ClutchFans Game Thread: Blazers @ Rockets 1/28/2022

Just caught the first half and I gotta say I disagree. Gonna watch the second half and see if he plays better but Wood was not the best player.

First of all his defense. How soft do you have to be to let your 6’3” SF check Nurkic. Then when he does play the 5 on defense he plays some of the most atrocious drop I’ve ever seen. He never commits to the ball handler or big. He leaves his guard chasing around a screen without setting up any resistance to the ball handler. Then he gets bullied in the post play after play by nurkic. He doesn’t try to swim or front he just tries to play straight up without giving an angle. He has horrible defensive fundamentals. He doesn’t communicate out screens. Too often the POA defender just died because nurkic set a solid screen and the defender wasn’t prepared for it.

offensively, he continues to set no screens. Watching nurkic set solid screens for his guards to give them space was depressing. Is it the at hard to set up your guards. He continues to bring the ball up and lead to turnovers or charges. He made some nice aggressive drives a couple of times but all in all that first half was garbage. He also had some great skip passes from the elbow. I’ll say this though if you pair him with a lead initiator who can make all the passes he will be an offensive mismatch and nightmare for opposing teams. But with how bad his defense is idk if I’d trust him to be our solo big going forward. And if he is you’ll have to scheme him to guard the stationary shooter.

 

You are not a serious person.

 

This is why darko is considered a bust.

2,813 (6.0 ppg)
1,971 (4.2 rpg)
613 (1.3 bpg)

As a big man over the span of 8-9 years?

It's well documented on how your disgusting toxic masculinity clouds your views on green.

Darko level bust jeezus christ.
Green was brought into the team as a scorer. This first half of the season alone he has shown that.

He might not reach the lofty expectations of folks on here, but projecting to b a darko bust level is quite asinine.

 

What bulcrap. Part of me wishes that what you say was true and that it was indeed well-documented, so that I can do a victory lap around the board and proclaim, "didn’t I tell you guys, this dude is a vagina and lo and behold he plays like a vagina. Told you so."
But that’s not at all true, I am just a level-headed analytical guy, you are the one who’s vision is completely clouded by some bizarre infatuation with this kid.

Four things are well documented:
1. I consider Green to be top level talent in terms of speed and jumping ability, ever since I saw his predraft highlights.
2. I consider him a very bad player now, and all his advanced numbers support it. If he doesn’t improve he will be a Darko-level historic bust, no doubt about it. If you dоn’t see that, you’re complexly oblivious and/or dunk.
3. As a Rockets fan I want him to improve so that we have a better team.
4. I don’t think he has Alpha Male personality to be the TopDog of a contender. That may change. But in any case right now this such an extremely irrelevant point, that I give it zero mindshare at all,at the moment. His basketball production is sooooo far from being even a contributor to a contender, let alone a TopDog. If he improves to be a good player, then we can revisit whether or not he has the right personality.

That’s all there is and that’s what’s documented. If you don’t trust me have the Stazi of the Green club (aka @steddinotayto ) thoroughly inspect my posting history, my ethnic background etc., before you run your stupid mouth with lies and fabrications.

 

Much much better effort last night than against the Spurs. The Blazers were ridiculously hot from the field, our 3 point defense wasn't great in the first half but they hit a ton of really tough shots in the 2nd half. Just one of those games.

This was a legitimately good game from Green. Still a bit cold from 3 but his shot looked OK and he attacked, showed nice vision and grabbed a few boards. Looked like a good, developing high draft pick. Absolutely something to build on. Needed a game like that.

We competed better. It was more of the entertaining style they showed during that 7 game winning streak earlier... Passing was more reminiscent of that. Wood played well, he just settles for too many 3's. But he was very active in the second half especially. 15 rebounds. Overall like the way the team played, still some defensive issues but again Portland was basically on fire the whole game and did hit a lot of contested shots.

 

Nice to see the next generation of players will be able to entertain. Sport is in good hands.

 

Are you saying Silas is our Hitler? ie Hitler of Rockets Basketball?
@Salvy

 

Spoiler: for @debeard 's eyes only

 

"Free on the court? My Theiss he won't."

 

Simple question then - who do YOU think was best player on the Rockets last night?

The Rockets were crushed in EVERY quarter but the 3rd.

The ENTIRE TEAM struggles on defense, not just Wood.

You really believe removing Wood would make Rockets better than the WORST DEFENSE IN ENTIRE NBA?

This team is a defensive aberration and the problems are intrinsic to Silas so called system.

 

I have never seen such an empty stadium in Rockets history. I've never seen such an empty stadium at any basketball game period. Way to go Tillman. You've found a way to do something better than any owner in the league.

 

I truly believed that the faster we get rid of Wood and his me first ways, the better we will b in the long run.

Folks complained about Harden and his "diva ways", but he has shown that he can at least get us into playoffs. Meanwhile we have Wood pout, refuses to play defense/screen and often rebound as a big man. People like to point at his ppg, but that doesn't mean much when we still get ass blasted regardless. Trade him now rather than sign him to a max contact he doesn't deserve.

Having silas as a coach is also an issue.

 

I notice you did not answer my question.

We already know you hate Wood.

As a Rockets fan I want to get BETTER rather than worse. How does trading away Wood (or KPJ), the most productive player on team, make the Rockets as a TEAM AND ORGANIZATION better?

 

U trade him away, use that assets to draft a big man or acquired one via trade.
Do u honestly think wood deserve a max contract?

I never said anything about trading KPJ, he has like no value currently.

 

Wish we would just rip the band aid off and trade Wood and Gordon.

 

I didn’t think anyone played good enough to be called the best player

best shooter=Matthews
Best cutter= Christopher
Best driver=Gordon
Best rim runner=wood
Best finisher=Martin/Wood
Best defense=Tate

Wood being bad at defense is so much worse than our guards not being good. He’s the center. He’s the backbone of the defense. If he can’t match up with 5s then his shooting and dribble game are no long net a mismatch opportunity. Bigs being bad at defense causes the team to be bad since you can’t run reliable drop, tag, or even hedge/switch. And yes I think if you remove wood for Theis I do think the defense would be better. I don’t think they’d be better as a whole but the defense would be better. If wood wants to take the leap he’s focusing on the wrong part of his game.

 

The goal for ANY team, even these piss poor Rockets, should be to play their best players and TRY to play winning basketball.

Replacing Wood with Theis is LOSING basketball and all the players know it, even those players NOT on the Rockets. This is important when FA comes around.

The TEAM, including Wood, needs to play better defense.

The coaches need to implement a system AND rotation to facillitate good defense. It doesnt even have to be the BEST defense, it just has to be NOT THE WORST.

And an essential element of a successful defensive system is DO NOT PLAY SWITCH DEFENSE IF YOUR FORWARDS ARE UNDER 6'6 or lack length or strength to help in post. Rockets starting SF is 6'3 Eric Gordon and starting PF is 6'4 Jae'Sean Tate.

Because opposing teams know that they can switch the Rockets center out to the perimeter and take away their best rim protector.

This should not be that difficult of a concept to comprehend because we've seen this switch defense first hand at it's very best (2018 and 2020) and we've seen it at its absolute worst (pick any season under Silas).

And FYI - Wood, KPJ and Gordo are the Rockets BEST players right now.

Hate this all you want but this is the simple truth.

 

To me the argument is not whether Wood is one of the best players, its what we can get for him or lose him for nothing. He is not good enough to give a raise to even if its not the max. He has to be in a big two lineup because of his inability to rim protect, body up with large centers, and set picks. If we are going to keep him he will need to guard guards and wings in the half court. We don’t have the personnel right now to play a big two, because neither Sengun or Theis are rim protectors. He is doesn’t match with our future, so you play him until you can get a frp and/or a young big with potential like Patrick Williams or Myles Turner. I prefer Williams because he won’t ruin the tank and we can draft the best available in the upcoming draft if we had him.