PRESEASON Rockets v. Magic

[Mr. E]

Cool.

Despite being the biggest Motie fan on the boards, I'm cool with him going to RGV to get NBA-ready. Same for Lamb, tho I don't see that happening. I see both of them as "Next Year" guys.

White - eh...low risk, high reward. Willing to be very patient with him.

Good to hear about Smith, Lin, Parsons and Livingston.

Not sure how to read that Martin comment!

Asik...yeah, I'm loving everything we're seeing from him so far. Very happy with this guy. All I wanted was for him to get boards, anchor the D and clog up the middle. Sounds like that is happening.

[Mr. E]

Did Jones play tonight?

[rocketsballin]

he did but had a bad game. 4pts, 1rb in 19min. had 2 blocks tho

motie 12pts 5'6 shooting

[Guy986]

he did but had a bad game. 4pts, 1rb in 19min. had 2 blocks tho

motie 12pts 5'6 shooting

Yea but he only played in garbage time with a 20 point lead.

[pr0wler]

I don't see how we can keep Dmo out of the lineup. Although he is not strong enough to play the 5 much, and looks a little lost every now and then, he has been great at scoring the ball. He's weaker than most power forwards even, but at 7 feet tall his length helps make up for his lack of brawn.

As I was saying last week, White doesn't seem to be doing very much so far. He should be playing in the D-League imo.

Lamb hasn't been amazing but he is good enough to be the backup SG. He needs minutes and time on the court to develop.

Based on the rotations of the last couple games, I guess Shaun Livingston is our backup point guard? He is a good ball handler, lengthy defender, and solid passer...but he can't shoot at all. I would rather see Scott Machado out there, who is averaging about an assist every 3 minutes. Obviously a small sample and it's still pre-season, but he is legitimately one of the best passers in the league if those numbers stay anywhere close to where they have been thus far. He handles the ball well, he's built like a rock, and is quick enough to put pressure and disrupt the defense. I really don't see how they can keep him off the floor.

Rotation I would put out on the floor:

PG - Lin (32) Machado (16)
SG - Martin (30) Lamb (14) Delfino (4)
SF - Parsons (32) Delfino (16)
PF - Patterson (20) Jones (18) Dmo (10)
C - Asik (30) Smith (14) Dmo (4)

D-League - White, Morris.

[Zubby]

^^ No Livingston?
Machado no shooter either

[MaxRider]

starters:
C - Asik - no competition
PF - Patterson - veteran has some advantage
SF - Parsons - 2nd year but he's a vet on this team
SG - Martin - still our best scorer
PG - Lin - he's on magazine cover
bench:
C/PF - Smith - 2nd biggest body on the team
C/PF - Motiejunas - still learning in process, i see about 30 DNPCDs this season
C/PF/SF - Jones - like to start him, but he can play lot of positions, like Odom, good off the bench guy
PF - White - D-League written all over him, he can have fun in his bus
PF/SF - Morris - playing well for a game in preseason, unfortunately ex teammate injured him
SF/SG - Delfino - true vet
SF/SG - Lamb - will get some min from here and there depend McHale wants to win or lose more game
SG/PG - Livingston
SG/PG - Douglas
PG - Machodo - yea, he made the cut (at least for me), but soon to be release guy
_________________________________________

depth chart
C - Asik, Patterson, Jones, Smith
PF - Patterson, Jones, Motiejunas
SF - Parsons, Delfino, Jones
SG - Martin, Delfino, Lamb, Livingston
PG - Lin, Douglas, Livingston

[moofs]

I guess the only reason we aren't cutting Douglas is lack of depth?

[rocketsballin]

and hopefully cuz new york is pa ying his salary for this season, which is an expiring year for him. i'd rather have 4 pgs just to be safe about lin.

[Guy986]

I guess the only reason we aren't cutting Douglas is lack of depth?

expiring contract. Good trade filler.

[Sasaki]

I'm just not really seeing the Machado love, because while people like to emphasize passing for PGs, you have to be able to do something else, and Machado has been terrible at every other angle, whether it's shooting, general offense, or defense, where he's by far the worst player on the team. Ish could pass and defend, and he's barely in the league these days.

Maybe we keep him, maybe we don't. But I'm not seriously that concerned if we cut him, and the idea that he should be getting PG minutes over Douglas or Livingston is crazytalk to me.

To me, the only question mark is Morris. Dude played well until Thabeet acted like well, Thabeet, but that was an extremely small sample size, and Delfino played well throughout the season. In addition, Morris is theoretically the only other guy besides D-Mo who can do anything in the post, which I value immensely.

Still to me, rotation is problematic.

Lin
Martin
Parsons
Patterson
Asik
Jones
Delfino
Livingston or Douglas.

These guys definitely have to get minutes, and we're at 8 right there. And a prowler, an 11-man rotation is ridiculous. Ten is pushing it.
Smith, Lamb, Morris, and D-Mo have to fight for that last 1.5-2 spots - and right now, I'd rank them D-Mo-Smith-Morris-Lamb. As much as I like White, he's probably D-League bound.