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Official Houston Rockets Thread: Phase 2 on hold


Pastor Dillon

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Well it's been quiet around here, but the time for Basketball is getting closer! Our first pre season game against the Thunder is just 29 days away! The first pre season games are just 26 days away. That means training camp is literally right around the corner, usually about a week or so before pre season starts. So it's time to look at where we are at as a team heading into training camp. At this point it seems like Melo isnt coming, possibly could be a trade deadline deal or maybe he takes a buy out later in the season, but more on the Melo plan later.

Depth Chart

PG: CP3/Bobby Brown/Isaiah Taylor

SG: James Harden/Eric Gordon

SF: Trevor Ariza/PJ Tucker/Troy Williams

PF: Ryan Anderson/ Luc Mbah a Moute/Zhou Qi

C: Clint Capela/ Nene/ Tarik Black/ Chinanu Onuaku

That's most likely our 15 man roster heading into the season. The new 2 way contracts make it possible to keep up to 2 more guys, so its possible we send Williams to the D-League and use his spot on someone else. 

Depth

Checking out the Depth chart, its really solid and really deep. When you consider our 9 man rotation will feature 8 guys who could all start on playoff teams and then a vet like Nene who has done so a lot in his career. Consider how great our 2nd unit is. Most Likely we are going to have a line up of CP3/Eric Gordon/Pj Tucker/Moute/Nene in the game with the 2nd unit. Probably will have Capela in there instead of Nene if they split the minutes like I think they will, but either of those guys. So our bench will have a HOF PG still at the end of his prime, the reigning 6th man of the year and 3 point champ, a 25 minute per game SF for the Eastern conferences 3 seed last year, the starting SF for the Wests 4th seed last season and a guy like nene who can still play a solid 18 minutes per night. 

Weaknesses

We have a very solid roster, and we can pick and choose our weakness for almost every position on per need basis. There are not many teams with that ability. Defense at PF with Ryan Anderson is our biggest weakness. Moute will make up for this and we can play the 2 of them Offense/defense depending on the need. We can even go Ariza at the 4 in small ball line ups. 

The Guard depth is the 2nd biggest issue we will face. When Harden and CP3 are both playing and healthy there is no problem. When one of them is missing, our depth will show. We dont really have a 3rd guy who can handle the ball. Gordon can do it in stretches, but when CP3 is missing his 15-20 games, who is going to be our back up PG? SG is not an issue with Both Tucker and Ariza being able to slide over there if needed, but we really need to add a solid vet PG. 

 Leandro Barbosa. He has played in the MDA system. Hes an end of his career vet that could play a bench role and not have to see game action every night. He can come in and be our 4th guard when we need it. he can handle the ball. He can shoot the 3. He's a great fit. Waive Taylor and bring him in, or send taylor to the D-League, not sure about the kind of contract he has. 

Aaron Brooks. A former Houston guy, and is a little younger than Barbosa. he is a solid 3 point shooter, and at this point in his career can fill that same role

There are options to really get us a solid 10 man deep roster, 11 deep if you consider Tarik Black. 

 

Finally I want to discuss the MELO PLAN It might not have anything to do with Melo, but if we are going to trade for him or any other star, we have to get some assets. 

enter some of our young guys like Troy Williams, Zhou Qi and Ahinanu Onuaku. If any of these 3 guys can be a net positive, we should give them some playing time and see if we can make them an asset. Troy Williams has potential and has a great contract. He played well in the very limited minutes he got for us. We need him to become an intriguing young prospect. Another guy like Tarik Black could be a trade chip near the dead line if he has a solid season when playing for Nene. the closer we get to the playoffs, hopefully he wont be needed, but if he can prove himself a solid bench big on a contender, someone might part with something to trade for him at the deadline. Zhou needs to be in the D-league dominating. hes got the potential to be really good down there. 

Second part of this plan is obvious, trade Ryan Anderson to the first team that will take him. I would do everything we could to make him look as good as possible to start the season. As long as he isnt costing us games, let him score 15 a game and drain 3s all night long. I think if we could get a team to take him for just one 1st round pick, then we would be able to get melo. 

Finally we need to think about trading our over seas rights. We have some solid prospects over seas that are really the only trade pieces we have. We need to make them available. Hatenstien, Gentile, and Lull might never come over, but they are valuable assets to own the rights to. 

Draft picks are a problem for us. We have 1 2nd round pick in 2018, which should be a little better than our own, but we have traded our 1st and 2nd rounders away for 2018 and have traded away our 2019 2nd round pick as well. We can't trade our 2019 pick this season, so the best we can offer trade pick wise is some kind of Boston Celtics type deal with giving up our 2019 pick swap, 2020 1st, 2021 pick swap, 2022 1st. Thats a lot of future assets to give up. By the time the 2022 pick was given away, CP3 will be 37, Harden 33 and Melo would be 38. We would basically be starting over with no young talent and a Harden that is at the end of his prime. If it netted a ring, I would do it, but Curry and Durant will still be playing together by that time. 

The best thing we could hope for is that Melo gets a buy out and comes to Houston. We get to make a playoff run with him. imagine the quality of our roster if we didnt have to give up anyone to get melo. It would be pretty good, and practically unguardable on offense.

 

5 Bold Predictions for the season 

1. Harden finally gets his MVP. I know, I know with CP3 thats going to be impossible and what not, but I think he has the numbers, the wins and I think CP3 misses enough of the season that after getting snubbed twice for the award, its finally going to be his.

2. The Rockets will win 58 games and take the 2 seed in the playoffs. We saw what happened with Ty Lawson when the rockets tried to pair Harden with a good PG. Well CP3 is no Ty Lawson, and other than playing the same position, the comparisons stop there. I think these two will clash at times, and i think it brings out the best in both of them. 

3. Eric Gordon will repeat as 6th man. I think he will be the guy who benefits most from all the changes. He will be able to be a sniper the entire time hes in the game and I think he will thrive playing next to either Harden or Cp3

4. Capela will average 14/10/2 this season. he is going to love playing with CP3. 

5. Rockets will push the warriors to 6 games in the WCF. 

 

Looking forward to a great season!

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  • 4 weeks later...

1/2 of the 1st pre season game and it looks pretty good. Harden and CP3 played well together and CP3 really plays good D. Harden got some easy shots, and the bench worked well together. Harden with 5 assists and CP3 with 6 at the half. These guys could both average over 8 a game, especially when Cp3 is probably gonna miss 15 or so games and Harden could rack up 12 or more during those games. 

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Its pre season, but our team is balling right now. Eric Gordon is looking great. Harden looks like Harden. CP3 looks to fit in. the new guys play hard and can hit the 3 ball. 

We have a schedule that could lead to a 10-1 or 9-2 type start for us. I am looking forward to the season starting! 

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We've looked solid in the pre season. It seems like CP3 is going to take on a number 2 role without much problem and Harden will still be our number 1, as it should be. 

I'm excited to see what kind of numbers they will put up together. They were averaging like 20 combined assists in the pre season. 

I'm expecting something like 

16/8 for CP3

27/9/6 for Harden

i think Capela could be a 15/10/2 guy this year If we play him 30 minutes. 

Gordon has really been good in pre season. He's gonna get to play next to Harden or CP3 the entire time he's on the court, which means a lot of open looks. I could see him anywhere from 14-18 points per game. 

Anderson will probably be around 10 a game. I suspect he plays in the low 20s and Moute probably closes out most games. Being able to put Ariza on Thompson, Moute on Durant and CP3 on Curry probably gives us the best defense in the league match up wise against the warriors. Add Harden on Green where he has the strength to bang with him. Then there's the AI match up. We could go with Gordon against that line up.  

Tucker looks kinda fat and out of shape but maybe he's just built like that. 

 

We really need to bring in a vet 4th guard. It's gonna be tough when CP3 is out. 

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7 minutes ago, Pastor Dillon said:

looking forward to tonight! We do have a back to back to open the season though. I figure Nene will sit tonight, although, we could really use him to match up with Zack Randolph tomorrow night. Maybe we should play Black tonight. 

If anyting I think Nene sits tomorrow vs the Kings.  Black just got back from injury so they can give Black the night off tonight and ease him back into shape by being Capella's backup tomorrow.  Here's to hoping Capela can play 30+ minutes a game. This is year 2 for him a starter, should be no excuses.

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Just now, Texansfan713 said:

If anyting I think Nene sits tomorrow vs the Kings.  Black just got back from injury so they can give Black the night off tonight and ease him back into shape by being Capella's backup tomorrow.  Here's to hoping Capela can play 30+ minutes a game. This is year 2 for him a starter, should be no excuses.

I think he can play 30 minutes without problem. He should get 30 with Nene/Black getting the other 18. He would never have to play more than 8 straight minutes 

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