Twin Towers Big Frontcourt Dominance?

[90sAllDecade]

I didn't see a thread only about it, so lock it if there already is one.

What are your thoughts? It looks like potentially the top defensive and perhaps the best overall frontline in the NBA.

Center: Asik
PF: Howard
SF: Parsons

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f6qIT1wQI0[/youtube]


Who in the league can consistently stop it and how? The only one's I think can beat that extreme lineup are equally extreme; like a very athletic PF and C with deadly outside shooting or a specialized stretch 4 and stretch 5 combo.

Perhaps like a LeBron PF and Bosh C pairing, or Kevin Love at center with a stretch 4. Also I don't know if anyone still uses a stretch 5 anymore, is Sam Perkins still walking through that door? What do you think?

[MaxRider]

people say the twin towers wont work because they only look at the weakness and don't look at other team weakness
how team out there have enough PF/C with range that can play both for 36 min?

Heat - Bosh and Battier/LeBron, if they don't get kill on board, we can put in Casspi, like how many team can beat them?
Timberwolves - Love and Williams, if they play Love at C and Williams at PF they are going to get kill on inside the paint, anyway Williams been ask to play SF this season and he lost some weight to help his sleep
Lakers - Gasol and Kaman, yes they can shoot it but not in good percentage, they can shoot it all day long
Phoenix - Morris twins, they wont be in the playoff so we don't care
Knicks - Melo and Bargnani, if they put Bargnani at center Howard will kill him inside

[inquisitive]

LMA might give the rockets problems

[zapatasblood]

Yeah I am not for this at all. They look terrible on the offensive end. Sometimes it will work but not against most teams. The Nba is much small nowadays.

[MKL]

If McHale had the choice, he wouldn't play twin towers.

Asik made an ultimatum and McHale at least has to show that he gave this a try.

You really expect to see Harden fighting through screens and contesting shooters? Howard and Asik are glued to the paint.

[Vator]

Yeah I am not for this at all. They look terrible on the offensive end. Sometimes it will work but not against most teams. The Nba is much small nowadays.

Yeah they looked horrible on their way to sparking 37 points on the Spurs in the 3rd quarter and 30 in the 1st against the Grizzlies.

[TMACFORMVP]

It's looked awesome the last two games tbh. I think they were on the floor for roughly 12-13 minutes together in the last game v. the Grizz, and they only scored 1 FG in that time for 9 total points.

[inquisitive]

Jonathan Feigen ‏@Jonathan_Feigen 15m

Rockets will waive center Marcus Camby on Monday, source said. Camby has been unable to come back so far from torn plantar fascia tissue.

[inquisitive]

Jonathan Feigen ‏@Jonathan_Feigen 19m

Camby also could be a late season addition if Rockets have a roster need to add a center. Would give him time to get foot right

[tha_rock220]

Yeah I am not for this at all. They look terrible on the offensive end. Sometimes it will work but not against most teams. The Nba is much small nowadays.

Yeah they looked horrible on their way to sparking 37 points on the Spurs in the 3rd quarter and 30 in the 1st against the Grizzlies.

It's going to have to be a matchup thing. Against teams like the Grizzlies who use two bigs inside, I like Asik and Dwight getting a lot of time together. Bosh and Alridge are going to be trouble.

The thing is everyone is focusing on their deficiencies. No, they won't space the floor on offense, but they'll clog the lane on defense.

[moofs]

Yeah I am not for this at all. They look terrible on the offensive end. Sometimes it will work but not against most teams. The Nba is much small nowadays.

Except height still wins. Miami from the last two years didn't have many 7 footers it ran out, but their lineup as a whole was always big. Same with the late 90s bulls. "Small ball" is a myth ran up by NBA announcers who needed to make/steal storylines to keep things interesting.

Here's a chart from 2010:
http://courtsideanalyst.wordpress.com/2 ... ve-height/

I'm sure there are others around, but I'm busy today.

[90sAllDecade]

Here's an article excerpt by Jason Friedman about the Rockets and the twin towers defense this preseason
http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/numbers

- As for Houston’s supersized lineup featuring a frontcourt pairing of Howard and Omer Asik, the already small sample sizes get tinier still due to the time Asik missed with a calf injury. But just for fun, let’s see how Houston did when it played with its two Defensive Player of the Year caliber bigs alongside its arguably best perimeter defender in Patrick Beverley (Again, I can’t ring the “SMALL SAMPLE SIZE ALERT!” bell loudly enough in this instance since that trio only logged 26 total minutes of floor time together, the vast majority of which came during the Rockets’ destruction of Memphis last Friday night.):

- Rockets' preseason offensive/defensive rating when Howard, Asik and Beverley shared the floor: 115.4 OER and 67.3 DER in 26 minutes

- Opponent FG% with Howard, Asik and Beverley on the floor together: 29 FG%

- Opponents were just 3-for-11 at the rim when those three players shared the floor this month for Houston

Espn had predictions for DPOY and three Rockets got votes with Dwight the consensus leader.

Now, this is just the preseason and nothing has truly been proven yet, as well as being a tiny sample. I'll also add more thoughts after a few games and I see how it runs against real competition.

Regardless, of course I'm excited to be even thinking of our defensive potential combined with our already proven offense.

[jwise44]

Mchale will wind up playing parsons at center and casspi at pf

[dunleavyjr]

Again? I thought the Rockets had already tried the Twin Towers: Yao and Cato during the JVG era.

[pr0wler]

I've always been on board for it. Howard has traditionally been a center, but he is quick/athletic enough to guard pretty much every power forward on the defensive end. And it's a perfect fit against teams like the Spurs and Grizzlies who also have a big front court. Offensively maybe it's not totally ideal, but at the very least those two guys can crash the offensive boards like crazy and give our guys lots of second chances.

[moofs]

The main problem I have with Howard is how undersized he is. C'mon, Morey, get a PF that's over 6'9" already!

[adrenaLINe]

Yeah I am not for this at all. They look terrible on the offensive end. Sometimes it will work but not against most teams. The Nba is much small nowadays.

I like it because defence wins titles...

plus you have Harden to do his thing...

I dont expect Howard and Asik needing to do the bulk of the scoring in a game

[MKL]

Howard is a manchild. He wants to score and have big stats. He is very sensitive on his stats and his image. You think he's going to let Harden "do his thing", you don't know Dwightmare. In every interview, people ignore that Howard repeated said the offense needs to SLOW DOWN.

We have yet to account for that 10 ton elephant in the room. We're still on the honeymoon phase.

Dwight was DA MAN at Orlando and took them to the NBA finals. We'll have to see if HOU can shake up his mindset a little.

[90sAllDecade]

Game 1 vs Charlotte:

Asik: 4 pts, 14 rebs, 2 blks, 26 min
Howard: 17 pts, 26 rebs, 2 blks, 34 min
Parsons: 10 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 39 min

To the Bobcats credit they played very good defense, but the Rockets held the Bobcats to .367 FG% and out rebounded them 54 to 37.

[ubernathan]

Game 1 vs Charlotte:

Asik: 4 pts, 14 rebs, 2 blks
Howard: 17 pts, 26 rebs, 2 blks
Parsons: 10 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast

To the Bobcats credit they played very good defense, but the Rockets held the Bobcats to .367 FG% and out rebounded them 54 to 37.

40 rebounds between Asik and Howard; it is a thing of beauty.