10/5 PRESEASON GAME 1: Pelicans v. Rockets GT

[Nebula1]

Lin as starter is best since he'll be focused on getting Howard and Parsons touches away from Harden so I think that works best. Plus I think it's great to have such a menace to unleash from the bench.

Unleash the Bev!

Also I really like Sampson as a coach. No complaints there and I used to really worry about McHale, but he's come a long way and I have my confidence in him now.

[moofs]

Unleash the Bev!

Beverly is quickly becoming one of my favorite players of all time.

I doubt anyone remembers Rhoderick Rhodes, but he was, as I recall, a very similar player defensively. Bev is like him at his peak, but for the entire time he's on the court, and he doesn't suck offensively like Rhodes did.

Does anyone else remember him playing 19mpg in 97-98 and shooting under 37% on 6ppg? Does that even happen anymore?

[Mr. E]

holy crap...Rhoderick Rhodes! There's a name I wasn't expecting to read today!

[MaxRider]

holy crap...Rhoderick Rhodes! There's a name I wasn't expecting to read today!

anyone going to wake up at 6:30am (center daylight saving time) to watch the next game on thursday?

[BaYBaller]

The team looked good. I only cared about watching the starters/rotation players because I was interested in seeing how their offensive and defensive sets will change.

Offense:
-Post passing is going to be need to be worked on for sure. Should also be utilizing the lob more with D-12 in the middle now.
-Clearly the coaching staff has instructed players to slash to the bucket if they bring help from up top on D-12 post ups. This was done by Parsons, Bev, and Lin, so it's nice to see the players adjusting to some of the fundamentals of playing off a post player. I think TJones could excel in this role too given his athleticism, however as I've said before his defense leaves much to be desired. D-Mo isn't a defensive juggernaut by any stretch of the imagination but it is better than TJones. I really have no idea who is going to be our starting PF at the end of the season. I think Greg Smith is a dark horse here since he is the best rebounder/defender of the 3, even though he has no jumpshot.
-I'm curious if the proportion of post-ups situations we saw in this game is going to carry forward into the season. I suspect there will be less post-ups as we move into the reg season and this was just a game where they emphasized post-ups to as it is new for the team as a whole to get the practice in.

Defense:
-More help is being sent to defend the PnR with D-12 in the paint now who is much more mobile than Asik. I think a lot is being asked of our PF here who has to help rebound/defend when D-12 steps up to challenge shots, but overall I think our PnR defense will be much improved.
-Harden clearly gave much more effort on D than we've been accustomed to seeing last year. You don't get much out of stats in preseason games, but seeing that effort level on D is a good sign. I thought Lin was fighting through picks better as well, though I'm not sure if it was effort or he got stronger or whatever.

As for the Lin/Bev debate because I like to douse fire with oil, I don't remember where I saw it but nearly every team stat you can think of last year comparing the two were like virtually dead even, on both offense and defense. People seem to have very polarized views, like Lin is all offense and Bev is all defense or whatever, but in reality it is not really the case, Lin is a better defender than most believe and Bev is a better offensive player than most believe. I don't think the team will perform dramatically better whoever starts.

I also think people are quite delusional if you think the coaching staff will turn the keys to the offense to Lin if he comes off the bench ala Jrue Holiday last year with the Sixers (it's pretty much a lock his stats will be down big this year simply due to his likely much lower usage rate going forward on his new team). The Rockets offense, even last year, was not some scheme of endless PnRs. We utilized a lot of dribble handoffs and offball screens. To think that Lin can recreate Linsanity purely because he is the "main ballhandler" with Harden on the bench or whatever preconceived notion you may have shows a lack of understanding of what HOU is trying to do on offense.

[MKL]

Also, Just think about this from a narrative standpoint.

Morey: Hey Jeremy, sorry about waiving you 7 months ago. Here is a proposal, we're going to pay you $8 million a year to run our 2nd unit. You're also going to be expendable as trade bait. But while you're here, we're going to milk your brief fame and success that you had as the starter of NYK to attract advertisers. This sounds great or what?

After demotion from starter to bench, it's usually a red flag for that player to be on the trading block. Usually you hear about "better fit" from break up and divorce. Importantly, Jeremy played great in the preseason game. For those watched the game it's kind of obvious. Both Jeremy and Patrick played great on defense, Lin had 3 steals on 19 minutes. It's only the day after the game you hear the "better fit" narrative creep back in.

To reiterate, I'm talking about the narrative.

[6_Rings]

^ if ur trading a player u should showcase him. not demote him. how else do you con another team into taking in his huge salary if u urself lost confidence in him?

i saw ur game. and Beverley is no pure PG. he's a SG with enforcer skills. energy guys should always come off the bench to maintain momentum.

[moofs]

^ if ur trading a player u should showcase him. not demote him. how else do you con another team into taking in his huge salary if u urself lost confidence in him?

i saw ur game. and Beverley is no pure PG. he's a SG with enforcer skills. energy guys should always come off the bench to maintain momentum.

I don't think it's a confidence thing I think Jeremy Lin is really good. I'd rather have Lin than Jrue, for instance (off the top of my head). The problem is the Beverly is arguably as good or better and costs a fraction of the price. However, when taking the difficulty of trading him into account, as well as the fantastic luxury of having two mid-tier starting quality point guards for 9m, it's highly unlikely he'll be moved this year, in spite of there being better options available. Additionally, Bev's super high energy style might not translate well to 36 mpg instead of 20ish, which adds further risk. Even further, having 2+ starting quality backups is a fantastic weapon in both playoff and injury situations.

It's one of those situations where everyone wants to get greedy(self included at times), but it's probably not the best idea.

Focusing on improving pf/backup SG/sf will provide a lot more benefit at a lot less risk.