Really briefly... 1. Our starting five can hang with any other group in the league. It's not until the end of the first quarter when you see our offense really start to bog down because of fatigue and the complete absence of any weapons off the bench. 2. We are one all star at PG or PF from having the best team in the NBA. I really believe that.
This is a different team. Still not sure exactly what we are going to look like, but here's my best guess. 1) We are going to be a bit more of a half court team. Not a massive shift to something like the Grizzlies, but a more "diligent". 2) The defense is going to be good. Ish is a better defender than Lin. Ariza is better than Parsons. 2014 DMo is better than 2013 DMo. Dorsey/Black/Adrien are defensive specialist. The focus on that end is obvious. My guess is Daniels isn't getting much run because the coaches want him to "get" that he must be a two way player. 3) We didn't have anyone like Pap last year. It's not showing right now, but by playoff time that is really going to matter. I fully expect to see tons of Bev/Harden/Ariza/Pap/Howard lineups to close out games. 4) TJones is the same player he was last year. Same strengths, same weaknesses. Time to trade him, IMO. Give DMo and Pap the minutes at the 4.
Sorry about the harsh comment, he made a comment that I thought was specifically designed as a jab at me. I probably shouldn't have reacted. As far as my comment on D12 not looking good on offense, I stand by that. He has been outstanding rebounding & defense. He has scored points. Last night he scored a number of points off of put backs, slams and one nice little feed from Ariza for a slam. When I say Dwight looks bad on offense its because when the Rockets specifically feed Dwight the ball in the post bad things have happened a lot. He has typically not done well on his individual post up moves during this preseason. He has not looked decisive with the ball in his hands in the post. He has missed a number of hook shots, bank shots etc.. from inside 10 feet. It could be that it's just preseason and he needs to knock off the rust. It could be that he is not getting the ball in prime position. Dwight is still very effective as is indicated by his 19 points on 7 of 10 f/g's but the stats only tell part of the story. I really don't want this to come off as a criticism to Dwight because that is not the intent. But he definitely does not look as fluid or as decisive or as efficient when the Rockets dump the ball into him in the post. That is really all I meant. Dwight does so many things at an elite level. My criticism of his offensive game with the ball in his hands in the post is not meant to take away from that. Nor is it meant to infer that when the regular season starts his post game won't be much better.
Ish Smith has been terrible this preseason. He can't shoot and now he's got more turnovers than assists. I have no idea what you guys are watching that makes you think he's better than Canaan.
thought his post was harsh not yours. I get your point about Dwight, but don't think it's as pronounced as you make it. I feel his spin moves and body control has improved signficantly. I also am really only considering last night because he was so limited previuosly.
Because it's not just about assists. He has the ability to get into the lane and suck the defense in, and he is good at finding the open man. Just because he didn't get the assist, the defense is now scrambling and trying to rotate and the Rockets now have an advantage on offense because they are one step ahead and the defense has to recover. That won't show up on the stat sheet as an assist, but whoever ends up shooting the open shot during that possession has Ish Smith to thank for setting in motion the chain reaction of it happening. Now, he does need to clean up his turnovers. Some of them were just mental lapses. Canaan, however, is a shooting guard in a PGs body... a small PG at that. The offenses comes to a dead stop when he's in the game. Ish Smith can at least get some movement in the offense going.
Daniels is incredibly limited and is only a specialty situational player. Terry still has his legs and will prove to be very valuable. I think McHale will try to limit Terry's minutes to 24-26 MPG but that's not creating a huge role for Daniels.
very doubtful terry plays that many minutes consistently imo. i don't even think he can handle that much at this point.
Re: Ariza vs. Parsons The Rockets could have had BOTH. They could have signed Ariza and the matched Parsons. They just chose not to pay Parsons. It isn't an either-or situation. I think a lineup with Beverley-Harden-Parsons-Ariza-Howard would have been deadly.
Okay, so who did the Rockets lose from last year. They lost Parsons, Lin, and < 1/2 of Asik. How did they replace those players? They replaced Parsons with Ariza and Papa the Greek. That looks like at least a wash for the 3 position as a whole and possibly a slight upgrade. They replaced Lin with Jason Terry and a Plethora of PG wannabe's. Okay so Lin sucked balls last year. Did he have a couple of moments? Sure he did. But for the most part he was a big fat negative on the team. Oh yeah, and we replace some of his minutes with Daniels. This all looks like an upgrade to me. Lin sucked the life out of this team trying to do too much because he wasnt good enough at any one thing. They replaced < 1/2 of Asik with some has beens, never will be's, and European defensive stallwarts that shoot 0-6 at the freethrow line. I am not sure how to call this one yet. I have hopes for DMo and Balck. Other than that, I think it is advantage last year with less the half of Asik. Overall, I would say the Rockets have upgraded their talent but I still wish they had the chick they let go to the Lakers, Aaron Brooks, and James Anderson. If they had those guys and McHale did not get too much in the way, they could be Top 3 in the west.
and they would still be hamstrung by that crappy parsons contract. we are in a much more enviable position with Ariza and Papa at a significant discount. We can invest elsewhere in the team. Do you really not get this?
Agreed. It's also about turnovers and defense. Agreed, he does. But he hasn't been doing that very well this preseason. Nice in theory. But that's not what's happening out there this preseason. Here's what is: Ish gets the basketball and runs like .... to the other end with it. He's fast. One of the fastest end-to-end guys in the league. And that is where his creative advantage begins and ends. Once he gets down there, nothing is happening. So, he dribbles around into a turnover or he forces some sort of floater up or he throws the ball to a covered spot-up shooter who then forces up a bad shot. He simply hasn't been effective. Not true at all. The fact of the matter is Canaan has been forced to play off the ball when he's been in there this preseason because he has been alongside Harden or Ish. Harden should be on the ball more often than not when he's in there. And Ish has no purpose in the game if he isn't handling. But that doesn't mean Canaan can't handle and create. He can and he's proven it. He's as much a shooting guard as Steph Curry is. I'm not saying he's as good as Curry. No way no how. But I'm saying Curry was largely regarded as a small shooting guard coming out of Davidson. And Curry proved that he could handle, shoot, and dish when he got to the NBA. Curry is a scoring point guard that can distribute. Canaan is a scoring point guard that can distribute. Yeah, helter skelter movement that isn't producing anything. I'm not projecting Canaan is the end all/be all of point guards. But I am saying that Canaan is a much better Jeremy Lin. And we needed Lin last season in his role as secondary playmaker to Harden. We need that secondary playmaker that can both score and create some. Lin, while not a fantastic creator was a creator because he was a double threat to score. Because Ish can't shoot he has to be able to create a myriad of open shots for his teammates that they can score on. And that's the problem. While he can create some looks, Ish cannot create at a level that is good enough to overcome his shooting deficits. He is good in the open court using his speed to create advantages and find guys on the break. But if the defense gets back and now you're left with running half-court sets with Ish at the top.....the offense is in big trouble. Ish's half-court offense (and Bev's too when Harden is out of the game) is very inefficient. We may miss the playoffs or barely make the playoffs if Ish winds up being the secondary playmaker on this team for the balance of the season. The secondary playmaker has to be either Canaan or some other player that we trade for. Ish simply isn't good enough in that role.
Playmakers: We lost Parsons in the starting lineup. Offense will now be mostly going through Harden and Howard. That is a drop, but luckily defense is upped. Now, I hope Harden keeps up his defense effort. I don't know how long he will last playing 40+ min. We lost Lin on the bench. The key player that will take over is Papanikolaou. If Papa builds up enough chemistry with the bench, the play making in the 2nd unit isn't going to be dropped much, with added shooters in Troy Daniels and Jason Terry.
Saying Dwight has been really bad on offense is just dumb. Yes he missed lots of shots within 3 feet of the basket, but you can not just judge from the shoots he missed and said he is bad on offense. The fact that he was able to get so many shoots within 3 feet of the basket means he is much more comfortable playing down there and his teammates are able to get him the ball. I will take his FG % overtime against any other players will be on the floor. Shoots will fall eventually as I don't see any major issues with his mechanic.
I disagree. McHale has made a concerted effort to run the offense from the inside out at the beginning of games as Dwight the primary offensive threat. When you try to play inside out and your post game is inefficient, thats a problem. In the 1s quarter of the game against the Heat Dwight touched the ball 5 times in the post. 1. Rockets 1st offensive possession the Rockets feed the ball to Dwight in the post. Dwight is very indecisive and eventually settles on a contested jump shot that he misses. 2. Dwight scores on a put back dunk from a Terrence Jones miss 3. The Rockets feed Dwight the ball in the post again at about the 8 minute mark. Dwight gets called for traveling. 4. At about the 7 minute mark Dwight once agains gets the ball with the opportunity to post up but turns and misses a short jumper. 5. Dwight receives the ball while moving to the basket for a dunk. (Dwight had basically the same post issues against GS and Dallas as well) In the two scores Dwight was not fed the ball in a post up position, one was a put back and the other a dunk off of an assist. Dwight does a lot of things really good and last season he proved that he can effectively post up but so far during this off season he has not been proficient in post up situations at all. McHale clearly wants to play more from the inside out this season but in order to do that he has to have someone that knows how to play in a post up situation when the ball is passed to him in the post. Dwight has not done that during this preseason and it has hurt the Rockets costing them possessions. I know Dwight is capable of it when he makes a decisive and immediate move to the basket because I saw him do it last season. The Rockets need him to do it this season as well. TJ is easily a bigger problem though. D12 is elite at so many things but there are times when you have to scratch you head as to why TJ is even out there with the way he is playing.
You are barking up the wrong tree. Nobody says Smith is a better player than Canaan. He's just better as a play maker. And that's the problem. If our second best play maker can't even beat out Isaiah freaking Canaan as our backup PG, then it tells us a lot about our offense next season.
Let's hope that we'll have a system, any system. Okay, I am too harsh. I assume that we have a system. But is it gonna be the right system for the players we have? Do we have enough discipline to execute it? We'll find out soon enough.
