I agree to some extent. However it might be asking too much of Casspi and Garcia IMO if they aren't playing with the right surrounding pieces to make life easy on them to just do what they are good at. I think health of Beverley and Asik right now is a big part of the bench struggling to make buckets. Asik is very good at defending the paint, getting the rebound, and pushing the ball quickly up the court for easier buckets. Lin is great at attacking the rim, and sucking the defense in where guys like Casspi and Garcia could do what is expected of them more which is to hit open 3's. Right now, they aren't getting clean looks, and having to work hard on the defensive end where they are often outmatched which is the main problem. The big question marks though are What can the team really rely on Asik for in the immediate future (injury, sulking, trades for crappy players or picks that don't help now), and if you cannot rely on Asik to produce, and you aren't sure if Lin is going to go back to the bench in a 6th man role, would you might want to think about going in another direction with different bench players? Maybe think about some veterans out there that could be available here in the coming weeks to do other things for your bench. Morey might give a vote of confidence by saying he believes in guys like Casspi, Garcia, Covington, etc. now, but I have no doubt that he will behind closed doors do his due diligence to improve the bench at some point here in the near future... Of course... depending on what happens with Asik first if anything. The Asik trade/sulk/non-trade has been the biggest thorn in the sides of the Rockets this season so far. Lets hope they figure this crap out quick.
Depends on the frog. A bullfrog is pretty big. However, he'd be more likely to eat the scorpion than carry it on his back. They would both still wind up dead, but the moral of the story clearly changes.
Rockets play best when they play bold and daring, together on the attack, consequences be damned. WHen they start trying to play carefully, they second-guess themselves and their mistakes become even stupider. Everybody gets scared to shoot and pass, then we end up with iso-ball.
Derailed but not decelerated! Okay, did you know originally the Greek version was of a frog and a mouse? And in the future it will be the Scorpion and the Fox. Spoiler <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/l2p8o77xJEI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> One hour till tip off, guess I should slow down on the beer.
Bullfrog's immune to scorpion stings. He could pretend he wasn't and wait to see if the scorpion stings him. If it did he can pretend like he's dying and sink to the bottom, both drowning the scorpion and getting away with murder.
remember when the rockets got jon leuer in a trade? i don't remember the details only that he was cut very soon. that was a mistake by morey. he is playing really good for memphis and has a 900k for 3 years contract.
The Rockets had something like 20+ players going into training camp, in a rebuilding year where they needed to preserve cap space for trades, with about 45 power forwards, and Leuer had a non-guaranteed contract that pretty much screamed "cut me first". If Leuer was that good of a player he wouldn't be rumored to need to be cut or moved as filler in a miniscule Courtney Lee/Bayless trade, and would be in the Grizzlies rotation playing heavy minutes. After 3 seasons and 4 teams played for by Leuer I think the obvious answer is that Jon Leuer is not the answer for any NBA team… much less the Rockets. If Morey made some huge mistake by cutting Leuer, he could simply un-do that mistake in a heartbeat by picking Leuer back up when he gets cut again in the next year or two, or trade a pick for Leuer if he's really turning into that good of a player…. which he's not. (note:Leuer matched him career high of a whopping 23 points tonight against the Pistons…) One game doesn't wipe away 3 seasons and 4 teams in one night. Lets please not bring up every player in the league that has a career night every night as the answer please. Adam Morrison once scored 30 points in an NBA game FYI.
He scored in double figures in 7 straight games. Omri Casspi has only scored in double figures in consequtive games once all season and never more than that.
Please see his stats from November, and last year, and the year before that. Look, he's played efficient offensive basketball off the bench this month, but it has to be noted that if the Grizzlies had halfway decent health with their bigs Leuer probably wouldn't see the floor much at all. He still can't defend NBA bigs the way you would like, and most teams obviously believe they can do better at the 4/5 spot. The fact that he is a decent shooting big shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who has followed young NBA players in the league the last few years. Its everything else that raises questions as to Jon Leuers role on an NBA team long term. Would I welcome Leuer back on the team as a specialist.... sure. Would I say Morey made a mistake in letting him go because he's some great difference maker... absolutely not. The Rockets had bigger fish to fry back in training camp a few years ago, and they still have bigger fish to fry right now as they are trying to build around Harden/Howard/Parsons with long term solid veteran players.
No kidding. In my experience, Morey is pretty honest in his public comments. He may choose to not say anything, and he might play down things because he thinks they're unlikely only to have them transpire later, and he does defintiely take some public postures ("we'll match any offer for our RFA"), but I don't see him just lying. Besides, the other GMs know a lot more of his business than we do. If he's playing mind games, he'll fool the fans before he fools any GMs.
I find it funny that you include Parsons in the permanent list of players when is actually minimum salary player also.
lmao... nobody is getting riled up because of Jon Leuer. But mind you he has been playing better than most of our bench guys. James Johnson also, a lot of guys are better than Garcia, Brewer, the big guy, and to some degree Aaron. And to be fair as a Rocket he did not get the chance that some of our minimum guys were given. This year there is nobody standing out as a super-sub and that's disappointing.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Will the Rockets be active at the trade deadline? "We're primarily going to stick with what we have." - Morey</p>— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/SiriusXMNBA/statuses/421012258739597312">8. Januar 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Blockbuster coming, folks.
The problem with this line of thinking is that Garcia and Casspi are shooting at their career averages(only 1% lower for Garcia). They are who they are. They likely won't get much better. If anything Garcia overachieved in last years playoffs which has had a fools gold effect this year. We need a Dunleavy or Delpino, perhaps a Meeks and also a backup center.