Aldrich seems like he might be good enough for the NBA, but Smith is a better overall player. Meh, who knows. McHale gonna McHale.
cole plays better defense. Smith is only better than him on offense. Also cole rebounds better. simple
TBH, I'm not sure Greg Smith was at any time a plus defender. Sure, he's been fouling a bunch more lately, but his defense always seemed suspect to me. Not a knock on him, as he's only 21 and a de facto rookie. But for now it's simply bad. Therefore, IMO, what's keeping Smith out of the rotation is his lack of offense. When he's not getting his layups and dunks around the basket, he becomes a liability due to his bad D. When Smith is on the court, he MUST finish at a high rate to offset his defensive deficiencies. And these days, it seems teams have scouted him out and aren't giving him opportunities inside, which has made him much more useless as a player. In this sense, Greg Smith is similar to someone like Novak who must keep shooting a bunch of 3s to justify his playing time.
I think it's just a competition thing. Cole must be playing well in practice. He came in and played some okay defense and went for the slam every time he got the ball. Wasn't a foul machine like he normally is either. Young guys seem to play better when they're fighting for minutes. Though it could actually be a showcase too but i doubt that cole is the linchpin to any big trade.
Well then stick dmo or tjones. IMHO, tbh, to his defense, i give him the benefit of the doubt. It's his first year. This a very young team bound to happen.
I think Aldrich is just genuinely better at protecting the rim and intimidating shots then Smith. Given his 9'3.5 reach in comparison to Smith's 8'11 reach. But beyond that, I think it just comes down to the fact he's a natural center, as a opposed to Smith who's made the transition to the five from college, where he played the four.
McHale is trying to make the team better. It's a shame he can't make any move at all without being called names and bashed by Clutchfans. The Rockets aren't going to win a championship this year, it's a good time to play different rotations to see what works and what doesn't. Smith does some things pretty well, but he clearly is weak in some parts of his game. I see nothing wrong with letting Cole get a few minutes to see what he can do. Maybe the Rockets have had another team call and ask about Smith, so the Rockets want to see if maybe Cole could be the full time backup. There are many reasons why Cole may have played last night. Let McHale be a coach and stop complaining about every move he makes. Hey the Rockets are three game over .500.
I agree completely with you that the Roxs aren't winning it all this year. But! They should be seeing what we have in all our young players. Beverly, DMo, Jones, Anderson, should all get more than just garbage minutes. It's not just Aldrich. The problem with McHale, and I believe this is a very fair criticism, is that he's not consistent in his sub patterns, his usage of rookies, and his treatment of certain players. We expect consistency from our players and criticize them when they aren't. Yet we have a coach that is not consistent himself. If anything, the coach is suppose to be the most consistent one on the team, because, we'll it's his job to coach, so he should get a lot of the blame when the overall team is inconsistent.
You are entitled to your opinion, but I disagree with much of what you say. The difference between Cole and our rookie players is that Cole is in his third year and his contract is up at the end of this season. The Rockets are going to be forced to do something with Cole in the next few months. Trade him, sign him to a new contract, let him walk away. A decision has to be made very soon with Cole, but not the rookies. Maybe the Rockets are showcasing him, maybe they are trying to decide if Smith really is better than Cole. But, I can see why there may be a reason to be playing Cole right now and not the rookies. We have the rookies locked up for years to come, there is no reason to rush them into the lineup. Secondly, I don't have any problems with McHale and his rotations. I don't want a coach that is a robot and always uses the same rotation. The teams the Rockets play are different, and I want the coach to use a rotation that gives us the best chance to win. That may require the coach to use different players on different nights. And finally, I don't think McHale has treated any player unfairly or with disrespect in any way. I think McHale has done a fantastic job this season and I am amazed the Rockets have a chance to make the playoffs. I hope McHale keeps doing exactly what he's been doing.
you need to remove bigger and slower from that sentence. smith doesnt know how to box out. undersized for a C and is lack of hustle. using smith for C just to have little inside scoring is clearly insane. this nonsense started with Landry but at least he had athleticism and he likes contact.
I can't remember, has Mchale played Smith on the 4 alongside Asik yet in one of his in-game experimentations? And if so, how did it fare?
Greg Smith has been kinda terrible lately, i still like him alot. But he needs to step it up and also quit racking up so many fouls. He was the lone player that had a really bad game in the blowout over Utah. I was fine with giving Aldrich some minutes to see if he could be any better. It was prolly just Mchale sending a message to Greg saying hes gotta play better.
Smith's defense. Once Asik goes out, our team is basically opening up the paint. We need a defensive minded pf + a solid backup center, then we have to wait till our boys to get better a bit before anything can really happen
