From a pure basketball winning% perspective of this current roster, this is probably the best starting lineup. Assuming of course that Casspi is who we expect him to be, rather than the near worthless player he was in recent years. But it won't happen. If Casspi is a success, he'll play the Delfino role of closing out games at the PF position. The reason why he's very unlikely to ever start is because the Rockets Plan A is to have Jones/DMo blossom into solid NBA starters. Sure, they may lack in pure shooting ability, but they can bring so much more in other areas. Of course, if neither blossom, then the Rockets have to decide to save their assets for a big Aldridge/Love trade, or trade for a decent PF like a Millsap type. IMO, the only way you see Casspi plaing 30mpg at the PF position is if DMo/Jones suck, and the Rockets are trying to wait things out for a star PF. Otherwise, there are too many PFs that are much better than Casspi that can be had with our assets.
isn't that what people said about Danny Green and to an extent J LIN. basically anybody can come around if given a chance in a system that fits to his strengths
We're just going to have to see the guy plays... He has had a weird NBA career and we're all hoping that he'll be better on a better team. It's definitely possible which is why I liked the signing. I don't see him as the starting PF right off the bat. I could see him playing PF in certain lineups if we go small and if he's been playing well. Jeremy Lin said he and TJones were impressive at their LA get together so I'd really like to see what's going on there. Maybe I'm remembering this wrong but the first half of last season, wasn't DMo coming in off the bench and playing hard? Weren't we all excited about him? And while he didn't do well as the starter, there's something to be said that he beat out other people to get the starting job... We of course haven't seen him this summer since he's been with the national team but I'd like to see how he plays in training camp with the added mass and hopefully some improvements on his skill set. I honestly have no idea who our starting PF will be... TJones, DMo, Smith, and I guess Casspi will all be gunning for it. Since the sample size of good basketball has been so small for all these guys, we're just going to have to see how they battle it out.
Great post. Well thought out. I don't understand why others are giving the OP grief for this topic of discussion. While there are certainly legitimate arguments against it, this is by no means something that should be summarily dismissed. While this may sound "homer-ish", I find the fact that Morey has been trying to acquire Casspi for multiple years to be a good sign of how good he COULD be in this system. So much will depend on how well Casspi plays in training camp. FWIW, Jeremy Lin said that Casspi was pretty awesome in their LA training session with the other top Rockets players. Ideally, I'm with meh on wanting at least one of D-Mo or Jones to prove to be a decent starter, with Casspi and Garcia splitting the role filled by Delfino last year. Depending on matchups, it's entirely possible to see the team finish games with Parsons and Casspi as an interchangeable forward tandem. But if the young PFs don't take that next step early this season (including showing a reliable stroke on the corner 3), I could easily see the Rockets going with Casspi as their starting 4. Why so? We're not talking about reconstructing the Orlando roster player for player, just adding similar TYPES of players (shooters) around Dwight. And the 2009 Magic did not have a player near the caliber of James Harden. This roster is a lot better than Orlando's was in 2009, IMO.
I do think our finishing 5 will be Dwight at C, Casspi & Parsons at the F spots, and Harden & Lin a the G spots. I just think we shouldn't start this way, I'd rather incorporate D-Mo to start, and play Tjones some minutes at the 4, and even Asik some at the 4. This way we keep our team fresher and run our best 5(that 5 aforementioned) for about ~15 minutes a game. Something like this: C: Dwight (33) / Asik (15) PF: D-Mo (20)/ T-Jones (12)/ Asik(5)/ Casspi(11) SF: Parsons(33)/Casspi(10)/TJones(5) SG: Harden(38)/Lin(10) PG: Lin(24)/Bev(24) Harden-38mpg Lin-34mpg Parsons/Dwight-33mpg Asik/Tjones/Casspi/Bev- 20-24mpg
Great post! There's little doubt he'll get minutes at the 4, but how many is certainly in question. Whether he starts or not is of little consequence. Matchups will likely dictate a lot about the rotation at the 4, and it should. Right now we have four PFs counting Casspi, and 3 of the 4 need minutes to develop into good players. There simply isn't enough minutes to go around. If Casspi really is ticketed for big minutes at the 4 we're better off trading one of our developmental prospects rather then stunting their growth riding the pine. I think this gets sorted out in camp. We're likely looking at another trade right before the season, after we figure out what we have.
I think you'll need to factor in Garcia as well... I see him getting a decent amount of minutes off the bench. Casspi has a chance to break the rotation to be sure and it'll be fun to see what he can bring to the table but I'm still in "wait and see" mode for him.
I agree with OP. At this point in the off season I think Casspi has just as much a chance of starting at the 4 as DMo or TJones. There should be no question that Casspi is the superior 3-point shooter to either of those 2. My questions about Casspi is can he give us anything on the defensive end to warrant letting him spread the floor for Harden/Howard? If he can then he may have a better chance than DMo/TJones of starting alongside Howard because he is the superior floor spreading shooter. And yes, with his size and added weight...he's most definitely a stretch 4 and not a 3. The mods really should neg rep Daywalker for his snarky off-topic comments in this thread. Just wasting bandwidth and attempting to smear another quality board member.
The thing that I very much like about this roster is that there is a lot of flexibility. I think it is a bit early to say if Casspi will be a starter caliber player and if that will be at the 4 position. I would not give any weight to the Cleveland period. That team was poison for Casspi's style of play. Totally different from the Rockets game. What I do think is that Casspi will mesh with this team extremely well and his competitive nature is precisely the spark that teams need. Clearly he has weaknesses in his game, but I hope that McHale can utilize his positive side to the best. If that happens, the Rockets did an extremely good deal with Casspi. All Casspi's positive markers, such as running the floor and moving well without the ball were non-issues in Cleveland with their extremely stagnant style in which Kyrie Irving dribble the clock away and takes the shot. If Casspi feels at home in Houston, he will be a deadly shooter. However, his contribution to fast breaks will be equally valuable. Casspi is not a bad defender, but he is not a good one either. He can compensate quite a bit with his good rebounding and shot blocking. The one thing that he does have a good anticipation is the steals. I'm not sure that he could not keep PFs at bay playing next to Dwight (or Asik for that matter). Cleveland was a team with no defensive game at all. The Rockets have two defensively very dominant centers. That will help Casspi's defense tremendously.
I pretty much also see something like this distribution of minutes. However, I believe Garcia will play all the minutes that Harden is not on the floor and the SF minutes you gave to TJones.
no way the minutes come out that neat. The starters will play more minutes than that and the rotation will be smaller. btw how did you forget garcia?
I hope Casspi can play any minutes. Every year in the league his minutes and TS% has dropped. He hasn't been able to steal playing time on horrible teams and he's shown declining ability to produce. I hope he can be a nice SF/PF style player off the bench, but the guy has not shown much in the NBA.
That's just an approximation... Of course it doesn't come out that neat, especially over the span of the regular season. What he outlined there is an 8 man rotation, that's about as small as it gets. In the regular season the rotation could see a lot of different guys as we test out lineups. Not including Garcia was an oversight but again, I don't think he was releasing his official predictions for the season, just throwing out what a possible rotation would look like including Casspi.
And you should not be here to begin with (based on your own bet that you lost. Whether you are actually here or not, I really dont care). But we all knew you could not honor your own bet and would return under a different moniker. The least you could have done was to take my offer of making a $25 donation to my charity and made an honorable return, which you didn't do either. So quit bashing other posters with the 'Oh I am so awesome and make so awesome quality posts' mantra. You dont like what the other poster has to say, make use of the ignore button. Back to the topic... As for Omri...can folks temper their expectation here? Unless I am mistaken, the goal of this team to contend for championships, not make the playoffs, or even do well in the playoffs. Is there a chance that Omri could be a starting PF for a legitimate championship contender based on what we have seen of him in the league so far? Umm...I guess.... But most reasonable folks would tell you not likely. We are not talking about a solid contributor on other teams. He hasnt really produced at all and we are talking about giving him a starting PF position on a championship contender!! Not any team, a championship contender. Not just limited minutes but the starting spot. You can say that based on what we have for PFs now, he might have a chance of cracking that lineup and securing a spot...but then I would argue our PF lineup is pretty bad as of right now. I would be ecstatic if he becomes a solid contributing PF for us while we are gunning for championships and that he is our solution for the spot, but lets be honest, its much more likely that that not gonna happen. I would wait and see what he can do in limited amount of playing time over an extended time. Lets see how he fits in the system on the court rather than on paper. If he can show that he can produce on this team, he will get his minutes. Heck, I am waiting to see how Dwight Howard fits on this team. Temper your expectations folks! PS. I also dont like the argument that since Morey has gone after him for years, he must be good. Morey has also gone after Amare for years...luckily we avoided that disaster.
Im just saying Howard, Harden, Parson are going to get 35-38 mins. I don't expect Jones and Dmo to play.
I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that you are referring to my comment above. However, that's NOT what I said. I said it was A GOOD SIGN. Big difference. And trying to acquire Amare (while still under his prior contract) at a time when the team had zero stars is not a sign of the front office's lack of talent evaluation skills. It's not like that meant the Rockets automatically would have handed the guy $100 million on his next deal. My expectations are certainly tempered about Casspi. They are paying the guy the league minimum and have a non-guaranteed second year. If he's good, he's an absolute steal. If not, no big deal. Throwing out the idea of him starting isn't ridiculous. Training camp will determine who should play and who shouldn't, at least for the early portion of the season.
he is a third string player that just got signed to a minimum deal, please re-evaluate your idea of starting him out of position on a championship contender
