I actually think Josh doesn't work with Clippers. He takes Blake off the court and can't post up as well and we all know he's a horrible FT shooter.
With all the moves in the West, it seems like we are anywhere in the top 5 just like last season. Damn the West Not in any order: GS, SA, LAC, HOU, OKC/Memp
If Ty stay focus we are better than the Warriors. Rockets/Spurs/Clippers fighting for top spot. Warriors/Gizz/OKC next
I swear to god sometimes it feels some of you are hoping other teams get better than the Rockets or for the Rockets to get first. Just pathetic really...
Lol the Rox beat them last year without good defenders at PF and PG you think they will win this year when you have Bev, DMo and Harrell to provide D? The bench of Pierce, Stephenson and Smith looks good on paper but in real life all those really are nothing more than additional scorers who need the ball in their hands..you need 1 of those guys but your bench can't be all those guys because their skillsets are all the same. AndStephenson and Smith are both chuckers who are inefficient. Smith was really valuable on our squad but that's because due to injuries to DMo and Bev we were left with Harden, Dwight and a bunch of spot up shooters. The clipps oth have a lot of guys who can score on their own so Smiths playmaking wont offset his inefficiency. TLDR: I'd worry way more about OKC, GSW and the Spurs. Clipps are nobodies at this point.
There was a write-up of the Denver-Houston trade, probably in CBSSports, that mentioned neither roster is set for opening day. True enough....I mean: 1) Lawson Beverly 2) Harden Brewer Thornton Jet? 3) Ariza Dekker (a couple of the "2's" can fit in here, too) 4) Donuts Tjones Alan Williams? Harrell? Chuck Hayes? 5) Dwight Capela I'm probably missing somebody. Good to have depth but you would think before the season starts and maybe after December 15th you'll see some more roster flux. You might say the same of other WC playoff teams but they appear closer to "set" than our teams. So it's tough to say in the damned Western Conference. You can only say for sure that Dallas and Portland took steps backward. Hell, if Durant comes back healthy? It'll be Cleveland in the East and 6 teams in the West. Again. Depending on our next move.
It was a question. I wasn't saying which was better. I initially added DMo and Beverly to the equation but removed it because they were really already on the team last year.
You do understand people can say the same thing about Lawson as you have said about the Clippers additions. And probably right after Josh Smith signed with the Rockets last year. The risk of adding players is that it might blow up. To be fair you have to assume that the added players are going to bring positives to their new teams. You can't just do it for the Rockets.
all good man, I was just answering your question and adding my reasoning why. Dmo & Bev were on the team, but in the head to head during the playoffs they weren't and that is the real test (if you want to measure the teams you look at the differences in the team roster during their head to head matchup.) Also taking into account the growth of our young guys like Cap, Dmo, Jones and the addition of our rookies in Dekker and Harrell....I think we improved far more than the Clips did. (and we can still add one or two more key players off the bench too).
LAC added two cancers and one old man, some of you think that they beat the rockets easily. Just wait, we do not know yet, but the rockets should rank in the front of LAC in this site. I am pretty sure that everyone in the LAC site would rank LAC at no.1 or 2.
One of those "cancers" helped us get to the WCF something we haven't achieved in 20 years so show a little respect to smith.
Yes, that is a good point, but that cancer likes our coach very much, but he still decides to leave his best-even coach to join another team. The guy is just not predictable.
We'll see. I sure hope so as a Rockets fan. I just now that the Clipper's weak point was their bench and they for sure strengthened it.
Lawson plus Beverley and Dmo being healthy trumps any and all other moves Western Conference contenders made. Aldridge absolutely helps SA but losing Splitter probably puts more stress on Duncan defensively since Aldridge isn't really a physical or dirty-work type of defender. I just don't think he fills a gaping hole in SA's roster the way Lawson does at PG for the Rockets. Clippers did well by picking up Pierce. He is the prototypical "vet we need to make a Finals run" player. He will probably win the Clippers a playoff game or two all by himself next season but he is long past the days of being a night in and night out type of force. Again, great pick up but he doesn't fill a gaping hole in the Clips roster. I don't think the Josh Smith signing really makes them any better or any worse. I guess he is injury insurance for Blake. Morey took the weakest PG rotation in the playoffs last year and (along with Beverley getting healthy) made it one of the best 1-2 PG punches in the league. Only health (which is a reasonable possibility) derails that. The idea of guys like Curry, Parker, Lilliard, CP3, WB having to actually guard Lawson or risk getting torched only to have him sit and then have Bev come out and hound them defensively for 94 feet is a great feeling. That has to by psychologically exhausting. It's beyond debating at this point that this team is absolutely loaded. We have an All Star or quasi-All Star at three positions, a PG and SF who are probably in the top 10% of defenders at their position, quality players off the bench and a nice mix of experience and youth. Morey is the executive of the year.
I'll say it again, we replaced our second best playmaker, who was a turnover prone, enigma, with Ty Lawson, a guy who ranked in the Top 2 or 3 in Assist/Turnover ratio. The addition of Lawson filled the biggest need on the team, a second playmaker. The Lawson trade was arguably the most important move of any team this offseason. Aldridge was a nice get for SAS, but will it really make them better? It certainly doesn't make them younger. It's not like they didn't already have a capable scoring big man in Duncan. To an extent, Duncan and the loss of key role players cannibalizes the Aldridge add. I wouldn't be surprised if they finished with a worse regular season record than last season. Aldridge is great for the future, but I'm not sure San Antonio really improved much for this season. Their PG is still really old in a PG-driven league.
I put Gsw at top because they are the champs, but Rockets, Spurs,Clippers, Thunder all in the same tier. 1. Spurs will have tons of issues vs us because they are stuck with timmy guarding Dwight. Usually they could just control Harden with Kawhi/Green. But Spurs last several years have had issues with penetrating PGs. They can't hide Parker on anyone now. Lin was a big part of why we swept Spurs because he was able to make a strong impact vs them. We struggled vs Spurs because Bev/Terry were just basically spot up shooters. Win total wise? They may be ahead because of their consistently but we could just as well out win them. In a series we should have an easier time vs them. Dmo is a solid post defender, his issues on defense emerges once you put him in the PnR vs athletic combos. 2. Clippers have been one our biggest mismatches because they specialize in overloading to one side of the floor. Harden before this previous playoffs had issues making passes out of those overloads once he drove in the paint, but he improved big time this year. They will be tough, but LAwson gives us enough firepower vs them. We are better than them IMO but they are still scary for me just because of Blake/Deandre. They are still a tough mismatch vs us with their starting lineup but it's a lot more manageable with Lawson. 3. Thunder can easily be the best team if they are healthy. Enes Kanter may have issues defensively, but they have great perimeter defense + Ibaka to minimize it. Them getting Kanter changed their offense tremendously. Kanter gives them a pick and pop threat, he's an underrated passer, fantastic post up player, and amazing rebounder. They will probably be the best or 2nd best offensive team in the league. Heck this is probably the best team in the league because of Durant and Westbrooks greatness. The keys to being better than them is our bench, making 3 pt shots, and defensive rebounding. Harden has torched them from the perimeter but has struggled when he tries to score at the rim vs Ibaka. Him and LAwson will be able to make the good dump off/passes to shooters and they have to captialize. 4. Warriors are the champs. Having LAwson helps the most here more than anything. Lawson may have issues with man to man defense, but if he can be a good rotater on team defense it will be more than enough. He will also force Curry to guard him. I'm not sure if we are immediately better but we will see. TL;DR We are better than Spurs and Clippers. We have the talrnt to be better than OKC and Warriors. But we need to do a good job rebounding on the glass and shooters have to do their job. If those 2 things happen, we have a very good chance at being better than both.
As of today, 7/20: (assuming 100% health). Tier 1: GSW, SA, OKC, LAC, HOU Tier 2: MEM Tier 3: NOR, UTH, PHX, DAL Lottery Tier: POR, LAL, MIN, DEN Dumpster Tier: SAC Initially I said Houston was a move away from moving up to Tier 1. The Lawson trade is that move.
It's going to be very interesting in the West...all the off season moves...I'm excited and can't wait for the start of the season.....morey may still got more surprises for us
