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Yeah, maybe. Like I said, it is indeed a problem, just not as big and we still need few more games to draw conclusions.
I agree it's too soon to draw a conclusion
I know we as fans love Asik and so we tend to delude ourselves into thinking that the Asik/Howard pairing can work when common sense and nearly every respected NBA analyst agrees that they cannot work together. Since Howard is the better post up player, for those two to work together, it's imperative for Asik to be able to hit a 15-18 foot jumper at a 42-45% clip when unguarded to make defenses respect it. Now it would be better if it was a corner 3, but let's not leave the realm of possibility. I just think Asik is 2-3 years away from being anything other than a liability on the offensive end.
I see your point, however I disagree. I think by putting in a player who was a threat to score they made Dallas have to play honest defense which they then exploited
Yeah, maybe. Like I said, it is indeed a problem, just not as big and we still need few more games to draw conclusions.
I thought so too, but then I realize it might be just because they were more famliered of play with one big. That is just the first game of ASik this yr
I see your point, however I disagree. I think by putting in a player who was a threat to score they made Dallas have to play honest defense which they then exploited
I disagree........I watched that first quarter over as well. Dirk fell off Asik on the offensive end and helped trap and double other players causing an excessive amount of defenders near the paint. as soon as Asik left the floor the Rockets went on a run with a smaller lineup
Give asik the ball too and let him do some post ups. that's the reason why Asik-Smith worked well against clippers and magic last season. Dirk fell off asik because it was Howard who always got the ball.
I disagree........I watched that first quarter over as well. Dirk fell off Asik on the offensive end and helped trap and double other players causing an excessive amount of defenders near the paint. as soon as Asik left the floor the Rockets went on a run with a smaller lineup
The fact that they had a lot of successful PnR with Lin / Howard seem to dispute the lane clogging theory.
Just like a lot of issues, this spacing thing was slightly blow out of proportion by media. I am not saying it is not a problem, just not as big as most ppl would think it is.
I replayed the 1st Q many time as well, originally I thought due to both of our bigs does not have mid-range game (so I think using both MEM and SAS as examples of twin towers are not logical), the defenders will just stand around the paint. Seems like they still need to stay closer to either Asik or Howard (hence more spacing), otherwise, once both gained speed, it is hard to block both out for rebound. But again, that is just 7+ minutes worth of sample, basically worth nothing for drawing conclusions.
I didn't mean to totally discount casspi but I still have reservations if he can keep up his quality play all year.
Besides his hot shootings, I feel he is pretty comfortable with HOU. But again, if he can not kept shooting at a higher level, all other things he did might not matter at the end.
Having taken repeated look at that first 7:30 ish with Asik / Howard on the floor, rewinding almost every play several times, I thought McHale was right, there were a lot of good things there.
Most notably, the Mavricks hardly went to Dirk at all in this span, so one of the underlying question on the combo, defending opposing PF, seem to be just fine. there was one play where Dwight helped inside and left Dirk open for a 3 (that he missed) but suffice to say that the general concept of faster PF running around them seem to be unfounded.
Most of the scoring came on Jose Calderon pull up 2s, which isn't a terrible shot to give up , and he's not going to hit it at that clip all the time, the more disturbingly bad plays came on miscues between Harden / Lin / Asik which has little to do with the twin tower combination and mostly seem to be just rust on Asik's part (though one of them was more on Harden.)
Offensively, the spacing look worse but if you watch some other teams you'd realize it's hardly at a disastrous level, the Rockets blew some easy bunny which made their overall scoring look worse. There was at least 1 missed Lin right handed layup , 1 missed Howard dunk and 1 missed Parsons ally oops, all 3 of those happening is very rare. and even then, they scored 14 in 7:30 which would be on pace for around 95 points, if they made 2 of those they would have been on pace to score 115, the difference in a few of those shots makes for a lot of difference. The fact that they had a lot of successful PnR with Lin / Howard seem to dispute the lane clogging theory.
(I have notice one thing in the pre-season though, a lot of teams, including the Rockets, are doing what Denver did last year and stepping out of bounds on offense to gain space, i thought that was suppose to be illegal though. not sure.)
Casspi may indeed win the PF job, but he just got here. I think what Cooper was saying is Casspi was not a player on the rise like Harden at the time he arrived.........he was a forgotten cast off from another team. hence we didn't have to trade for him, he was available at a bargain because of his past. there is no doubt about fit plays a big factor in a player realizing his potential, but I'm not ready to roll out the red carpet treatment just yet. it's a long season.....in that time Casspi will show exactly what it is we got by signing him. lets not jump the gun. remember when D-Mo got his first playing time last year? everybody including myself was ready to laud him as the answer. well instead of a grade he turned out to be a INC which means incomplete. I willbe a little more reserve before declaring another player as the answer this time around
Morey also said in an interview that Casspi was rarely used at the 4 his whole career, but he plans on using Casspi primarily at the 4 and getting much better results from him because he's better there. Also, one of my favorite things about Casspi is how hard he runs the floor so our fast paced system definitely suits him better.
If we should be comparing him to anybody, it should be Chandler Parsons because their game has many similarities. Parsons might be a little better in some areas while Casspi is a much better rebounder, so if Parsons can be a starter than I see no reason why Casspi can't be one as well.
Agreed 2016, sometimes it's all about the right fit....maybe Casspi and our PF needs were made for each other. He's done enough in pre-season to warrant an opportunity to be the guy we need. Certain match-ups may prove to be a disadvantage, but that's what the bench is for. Besides, just like certain PG's are match-up nightmares and there is no "stopping" them the same is true for some PF's. Sometimes you just have to game plan around that. It's not about shutting down any one player--it's about winning the game once the final buzzer sounds.
Fair point but still, looking good for a few games in preseason after being essentially non existent since your rookie year is a far cry from being James harden.
This is the problem, people love to make unfair comparisons. From what I've seen, Morey is a master at finding underrated talent and I think the key to that is looking at the whole forest instead of just the trees. Here's what I mean:
1. Harden has a max contract, Casspi has the league minimum. That comparison is completely unfair, ofcourse Harden is better.. DUH lol
2. Certain players suit certain systems and certain environments, and I don't think Casspi has never had a great environment until now so it wouldn't be fair to predict how he will do based on how he did on the Cavs/Kings. Jeremy Lin is a perfect example, he's clearly a different player when he has the ball in his hands running the offense, and the same thing could be said about many other players (Aaron Brooks, Devin Harris, Greg Arenas ect.)
Fair point but still, looking good for a few games in preseason after being essentially non existent since your rookie year is a far cry from being James harden. Casspi very well may be the best option at the moment but I see that moment being short livedMost people wouldn't have felt comfortable with Harden guarding Ibaka in a playoff series. Sometimes what people don't feel comfortable with is still actually the best option :)
I wouldn't feel comfortable with casspi playing starters minutes in a playoff series.
I agree...............Casspi is a rotationalbench weapon. a player along with Garcia who can change tempo.......part of the bench mob. I'm looking for something else for the starting PF
I wouldn't feel comfortable with casspi playing starters minutes in a playoff series.
Most people wouldn't have felt comfortable with Harden guarding Ibaka in a playoff series. Sometimes what people don'tfeel comfortable with is still actually the best option :)
Casspi is more of a shooter off the bench than a full blown starter. He does his thing and he does it well, shoot and a little rebound.
And run the floor like his life depends on it, hustles hard, passes well, moves without the ball, knows how to use his long arms to be bothersome on defense, does a great job of trapping and being at the right place at the right time.
Cappi is our best option to start at the 4. Sorry everyone who was hoping Jones and D-Mo would take a huge leap of improvement but it hasn't happened yet.
I watched this game and I must say I'm disappointed. exactly what I thought would happen happened. defensively having D-12 away from the basket hurt our rebounding and we gave up shot after shot at the rim. I realize this was Asik's first game and he looked rusty, but I was still expecting the overall defense to be better than what I saw. offensively the combo was a train wreck. Howard converts to center on offense and Dirk was on Asik at PF. Dirk continually left Asik to help double other players which caused much of our offense to be disrupted because of spacing issues. I know this is only 1 game and I'm not going to blow it out of context, but the early returns were not positive
http://youtu.be/4ymiLNg51zE
http://youtu.be/Slg46Gw_gaM
Casspi is more of a shooter off the bench than a full blown starter. He does his thing and he does it well, shoot and a little rebound.
true. cant pass up the right trade though if it comes along. agreed? must say, 54 rebounds is nice though!
game sure picked up once they went to dwight and four guys spacing the floor. im a big asik fan, but ill remain on the trade him side of the whole argument. yes its a luxury to have both of those goes. and yes if we can go sort of small with casspi or chandler at the 4 and excel, then thats great as in we dont need to trade for a 4, but then that sounds like an unhappy and expensive asik.
First half in the books - they looked awful out there together. It will take atleast a handful of games to see if this can work though.
Surprisingly, I thought dwight did well enough guarding Dirk. It was the team defense that was out of it. Dallas was able to draw both bigs out of the paint - Rockets will need to counter. On offense, things looked very congested.
This was to be expected. Will need a lot bigger sample size before making any determinations.
Looking sloppy as the 1st quarter winds down, and the spacing issues on offense are legit. That said, Houston has gotten some great open dunks from dribble drives that pull bigs off Howard. The defense is sketchy at best so far. There have been moments where the defense looks stifling, but mostly they have looked out of sync, And that's whether Howard, Asik, or both are on the floor.
Sir Thursday: I agree. This definitely won't give us anything conclusive. Will take atleast a few games to see if this even has a chance at working.
Going through some interviews just now, it seems like the Mavs plan on running (no surprise) and putting the Houston big men through the gamut of pick and rolls.
I think it could very well be one of those things that looks awful first time out but comes together after a couple of weeks though. It could have no redeeming features tonight, but I'd still want the coaching staff to keep at it for a while longer.
ST
I agree they should stay at it for awhile even if it looks pitiful the first time out, but that doesn't mean I don't expect some promising flashes. I understand it's an adjustment period for both players. this lineup only needs to be on the floor for about 15 minutes a game and should be judge in the context.
I don't think anybody is looking for this to be a well oiled machine first time out. what we are looking for is much like we look for in rookies. We don't expect the world on a platter, but do expect some flashes of what can be
I think it could very well be one of those things that looks awful first time out but comes together after a couple of weeks though. It could have no redeeming features tonight, but I'd still want the coaching staff to keep at it for a while longer.
ST
A word of caution though - we shouldn't be arriving at the conclusion that this can or can't work after only one game. First of all you have to remember that Asik is only just back from an injury and may not necessarily be back to full fitness. Then you have to remember that they've barely played together, so it will be understandable if there are a few teething problems.
ST
I don't think anybody is looking for this to be a well oiled machine first time out. what we are looking for is much like we look for in rookies. We don't expect the world on a platter, but do expect some flashes of what can be
This is a must-watch game. Basically what we've been waiting for since the Dwight signing. I think it's going to work out defensively, but I see problems on the other end.
A word of caution though - we shouldn't be arriving at the conclusion that this can or can't work after only one game. First of all you have to remember that Asik is only just back from an injury and may not necessarily be back to full fitness. Then you have to remember that they've barely played together, so it will be understandable if there are a few teething problems.
ST
This is a must-watch game. Basically what we've been waiting for since the Dwight signing. I think it's going to work out defensively, but I see problems on the other end.
totally agree. defense should be no problem..........I think Asik is mobile enough to stay with Dirk. I'm more interested to see what having Asik on the floor means offensively. whether it's a hinderence or help. that fact will speak volumes about what our next moves should be
This is a must-watch game. Basically what we've been waiting for since the Dwight signing. I think it's going to work out defensively, but I see problems on the other end.
Dirk will most likely guard Asik, and I don't see Asik scoring a lot of points but I see the Rockets as a whole getting a ton of offensive rebounds thanks to all the boxing out attention Dwight and Asik will get--Beverley would probably grab 10 boards in 20 minutes lol.And ifDalembert fouls out early the Mavs might as well throw in the towel because Brandan Wright is like a twig compared to Dwight.
Defensively and rebounding wise we should be great, but I see the paint being too crowded for our guards to attack the basket. If we score more than 100 it will be because of our transition offense and shot making ability. I bet our offenselooks so much better when Casspi is at the 4.
One of the upshots of the Howard/Asik tandem is that it requires one of them to guard Nowitzki. I'll be interested to see how they handle him - the job is usually given to more mobile players than these two and I suspect Dirk may be able to get to the rim more often than you would like.
Really looking forward to seeing how this plays out :).
ST
We played the Pellies in the preseason opener....today's a must see! Let's cross our fingers and hope for Asik-Howard to work out well.