"Houston - If you assessed Chase Budinger’s 2010 summer league performance simply by the numbers found in the box score, you’d likely walk away feeling slightly disappointed with the end results. His scoring dipped from where it was a year ago, while his shooting percentages took a major hit, standing in stark contrast to how he had set fire to the Sin City nets in 2009. But as far as his coaches were concerned, the second-year swingman showed them everything they wanted to see." continued at link: http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/chase_budinger_wraps_up_summer_2010_07_14.html
What a great complementary player Chase is and will continue to be. An ideal player to put around a post player. We all know he can knock down the outside shot, but its his IQ and versatility that I'm more intrigued about. Passing, running the floor, finishing, spacing, and good help defense. These are the tools that made him a steal in last year's draft. These are the tools that may make Battier and Ariza increasingly more expendible around the trade deadline next season. While I don't think he has or ever will have an aggressive on-court personality in terms of "getting his" ala JR Smith, I think he brings more value to OUR team. The only two things I have left on my Rockets wish list is an enforcer PF who can also play and defend the center position, knock down the elbow shot, and has abundant bball IQ. I'm willing to deal every front court player we have (except Scola) for a guy like David West. The other wish list item would be to find some defense for Kevin Martin. I mean really, his defense is beyond atrocious.
if chase could only become a plus defensive player, you could trade shane or ariza (or both) tomorrow. like people always say - your shot will come and go, but defensive skill will show up on every play, every game. we just need to hope that chase has the physical and mental capability to devote himself to the craft of playing defense. then he'll be well on his way to stardom. and yeah, like you say, martin is disappointing defensively. he's never been a good defender, but frankly he's worse than i thought. it wouldnt be so bad except brooks is a minus defender too, and having two minus defenders at the 1 and 2 will put the rockets in a bad way against teams with elite PGs and SGs, as well as lead to increased foul trouble for Yao.
