The Rockets bench of young players: The Rockets currently have three starters on rookie contracts. Three! Plus D-Mo, who I will be discussing later. The Rockets also have under contract Canaan, Covington and Daniels. Lighting it up in D-League or sitting on the end of the bench. And the end of the bench is where they belong. A roster deep with cheap serviceable players on rookie contracts. Morey has done his job better than any GM in the league over the last few seasons. Bev, Jones and Parsons on rookie contracts! Holy mackerel. The Rockets title chances: Some people are still of the opinion that the Rockets are not contenders for the chip. I strongly disagree, to put it politely. Any team with 48 minutes of the best paint protection in the league and Harden has to be considered among the top title contenders. Not to mention that the Rockets could well end up with the best record in franchise history. And, given the way Miami and Indiana are playing one of the top four best winning percentages in the NBA is possible. Don't look now, but the Rockets are tied with the Clippers in the loss column. With a game Saturday against the Clips. The Rockets are dangerously close to the third seed in the West. Memphis is only one game behind Portland for the fifth seed. It may actually become important for the Rockets to win the third seed to avoid Memphis in the first round. It will be interesting. The Leastern Conference: I watched two games tonight. MIA versus IND and LAC versus NOP. One was slow, tedious, almost unwatchable. The other was fast paced, exciting and great basketball. And I love NBA defense. If the Pelly's were in the Leastern Conference they could possibly be vying for the four seed. Just saying. PBev is a monster: The effect on the Rockets team when Bev is in the lineup is incredible. And he has that effect without scoring a lot of points or dishing out many assists. McHale made a very good decision starting Bev. And I personally think Lin is a decent young point guard in the NBA. Bev's sheer bulldog competitiveness is amazing. And probably the only reason he has a NBA job. McHale is perhaps the best coach in the NBA assessing and developing young NBA talent. I have immense respect for the man. How many head coaches in the NBA with a seriously contending team would have 4 players in the rotation on rookie contracts? And three as starters. All of which McHale and his staff developed and mentored since day one. I cannot think of another. Post defense: Points per possession when defending the post in the paint. Small sample size warning. Brook Lopez – 0.32 ppp Ronny Turiaf – 0.43 Kenyon Martin – 0.49 Omer Asik – 0.57 Bismack Biyombo – 0.59 The four: My how playing smart basketball makes a difference! The case in point is D-Mo's arrival as a very good defensive player, and his increased patience and intelligence on the offensive end. D-Mo's emergence has taken him from among the least efficient player on the Rockets roster to one of the most efficient. Seven foot 260+ pound players who have good foot speed are generally destined to become very good NBA players. And if they are intelligent basketball players perhaps the sky is the limit? I never disagree with starting lineups in the NBA. I just figure that the coaching staff of each team is the last word. They are more knowledge about their teams and the NBA than everyone else on the planet combined. Especially the Rockets coaching staff backed up by the evil genius Morey. But I do have the feeling that the Jones/D-Mo debate is being discussed by the Rockets organization. Probably not for this season, but for the next one. Just the numbers here since 1/1/14. oRTG and dRTG and net RTG sorted by net RTG: +/-: Food for thought.
There's several reasons why we aren't title contenders, in my opinion. Sometimes inconsistent offense Live-and-die by the 3, and not moving in to mid-range when it's not falling Lapses on defense Lack of execution down the stretch- sometimes Turnovers Missed FTs Bad play against grinding teams like Memphis and Chicago. Not to mention the game slows down in the playoffs to that type of pace. Maybe I'm nitpicking but I don't want to make it sound like I'm not a "true fan" by not saying we're contenders just by having a very good record and 2 starting caliber centers.
Reasonable, but the Rockets have two starting caliber centers (one the best center in the NBA) and the best SG on the planet. Interestingly enough is that when D-Mo is on the floor with Asik or Howard the defense is possibly the best in the NBA. Mid-ranged shots are the worst shot in basketball by far. From about 5 feet out to the three point line. If you want I can back that argument up with hard data. Honestly Memphis, Indiana and Chicago I do not worry about. With Howard and Asik/D-Mo they are not going to score a lot inside. And they have no long ranged game. The Rockets will eat them up.
htownbandit just stated problems every single team in the league has (except for turnovers, but a decent amount of that is pace)
The Rockets were 18 to 1 when I bet on them Monday. I think we have a better than a 5.5% chance of winning it all. That said I don't know how we will get past OKC and the Clippers.
18 to one is unrealistic. I would put them at 11 to 1 according to my charts. But do not go betting on my forecasts. I don't.
Rockets won't win anything if Dwight keeps posting up. Just pick and roll man. Set some hard picks to get open shots for the perimeter players and Rockets will flow like gravy.
Don't sell the Rockets coaching staff and Morey short. Or Howard for that matter. They know the numbers. Changing the offensive strategy away from Howard post ups in the playoffs is a very real possibility. The Rockets have evolved from a playoff team in 2013 to a contender in 2014. I expect the evolution to continue.
question, how old are those stats, the team only playing only 36 seems like these stats are not updated at all? just curious
weaknesses: Not enough, big game experience/ concentration/execution Wing rebounding; particular problem when DH12/Omer gets sucked under the rim by penetrators. (Don't laugh, you know what I mean) Lck of lateral quickness by Lin/Harden gets us exposed to blow-bys.
that makes sense thanks for the clear up. I'm a fan of your threads and the ideas you throw out in them, keep em coming
1. You're kinda doing what I'm doing with my stocks: analyzing at the apex of performance. We've just gone 4-0 against 3 lotto teams and Charlotte. Philly is coming up. Hope to win that Clippers game, but prepare yourself to short the Rockets stock because I don't think it can possibly get any higher after that Philly game. Even if we keep winning, we just won't be winning by 20+.
Whoops, I forgot #2. 2. I completely agree with you on DMo. Game by game, you can see the game slowing for him before your eyes. On offense he's finally got a rhythm on that unblockable baby hook. And then on the right block his spin to the left and kiss off the glass is finally showing some consistency. He's still fouling a lot on defense, but it's also less than it was before. At this point it's almost where you say that DMo and Dwight are headed in opposite directions with regards to their post games. DMo is slowing down and figuring out just how fast he needs to go to juke out his defender while maximizing accuracy. Dwight on the other hand is pressing, rushing shots, afraid too much or not enough of the flop from his defender. That's gotta be the MO on defending Dwight: flop early, get two fouls on him, and you've basically shut him down for the night.
This team just needs a consistent 2nd scorer who can do his thing in crunch time when Harden is getting doubled. I thought Parsons might be that guy but he is really slumping. That's really the only missing piece. Everything else can be resolved with time. You had an Anthony to this team and it's ring city.
I agree with OP here. In my humble opinion, DMo is our most improved player. I am hoping, hoping, hoping that he continues to improve his 3-point shot somehow and is able to give us a 36-38% 3-ball in the playoffs/Finals (if we get there). If DMo could do that it would go a loooooooooooooooooooooong ways towards us winning it all.
On paper only. Still a long way to go. Harden, Howard and Anthony won't win the*nba champion.Sorry about that.
