I am a big fan of Dikembe Mutombo. I have been surprised at his limited playing time. Mutombo used to be a great boost for this team. His ability to block shots, and scare away opponents from the basketball used to help the Rockets immensely. However, Jeff Van Gundy has chosen to bench him. What happened to him? Does he have a hidden injury?
I have to admit the same question has passed my mind. Maybe he wants to save him until after the playoffs are out of reach.
I think Swift is used in his stead, which is fine with me as long as he's contributing. Deke has zero offense.
Deke's defensive impact is nowhere close to last year, if you watched the gemes. He lost a step, what would have been a block last year becomes a foul this year, and his hook shot is getting worse. Rockets used to gain points on other team's 2nd unit with Deke on the court, it's no longer the case anymore.
Bingo!! Add him to Barry, and Wesley as Rox fossils...he just took a little longer to get there!! D R
Mutombo only thrives against the Shaq's and Ilgauskas' of the world...the game has long past him by so he's not useful against smaller, quicker bigs, and Stro is...
I think we need somebody faster as our backup center. It will be better for Yao to train against a faster center.
What are you basing that on? He's played a total of 3 minutes this season. Deke has his role ...in the playoffs. Yao isn't getting into foul trouble this year and that's where Deke got most of his PT last season. Plus Swift lets us play small ball against teams w/out true centers...which happens to be most teams these days. It is curious that Deke isn't getting at least a few minutes but I'm not worried about it. Deke's time will come.
Sweeeeeet. You even did the correct question mark in the beginning of the question. I asked myself the same question--IN SPANISH, too! I miss DEKE. Where's the DEFENSE inside? Where's the REBOUNDING? I miss DEKE. "That two ticket!"
Deke has played 150 minutes already. Look at here: http://www.82games.com/0506/05HOU12D.HTM and http://www.82games.com/0506/05HOU12C.HTM He's clearly not the player we saw last season. Otherwise JVG would put him on the court more to give Yao some more rest on those nights without Tmac.
Now if you want to be strict on the grammar, have to use a capital letter on the first word after the first interrogation mark. ¿Donde está Dikembe Mutombo?
So, who's slower, Deke or Yao? Deke isn't playing because 1) Yao is playing more minutes; 2) Swift is learning the ropes; 3) it isn't playoff time. It has nothing to do with Deke being old and slow. He's been slow his whole career.
Exactly. 150 minutes. Ryan Bowen has logged 186 and everybody here thinks that is too much. But Deke is also avg >10 mpg. Do you want him to log significantly more minutes than that? ...esp. early in the season? Deke isn't getting AS MUCH PT because Yao is staying out of foul trouble. Isn't that what we want? Yao is better than Deke. If we can keep Yao on the floor...done deal. What I've seen of Deke, I don't have any indication is he less effective than last year. But JVG probably played him more minutes than he wanted to last season because of Yao's fouls. I have no problem w/ JVG saving Deke's legs for times when he is really needed. Don't panic.
For the record, Deke came into the game against Sac...when Yao got into early foul trouble...just as I pointed out. Deke is here to backup Yao. If Yao plays like a stud, we'll never see Deke again. If Yao is playing really well, then when Yao DOES take a rest, it seems like JVG gives the PT to Stro and JHow to get a quicker lineup on the floor since most teams don't have a true center anymore and definately don't have a true center as a backup. Deke will only get in the games for significant PT if Yao is playing terrible or gets into foul trouble. I've got no problem with that in case we need his energy for a playoff run later. As long as Yao is playing well, Keep Deke fresh!!!