[Game#15] Rockets vs Grizzlies - Game Thread

[victorhe]

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like I would rather have Asik on the team rather than Dwight Howard.

[pr0wler]

People getting carried away about stonehands Asik. Yeah he played a great game tonight, and he's a better on-ball defender than Dwight...but that's about it. I still love to have him on the roster for insurance against Hack a Dwight, and possibly a second big to sometimes play alongside Dwight against teams like the Spurs that run twin towers, or maybe even Memphis when they have Gasol and Randolph in the starting lineup. But ya, Dwight is a superior shot blocker and overall offensive player.

[panarama]

Howard should never get the ball in the post. Ever. His points should all be on offensive rebounds and alley oops from up close.

He has NO clue on how to run the PnR. None. He'll set the screen, then stand and watch the offensive player, then he casually rolls.

I'm seriously shocked at how bad a PnR player Dwight Howard is. He doesn't set solid pick and he doesn't roll hard to the basket. PnR with him is just pointless. We have 2 of the best PnR ball handler in Harden and Lin and he doesn't roll.

I mean WTF?

Howard just has no real skill. He's athletic as hell and it got him by in Orlando, but injuries have limited him in a way, but I think his biggest weakness is that he's a mental midget.

Just like how he can hit free throw after free throw in practice but it all goes to **** in a game. Just watching him try and do post moves makes me cringe. He travels so often...I swear if the refs called him on it every time he did it he'd have at least two more TOs a game.

Asik runs the PnR way better than Howard does and Asik is only "decent" at it. And like you said...Lin is known to be a PnR player and that was all he ran during Linsanity when D'antoni was coaching and he tore teams up with it. He got everyone involved, made guys like Novak, Fields and Jeffries look good. Where are they now?

I know Lin is TO prone but he's one of those guys that can really set the tempo and get everyone clicking. He LOVES to pass the ball. But McHale seems SO intent on holding him back. He's mentioned in the past about Jeremy having too much of an ego. Regardless of what people think, I believe McHale is just not a "pg friendly" coach. He likes Beverley because he isn't flashy, doesn't want to score, doesn't really do much on offense and just plays defense and gets the ball to the "scorers" and shuts up.

McHale definitely isn't a PG friendly coach because he wants to be in charge of decision making instead of a nerdy looking "Linsanity" Asian kid who argues with him on his coaching style.

McHale must realized that J. Lin does make players around him better.
Also, I would rather see turn overs than stagnent ball movement.

[cat1]

People getting carried away about stonehands Asik. Yeah he played a great game tonight, and he's a better on-ball defender than Dwight...but that's about it. I still love to have him on the roster for insurance against Hack a Dwight, and possibly a second big to sometimes play alongside Dwight against teams like the Spurs that run twin towers, or maybe even Memphis when they have Gasol and Randolph in the starting lineup. But ya, Dwight is a superior shot blocker and overall offensive player.

Dwight's strength is his defense, not offense.
His offense is handicapped by his poor FT and no mid-range jumper.

[adrenaLINe]

Howard should never get the ball in the post. Ever. His points should all be on offensive rebounds and alley oops from up close.

He has NO clue on how to run the PnR. None. He'll set the screen, then stand and watch the offensive player, then he casually rolls.

I'm seriously shocked at how bad a PnR player Dwight Howard is. He doesn't set solid pick and he doesn't roll hard to the basket. PnR with him is just pointless. We have 2 of the best PnR ball handler in Harden and Lin and he doesn't roll.

I mean WTF?

I think the worst thing for this team is to have Howard posting up.... bigs usually take 3 to 4 years to develop their game.... not 9 years...

if he dosent start doing PnR better/with more effort, this team will never win a championship

[TruRoxFan_13]

This is really strange; Seems to me like there are more rockets HATERS on this thread than supporters.... You would think the rockets lost this game, judging by some of the post.... Sure we're having our early season struggles, but through these struggles we're still winning most of our games... The Miami Heat struggled much worse than this (in the weaker eastern conference) when they first formed their "big three"... Therefore i'm very optimistic in the future of this team!!

[adrenaLINe]

This is really strange; Seems to me like there are more rockets HATERS on this thread than supporters.... You would think the rockets lost this game, judging by some of the post.... Sure we're having our early season struggles, but through these struggles we're still winning most of our games... The Miami Heat struggled much worse than this (in the weaker eastern conference) when they first formed their "big three"... Therefore i'm very optimistic in the future of this team!!

were probably going to win around 50 games this season.... but wont come close to the Finals... Id rather see them work on making this a team that can win in the playoffs...

[TruRoxFan_13]

This is really strange; Seems to me like there are more rockets HATERS on this thread than supporters.... You would think the rockets lost this game, judging by some of the post.... Sure we're having our early season struggles, but through these struggles we're still winning most of our games... The Miami Heat struggled much worse than this (in the weaker eastern conference) when they first formed their "big three"... Therefore i'm very optimistic in the future of this team!!

were probably going to win around 50 games this season.... but wont come close to the Finals... Id rather see them work on making this a team that can win in the playoffs...

I think the only things holding us back from sniffing the finals is the turnovers and the way we close out games defensively; and I dnt see why those things cant be fixed with a little more time.

[Maudlin17]

This is really strange; Seems to me like there are more rockets HATERS on this thread than supporters.... You would think the rockets lost this game, judging by some of the post.... Sure we're having our early season struggles, but through these struggles we're still winning most of our games... The Miami Heat struggled much worse than this (in the weaker eastern conference) when they first formed their "big three"... Therefore i'm very optimistic in the future of this team!!

There are 2 max players on the team. One of them can't be bothered to play defense. The other one still can't make his free throws consistently and tries to post up even though he still hasn't learned after being in the league for 9+ years. Perhaps, people expect too much out of a max player.

The coach has shown very little consistency in rotations, plays his guys too long, has difficulty drawing up even the most basic of plays, and has shown little to no ability to control some of his players.

Management/coaching decided to start a guy at PG, who probably couldn't start for any other team in the league...instead of a guy that has been the second most consistent player on the team.

[Zubby]

The team needs a post presence, not gonna go anywhere without one. imo Dwight isn't as bad as you guys are making it out to be. I say keep give him touches in the early season build up the confidence gonna need it big time in the PO.

I'm not sure if I understand the concept of a 10 year vet needing to "build up confidence"

Yea it happens especially if said player is supposedly coming back from a back injury and is the most hated player in the media.


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[panarama]

Hey guys, we should take the NBA as its face value and take it for what it is.
The NBA is a big business first and the purist basketball game comes after its business side.
If you guys want to see real basketball then I suggest you to go see NCAA games.

Creating drama/emotion is what the NBA uses as its marketing tool to sell products. With this type of Mkt. scheme the NBA reached its highest notoriety by dramatizing ascendant of MJ's solo heroic display while negating a team concept basketball.

What AI, McGrady, Marbury and countless other failed superstars didn't realize was that even MJ needed his team mates to win championships and I wish Harden can realize this as soon as possible before becoming another statistic.

As for Howard, considering he went to the Lakers to play second fiddled next to Kobe tells me he wanted to win more so than caring about his ego. He didn't perform well last game but overall he still is the leader in rebounding in the league. So he is good to go as long as he keeps providing us with rebound and making block shots.

The More NBA can create superstars regardless of their shortcoming, the more NBA can attract fans and generate profit. By giving a gizzillions of dollars and a captainship to Harden who has these glaring shortcoming is what the Rockets must endure this year.

[inquisitive]

look...howard is a work in progress for a while...we know that and just have to accept it and use his strengths(rebounding and shot blocking)...can't expect too much from posting up and TO issues. i was hoping hakeem would've 'mentally' tutored him besides the other stuff. hakeem said he will return from jordan in february...was hoping he would return sooner to get howard to do the stuff he was taught in actual games. it kinda reminded me of when lebron was hesitant to post up in games after learning from hakeem and he finally got around to doing it, but still even that is few and far in between. it would be a milestone if he ever developed a turn around jumper.

[inquisitive]

keep harden out for the hawks and nets game...play him on saturday against the spurs.

[MaxRider]

keep harden out for the hawks and nets game...play him on saturday against the spurs.

let him rest against the spurs as well
we need spurs to win as much as possible for home court in final

[MaxRider]

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like I would rather have Asik on the team rather than Dwight Howard.

both have pros and cons
asik is better post defender
howard is better weak side help defender
team just need to learn how to play with howard

[texasholdem]

Will Dwight get an all star nod now that there is no more center spot only 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt starters?
Durant will get one spot for sure. Kevin Love will probably get another. so that leaves one more for Dwight? Anthony Davis? BlakeG? Dirk? Duncan? Marc Gasol? LMA?

[MaxRider]

Will Dwight get an all star nod now that there is no more center spot only 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt starters?
Durant will get one spot for sure. Kevin Love will probably get another. so that leaves one more for Dwight? Anthony Davis? BlakeG? Dirk? Duncan? Marc Gasol? LMA?

who's going to have more vote than him?
they started 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt last season

here are the top 6 number, yea i know howard was a lakers and got a lot of vote from l a, but still i don't think duncan and love can beat him, he's still more popular, since now he's a rockets, he's lin's teammate, he got asia to back him up

1. Kevin Durant 1,504,047
2. Dwight Howard 922,070
3. Blake Griffin 863,832
4. Tim Duncan 492,373
5. Pau Gasol 310,845
6. Kevin Love 283,458

[Nebula1]

I like what Howard is giving to the team. I think it's clear that he's valuing Ws over personal stats and his willfully helping where he can. And although his post game isn't as effective as it's been it the past, it's improving.


Harden and Howard should be All Stars, but I think they should make fan voting only part of the team construction. I'd rather see the coaches assemble teams.

[texasholdem]

Will Dwight get an all star nod now that there is no more center spot only 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt starters?
Durant will get one spot for sure. Kevin Love will probably get another. so that leaves one more for Dwight? Anthony Davis? BlakeG? Dirk? Duncan? Marc Gasol? LMA?

who's going to have more vote than him?
they started 3 frontcourt and 2 backcourt last season

here are the top 6 number, yea i know howard was a lakers and got a lot of vote from l a, but still i don't think duncan and love can beat him, he's still more popular, since now he's a rockets, he's lin's teammate, he got asia to back him up

1. Kevin Durant 1,504,047
2. Dwight Howard 922,070
3. Blake Griffin 863,832
4. Tim Duncan 492,373
5. Pau Gasol 310,845
6. Kevin Love 283,458

You can bet no one from Los Angeles or Dallas will vote for Dwight this year.