games partly because of it. I hope we make a trade or TJ / D-Mo steps up because somebody's getting to get injured and join Patterson shortly.
Cook is good enough to play spot minutes every now and then. To me Jones isn't quite ready yet. The game appears to be still a little too fast for him. D-Mo should be fine on offense, just not sure about his man-to-man defense and his rebounding. I guess we'll have to throw either one in the fire sooner or later, although I'd expect McHale to prefer going with small ball unit if he can.
To me it looks like Asik's minutes need to go down, and combination of Smith taking on more minutes + someone giving more help off the bench needs to happen to keep up pace. Jones seems like the next guy in line for now. However, Im a little intrigued with D-Mo being this guy. He isn't necessarily NBA ready at the moment(Especially defensively), but I think he does have the ability to be an instant impact kind of player. More so then Jones, or Aldrich offensively. Those two seem to be guys that need to really get in a flow of the game. D-Mo has offensive gifts where he could fit in right away for 10 minutes a night.
When it comes to D-Mo not being ready defensively, could he have possibly done any worst against copeland and ed davis these last two games? Put him out there for Gods sake. Ill be very disappointed if he doesnt get called up for the 76er game, they dont really have anyone to bully D-Mo inside. And the next game against memphis, I shudder thinking about him going up against Zbo and Gasol, but those guys against marcus morris is equally frightening.
The ninth man and tenth man so far this season has mostly been big men. My biggest concern is that the wings are getting overworked and will start to have a decline in production. Specifically, I'm thinking Harden and Delfino. Harden has added a lot of minutes and is playing at this frantic pace versus last season. While this is a rebuilding year, playing well will help Harden recruit. I don't know how serious Patterson's injury is, but when I hear second and third opinions and it taking time to decide on treatment options...the initial assessment has a very long recovery time. I'm not too concerned with Jones getting time. I suspect he'll be getting minutes shortly. DMo and White may not be NBA ready this season. I have high hopes on DMO as being a player who can run, get some post up opportunities, and who may develop a 3 point shot (before Harden,I was hoping the Rockets would try to steer him away from three point line). Also, I think the Rockets want to get Parsons more minutes at the four....but that is where the Rockets have depth and Parsons leaves a position without much. I think the Rockets ideally want to do this against backups in which Parsons is not a liability in rebounding or defense.
For asik, looks like GSmith is getting some good PT, wouldnt be surprised if it goes up a little more.
I think they'll be okay. Being the youngest team you have to play to your strength and tire out the older teams in order to make up for the inexperience. A little off topic though.....does the higher pace correlate to our poor defense? If your guards are taking off for the other end more frequently to push the ball, does it leave the defense weaker and would that be a big reason why we suck on the defensive end?
I think the defense is weak due to Rockets going for too many offensive rebounds, too many turnovers, too many missed shots, and too many young players not used to playing together. I don't think the Rockets are leaking out too soon.
