I do not disagree but it's a hard argument to prove with DMo not standing out in preseason. I thought DMo played well enough to earn minutes. But McHale is hard headed and he did want to play DMo with no alternative PF's to the point he played Delfino over him. McHale doesn't instill confidence in his players equally. Make no mistake if Howard wasn't here this would be McHale's last season. But just like Van Gundy managed to hang on so long while TMac was playing well McHale ill get extended time now and DMo will get relegated to the bench. The only hope is Morey gets fed up with McHale not following his stats. Okay that's a whole other argument and not interested in derailing this thread.
I think Casspi can get away playing in the weaker East. Now we are in the West, arent we? Lots of very physical or skilled PFs are here. David West and Garnett all played in the West when younger and not out of position.
Managing only +1 against the BOBCATS in 6 minutes to start the game. -1 in 53 seconds against Dallas to start the game, before blowing them out with small ball. -6 in the first 8 minutes against the JAZZ. -14 in the first 5 and a half minutes against the Clippers. Would be nice if we didn't start off sluggish against below average teams, and spot good teams a huge lead at the beginning of every game. Still early, and the coaches may want to try to stick with Asik/Howard to try to work out the kinks. We might even be able to out talent some of these teams and overcome the hole we are digging. But this is playing with fire.
It may not be a lineup problem. We always had our best quarter after half time, same lineup but players were more focused. Let see if the theory will hold for third period this game.
Asik/Howard isn't remotely our best lineup currently: http://stats.nba.com/teamLineups.ht...=1&rowsPerPage=27&sortField=MIN&sortOrder=DES That isn't any huge revelation. The question was always can we get away with running it. I think we can against the right matchups. But blindly throwing it out there at the beginning of games, irregardless of your opponent, is most likely not going to work.
We need to stick with Howard/Asik tonight against the Clips bigs. Just an unfortunate first half with the officials getting whistle happy and making several bad calls that dumped us in foul trouble. Asik needs to be defending Blake though instead of Dwight. Don't know why they are matching up that way.
It's not the Clips bigs that are hurting us. They are running Redick off picks with their bigmen and Asik/Howard are not coming out to contest, making Redick look like Reggie Miller in his prime. At the same time, the lack of spacing on offense completely shut down Harden's driving lane, with the whole team managing 6 points in 6 minutes. It is a contest of whether Asik/Howard is hurting our offense more or defense more. Honestly, I can't even decide.
Generally I am not too concerned with this lineup yet, because I know it is still early and they are still working on it. However, what does irk me a bit is when Howard makes a great move and beats his man to the hole then gets blocked by a helping Blake Griffin because he doesn't have to guard anyone. It makes our SUPERSTAR look bad, even though it is no fault of his own. It irks me when Harden has to stare down 4 defenders camped out in the paint when he wants to drive, so he has to be relegated to jacking contested 3 pointers. It irks me when everyone is going to complain about Harden's defense, when he is getting PICKED OFF and neither Howard nor Asik is used to helping out on shooters. Its makes our SUPERSTAR look bad, even though it is no fault of his own. I get the whole "put your best five on the floor" logic. I even mention it in the OP. But if the trade off is to make our SUPERSTARS look bad, then it is not worth it.
I think Harden made himself look bad tonight. Not sure if he is really drunk or not but you can see from his passing. He tried to ally-oop to Garcia because he mistook him for Parsons. He thought Redick is thin air or a ghost
I think Casspi is perfect off the bench. My man woukd be Motiejunas; if said that since the offseason. Put him on the starting lineup and you play good ball. Put him on the starting 5 and Howard is again Orlando Magic's Howard. And you still have Casspi off the bench with Omer. He´s soft blah blah.... Trust the lithuanian!
Someone help me out here, seems to be a logical fallacy going on: -TT is not our best lineup when you compare all the statistical breakdowns, this is a fact. -The coaches AGREE that TT is not our best lineup, which is why they only play it 12 out of 48 minutes. -For the majority of the game, we run our best lineup, which is a spread offense + a defensive big. This is the Rockets brand of basketball. So far so good? These are all facts. We can conclude that TT is a situational/gimmick lineup. Something we run out there in hopes of holding serve. Something we run out there because the alternatives are not good enough(Dmo/Jones). So this is a suboptimal lineup which the coaches AGREE that it isn't the best idea, which is why we only use it so sparingly. So my question then is: If everything I just said is true, then why do we insist on match it up with the opposing team's BEST unit at the start of the game? Is that not asking to dig yourself a hole every time? To match one of our WORST lineups with the opponent's BEST? I have nothing against using the TT lineup. In fact, in order to get Asik his minutes, TT is a necessity. I also have no problem with the coaches working on this lineup now, or even forcing it out there, because it may benefit us in the long run once we figure it out. My problem is, why must we run it at the beginning of the game, against the opposing teams best unit. That is just asking for trouble. Is it just me or does this fail on the logic test?
TT was too slow for Jordan/Griffin tonight. No one was switching on Reddick when he went through multiple screens. We won't know if it'll work or not until we see it on court. As I said in another post, we only need to convince Asik that even if he comes off the bench, he's a valued part of the team.
Starting Asik has been terrible. This team has started one game well and that is when Asik got in quick foul trouble. If the Portland game gets off to a slow start it might be a good idea to try something different.
The reason we lost tonight is not because of the TWIN TOWERS, it's because our team defense and perimeter defense suck. Harden letting Reddick get hot and nobody can stop CP3 running around like kids are out there.
If I'm not mistaken, TT were -18 tonight. Dwight alone was -24. Omer alone was -18. Parsons was -25. Lin was -27. Rox were -19.
When Harden gets PICKED OFF by the Clippers bigmen, it is our bigmen's responsibility to come out and hedge. Our bigmen are not use to contesting shooters, because they are lumbering centers. JJ Redick looking like Jerry West is why we got blown out in the first 5 and half minutes. Our defensive break downs that led to this are directly linked to the Twin Towers lineup. That is not even mentioning the team scoring 6 points in 6 minutes on the other end of the court.
Harden can do a better job of fighting through screens, but let's not pretend it is all his fault, like most of these kneejerk threads are about to do. Defense is a team game, even moreso than offense. TT is not a great lineup. And when you match it up with the opposing team's best lineup, it will look extra ****ty. This is not rocket science.
My guess, in terms of importance. 1. Low downside/High upside. If we try it for 20 games, how many wins do you think this lineup may cost us? 1 or 2 games? 1 is possible and 2 would be worst case scenario, but even that's fairly mild in the grand scheme of things. Whereas the upside of course is substantial. 2. Small sample size. Need to play more games to see when it works and when it doesn't. 3. This is conjecture, but keeping Asik happy. Especially if Howard still need some time before being fully healthy. Gotta keep Howard's minutes down. And keep Asik happy so he plays hard on defense.
