Following the long tradition of former clippers making good rockets and vice versa as former rockets have make good clippers. Unless your Royce White. That dude just sucks, no matter what team he plays for.
I never knew anyone could think Rivers ballhandling was considered a weakness. Especially after several years of starting Bev at PG (Woof!) and Ariza at SF. Rivers is clearly the 3rd best ball handler after CP3 and Harden. Easily better than Gordon IMO. In terms of sheer handles, ability to get by defenders, collapse defenses and get anywhere on the floor I don’t think you could ask for more. I want to think you meant to say using his vision to create easy buckets for Cap or finding the open spot up shooter is the areas that can use improvement but they’re not as pressing with Harden and will be even less of a concern when CP is healthy. He’s essentially playing the Bev role as I imagined from a couple years ago (Harden as primary ball handler/playmaker) except he’s doing it better since the major difference is that he can actually dribble and his defense is better than I anticipated.
Rivers doing great. The really only minor negative is that we won’t be able to showcase knight to improve his value anymore
Rivers has been awesome but I wouldn’t mind double dipping on wizard players and snagging Beal at the deadline. I think that dude could make the leap in our system.
Ain’t nobody got time foe dat! Well maybe the Vipers do. Look at the bright side...he’s not hurting his value since his contract is actually becoming more valuable with each day that passes. We’re no longer desperate to get a return (future assets or immediate contributions) considering we were gifted Rivers from the basketball gods. Even if we’re unable to move him this year this gives him more time to get right and now there’s less pressure on us and him. If he’s healthy and ready for the playoffs we could do a lot worse as far as last man on the bench goes.
So Austin Rivers plays defense, only shoots 3's and layups, and scored the 5th most isolation buckets last year. How did the Rockets get the perfect role player for the Rockets system sitting outside an Arby's?
And he only costed $930k! CP3 injury (bummer), Rivers sucking in WAS (who cares), PHX being ran by an idiot (typical) but most importantly/surprising Rivers choosing to be here and help us. Crazy chain of events. I loved the move before he even played for us cause I knew he could ball but him genuinely wanting to be here cause he wanted to not cause he had to meant a lot. He’s quickly turning into a fan favorite even amongst the biggest critics/haters. I find myself cheering/rooting for him to do well in particular. Team looks re-energized and looks like they’re having fun again (Gordon included) and even the TC has looked more lively.
We have a 100% win record with Harden, Capella and Rivers in the lineup. Really liking what I see from him and hope it continues. Was shocked when I heard about the signing, but he's fit like a glove. Keep this up and I can see him as a long term cult hero for us.
"Those 5 or 6 days of me being off of basketball might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. It taught me to never ever take basketball for granted, ever. You don't realize how much you love something until it's taken away for a bit." -Austin Rivers
