HOUSTON ROCKETS Thread '14/'15 - Offseason - Picks (+ Jason Terry)

[blackxme]

Nice bounce back win, nice to see the duo both have big games. But we still need to play better on d, there were so many open shooters for Portland. Wesley, Batum, Lliard, etc had a ton of open looks because of poor rotations.

Nice to see Pat out there just hustling man, I love the way he plays.

 

[markangelo]

Why do we suck at pnr defense?

Good win for the team

 

[trueprada]

 

[markangelo]

^ Im at work and the vid is blocked, care to elaborate what it is?

 

[Peep Game]

A collage of James Harden just standing there on plays like he's enjoying the scent of stripper buttcheeks on his beard instead of playing defense

 

[markangelo]

8 turnovers

33 points tho

 

[jvthagr8]

A collage of James Harden just standing there on plays like he's enjoying the scent of stripper buttcheeks on his beard instead of playing defense

Lol! To his credit, he played some D last night, closing out hard on occasion and even blocking 2 jumpshots.
He really needs to put more emphasis on D but i'll take his elite level offensive production any day.

 

[hongcouver604]

Pathetic. He's not even keeping his eyes on the guy he's guarding, plus he just stands there when Redick was moving without the ball, he's just watching the ball. Some of the buckets he gave up were huge momentum swings.... I hope McHale actually speaks out about Hardens defense, hold him accountable when he's being lazy. His low % step back threes piss me off too when they're not falling.

 

[bonafide hustla]

its a matter of expectation imo. if you watched him guard Kobe in the WC Finals when he played for OKC, you'll see he is extremely capable of locking up/playing pretty damn good defense. It's pretty clear the Rockets are content with putting him on the 4th man and floating around all day helping in the lanes. and it makes sense as he is like 90% of the offensive motor/flow. But when you get a coach like Doc who knows how to exploit matchups, your offensive motor gets caught having to run around curls all day (tiring out) and that free safety floating matador ish gets exposed.

they need to find a way to consistently relieve some of his offensive duties while emphasize him locking up AT LEAST in spurts. i think Harden's cerebral enough to still get involved without having to dominate the ball every possession.

 

[markangelo]

smh, dudes in the NBA thread really talking bout starting a franchise with PG> Harden

 

[statis22]

Have you seen Paul George lately?

If he continues his upward trend then it's most definitely a debate.

 

[bonafide hustla]

smh, dudes in the NBA thread really talking bout starting a franchise with PG> Harden

thats not even close to crazy imo. Those two are probably some of the best young developing talent in the league. PG is younger, longer (nh where applicable), more atheletic, came in as a defensive mold and his offensive skillset is growing at an astronomical rate. So basically it comes down to the confidence in growing PG's offensive game to consistently put up star numbers. It's dumb early, but he's putting up 27, 8, 4, with 2 steals shooting like 50/40/80 percentages. He's trying to be a defensive KD out here :x

that said, im not sure how confident PG's offensive set will grow and sustain. If it does, him and Harden are just a matter of preference.

 

[bonafide hustla]

sorry, double post

 

[Peep Game]

I think I could agree about Paul George's stance, but it's definitely a coinflip between him and Harden, and I feel they have an extremely high ceiling. George's hairline is pretty immaculate though

 

[markangelo]

 

[markangelo]

 

[Peep Game]

NO TERRENCE NOOOOOO!!!

 

[jvthagr8]

 

 

[Peep Game]

CP3 and D12: what could have been
David Stern's "basketball reasons" foiled the Lakers' plan to join an All-Star pair

LOS ANGELES -- Dwight Howard had a smile on his face as he walked back into Staples Center on Monday night for the first time since leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, a team that wanted him so badly that it plastered a sign outside the arena and billboards around town begging him to stay.

He shook his head as he was asked questions about his former team while he took off socks with a caricature of a dog on them and gave computer advice to reporters. In the locker room down the hall, Chris Paul changed into his uniform without a smile on his face and talked to no one as he took to the court before anyone else.

They're the NBA's version of "The Odd Couple," a good cop/bad cop tandem that could have dominated the league for the foreseeable future.

Two years ago, Paul and Howard were heavily pursued by the Lakers. It was a match made in basketball heaven but doomed for failure without Paul's domino falling first.

The Lakers' plan was to first trade for Paul in a package deal for Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom and then acquire Howard in a package deal for Andrew Bynum.

It was a series of moves that would have not only made the Lakers current championship favorites, but positioned them to contend for at least the next five seasons with this generation's version of Magic and Kareem.

And then "basketball reasons" happened, and, well, you know how that goes.

The Lakers technically pulled off both deals, but when the first deal for Paul fell through and eventually led to him landing with the Los Angeles Clippers, the Lakers' subsequent deal for Howard was doomed to fail in the long run. They didn't know it at the time. No one did. That's the funny thing about hindsight: What seems so clear to us now was the furthest thing from our minds a year ago.

Who would have guessed that the Lakers' subsequent acquisition of Steve Nash, which seemed like an amazing consolation prize at the time, would have not only resulted in a one-legged point guard, but the ensuing terrible decision of pairing him up with his old Phoenix Suns coach, Mike D'Antoni?

As much as Los Angeles might have seemed like a perfect fit for Howard, what made this city work for him was Paul. Paul would have been that much-needed buffer between Howard and Kobe Bryant at the end of Bryant's career. Paul and Howard's parents remain close and would have provided the support system Howard never had in Los Angeles.

If Paul had been traded to the Lakers, Howard would have re-signed with the understanding that he and Paul would be doing what Paul and Blake Griffin are trying to do with the Clippers and what Howard and James Harden are trying to do with the Houston Rockets.

The truth is, as much as Paul likes Griffin and Howard likes Harden, Paul and Howard had always hoped to play together. Paul and Howard even talked about it this offseason as they entered free agency together, but they quickly realized that there was no viable option to join forces and be on a contending team that didn't have to strip every down every asset to pair the two. Their one shot at playing together was with the Lakers, and when that went up in smoke, so did their chance to being teammates.

The biggest benefactors of both dominoes falling in opposite directions, and perhaps for the first time in recent history not in the favor of the Lakers, are the Clippers and Rockets. While the Lakers are playing out this season with an eye toward next season and maybe beyond, the Clippers and Rockets are laying the foundation of what they think can be their respective championship teams this season.

More on the Clippers

For more news, notes and analysis of the L.A. Clippers, check out the Clippers Report. Blog
If the Clippers' 137-118 win over the Rockets on Monday is a preview of things to come, the future of the Western Conference might look more like it did in the 1980s, when defense was something you talked about but didn't really play until the playoffs rolled around.

Back then, teams like the Lakers and Boston Celtics would reload as top players and coaches lined up to join them. Now, the paradigm has shifted after Doc Rivers bolted the Celtics to coach the Clippers, who have never made it past the second round of the playoffs. This while Howard became the first "franchise player" to walk away from the Lakers by joining Houston, a team that hasn't made it past the second round of the playoffs since 1997.

"I've never understood what someone doing something 15 years ago mattered," Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. "It doesn't affect these guys. Fifteen years ago, the Clippers did this. Well, 15 years ago, these guys were 9 [years old]. They don't care. So culture change is really what you got going on right now."

Both teams have a lot going on right now, including the ability to do something one franchise hasn't experienced in a long time and another has never experienced.

"We don't have that history. We have to forge our own," Rivers said of the Clippers. "That makes it more difficult, obviously, but if you can succeed, I think the feeling of success will be greater."

Basketball reasons

 

[markangelo]

Thanks Stern and Cato

 

[jvthagr8]

^^^^^----- All Hail Stern! 

Truth be told I was a little pissed that King David blocked that trade out of principle but in hindsight, another season of Kevin Martin toilet paper thin toughness and the rest of the raggedy Rockets was well worth the Blockbuster fleecing of OKC leading up to this season of DH.

All Hail Stern.

 

[Peep Game]

I was ecstatic that Basketball Reasons happened. I have utter disgust for Pau Gasol, and didn't want his slow soft slew footed self here. They were preparing for a frontline of Pau, Nene, and Chuck Hayes. Hayes is still my guy, but no thanks.

 

[puglife]

Not sure if I'm allowed to post ESPN Insider articles, but I thought this was a pretty good read. Shows the difference statistically in how we perform with Asik in vs Casspi. Maybe having the Dwight/Asik combo in to start games has been why we always start off so slow?

Identity problem in Houston

It sounds like the pitch for an upcoming installment of ESPN Films' 30 for 30 series: "What if I told you there was an NBA team that couldn't score but survived with tough defense, and there was a team that struggled defensively but lit up the league with its hot shooting? And what if I told you they were the same team?"

Well, through five games, that "two-faced" squad does exist -- and it's the Houston Rockets.

For the Rockets, signing Dwight Howard away from the Los Angeles Lakers -- while crucial -- was only the first step. The challenge for the Houston coaching staff since the start of training camp has been to figure out how to best make use of Howard's unique skills. Five games -- and four wins -- into Howard's Rockets career, that process is ongoing as he prepares to face his former team Thursday night for the first time.

Without an experienced stretch 4 on Houston's roster to play the same role Ryan Anderson and Rashard Lewis played alongside Howard in Orlando, Houston coach Kevin McHale has settled on two completely different partners for Howard. The Rockets are opening games with a pair of traditional centers, Howard and incumbent starter Omer Asik, but usually finish games with 6-foot-9, 225-pound Omri Casspi -- a wing by trade -- playing power forward. The two different lineups have played to stereotype -- and then some.

The "big" lineup

Despite their 4-1 start, Houston has trailed after the first quarter four times in five games, a bad sign for the starting lineup. Even worse? The lone exception came Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, when Asik picked up two fouls in the first minute and went to the bench immediately.

The Asik-Howard combination has been more effective after halftime, putting together third-quarter runs against the Utah Jazz and Portland Trail Blazers. Nonetheless, the big lineup has been outscored by nine points in 60 minutes, per NBA.com/Stats.

With two elite defenders in the paint, the group has been as advertised defensively, holding opponents to a defensive rating (95.7 points per 100 possessions) that would rank fifth in the league. But with two non-shooters down low at the other end, the big lineup has struggled to score. Its 92.3 offensive rating would rank ahead of only the Jazz.

Howard has found room to operate alongside Asik. He is averaging slightly more points per 36 minutes with Asik on the floor (18.2 versus 17.3) and is shooting a similar percentage. It's the Rockets' usual 3-point barrage that has gone missing. With both big men on the floor, Houston has shot just 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) from beyond the arc. While that percentage is sure to progress to the mean, the limited attempts are problematic for a team that has built its offense around the 3-pointer.

One caveat: The Rockets have barely used their intended starting lineup since Patrick Beverley missed three-plus games after straining his abdominal muscle in the opener. Beverley has played just 10 minutes with the Asik/Howard duo, and his shooting might fit better with the big lineup than Jeremy Lin's drive-and-kick game.

Small ball

All it takes is one substitution -- Casspi for Asik -- to turn Houston from one of the league's worst offensive teams to its very best. When Howard is on the floor and Casspi is in for Asik, the Rockets have scored 119.6 points per 100 possessions, which would be the NBA's best offensive rating by an enormous margin. (They've been good enough offensively with the small lineup that they lead the league overall at 111.1 despite their poor starts.) Casspi, a 46.2 percent 3-point shooter in the early going, gives Houston four outside threats that opponents must respect, forcing them to choose between giving up open 3s or letting Howard play one-on-one in the post.

It also helps that the Howard-Casspi pairing sees most of its action at the end of quarters, when opponents are already in the penalty because Howard and James Harden rack up so many fouls. The Rockets' foul rate, a robust .545 free throw attempts per field goal attempt with the big lineup, surges to 1.125 -- more free throw attempts than shots from the field -- when they go small. (A hidden benefit of starting Asik is keeping the Rockets from having two poor free throw shooters on the court together when the team is in the bonus. Asik is a career 53.1 percent shooter from the line, while Howard is at 57.7 percent.)

The bill for playing small comes due at the other end, where Casspi is occasionally too small to match up with opposing power forwards. Add in the team's perimeter-defense woes, as exposed Monday by the Los Angeles Clippers -- which will be aided, but not solved, by Beverley's return -- and that puts a lot of pressure on Howard to clean up for everyone else. Howard has averaged 4.7 fouls per 36 minutes in small lineups, nearly double his average with Asik (2.4).

With Howard as the lone big, Houston is equivalent to the 20th-best defense in the NBA. So despite the overall success of these lineups, which have outscored opponents by a dominant 16.6 points per 100 possessions, the Rockets must determine whether elite offense and below-average defense is a championship-caliber combination.

The future

If the big lineup continues to get outscored, the Rockets have a few options. One is the trade route, and fans dream of swapping Asik for a quality stretch 4 such as Anderson or Ersan Ilyasova, who could provide the same spacing as Casspi along with more size. In the event that no such deal materializes, Houston's in-house alternatives include second-year forwards Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas, who have flashed potential as shooters but have yet to showcase the consistency needed to claim a spot in the rotation.

For now, the starting lineup grades an incomplete. Before Tuesday's game in Portland, McHale said he wanted to see the starters get more playing time together after early foul trouble took Asik or Howard off the court early in previous games. Because Asik is too valuable to strictly play behind Howard, and because of their defensive potential, expect the Rockets to be patient with their big lineup.

 

[Peep Game]

Good article Puglife. It's definitely gonna take some time for this lineup to work and sort itself out. It should be great when it does.

LAL tonight, let's mush these losers faces into the dirt and move on to the next team. I do expect LA to play up at least for awhile since they carry sodium everywhere they go, but with a better defensive effort like most of the Portland game, it shouldn't be a problem to throw them off the hell in a cell and beat them by 15 or more.

 

[puglife]

another slow start....