Hey guys, being a dad now who lives overseas I couldn't watch any game so far -but I am really curious about how our new guys look. I know it is pretty early for an evaluation and I know it is only preseason, but I am interested in your thougts: We lost Lin, Asik and Parsons - and added Ariza as the only known commodity. What would you say so far, does it look like Ariza, Papa, Dorsey, Black or whoever else we got fill the void they left? Do we look like a better defensive team? Who will be our 6th man and provide scoring of the bench? Do we have any chemistry left after losing half our playoff rotation?
Well, it's hard to talk about chemistry for preseason games... but as individuals, Papanikolaou, Ariza, Adrien, and Black have all looked good. Dorsey has looked lost. Defense does look better. Who knows if they can fill the void. Weird line-ups are always on the floor because it's preseason, so it's difficult to say if the void can be filled. As for the 6th man off the bench who can provide scoring... there really isn't one.
This sums it up. I like the energy of Adrien and Black off the bench. I didn't get to watch yesterday's game so I can't comment about Dorsey. Papa and Ariza looked good in the past preseason games. I'm excited for the season to start!
Unsurprisingly that still seems to be our biggest problem. Frankly every big man that doesn't wear 12 concerns me. We've talked about Jones deficiencies ad nauseum. D-Mo, despite showing good flashes offensively and defensively, can't seem to keep it together on any regular basis. Dorsey looked terrible and Adrien has been underwhelming. Black is the only one that has shown some positive flashes, but I'm not getting excited about an undrafted rookie. On the positive side, I'm really liking Papa. He is one of those guys that seems to have basketball savy. I think after the adjustment period he's gonna be a great rotation guy. Gotta start hitting them 3's though.
Bev, Harden, Ariza, Dwight - N/A. We know they're good. Terry - N/A. Hasn't played yet. TJones - Looks to have not progressed from last year. Is still average overall with occasional flashes of something greater. DMo - Looks like the game has slowed down more for him. Seems best as a center playing alongside a PF whose physicality and defense make up for DMo's lack of physicality and defense. Daniels - He good. Playing better than I thought he would. K-Pap - He is who we thought he was. All he really needs to work on is getting in better shape physically. As Worrell said, he still has that European body. Canaan - Disappointed he hasn't asserted himself as the backup PG. He still looks like a 3rd stringer who needs another season or two before he can play a big role on a contending team. Nick "Big" Johnson - Has looked encouraging as a rookie so far, but a season in RGV sounds like the best thing for him this year. Ish Smith - His lack of an outside shot obviously hurts the flow of our set offense, but his strengths in other areas make him our best backup PG right now. Adrien - Has been solid, but I don't know if he has a spot on this team. Too many ok PFs as it is. But if we trade away DMo and/or TJones, I would not be opposed to keeping Adrien as a bench guy. Dorsey - Has looked slow and unathletic. Probably unfair to judge him on his play in the games if he really is hurt, but he has looked more similar to the previous Rocket Joey Dorsey than not. Tarik Black - He has been great. His game is obviously limited, but he gets the most out of it. If we let him go, someone else will pick him up and we fans will be sour about it for a long while. I really hope he makes the team.
I predict a lineup of Beverley/Terry/Ish Harden/Daniels/Terry Ariza/Pap/Garcia Jones/Black/adrien Howard/Dmo/Black 6/7/8/9 Daniels/Pap/Dmo/Terry
I think our Starting 5 could be one of the best in the league. Our bench? That's worrisome at the moment. If nothing else...I don't think we'll see as much dreadful defense, which my biggest concern. Loving Ariza's game so far.
Bev/Harden/Ariza/Howard you dont have to worry about. Jones is still inconsistent Daniels can shoot the 3 at GOAT status. Nick Johnson isnt ready. Dmo looks good.
our starting lineup is a better fit, we still suck at the 4, we suck at pg, but we have a better overall bench from having actual backups on the wings
We didn't lose much in the off season we couldn't replace, if anything defense got a little better with Ariza. We are pretty screwed against PF's that are above decent, we will probably have to gamble and put Dwight Howard on Duncan, LMA etc and hope their center sucks. But if Dwight gets in foul trouble, we are ****ed
My thoughts: The season would be over if DW12 or JH13 gets injured for any length of time. The offense is nothing but iso and shooting 3s. The defense would be out-rebounded by the opposing teams. The Rockets would lose at least 10 games by fouling too much and allow too many free throws by the opponents. In conclusion, another disappointing season.
slow your jimmies. the rox have looked better than any other team during the preseason (i know it's preseason) but teams are playing their starters against our bench for an extended period of time. We will be better than last year. our game is 3 and go.
My thoughts: We have a good starting line up. We have 3 players with defensive mindsets. We have hustle. What we don't have -- is height. That worries me. Seeing Davis and Asik out there made me super jealous. If only we could have made the twin towers work. Size for days. Rebounding is going to have to be a group effort. We need a legit backup center. I am excited about DMos progress. I really think he is the answer to the 4 spot. Jones' shot is not great, but the guy is athletic and he has handles. He can certainly take advantage of some stiff matchups. But DMo down low? That's sweet stuff right there. Not liking our backup pg, and who the hell is our back up sf?? Knowing what we know now, I would have been willing to keep the same team as last year, and let Parsons walk after this season. We need some continuity. We can't keep changing half the team every year. JLin was over paid for his part on the team, but he was a great backup, imo. Changed the tone of the game, and occasionally was capable of putting up some stellar numbers. I don't think Canaan or Ish has that in them. I'm confident we'll make a trade by Feb, but if not, with Dwight and Harden playing like they should, we can get out of the first round even with this squad. Last year was a fluke.
It's hard to really to judge the whole team based on pre-season so I just look at the players. I like Adrien. He seems very active and like he has no fear to bang. He actually reminds me of Greg Smith. Sadly Smith played hard but didn't really have a lasting effect on the team, so I try and ease back on my excitement about him. Ariza has been fairly solid and the weaknesses I feared from him haven't been a problem in preseason. So that's a bonus. It's just too early to tell.
Also, Monty Williams played His starters and 6th man for about 30 minutes each last night. Asik and Anderson were still playing in the 4th quarter. And he played his regular bench guys. The Rockets were playing guys at the very end of their bench. And this was a back to back on the road for the Rockets. And the Pelicans were shooting an ungodly 75% in the first half and the Rockets were missing shots and their percentage was in the 30's. And the Pelicans still had trouble putting the Rockets away.
There have been plenty of good surprises like Papa, Adrien and Black who are way better than expected. The only one that has been surprisingly unsurprising has been Dorsey Special mention for "Trey" Daniels, has he missed a 3 pointer yet??
