We don't have Lebron....
Neither does Miami or LAL
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Posted 09 August 2014 - 12:02 PM
We don't have Lebron....
Posted 09 August 2014 - 01:11 PM
Posted 09 August 2014 - 01:41 PM
Posted 09 August 2014 - 02:46 PM
I'm pretty sure Troy Daniels is getting big minutes with the rockets if not the backup SG position. After the playoffs, I doubt we'll see Troy in a vipers' uniform any time soon or at all for that matter.
Getting big minutes in the playoffs tends to carry over in the regular season.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 02:51 PM
Papanikolaou signed last night giving us 18 players on the roster. Non-G contracts of Scotty H, Josh P, and Gee get cut. Capela (212 lbs), Covington,Nick Johnson (good basketball IQ but can get some seasoning) and Troy Daniels (needs work on defense) will get stints in the D-league.
I disagree about Daniels--if his shot is as good as we all think then he will be on the roster....and on the court. You don't keep a weapon like that holstered.
Ish smith and Jeff Adrien get little to no playing time just like Ronnie Brewer got little to no playing time. Situational defense at end of quarters or game....Adrien (PER of 18.4) shoots 0% from 3P and Ish 4% from 3P land. Before last season Harden said he played good defense in OKC and he would play good defense during the season (we blinked and missed it). USA coaching staff report Harden playing good defense and I saw Harden playing "King of the Hill" vs Durant and Paul George......he can play one-on-one defense.
Bold prediction is Harden will give us a 5-6 (scale of 1-10 w/10 being superior effort) defensive effort instead of the 1-2 last year. Rockets will be solid on defense with an improved Beverley/Ariza/Terrence (More comfortable with defense)/D12/ & Harden giving us a 5.5 defensive effort out of embarrassment of being called out as one of the worst defenders last year. Harden appears in better shape.
What is this??? Are you calling out Jeff Adrien for not shooting threes? That's not what we signed him to do. He is also a poor juggler, slow reader, and does not know how to properly fry an egg--but guess what? He is a beast inside and can give us solid minutes in the paint--which is what we signed him to do.
Ish is a question mark, but his faults were already well known by management before they signed him--clearly they factored that in and decided his skills could help us anyways. There are more ways to score and contribute on the court than jacking threes all day. That does not seem to matter to you...
Until the question of Harden's defense comes up. This reminds me of when we had to make a special thread for all the anti-McHale posts....it might be time to create a space where everyone can go and affirm each others need to talk about how bad James Harden's defense is.
We all have known for a long, long time--well before the video that really launched this whole fiasco--that Harden's on-ball defense is pretty solid and it is his team defense that suffers due to getting out of position and ball-watching like a cat focused on a laser pointer. His college coach at ASU said as much when interviewed years ago.
The truth of the matter is halfway through this season someone is going to make a James Harden is good at defense video and all the nay-sayers will follow suit like a school of fish veering to avoid a predator. They will pat themselves on the back for being the force that made him finally care about playing defense, take credit for his own hard work, and then move on to find another poor creature to nibble into pieces like a pack of piranhas. That's my bold prediction.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 03:37 PM
@JG
somebody been watching NAT-GEO wild
you can only warn a man that the bridge is out.....if he keeps driving he's on his own
Posted 09 August 2014 - 05:11 PM
Edited by Jatman20, 09 August 2014 - 05:16 PM.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 06:00 PM
Posted 09 August 2014 - 06:25 PM
Daniels will get regular minutes unless he really tanks this year there really isn't another option at back up 2, he won't be guarding anyone too talented so while he's a little small his d won't be a problem if he's hitting a couple 3s a game. Canaan is another guy that will have to play.
I actually think Adrien ends up as our fourth big getting 12-15min as a homeless mans Kenneth Faried.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 07:10 PM
Daniels is not a terrible defender, he actually had decent defensive awareness and positioning. He just needs to bulk up to avoid being bullied. I don't know where you got this concept Daniels gives up 20pts a game Jatman20.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 07:47 PM
I agree that Daniels looks to be, at worst, serviceable on defense. Besides the occasional Jamal Crawford-type assignment (he lights up everybody) he should be fine. I also think he will come in for end of game/quarter offensive possessions the same way Bonner does in SA. He can sub in for Beverley.
Here is a link to our salary page: LINK
With the addition of Papanikoloau, we are at 16 players--the league max is 15 so I don't see any reason we can't have guys on the team. All we need to do is move one of Gee, Hopson, or Covington and everyone else can stay. Surely, if a young guy is not seeing the floor at all he may get moved for D-League experience.
I'm just not sure what the fuss is about our roster space.
Bev, Canaan, Smith
Harden, Daniels, Johnson, (Gee?)
Ariza, Papanikoloau, Covington
Jones, Adrien, Motie, Capela
Howard, Motie, Dorsey
That's 3 deep at every position with 15 players. We're good. Yes, Capela probably spends time in RGV--he's way too raw. Everyone else can realistically contribute in my opinion.
What I like is this means we have some leeway if we go for a trade--we can bundle some players and not cripple our bench strength.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 09:09 PM
What does Hopson do well? He has basically no stat records due to the fact he is very new. Anybody know anything about him. Draftexpress just says he's basically an enigma.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 09:33 PM
@Buckko
never heard of him until we got him. chances are him and Gee are just trade bait
you can only warn a man that the bridge is out.....if he keeps driving he's on his own
Posted 09 August 2014 - 09:37 PM
He was a good scorer in college not sure it translates to the nba though.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 10:46 PM
Edited by Jatman20, 09 August 2014 - 10:47 PM.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 11:03 PM
Edited by Jatman20, 09 August 2014 - 11:06 PM.
Posted 09 August 2014 - 11:10 PM
Posted 09 August 2014 - 11:32 PM
Edited by Jatman20, 09 August 2014 - 11:37 PM.
Posted 10 August 2014 - 01:21 AM
Jatman, I see you've asked for respect for your belief that Daniels is a terrible defender. So understand that everything that I am about to say is with the utmost respect....
Your cherry-picked stats that, as you acknowledged, are a teeny-tiny sample size prove absolutely nothing and are as supportive of your opinion as an A-cup is for Dolly Parton.
First--Drtg is a team statistic. It is not a very useful individual metric and if that is all you have to support your case it is not very good.
Second--Yes, Daniels played in 5 games for a Drtg of 114. Let's dig deeper shall we?
Game 1 - vs. ORL - he played 1:32 and recorded zero stats. His +/- during that stretch was -2. We won this game.
Game 2 - vs. IND - he played 5:32 and went 2-4 (1-3 from deep). His +/- during that stretch was -2. We won this game.
Game 3 - vs. DEN - he played 11:05 and went 4-6 (all from deep). His +/- during that stretch was +15. We lost this game.
Game 4 - vs. NOP - he played 12:45 and went 1-5 (all from deep). His +/- during that stretch was +19.We won this game.
Game 5 - vs. NOP - he played 43:55 and went 8-16 (6-11 from deep). His +/- during that stretch was -2. We lost this game.
To recap: that is 75 minutes played, 48.6%fg, 48.0 3fg%, and a 3-2 record.
I don't care if he takes a nap on defense if he is going to shoot like that. As long as he is standing upright the guy is contributing. By the way, that cumulative +/- is +28 over 75 minutes of court time.
Let's consider his playoff performance.
4 games. 68 total minutes. 8-15 from deep. 9-17 overall. He also chipped in 2 steals.
That Ortg of 158 makes his 117 Drtg completely inconsequential. Obviously, these numbers are ridiculously skewed by the small sample.
Still, let's check out the game logs starting with game 3.
Game 3 - 20 minutes - 3-6 (all from deep) - his +/- was 0
Game 4 - 21 minutes - 5-7 (4-5 from deep) - his +/- was +9
Game 5 - 17 minutes - 1-2 (all from deep) - his +/- was +11
Game 6 - 9 minutes - 0-2 (all from deep) - his +/- was -13
So, again, in 3 of the 4 games his time on the court was even or better. Of particular note is the 1-2 in 17 minutes which points out that the team does not rely on his three point shooting to overcome his "poor defense". Also, his net +/- is +7 over those 68 minutes.
Jatman, you're entitled to your opinion. I disagree whole-heartedly. Even without these numbers I liked what little I saw from him on the defensive end. Is he Tony Allen? Of course not! He can make a shot! I think you are way under-selling his ability on that end and way, way, way, way over-looking his ability to make this offense hum.
The bottom line is we should really wait and let him play more than 143 minutes before declaring him a bad defender or an offensive savant.
As to your concern about defenders learning his spots...if defenders were able to eliminate the three point shot they would have done that a long time ago. He will get open looks and, from the evidence we have, he is going to knock a whole lot of them down.
Posted 10 August 2014 - 01:37 AM
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