Official Houston Rockets 2013 Offseason Thread: Welcome D12 to Houston!

[blackxme]

Dwight is going to flourish, and then you can f_ off

 

[markangelo]

Can't wait for the team melt down when D12 show his true side

this is the rockets appreciation thread, take that to the lakers thread homie 

Thanks for the pics peep, Mchale is so happy in the second picture 

He finally has a big man down low, no more Harden hero-ball iso next season, I hope 

 

[puglife]

guys,

I trolled the lakers thread last season telling them we'd end up with Dwight. eventually got banned from the regular season and offseason threads. we're gonna have to expect the same from them now that we got Dwight. no reason to get upset. it's just envy.

 

[licensed to ball]

guys,

I trolled the lakers thread last season telling them we'd end up with Dwight. eventually got banned from the regular season and offseason threads. we're gonna have to expect the same from them now that we got Dwight. no reason to get upset. it's just envy.

Reported for trolling last year.

Spoiler

nah, but seriously...don't generalize Laker fans because of ACB. He stands on his own. None of us have "plans" to come and troll your thread. Sure some smack talk will be had which is normal, but we could care less about trolling a Rockets forum right now. We got a horrible roster to worry about

 

[hongcouver604]

K

Can't wait for the team melt down when D12 show his true side

Kirby, pls.

 

[nflowshoe]

View media item 493729
Unless Dwight wins a championship, it goes Dream > Yao > Dwight

but man, the possibilities with this lineup

Not sure which part of the world you live in but I am from Texas, and during Yao Ming's career In Houston the City hated him %70 of the time. Yeah he had his good year, but overall they were upset with him. With that being said, if D. Howard pays 2 healthy seasons he will surpass Ming. LMAO, at him needing a ring to be better than Ming. Unless you live in China, Houston Texas doesn't feel that way.

 

[nflowshoe]

copy

 

[jumpmantwenty3]

So who's the #1 option now, Harden or Howard? I wonder how Harden feels if he's demoted to non-first option again

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

Howard will never be a first option. He's going to get the ball a whole hell of a lot more though and in a better position to get easy buckets. The PnR will (should) be something to behold

 

[flip escobar]

Dwight Howard - Stephen A. Smith Interview after the Rockets Fan Rally..

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

[markangelo]

I think Howard should get the most touches, just because he can be so dominant down low. If he dominates the paint early, there'll be easier shots for Parsons/Lin/Harden

 

[flip escobar]

ESPN - First Take: Chandler Parsons discusses the process by which the Rockets lured Dwight Howard to Houston.
 

 

[sole searchin]

Not sure which part of the world you live in but I am from Texas, and during Yao Ming's career In Houston the City hated him %70 of the time. Yeah he had his good year, but overall they were upset with him. With that being said, if D. Howard pays 2 healthy seasons he will surpass Ming. LMAO, at him needing a ring to be better than Ming. Unless you live in China, Houston Texas doesn't feel that way.

Lol, born and raised in Houston TX. The hate is unwarranted IMO. He was better head to head vs. Dwight and his offensive game was on point (barring injuries I know ) but his game spoke for itself. Honestly, the majority of Houston is the minority and I believe that the hate was just because he was not black.

But I'm not gonna get into that. You have your opinions, but I don't care, if Dwight plays good, we should be able to win a chip and that's all I care about. I couldn't care less if he was better or worse then Yao, I just want some excitement.

Good couple of years to be a Houston sports fan (well besides the Astros)

 

[markangelo]

Lamarcus Aldridge? 

http://rockets.clutchfans.net/4502/dwight-howard-houston-rockets-lamarcus-aldridge/

 

[jpzx]

Is there any actual proof to that rumor. Or is it a bunch of Houston sport heads throwing out good ideas.

 

[blackxme]

None of the big-time insiders like Woj have said anything. At this point it's nothing but rumors but I trust Clutch, he has proven to be reliable.
And like I've said if Portland sucks and LA gives every indication that he doesn't intend to stay there then I can see the Rockets and them making something happen. Although I think other teams can make better offers, LA might pull a Melo and make it impossible for Portland to deal with anyone but Houston.

 

[100027]

None of the big-time insiders like Woj have said anything. At this point it's nothing but rumors but I trust Clutch, he has proven to be reliable.
And like I've said if Portland sucks and LA gives every indication that he doesn't intend to stay there then I can see the Rockets and them making something happen. Although I think other teams can make better offers, LA might pull a Melo and make it impossible for Portland to deal with anyone but Houston.

It wouldn't be a Melo unless you traded Harden, Dwight, Lin, Asik, Beverly, and kept just Thomas Robinson.

 

[Peep Game]

^basically

 

[blackxme]

Ah hell nah

Lucky for us I know that Knicks management isn't running the Rockets.

 

[jhova718]

None of the big-time insiders like Woj have said anything. At this point it's nothing but rumors but I trust Clutch, he has proven to be reliable.

And like I've said if Portland sucks and LA gives every indication that he doesn't intend to stay there then I can see the Rockets and them making something happen. Although I think other teams can make better offers, LA might pull a Melo and make it impossible for Portland to deal with anyone but Houston.

It wouldn't be a Melo unless you traded Harden, Dwight, Lin, Asik, Beverly, and kept just Thomas Robinson.

yea because Gallo, Mosgov, felton, and chanlder were all star, world beaters?

you make that trade 100 times out of 100

 

[100027]

yea because Gallo, Mosgov, felton, and chanlder were all star, world beaters?

you make that trade 100 times out of 100

That was definitely hyperbole on my part because you kept Amare, who you reasonably expected to be a star again.

But yeah, I wouldn't trade a bunch of young assets to build around a player like Carmelo. Lost you the flexibility to build and actual winner in the future.

 

[statis22]

Yes you do, you make that trade every time.

It's basically how the Rockets got Harden. Assets get you stars.

 

[flip escobar]

http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/chemistry-lesson by Jason Friedman @Rockets.com

Chemistry Lesson - Rockets players gather together to get head start on season to come

HOUSTON - Every NBA season has them – those tough, trying times that test a team’s patience, togetherness and resolve. They are often as unpleasant as they are unavoidable; agonizing stretches when nothing works, everything seems out of sync, nerves are frayed and frustration threatens to boil over.

The Rockets realize there are no exceptions to that rule. Despite their current residency in the penthouse at the Cloud Nine Hotel in the wake of the Dwight Howard signing, they understand it won’t be roses and rainbows forever. Eventually, inevitably, the season to come will bring trials and tribulations, and what’s more, their success or failure as a team will likely be determined by how they handle those unsavory spikes of adversity.

That realization goes a long way in explaining why the vast majority of the Rockets’ roster can currently be found working up a sweat in Southern California. Houston’s players took it upon themselves to organize an informal mid-summer mini-camp of sorts, allowing them to get a head start on the teambuilding process and a jump on welcoming and integrating their prized offseason acquisition into the fold. The workouts were originally slated to take place in Chandler Parsons’ home turf in Orlando this week, but with Howard, James Harden and Jeremy Lin already in Los Angeles, and Parsons himself needing to be in LA for tonight’s ESPYs, the locale was changed last-minute. So Monday morning found several Rockets players hard at work inside a gym on the lush UCLA campus, beginning the process of building the sort of foundation that should serve the team well when the season starts and those inexorable obstacles emerge.

“I think the earlier you get started, the better,” said Parsons during a phone interview Tuesday afternoon. “When you have pieces that are new, especially guys who are going to be impact guys like Dwight, it’s good to get to know one another on and off the court to get that familiarity and be comfortable with one another so that by the time training camp comes, it’s not strange, it’s not uncomfortable and it’s something that you’re used to.

“I think we can use this to really get to know one another and maybe see some strengths and weaknesses in each other’s games. It’s kind of like an introductory session for us to get to know Dwight – nobody knows where he likes the ball and things like that, so I think it’s definitely big to come together this early.”

As one would expect, the early reviews of the seven-time All-Star have been glowing.

“He’s just an athletic freak,” Lin said when asked how Howard has looked during their initial scrimmages together. “Certain sets with him rolling down the paint toward the basket and using his athleticism, it’s going to be really good for us. I think we can be really creative with the ways that we use him. He’s just an animal when it comes to everything near the rim – he’s thrown down numerous alley-oops already from James. He forces defenders to take an extra step or two to make sure he doesn’t get the ball just because he’s so explosive and so strong, and that gives us so much room to work. He’s either getting a dunk or someone else is left wide-open.”

That of course is what the Rockets dreamed of while plotting to add Howard to a team that finished with the NBA’s ninth-best point differential a season ago. On paper, it’s hard to envision a more perfect fit. The three-time Defensive Player of the Year will combine with Omer Asik to unquestionably give Houston the league’s foremost 1-2 punch at the center position. And in pairing Harden with Howard, the Rockets can perhaps now boast of possessing the preeminent pick-and-roll partnership in the game as well, one that ought to repeatedly and mercilessly put opponents in a pick-your-poison conundrum filled with pocket passes, rim runs and an unending barrage of shooters spacing the floor.

In fact, the numbers from Howard’s career to date portend the potential for greatness given the lineups Houston now has at its disposal. According to the Rockets’ Basketball Operations department, when Howard has played with a spacing four-man (similar to what the Rockets can trot out with either Terrence Jones or Donatas Motiejunas, or when they go small with Parsons or Omri Casspi manning the position) and a playmaking wing over the course of his nine-year career, those lineups have combined to produce an offensive efficiency rating of 109.0 (a number that would have earned top-3 status this past season) and a defensive mark of 100.8 (a top-10 figure in 2012-13). Furthermore, the differential (8.2) between those two numbers would have ranked third only behind Miami and Oklahoma City last season.

Little wonder, then, that Parsons says Howard has been chomping at the bit to get started with his new teammates in order to start recreating some of the magic he experienced during his heyday in Orlando.

“He’s all for it,” said Parsons. “That’s a huge reason he chose to come to Houston. He loves our style of play, he loves the personnel. He looks forward to playing with me and James and Jeremy. I think it reminds him of Orlando where they had him and Gortat, and now it will be him and Omer. You have me as the Turkoglu kind of player. And no offense to Courtney Lee, but James is one of the best if not the best two-guards in the NBA. Their offense was really good when they could space the floor, have him roll out of the pick-and-roll, find shooters and play inside-out. I think our offense is very similar to the offense that he had a lot of success with in Orlando, but ours has even more freedom, it’s more up-tempo, and the more he runs, ducks in and the harder he rolls on those pick-and-rolls, it’s just going to open up our offense even more.”

While Howard has obviously and understandably been the primary center of attention so far, others are making strong early impressions, too. A week after putting the wraps on an impressive summer league stint that saw him average nearly 16 points and 8 rebounds per game down in Orlando, Terrence Jones is continuing to open eyes with the growth and overall development of his versatile game.

“From my own standpoint the guy that’s really stood out from an improvement standpoint is Terrence Jones,” Lin said. “He’s been playing really well. He’s confident, he knows he belongs and I think as a result we’re seeing him do things that he couldn’t do last year. He’s definitely grown as a player. And Omri Casspi – he’s also been playing really well. He can really shoot.

“Everybody is accommodating everyone else right now. We’re trying to build something together that everyone can buy into. Everyone’s voice on the team is going to be heard and the job of the coaches and the players is going to be to put the egos aside and find the happy medium. I’m sure that will be done over time and there will be bumps and bruises along the way like with every team. But having a week like this to bond and come together as a group can go a long way toward helping us overcome those obstacles in the end.”

 

[snaggykicks]

Congrats to all the Rocket fans on gettin d12 only way this affects me now is I have to play the heat or the thunder or the rockets everytime on 2k now

 

[manifresh]

Its going down rocket fans this is our time!