- Watching these past few games, even in spite of the choke job against the Pacers, it is immediately evident how immaculate this team’s construction has become, in light of the Lou Williams trade. I thought to myself last night, I don’t think even Serge Ibaka–who I had hoped the team would pursue–would have made as much sense as Williams. In watching, Williams looks like such an obvious addition. They rid themselves of their only poor scorer, in Corey Brewer, and cleaned the floor. Now they have, at all times, a pick and roll scorer, shooters, a stretch ‘4’ in either Anderson or Dekker, and a roll-man in Capela/Harrell/Nene. D’Antoni has slid up everyone one position (Beverley to the ‘2’, Gordon or Williams sometimes to the ‘3’, Dekker to the ‘4’, and Harrell to the ‘5’) and as a result, created a fast, aggressive juggernaut with shooters all over the court. Harden’s unit speaks for itself, but every bench unit is a 3-guard iteration of some sort, flanked by Dekker who is faster than any opposing power forward. Sure the rebounding suffers, but as I wrote the other day, who cares? They’ll get beat on the boards every now and then but run teams off the court on most every other night. You live with that tradeoff.
- Beverley units without Harden, in particular, were fascinating to see because the Rockets invariably cranked up the tempo to account for the absence of the team’s quarterback. The biggest hole right now is Dekker’s shot which has been MIA for some months since the season’s beginning. If he ever regains his stroke, look out. The bench is already crushing people as it is.
- They’ve figured out the formula – put Harden in space and you can challenge 60 wins. So, if Harden is 27, and you have at least four more years, what are the obvious next steps? Gordon, Beverley, Anderson, and Capela are all under 30 and figure to be around for some time. The guy whose timeline would seem to be dwindling would be Ariza, though you hope he can hang on for as long as possible – the leadership will be difficult to replace. When that day comes though, aside from the obvious need for defensive abilities, I’d like the successor to have some ability to put the ball on the floor. Ariza pump fakes out of closeouts are one of the few sore spots left in this offense. But hey, you can’t ask for everything. Kyle Wiltjer would also seem likely to be brought up at some point as an Anderson alternative, if he continues his development. But could they ever find a ‘5’ man with range? That’s really the one area waiting to be exploited. Is Zhou Qi supposed to be that guy?
