lipoli390 wrote:Wow, the upcoming Rockets-Warriors series will be a lot of fun. Utah is getting a taste of that Rocket firepower that led to 50 points in one quarter against the Wolves. When the Rockets are zoned in, they're really, really good. The Jazz have overachieved all season. But they're hitting the wall against one of two truly elite teams in the NBA. If Ricky were healthy, I could see the Jazz winning one game at home, but I think we're looking at a sweep.
Credit the Rockets' front office for putting together an impressive roster, starting with the trade for Harden a few years ago and continuing this past summer when they acquired Chris Paul and signed both Moute and Tucker. Further credit for signing Eric Gordon and Anderson as free agents the previous summer. More credit for acquiring both Trevor Ariza and a protected 1st round pick in exchange for Omar Asik in 2014. Even more credit to their organization for drafting Capela with the 25th pick and developing him. Finally, credit to the Rockets for hiring a head coach who understands the modern NBA game and coaches accordingly.
To give d antoni his due. He invented the modern nba with the suns. He did not have the personell in his 2 previous stops but this rockets team is tailor made for his style.
kekgeek1 wrote:Should Quinn get fired tomorrow a superior coach to Thibs in every way and they can't stop the Rockets. Fire him tomorrow, his fault.
Quinn is without Rubio and his triple doubles!
kekgeek1 wrote:What a game. The Rubio less jazz sneak by the thunder.
Damn Mitchell is a fricking stud
How did this kid not average 30 a game at Louisville!? May be there just wasn't enough space for him to operate in. His creativity and shiftiness going to the hoop is just crazy. He is already damn near a more dangerous scorer than Hayward.....needs to work a little more on that outside shot.
lipoli390 wrote:Wow, the upcoming Rockets-Warriors series will be a lot of fun. Utah is getting a taste of that Rocket firepower that led to 50 points in one quarter against the Wolves. When the Rockets are zoned in, they're really, really good. The Jazz have overachieved all season. But they're hitting the wall against one of two truly elite teams in the NBA. If Ricky were healthy, I could see the Jazz winning one game at home, but I think we're looking at a sweep.
Credit the Rockets' front office for putting together an impressive roster, starting with the trade for Harden a few years ago and continuing this past summer when they acquired Chris Paul and signed both Moute and Tucker. Further credit for signing Eric Gordon and Anderson as free agents the previous summer. More credit for acquiring both Trevor Ariza and a protected 1st round pick in exchange for Omar Asik in 2014. Even more credit to their organization for drafting Capela with the 25th pick and developing him. Finally, credit to the Rockets for hiring a head coach who understands the modern NBA game and coaches accordingly.
To give d antoni his due. He invented the modern nba with the suns. He did not have the personell in his 2 previous stops but this rockets team is tailor made for his style.
They just nailed it with Capela, although it took him a couple years to really get his feet wet. Now he is the perfect Center for that roster.
thedoper wrote:Finally Thompson is playing. Good stuff.
They are going to have to defend better and he is a big key to that. If I were a Cleveland fan, I would hope to see more of him in the next series. Love at Center is just a disaster defensively.
thedoper wrote:Finally Thompson is playing. Good stuff.
They are going to have to defend better and he is a big key to that. If I were a Cleveland fan, I would hope to see more of him in the next series. Love at Center is just a disaster defensively.
I never understood how they thought Love at Center was their big revelation for this year. If you don't have the lanky big to protect the rim and cover ground small ball is tough on the defensive end for any team. All credit to Philly but I still think Cleveland can scrap it out in the east.
kekgeek1 wrote:Should Quinn get fired tomorrow a superior coach to Thibs in every way and they can't stop the Rockets. Fire him tomorrow, his fault.
Quinn is without Rubio and his triple doubles!
kekgeek1 wrote:What a game. The Rubio less jazz sneak by the thunder.
Damn Mitchell is a fricking stud
How did this kid not average 30 a game at Louisville!? May be there just wasn't enough space for him to operate in. His creativity and shiftiness going to the hoop is just crazy. He is already damn near a more dangerous scorer than Hayward.....needs to work a little more on that outside shot.
You know me in my passive aggressive BS. I just didn't understand people getting mad that we couldn't compete with the Rockets. Well nobody but the Warriors can. So should the Jazz blow it up and have no future? I don't think so.
With Mitchell it is amazing, he is one of my favorite players at the moment. And another example why all hope is not lost with the Wolves.
They traded a late 1st and an underachieving young guy in Lyles for Mitchell, Gobert (late 1st). Rockets got capela late, traded young late 1st round players in decker and Harrell, with a solid player in Lou and got chris paul. Warriors got Draymond, sixers in Covington.
We need hit on a late pick because that is what good franchises do. Wolves have never been good at that. Pek is the only guy who comes to mind who was above average we got late in recent memory. Well to take the next step we need to hit on one of our picks
Yeah, Harden is damn near unguardable. Him, Durant, LeBron....just impossible to bottle up for more than a quarter or two. He got Capela a couple of easy looks where Gobert was caught between a rock and hard place, just like KAT was.
Wolves fans can certainly feel a little better....I guess.
thedoper wrote:Finally Thompson is playing. Good stuff.
They are going to have to defend better and he is a big key to that. If I were a Cleveland fan, I would hope to see more of him in the next series. Love at Center is just a disaster defensively.
I never understood how they thought Love at Center was their big revelation for this year. If you don't have the lanky big to protect the rim and cover ground small ball is tough on the defensive end for any team. All credit to Philly but I still think Cleveland can scrap it out in the east.
That roster was and has been flawed all year. I think Lue knew that part of what he needed to do was get as much out of Love as he possibly could. Playing him at Center probably didn't do it but I do think at times it made sense to try it.
The question I pose to people is at this point considering what role Love plays on the Cavs how much different is Sabonis from Kevin Love? Im a fan of both guys and I think Love is more talented but he isn't utilized enough and Sabonis just balled out in that series. Also Thad Young is no star or top player at his position but he is underrated just a solid guy that just plays hard and has some skill. He is a different type player but he is kind of a Taj type guy in that he can give you a little bit here and there but you don't have to do anything in particular to get him involved.
kekgeek1 wrote:Should Quinn get fired tomorrow a superior coach to Thibs in every way and they can't stop the Rockets. Fire him tomorrow, his fault.
Quinn is without Rubio and his triple doubles!
kekgeek1 wrote:What a game. The Rubio less jazz sneak by the thunder.
Damn Mitchell is a fricking stud
How did this kid not average 30 a game at Louisville!? May be there just wasn't enough space for him to operate in. His creativity and shiftiness going to the hoop is just crazy. He is already damn near a more dangerous scorer than Hayward.....needs to work a little more on that outside shot.
You know me in my passive aggressive BS. I just didn't understand people getting mad that we couldn't compete with the Rockets. Well nobody but the Warriors can. So should the Jazz blow it up and have no future? I don't think so.
With Mitchell it is amazing, he is one of my favorite players at the moment. And another example why all hope is not lost with the Wolves.
They traded a late 1st and an underachieving young guy in Lyles for Mitchell, Gobert (late 1st). Rockets got capela late, traded young late 1st round players in decker and Harrell, with a solid player in Lou and got chris paul. Warriors got Draymond, sixers in Covington.
We need hit on a late pick because that is what good franchises do. Wolves have never been good at that. Pek is the only guy who comes to mind who was above average we got late in recent memory. Well to take the next step we need to hit on one of our picks
I never expected the Wolves to compete with the Rockets. That's why I kept referring to an 8th seed as my nightmare scenario. Actually, a 7th seed would have been just as bad. So I wasn't made at the Wolves for their performance against the Rockets. I was mad at the Wolves for ending up 8th, behind a less talented rosters like the Jazz, Blazers and Spurs. I'd fire Thibs for two seasons of underachievement. And I'd give an award to Snyder for two years of overachieving, including a top 5 finish a first round series win over the Thunder this season.
But I agree the Wolves should not blow up the roster. I'm still looking for more improvement from KAT and Wiggins. I actually expect more improvement from KAT, but I'm just hoping for more improvement from Wiggins. Maybe Wiggins will have the same sort of break-out 5th season we just saw from Oladipo. And we're long overdue to hit paydirt with a mid/low first round pick. We're due for our own Gobert, Kuzma, Tony Parker, Manu, Millsap, etc. Unfortunately, I don't expect anything special with our 21st pick from the PBO who drafted Justin Patton last year.
I agree with the consensus here that there is no shame in getting blown out by the rockets...everyone here knew that was going to happen. But the way in which we lost was what has many of us unhappy here. Yes, Houston also beat the Rubio-less Jazz by double digits in Game 1, but yesterday also highlighted a huge difference between Quinn and Thibs' defensive strategies. Quinn has his defenders attack the perimeter in an attempt to limit the number of the most efficient shot in basketball...the 3-pointer. Thibs on the other hand does the opposite...as a very well-researched article posted here a month ago pointed out, Thibs designs his defense around stopping the long 2...the least efficient shot in basketball. It's a small sample size, but this difference is demonstrated dramatically in the Houston offense against the Jazz compared to the Wolves. The Rockets took 32 3's yesterday against the Jazz, or 39% of their shots. In five games against the Wolves, the Rockets averaged 43.4 3's per game, or 49.5% of their shots. This is an incredibly significant difference, and further evidence of what we already know about Thibs' defensive philosophy. In addition, although I don't have the stats, the Wolves also gave up a very high amount of layups in their series. With so many threes and layups, there isn't much room left for long 2's.
I guess we should celebrate Thibs because he achieved his defensive goal of stopping the long 2.
