I see no problem having Clint, DJ, and Faried on the same team. Great depth and great flexibility. Different opponents may call for different lineups.
Depends how much DJ would sign for. Wing is a greater need for the Rockets now that we have Faried (assuming health for Clint). I'd gladly take DJ if he signed real cheap, of course.
Energy. When the whistle blows, the guy stills plays defense like last night. This is why we should get Team USA guys unless they are mentally damaged (Melo).
He could play 4 spot but only alongside a 5 with length AND 3 point range. Faried would have been interesting paired with Bruno or Zhou Qi.
You are totally ignoring what Clint brings defensively, he is very high IS on the defensive end. None of those other players has shown to be an equal to Clint on defense, it's not so easy to replace everything he does to contribute to the team.
Sounds like Fizdale wants to keep Deandre, so no buyout. But, maybe they buyout Enes Kanter, who is pissed off. Kanter has been doing summer games with Harden for the last 2 summers...I can see us going after him. Kanter and Faried can both play together on the second unit when Capela comes back because Kanter can space the floor with his shooting. Kanter's shooting% from 16ft-3pt line 2016-17 shot 44% from range. 2017-18 shot 41% from range. 2018-19 shooting 41% from range.
Very good points brought up by everyone. Good discussion this morning. My understanding is Capela went into free agency as RFA, thus Rockets re-signed him and Capela has restrictions in this first year of his deal which protects him. No trade clause that he would have to waive and 15% trade kicker he would be willing to waive as well. Defense: does your defense improve by going small with CP3/Eric Gordon/ Harden and 6’6” Tucker as your PF and you know other teams are dragging your Center out of the paint/to the perimeter (regardless who your center is). You can counter this by keeping your Center in the paint defensively and switch everyone else......but a gap (open man) results from this. For every action there is a reaction. I prefer to counter this with more rotations involving “Wings” with size such as SF’s. The SF’s/Wings help each other out in the interior of the defense while jetting out to the perimeter with length to interfere with the perimeter shooters. Much like how the Warriors provide good defense without a great center/shot blocker/rebounder. Looney hardly presents as such. They play a big center like JaVale MeGee, Zaza, Bogut big minutes. They tend to go small ball center of Draymond Green for good spans of time. Tucker can do the same.....or now Faried. Cousins is a new wrinkle, but notice they pay cousins $5 million salary. What I’m saying is the Rockets will lose defense at the rim.....but not as much if you replace one center making $15 million or more with 2 SF’s for about the same amount. Rockets don’t like posting up because it nets 2-pointers and they don’t mind other teams posting us up because they only net 2-pointers (if we don’t foul them....in theory). Well the Rockets don’t mind Embiid killing us in the post as long as we (the Rockets) can defend the 3-pt line. Embiid got about 32 points against us without Capela with post up after post up......but Harden scores more to nullify the damage Embiid brought. Except we didn’t defend the 3-point line well. It hurt that we lack SF’s to help defend Embiid while jetting out to the rotations on the perimeter. Give me 2-decent small forwards (better than Ennis) and I give you better defense.......even without Capela. Better shot blocking, better rebounding and scoring points at our end (SF’s making their baskets) helps the defense as well since the opponents have to take it out at their end. Catch n shoot SF’s making 3’s as opposed to centers making 2’s.
This Jordan/Capela and Faried/Capela comparison is ridiculous. Capela scores 18ppg. DeAndre Jordan played with an all-time great PG and a PF who took attention off him and couldn't ever put up more than 12.7 points. Capela is a FAR greater offensive player than Jordan. Capela would be putting up 18ppg with any number of elite PnR experts all around the league and would have done so with a prime Chris Paul too. Faried does not dream of playing defense like Capela. No chance in hell. If we were rocking Jordan/Faried only, we would wish to combine 80% of Jordan's defense and defensive rebounding with Faried's ability to score off PnR. That's what we have. Jordan/Faried would cost $12m+ easily. We have Capela at $15m and he's at least 5 years younger than both of them. Whatever savings you would achieve would not make up for the fact that you now have to choose between offense and defense instead of having both on the floor at the same time. 18/12/2 with great defense. None of those 2 guys have ever been able to do that, nor will they ever even playing with James Harden.
It all comes down to player egos. I'm happy if we could have Clint/DJ/Faried all in our team. Here is where egos come into it. Faried: After getting a taste of more playing time with Harden which returned KF to his former glory, will he be pissed to get his playing time cut because of these 3 being on the same team? Maybe he'll be too salty to stick around even though he won't get any PT opportunities anywhere else? DJ: Is he willing to concede a starting position (he's been an NBA starter since 2010). If there's one team in the league that he'd be willing to do this for, it would be his hometown rockets that he grew up a fan of. Still, it is tough to believe he could accept this role. Clint: Sure, he'll remain in his role BUT... with this sort of depth he will see more rest and less playing time. A young player like him would usually want more and more playing time to get better stats and garner an even better reputation. Good news is he's locked into this contract, so there's no real incentive for him to pad his stats with higher playing time. With DJ and KF in the team, clint could see lots of rest and only average 30 MPG. You could even have him at 28 MPG and DJ playing 20 MPG. This would prolong Clint career considering the injuries that are mounting up with him. Still, young players don't focus on these things.
continuation from my previous post... With Capela the Rockets are 27th in DRtg @ 112.2 2nd last in DReb% @ 69.3% Dead last in Defensive points in the paint @ 53.3. https://stats.nba.com/teams/defense/?sort=DEF_RATING&dir=1 https://stats.nba.com/teams/defense/?sort=DREB_PCT&dir=1 https://stats.nba.com/teams/defense/?sort=OPP_PTS_PAINT&dir=1 Thank goodness we have Capela (has missed 10 games). I’m sure we would be top-5 if Capela didn’t miss a game. Just For What Its Worth sarcasm thrown in for free.
Keep dreaming because dj is mob style protected in Manhattan. He ain't signing for cheap after punishment post players take getting hit in mouth, back, and ribs!!! C'mon now! DeAndre Jordan is their best prospect they had in a long time. For Knicks to be competitive against Boston, Philly,Milwaukee, etc you know he gonna get close to a super Max from new york!!!!
It’s a little disingenuous for a coach who has a reputation as an offensive coach to complain about defense when he runs out there a small lineup of: 6’1” CP3 who is not allowed to push, pull, manipulate bigger defenders in the paint because of enforcement of “Freedom of Movement “ rule. 6’4” Eric Gptdon who has never been know as a defender. 6’5” Harden who spends so much energy as a scorer that he has very little left for defense. Inconsistent team defense from game to game is expected. Rockets have been winning every other game even before Capela went out. 6’6” Tucker who is an undersized PF who has 7 footers just stepping on their tippy toes tapping the ball back to themselves or to their teammates (with Tucker standing in front of them). To be expected. What I’m saying is last year is last year with Ariza and Luc MaM during the season helping our defense tremendously. Freedom of Movement rule has effected many teams defensively. You can’t tell me that the Rockets objective this year is to be a top 5 defense. By looking at the roster it’s easy to see that the Rockets plan is to outscore teams. Faried has played in 6 games and is outscoring Capela in 4 of the last 5 games. This last game Faried had 16 points but that was in 20 minutes (vs Gobert)....if he had played the 33 mins he had averaged in the previous 4 games would have exceeded the 19 pt average he was sporting. In other words Faried is just learning our system and can actually prob average 22 to 23 points to Capela 17 to 18 points a game. Capela great defense is token when you surround him with non defenders and teams have learned to draw Capela out to the perimeter which nullifies his defense. Rockets lack identity. Are they going to be a defensive minded team or offensive minded team? The players on the roster show a team trying to outscore teams. Bring me back D House (after trade deadline and cutting enough salary to enable Rockets to do such) plus another SF/wing and then maybe the Rockets can think about defense. Right now the Rockets won’t beat the lengthy Bucks or 76ers. We can’t matchup to Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler together. Again Denver with high price invested in Jokic hasn’t proven to get over the top and win a championship lately. A lot of low cost players around them has to prove themselves viable. We will see if that gets them past the Warriors or the best teams in the West. You or another poster mentioned Faried contract and DJ contract before a buyout......but that is also an admission that the NBA teams releasing them recognize that you can’t win with so much money invested in that center......with their limitations. And not enough money to spend on the skilled position of Wings and or PG. Nowadays PG’s are overrated since there are more and more “Point” Forwards. Since Capela can’t be traded until this summer.....Rockets will have to do some soul searching between now and then. Until then we roll the dice a Capela/Faried/Tucker Center rotation (not sure DJ will be bought out). See where that takes us. If we don’t bring in SF’s, we may not make the playoffs, IMO. But we have a center!!!