What the hell did I just read? Of course Lopez got eaten alive by Dwight, but that was part of the game plan. Almost every center in the NBA would get eaten alive by Howard one on one. Would Asik have done better, maybe Asik is a better defender, but offensively Asiks hands make LMA look like Calvin Johnson and he has no offensive feel for the game. As for LMA, he had one bad games that was more due to him being off then anything else. The four games we won he scored 46,43,30,29. Houston couldn't do shit to stop him
Well that's where you're wrong. Dwight is not a great scorer, especially since his back surgery. That changes when he plays Robin Lopez because Lopez can't move his feet. Putting Asik on Aldridge had a big impact on the series. Aldridge was much less efficient and shot under 40% 3 out of the 4 games he was guarded by Asik, putting him in James Harden territory in terms of efficiency. So if you still believe they "couldn't do shit to stop him", then you must think Wesley Matthews couldn't do shit to stop James Harden. Do you agree with that? You guys should really try putting your bias aside and have an objective view.
But don't you think the game plan was to allow Howard have a monster game, while they stop Harden? In fact, I seem to remember one of the analyst explain how "feeding Howard" was a bad game plan for Houston. Saying it was at the expense of the game flow and what makes Houston great.
Forget game flow, Howard was shooting like 70%. The problem was that we were also shooting about 70%, and Howard ended up dead tired in the 4th.
How was Harden shooting during that series? Even when Howard was shooting 70%, he only accounted for 25% of their scoring. I would think Stott's game plan worked to perfection.
I also don't buy the fact that Asik is a total 0 on offense. A total 0 on offense is someone like Joel Przybilla. In 2012-2013 when Asik started and played 30mpg for Hosuton, he averaged 10ppg on 54% shooting. That's 1 less ppg than Robin's 11 last season. So that's also another argument that needs to go away.
I'm not going to quote both, but I saw that you asked to have an objective view. I think most do. We look at Lopez with a more holistic approach, as with Asik. Lopez was the better offensive rebounder last year. Asik had one game of 9 Offensive Rebounds(in 2012-2013... using what you measured him with... that's where all of Asik' stats will come from). Lopez had 4. Defensive rebounds Asik tore up that year in Houston. One thing I do notice, which might have helped skew some, was that Asik really didn't have great scoring games against Portland in 2012-2013. In those games (Series split 2-2) Asik had 16/9/9/4 in those games. The rebounds are up there, but that's to be expected. With Lopez against Houston (Regular season) last year, He had 0/13/16/11. (I did the math, Lopez in fact scored more points. lol, irrelevant, but I wanted to see). I also just did a quick stats look. Asik: Only has 1 year of being a starter. Lopez: Has 3 (Countin the one in Phoenix... I believe he started there..) Experience will trump most everything. And in 2 of those years, Lopez had an 11 ppg (8.0 PPG career). Also, Lopez in his 2nd straight year of starting went from 5.6 RPG to 8.5 with us. What's not to say that doesn't rise? This argument will go on forever, but there's reason to think Lopez is a better fit to this team than Asik. Really, stats don't prove Lopez' entire worth. Whereas, Asik has been known to sulk at times. Lets put it this way. Say we did have Asik last year, and the same thing happens with Howard where he manhandles Asik. (And he most likely would, Howard can do that to damn near anyone). Asik has had a propensity to sulk and whine and complain. Now Howard has gotten into his head and we would be toast. Lopez, however, knew what was happening but just took the punishment as a part to help the team. He could never STOP him, but he could create enough conflict to give us chances to win. I'm using hypotheticals because, really, that's all we have in these arguments. Stats have never measured heart and fortitude in athletes. But those are the two biggest factors in basketball, IMO. Asik has his skillset, but he has some troubled areas, just like Lopez. I would still, after all this, take Lopez all day every day. That's not being a homer, that's just what I have seen, both with stats proving what they prove and my own eyes seeing what they see.
Teams dont guard Dwight one on one because he will do what he did to Lopez to any center that isnt super mobile and any center that is wont be strong enough to stop Dwight. Teams dont often make the rockets choose between who Harden or Dwight because usually Harden is just lights out and you cant stop him and its much easir to double dwight and hope he fumbles the ball away or makes a bad pass or takes a poor shot. Dwights not the Dwight of three years ago but you dont really notice that on the offensive end as much as you notice it on the defensive end. LMAs efficiency went down because Kevin decided to say F the single coverage strategy and start doubling and in some cases even tripling LMA while Dwight almost never got doubled.
Not to mention, it isn't worth fouling out your best center by attempting to stop him. If Lopez goes out, things fall apart.
I'm hopeful that Kaman will help in this regard: one of his recent claims to fame(ish) is his ability to defend Howard decently. Plus, he'll be a more capable backup than Freeland or Leonard. My hope is specifically that things don't fall apart when Lopez is out.
Great point! Our back up center doesn't have to be some offensive player. We just need him to play big like Lopez. Whenever Lopez goes out, our team looks absolutely vulnerable. Our bench was our demise, no offense to T rob or Freeland.
Can anyone remember a bench that had this many 6'10-7'0 frontcourt players? Stotts has a lot of options, it's now up to him to use them effectively. We've got a lot of fouls to give sitting on the bench this season. LA, TRob, Freeland, Wright, Claver, Lopez, Kaman and Leonard. That's 40 fouls to give in the post
Hey, You knock that shit off right now!! This is a forum where we bash Asik and talk up Lopez kapeesh?
Yeah! And this is also a forum where someone can say Lillard for Conley is the best choice for the blazers! I have a wide assortment of legs to stand on. It really looks like you need one.
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