Let's face it, any offense with Harden will be a top 5 offense. That's been the case for the last half decade. The question is how we will do when he's not on the court and how good will our defense be. I'm assuming that our defense was atrocious because some players were conserving energy. Also Cousins brings some size and Wall is a good defender at the 1. I'm not worried about our offense at all especially with Wood looking better than expected. However, I'm still worried about our defense because it was a layup drill in Denver. I guess we will see when our top role players join the team. It does bring me optimism that Wall only has to be our 3rd best player for us to be good.
Wall / Gordon Harden / McLemore Wood / Cousins That is the best offensive playmaking/scoring rotation we’ve ever had. Real potential to keep the offense humming even when Harden and Wood sit.
For all practical purposes Wall is our backup PG even though he's in the starting line-up. Harden or Wall being bringing up the ball and setting up the offense 100 percent of the game. Gordon will be our backup SG. Ben will be getting minutes at 2 and 3 just to give some people rest or for some instant offense.
The offense with Harden will always be elite. The defense is going to be bad. Wood is bad defender in the post. He has been lost so many times in just 2 games. He looks great on offense and scores and create a lot of points but he’s going to give up a ton on the other end as well.
I still think the defense will be fine. Rockets have too many dawgs on the team (Brown, Tate, Nwaba, PJ, Wall, EG) for the defense to continue to be bad. Silas hasn't had any practice time and he was playing with 9 players. I remain optimistic. It would have been nice to pick up one win though.
One of Silas’ most difficult jobs will be to manage egos. In an ideal world Harden and Wall should spend very little time on the court together. Unfortunately, both will require they start and finish. Harden is the best offensive point guard in the league. Wall is a great pg but not a great shooter. Harden, Gordan, Tucker, Wood, and Tate to start. Wall, Cousins, House to lead second unit with Wood, Tucker, Tate or Brown split mins with 2nd unit. Harden and Wood should get at least 32 mins on the court. The rest of the mins would be determined with matchup and who’s hot.
I agree. The loss of Roco hurt. We definitely need an upgrade at the 3. There is absolutely no reason for keeping Danuel House at this point. We'll see how eric gordon looks as well.
I wish we could have dumped Gordon instead of Roco. I still don't know why we gave Gordon the extension that we did.
Agree. I think it’s best to think of Gordon as a scoring guard, which is why he and Westbrook never worked. Westbrook was always looking for his shot first...that made Gordon a spot up shooter. In theory, Wall/Gordon should fit better, especially with more ball movement. McLemore is what really makes me excited about the 2nd unit. We may not be amazing defensively, but Wall/Gordon/McLemore/Nwaba/Cousins is going to absolutely destroy most bench units.
Be nice to see what we really have once we get everyone back. Gordon is very underrated on defense and hopefully Cousins can rebound and take advantage of mismatches.
I think the defense will start looking better after not too long, if the team can get healthy. The team needs more practice time and more vets on the floor.
Players that will play 60+% of all minutes that will be played has not yet played. Anyone making definitive statements on the D being trash is misguided and really just bring negative. Silas has had like 5 minutes with the guys that are available. Let’s give him a few weeks with the whole crew.
It looked better without Harden to me. Harden was just waiting for double teams to trap him and trying to throw bounce passes to Wood. But yes, i agree that it all comes down to defense.
Harden needs to learn how to trust plays that are generated without him starting it. Its almost like Wall has to intentionally play with the ball as if Harden isn't on the court just to get the ball to move.
Harden a B. That post game interview was pathetic.. reporter asked Harden if he feels like he let down the team over the last year and Harden acts like he didn’t understand the question. Granted it was broken English and had to be repeated, but hell, I’m not Hispanic or anywhere close, and I got what the reporter was asking. Harden is good, and I’m a huge fan of his, but I’m about done with him to be honest.
