The bench on the 15-16 team was incredibly deep, they essentially relied on 6 guys last night, and had to play Quinn Cook in the 4th Q. Steph and Klay are still spectacular but outside of their top 6 there was a massive drop off in talent. It's a shame the Rockets couldn't take advantage when those guys were in.

They were also willing to let Iggy take wide open 3's and he went 5/8

The switch everything defense not only allows for poor rebounding matchups, but when a bad matchup occurs on the driver, the ones close to the basket rotate toward the free throw lane to keep them from the basket resulting in less bodies in the paint. I don't question our guy's hustle on the rebounds for the most part. They didn't protect the initial ballhandler well which left the rest scrambling and overextending to protect the lane. I'd love to have some better on-ball defenders like Robert Covington and James Johnson(seemed to disappear from Heat rotation this year), but I understand that cap space/assets for trade are pretty limited. I don't know what value Gordon has in the last year of his relatively cheap contract, but I'd love to flip him for RoCo.

Trillary Clinton said:

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Harden needs to go

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LOL. Put harden on Denver, Portland, Phila, Boston, Toronto, Utah, or OKC and they are in the finals.

Dan Scott said:

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2014 warriors does not equal 2015 warriors-present. Cmon don't be dumb

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So the same team nucleus in 2014 that in 2015 won a championship was different?

Teams have beaten the warriors (without KD). The rockets couldn't.

Trade Gordon for Covington? Lol you made me spit my coffee all over the living room

mAgnoliAg said:

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Trade Gordon for Covington? Lol you made me spit my coffee all over the living room

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Better rebounder, much better defender, similar 3 point shooter, similar salary. He's not the scorer that Gordon is, but he'll be much more active on the boards and can keep guards from getting to the lane whenever they please and he will be controllable for longer than Gordon. Gordon gets his volume of shots in this offense which allows him to average in the upper teens in points, I think RoCo would do the same in this type of offense.

To be fair, RoCo missed a significant portion of last season with a bone bruise. I'm assuming that isn't an injury that would linger into 2019-2020.

1876er said:

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Trillary Clinton said:

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Harden needs to go

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LOL. Put harden on Denver, Portland, Phila, Boston, Toronto, Utah, or OKC and they are in the finals.

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whether or not this is true, the thought of Harden and Kyrie Irving on the same team is entertaining to imagine.

Username checks out. On a side note, where are you getting this idea that Gordon is a horrendous defender?

I didn't say "Gordon is a horrendous defender" anywhere in my statement. But, he is slightly above average as a 2/3 defender. Gordon's bulk allows for him to win some matchups at that spot, but Covington can defend just about anyone on the court effectively, can knock down 3s at the same clip, and will grab more rebounds.

Gordon did more positive things in this series than negative, but if we are looking at our problems objectively, I think we allowed wings to get too far into the lane and didn't affect those shots when we did. In turn, this allowed for easy rebounds/putbacks. Covington will be better at keeping that from happening, will be slightly more cost effective, and is under contract for much longer at that cost. He's isn't nearly the ballhandler that Gordon is, but I think his elite defense would make up for that.

Capela was a huge issue in this series, but I'm struggling to come up with someone that would fit this Rockets team at his salary and would be able to be traded for. With all of that being said, maybe the Rockets just decide to make a few small depth moves this offseason and monitor what happens around the league before trading away key cogs like Capela/Gordon.

I'm not sure how likely it is, but I would almost rather see them attempt to acquire younger players on rookie deals and develop them. Our future prospects look bleak with Paul's contract taking up 40 mill+ n cap space.

Nino Brown said:

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It's not about "systems" necessarily it's about showing the warriors something else from time to time. For example, whoever Curry was guarding either Harden or Paul, take curry down to the box and post him up every once and awhile. And for anyone says that's not their game get serious. We don't take advantages of others weaknesses enough. They just play their system and hope it's good enough. Well, it's not.

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The problem isn't a lack of post game... they didn't lack offense this series, just not everyone showed up to play their best. When that happens, you can beat teams like the Jazz, Thunder or whoever else. Not the Warriors. I might agree with your line of thinking if they were getting smoked off the court this series, but they weren't. They were right there again.

I think the rockets need a Joe Jones type player (not the actual aggie). A guy who can cover an undersized 4 or has the length to bother a faster guard. Also someone who can attack rebounds and handle the quickness of other undersized big men. It was obvious that Green or Faried couldn't mark up Green or Looney for Golden State and gave up too many offensive rebounds. We don't need this guy to score 10 a game just get 10 rebounds and play defense.

Please stick to the spurs thread

texagbeliever said:

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I think the rockets need a Joe Jones type player (not the actual aggie). A guy who can cover an undersized 4 or has the length to bother a faster guard. Also someone who can attack rebounds and handle the quickness of other undersized big men. It was obvious that Green or Faried couldn't mark up Green or Looney for Golden State and gave up too many offensive rebounds. We don't need this guy to score 10 a game just get 10 rebounds and play defense.

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So Clint capela? Also faried didn't play all series so not sure what you're taking about there. And we threw green on those 2 when we had him in the game because they are the worst offensive players for the warriors so we tried to hide green.

All the spurs fans can stick to your own thread and talk trash about the rockets over there

There are a lot of players in free agency that could add a needed aspect to this team, but the cap is going to be an issue. Wayne Ellington, JaMychal Green, Dewayne Dedmon, Markieff/Marcus Morris, JaVale McGee, Tyreke Evans, Terrence Ross, Reggie Bullock, etc.are all interesting options depending on if anyone major gets shipped out.

Not pat bev? Seth curry also intrigues me

QBCade said:

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respite said:

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Does last night eliminate talk that Houston would have won last year w/CP?

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It should.

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We were significantly better as a team last year and we lost at home in game 7 by single digits when missing our second best player. That was supposed to be our year and it wasn't because CP3 got hurt.

I'm tired of all the talk of "just ballin".

Whenever we would play well both Harden and Paul often said that they were just out there ballin'. I know it's more complex than that, and I don't think Pringles just rolls the ball out there and says "do your thing", but I do think the simplistic and undisciplined approach breaks down under pressure and against great defense.

I don't think it's a surprise D'Antoni has been underwhelming in the playoffs.

I'll add this. For once, the Eastern confrence champion is not a team you can ignore. I wouldve loved to play in the Finals, but there was no guarantee it wouldve been a cake walk like last year. We wouldve beaten the Cavs the last two years.

rvk246 said:

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QBCade said:

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respite said:

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Does last night eliminate talk that Houston would have won last year w/CP?

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It should.

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We were significantly better as a team last year and we lost at home in game 7 by single digits when missing our second best player. That was supposed to be our year and it wasn't because CP3 got hurt.

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Iggy going out last year was a big problem for the Warriors that nobody mentions. He is key to sooo much they do. That almost killed GSW.
I'm a GSW fan (living in the Bay for 20yrs) and am more worried about Iggy's health for next year than whatever KD does. We'll resign Klay.

Imagine being a Spurs fan and see Kawhi ball out like he did this year and in the playoffs.