- Disqus is back and we’re taking down the forum. We’ll be installing one of the standard forum plugins to use over the offseason (while keeping Disqus for the blog) while we rehaul our custom-forum. The goal is to have it ready for next season.
- Adelman: really, it’s looking like he’s gone. That sounds like a terrible decision on the face of things. And it probably is. But I think you can at least understand the rationale. If you’re not planning to win big, why pay big? We also know Les likes to look smart and go for the hidden gem. The last time he tried it, he struck gold [finding Daryl Morey.] If the team uncovers some young analytics-inclined assistant, and can pay him $600,000 a year, is that necessarily a bad thing? It might serve to make management more efficient with a coach actually willing to look over the data the geeks print out.
- Ariza-Lee was sheer brilliance, we can all agree. Same with Dragic-Brooks. The jury is out on Thabeet, but the Terrence Williams deal is probably the closest example to a monumental disaster in the Morey era. I worry this might make the staff more averse towards ‘rotten apples’ (the reputation is that the Rockets only target solid-citizens in the mold of Patterson, causing them to miss out on potentially superior athletes.) He’ll probably get his shot next season with a new coach though, next season, so we’ll need to keep our fingers crossed. From my observation, there does not seem to be any issue with the other players (he gets along fine with everyone else in the lockerroom); I guess it’s just an unwillingness to play Adelman-ball. T-Will has prime-time talent so we should all be hoping he can put it together, despite his antics.
- I won’t say Kevin Martin should be untouchable because noone should ever be untouchable. But he needs to be a part of this team. He is the embodiment of the phrase ‘league’s best offense.’
- Fox26′s Keith Caulkins called Kyle Lowry a top 10 point guard in my last set of interviews and before that moment, I had not considered such a distinction. But yes, I think you would now have to include him in that upper-non-elite-echelon. Let’s put it this way: the Houston Rockets are absolutely set for the next five years at point guard.
- Scola: I would deal him, if possible. Patterson needs to be getting all the minutes he can handle. (see the team’s defensive point differential in Patterson starts.) I wouldn’t deal him just to deal him, but if you can get younger in the process, you explore that. Patrick Patterson needs to be the starter at that position, especially if this team wants to sustain its defensive improvements.
- Marc Gasol or DeAndre Jordan?
- Needed to reiterate: man, those Dragic/Lee deals were sheer brilliance!
