10 replies to this topic

[thejohnnygold]

Curious where everyone would rank our bench versus other teams across the league...I feel like, in addition to Harden's Bad-assery, our plethora of players is a major reason we are able to run rough-shod over most teams. Discuss...

[thejohnnygold]

I'll start. Currently only Royce White is getting zero minutes....there is a separate thread for that...

Our logjam problem has become a weapon. Regardless of who starts, our depth at the 3 and 4 positions is allowing us to find mismatches in every game. Harden and Lin will do their thing regardless of who we play....Asik as well (although I saw PPat has played well at center when we go small). After that, Mchale has deftly found the right combinations that allow the rockets machine to hit on all cylinders. I think this is part of why every game seems to produce a different "wow" stat line from one of Delfino, Ppat, morris, etc. It may take a quarter or two, but the weakness gets spotted and exploited. Maybe I am attributing more credit than is deserved to mchale, but I'd like to think he is doing these kinds of things.

D-mo and machado are starting to get a few minutes here and there and now we have James Anderson. Maybe he can be another Scola-type steal from San Antonio.

I saw someone mention that toney douglass should be starting and let Lin command the second team. I would like to see that a few times...sounds like a good plan to me. Also, does douglass get most improved player award if he keeps this up???? who knew??? Morey did.

OK, enough spastic rambling about our bench....here are some teams I think also share our good fortune:

LA Clippers
Brooklyn
NY Knicks
Golden State
San Antonio
Denver
Utah
Miami

[Ostrow]

The Warriors bench really isn't that good. Jack and Landry (one of my all time favorite Rockets) have played well, but other than that they aren't very good. I was at their game that they beat the Clippers the other day and the bench outside of Landry looked absolutely awful.
Boston's bench is pretty good. Chicago's is pretty good as well, especially when Rose comes back. Dallas has played pretty well too. And I like OKC's bench actually. They have some very productive players.

[thejohnnygold]

Fair enough....how would you rank the rocket's current bench vs. theirs?

[rockets best fan]

the rockets have a top 7 bench (IMO) I agree the log jam at forward is becoming an asset. not ready to give mc hale credit yet( lets see if he can get them through the season without the meltdown of last year). I believe the overall quality of players 1-12 on our team will be one of the most talented teams in a couple of years just given time. we are an up and coming team because morey appears to have done his homework....well accept for the white situation. his over all eye for talent combined with a little luck(the harden trade) has positioned us on the path to contender. the teams I think have a better bench than us......clippers, denver, the spurs, okc, boston and the bulls, but we may surpass any and all b4 the season is out because we are still young and learning.

[Sir Thursday]

Toronto's bench is a bit underrated. They were able to go on a tear when Lowry and Bargnani went down precisely because of their strength in depth. Calderon-Ross-Anderson-Davis-Amir Johnson is a pretty sweet second unit.

Also, I quite like Dallas' bench mob. Elton Brand is a pretty good player to have as a backup, Vince Carter is having an excellent season, and I really like what I've seen of Jae Crowder so far. Beaubois and Dahntay Jones aren't terrible, either.

On the other hand, I'm really not a huge fan of the Brooklyn bench. They've got Blatche and maybe Brooks, and who else? The corpses of Stackhouse and Bogans?

[bboley24]

HaHa! I love it.

[areteejay789]

it would be interesting to see our bench players pts/40min reb/40min etc and compare it to other teams. does anyone know where we can get that sort of information?

[thejohnnygold]

Sir Thursday, you are right about Brooklyn...I had Evans coming off the bench....turns out he starts...significant difference.

areteejay789 I was just looking at that....our PF's usage rate is about 60% of the top PF's in the league.


Check here:
http://insider.espn....s/_/position/pf

Basically PPat and Morris are splitting the minutes 50/50. Skew that to allow for a normal usage and you would probably addd 50% to either player's stats (Basically assuming they play 36 minutes instead of 24). Sooooo...(knowing there is a margin of error doing this)

PPat: 19.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 1 blkpg

Morris: 13.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, .6 blkpg

I do not think these are unrealistic averages to consider. PPat is looking like he would find himself top 10 with ease if he got the minutes....although, maybe it is the split that allows them each to play with more energy and fresher legs and excel a little more....who knows?

[Cooper]

The rockets could use another wing player but still a very solid bench.

[thejohnnygold]

The rockets could use another wing player but still a very solid bench.

Perhaps James Anderson?...........Dude was a scoring machine in college......maybe the light switch comes on for him. Royce White aside, the Rockets are on a hot streak of good fortune.....