Is anyone else sick of Houston fans crying about Rashard Lewis. Al Harrington was the higher ranked HS'er at the time. Al Harrington was on the board on all our picks. Al Harrington was drafted ahead of Lewis. It takes low post PFs longer to make impacts over shooters with a great PG. Lewis now is being guarded closer and given more responsibility. Lewis FG% has tailed off significantly to 43%. Is Lewis a Robert Horry who still works hard? What is Al Harrington? He is a fast, slashing powerful PF, who can play some SF. Shooting 49% and 80% free throws with 6.2 boards and 13 pts in 29 minutes versus Lewis's 38 minutes. So, who do you want. A slashing, shooting, rebounding SF. Or a slashing, low post threat who can board? I'd take Al Harrington. He was our mistake pick, imo. Not Rashard.
I am really sick of the whining and "what if" thinking about Rashard Lewis. We did not pick him, let's forget about him. he is now a Supersonic. I've heard negative comments from him since. I would much rather have Al Harrington, but not lazy Robert Horry.
I agree, crispee. To be honest, the 3 guys I wanted the Rocks to draft in '98 were: Brian Skinner (I thought the Rocks needed some size and another shot-blocker. Was pleased with Dickerson, however.) Tyronn Lue (The PG was manned by Maloney and Price. 'Nuff said.) Al Harrington (He really impressed me at the McDonald's AA game, and I thought he had the better build and athleticism when compared to Rashard. I agreed with a lot of 'experts' that Lewis was kind of Horry-like.)
If you ask me the bigger question is why we didn't insist on Oneal instead of Cato in the Pippen deal. From Rudy's comments the other day they saw some potential in Oneal. As far as Oneal being a "deal breaker", I seriously doubt it. People at that time thought Pippen was still an elite player mis used in the Houston system. Also, Portland in fact thought Pippen was the missing piece for a title (he nearly was) and they knew Oneal wasn't going to break their rotation anytime near their ring pursuits. In fact they traded him the following year for merely Dale Davis (certainly an equally old but less skilled player than Pippen), sure looks good from Indiana's end (though the A Davis for Bender trade doesn't look so good).
Eh, I think people emphasize Rashard more because the team talked of actually getting him. It seems like the Rockets never considered drafting Harrington... so I look it as the Rockets BARELY missed out on getting a valuable asset.
harrington is locked in a long term deal so we are not picking him up. Eddie Griffin will be way better than Harrington in a couple of years anyway so i am not so sure I would want him.
The weird thing is, at 43%, Rashard Lewis would be one of the best shooters on this team! I think it's too soon to evaluate what kind of player he's going to be long term. Maybe in two years.
