Casspi was hated by my friends who kept up with the cavs. They said his effort was piss poor and he was a horrendous slow plodding defender. I don't expect him to be the player that delfino was. Carlos at points last season single handedly shot us back into games and was a decent playmaker. I expect more from Reggie Williams then i do from casspi to be honest with you.
If Casspi is to start, he has to earn it from the bench. Until then it should be Terrence or Donatas starting. Or even Asik at the starting 4.
Well, that feeling was mutual, I guess (those who followed Casspi hated the Cavs for how they treated him) So it works both ways, but you can't argue that the Cavs didn't get their fair chance to show their worth... (After starting last season quite well - undoubtly much better than the SF alternarives, Casspi was benched out of the blue, for reasons that were business & personal, but not remotely professional...)
I agree with the Jabberwock. Casspi played actually well in the beginning of the season, but Scott did not want him around as Alonzo Gee was Scott's man. I had a look at Casspi's stats and it is obvious that Casspi played actually well in the beginning and in the end of the season when he got minutes (in the 15-20 range). Inbetween he played only less than 10 minutes or less (if at all). Those were the games that ruined his stats. So I don't know what was going on between Casspi and Scott, but it certainly did not do any good to Casspi.
I think Casspi has as good of a shot than anyone. People are expecting too much out of Jones and DMo. I think it's highly likely that Garcia and Casspi get as many minutes at that position.
I'm still trying to figure out if people remember what our weaknesses were last year. Casspi struggled as a bench player last year....
I looked at his stats in November when he played 12.4 min making 5.6 PPG and 2.1 RB, 0.3 AST, 0.3 BLK, and 0.7 STL per game. That's certainly not bad for 12.4 min per game!! During that strech he shot 46.7% from the field and 52% from 3pt-range. Also very impressive numbers. In the beginning of December he played in 4 games 20 min per game, but dropping his FG% to 35.7% and his 3pt% to 40% making 6.8 PPG but increasing his rebounding to 4.5, his AST to 1, and his STL to 0.5, but dropping his BLK to 0.25 per game. In the two following games (11 min per game) he went scoreless with 0 of 3 in both and he was done for good until April. To me it looks like the two games in December killed him. Before that his stats were actually stellar on a Cavalier scale.
It's not really a matter of remembering, since such stats never existed... Perhaps you're referring to 0.36 3PT%, and in that case - well, he's done much.better, but that's quite solid too. :grin:
With Howard, Harden, Parsons and Lin, even if we are in win now mode, we have the talent and ability to invest in D-Mo or TJ, IMO. Casspi is defintely not a poece yhats going to pish us over he edge in terms of contending, imo. We're young and hungry. We have 2-3 years to make some serious noise in order to win our championship and I'm hopeful. It would be great to develop one of our pfs in the next couple of years.
Well I guess we can cherry pick things to make his numbers look better. I hope he does well since he is a Rocket, but there is no reason to expect much from him. Like I mentioned earlier his minutes per game and his TS% has declined every year he has been in the league. He's also not an amazing defender to make up for this offensive decline.
Hi Robbie, thanks! A lot of data, and I'm not sure what you wanted me to look for. Is it the fg pct in the pre-allstar line? If it is, then OK - I can see the 36.7% fg, but the same line I also shows 35.7% from 3pt. Here's a thought: The fgs he took probably consisted only/mostly of 3-pointers, which would explain why the numbers are so close. The curse of 3PT gunners, I guess: * Note that Cisco Garcia made only 38% of his fg attempts in that same period, only 36% in away games, and only 33% in SouthWest division games!... * But the oscar goes to... Aaron Brooks, with 23% fgs in the post-allstar period last year... In short - If we pick and choose data, we can find basis to support almost any point: Did you know that Casspi is actually a special Anti-Heat Precision Weapon ? I just saw that when he played the Miamy Heat last year (3 games) he made 80% of his 3PT attempts!! See? told you it was funny...
I pointed it out because people were saying he started the year well. In short, Omri Casspi has performed worse each year in the league. If he plays the same way he has played the past 2 years then he will be riding the bench and planning his new career in Europe. He's shooting 32% from 3pt land over his past 2 seasons and he hasn't shown he can play good defense. Let's hope the trend doesn't continue.
I would not say it is established he is the 'better' player. I think Jones get the nod based on his upside, maybe DMO depending on his improvement in the off season.
We don't have anyone who fits right as the starting PF, so I'm sure the position is up for grabs in training camp. They'll need to test which deficiency is easiest to cover -- the twin towers clogging the lane, the inexperience of our true PFs, or the lack of size from going small-ball. If we do go small-ball though, I'd rather expect to see Parsons/Garcia over Casspi/Parsons. But, I could see Casspi earning it in training camp, since we wouldn't lose so much size.
I don't think I'm cherry picking. Between 11th of Dec and April Casspi played over 10 min only in 4 games. In 11 other games he played on average 5 min (in 3 games only 1 min). You can't really expect a shooter to make reasonable stats with that kind of minutes?? So, if you want to compare his stats to previous years, you should be looking only at games that he played similar minutes than he played previously.
I don't know if it is a problem, but it certainly is something totally unknown at this point. Casspi has not played PF so far (as far as I know), but he maybe able to do so in the Rockets constellation. My reference to stats does not mean that he will be a key piece for the Rockets this season. He might be but he may also fail. He simply must show what he's made of. I think he has a lot of talent, but can he take it to the floor. It's also not about him. It is about can he contribute to make the team better. All I wanted to say is that you can't compare apples and oranges. If you compare stats, it has to be made in a rational way. I don't think he should be bashed because of his stats, because he did actually much better. On the other hand it is also no promise for anything this season. My gut feeling says that Casspi will be a positive surprise, but only time will tell.
I'm still want to see how much Terrence Jones and D-Mo have improved. Casspi on his good days can light it up and grab rebounds, but he didn't show much improvement in his more recent NBA years. But perhaps this Rockets team can help his game.
