Who is the #3 Man Behind Howard and Harden?

The H&H explosion vs the Blazers is hopefully the start of more consistent all star production from the 2 main guns. So far, who seems to stand out as the #3 option for the team in terms of overall reliability and importance?

The 6 guys in the rotation playing significant minutes are Asik, Parsons, Beverley, Lin, Casspi, and Garcia. Casspi and Garcia have been very good role players but nowhere near being the 3rd go to guy.

Parsons was the one entering the season but it seems he is the one most affected by the arrival of Howard in terms of production and significance to the team. He thrived in the run and gun offense of last year because of his offensive skill sets -- finishing the break, spotting up for 3s on the secondary break, plugging in a few rebounds and assists here and there. With Houston running less and incorporating the TT setup with more post plays, Parsons has had less opportunities to shine and it appears that what we saw last year was the ceiling. Hard to envision him suddenly being able to create on a half court set or suddenly being a defensive demon. He is an extremely good "chemistry" guy because he is not a sulker when he does not get his share of shots and he still continues to do the little things to help the team.

Lin has been solid whenever he has been on the floor, showing a lot of improvement on his 3s, his left hand and general stability and court presence. He has significantly less assists because he has so far been called on to be less of a facilitator and more of an attacker. He seemed to have adjusted well to the 6th man role and leading the reserves, but Bev went down and he had to play with the starters again. From the past 2 games, despite playing above 25 mins, he had a lot of stretches where he and Parsons disappeared on offense when Howard, and more often Harden dominated the ball. His defense has been much better and even Blazers announcers marveled at the way he limited Lillard even though they were ecstatic before the game that it would be mostly Lin and not Bev guarding Lillard. He got burned by Paul in the Clippers game, but so have 98% of all the other PGs in the league the past few years.

Beverley has been a spark, whether as a starter or from the bench like vs the Blazers. He fits very well with the starters and is a monster on the offensive glass for his size. Of course, his calling card has been defense and he always seems to get the overall team energy and intensity up when he is on the floor. He is not called upon to create and he rarely forces the issue, so is he is a very low turnover guy. Even when not playing he is the rah-rah guy and am hoping he will be able to get in the faces of Howard and Harden as well and tell them off before they become prima donnas and their egos get out of control.

Asik, as when the season began, is still full of uncertainties. The TT setup has worked sometimes and has failed miserably in others. He has not been used a lot in crunch time with Mchale opting mostly to use Casspi or Garcia, and he and Lin are usually the first guys pulled from the starting unit, and Asik the last one back on the floor except when Howard gets into quick foul trouble. Could be he is just starting to get his basketball timing back after missing a lot of time in the summer, because he has been fumbling a lot of catchable balls under the basket like early in the season last year.

IMO, it's a toss up between Lin and Bev as the most important 3rd guy on the team. Mchale seems to be confused as well because his rotations apart from Harden and Howard have been erratic, a lot of times "going with the hot hand" as he did so much last year. Can't really tell if management wants to showcase Asik or Lin to eventually trade them for better value but the substitution patterns sometimes leave you scratching your head.