An Old Man's Opinion: Luther Head will be trade before the start of the season

Couldn't agree more-

Van Gundy sees Head as a 6-1" shooting guard with average skills
We sign every SG we can over 6-4" in the off-season

Rockets will try to deal Luther

Do they have a deal in place? I am sure they have talks ongoing- should be interesting.

 

Luther is a goner.

I like the kid---he was a steal on draft night 2005---but he's likely gone. Too many guards. Overkill (Snyder, Jacobsen, VSpan, JLIII), after getting co**-blocked by the Trailblazers (see Roy, Brandon) on draft night.

I give some credence to the Lakers idea, if it ever had any value at all. It made some sense.

Thing is, Luther + Juwan (+ even Snyder, if need be: in a week or so he can be packaged in trade as well) might net us the 4 we need (one who doesn't suck, who can shoot from outside). You would think a trade is imminent. Going to battle with a 50 year-old backup 4 and one of the worst starting PFs in the league....? No thanks.

 

I am in agreement. I think there was something to the Lakers rumor. And it would most likely involve Head and Howard. And would make so much sense if it was for Mihm and Cook. It would give us expiring contracts and a brand new trade exception. And the Lakers get Luther and a midrange shooting power forward/center.

Could it be possible that we go into training camp and after watching Luther light it up for a couple of weeks to pump up his trade value and then move him.

 

Good points everyone, but I disagree to an extent. Luther alone is not going to net us a player with much value. He is still on the rookie pay scale so in order to make it worth our while to trade him, he would have to be packaged with Howard or rolled up in a "simultaneous but separate" deal for the TE. Those deals are possible, but if it were me I would start the season as-is for a number of reasons...

First, Luther started off last season shooting .482 from the 3-point arc in November before hitting the rookie wall. If he is able to even come close to that, he is the guy we need creating spacing for Yao and TMac.

Also, JH is a perfectly serviceable PF in JVG's system. He is able to hit the 15-18' jumper consistently and we will be using Battier at 4 alot anyway, so JH is fine, if a bit expensive for us.

If it were me, I would set the roster where it is and see what happens in training camp.

 

I hope your thoughts will materialized Rock! I like Chris Milm alot going way back in his UT days...... I felt he could never got into a right system with the right coach to shine in the NBA.

Milm got some nice footworks(he was even a 6.0 level tennis player), a nice short range offensive game, decent shot blocker.

If he can hold up physically(his past injuries was due to bad luck a lot of times, not because of durability)I think we've found ourselves a decent back up 4/5.

I think V-Span will take over the 1 sooner than you think. Rafer is competent but he's not a starting 1 especially on this team.

Rafer makes too many mistakes at crunch time and is weak mentally. He's proned to let **** get into his head at the most pivotal time of the game and hurt his team in the process.

You all still remember plenty of times he brought the ball up and Yao got his man sealed and in good , deep position and what did Rafer do? He swung the ball to the opposite side of the court instead , Yao never got the ball and had to fight hard to regain position somewhere else.

I could never understand his logic maybe some of you smarter folk can explain that to me . If it was JVG's order for Rafer to do this then this is BS coaching! But if it was Rafer's own doing then I know V-Span will be more than capable to run the point, because it's not Rocket( ) science to play point guard for us: you feed Yao and Tmac the ball, knock down the open looks, hustle& play defense.....did I miss anything.......

 

It is a designed play. Yao posts on one side while his man fights for position, they swing the ball as Yao slides to the other side of the lane to get the exact position he want where he likes to have the ball. So, instead of fighting for post positioning with the opposing big man, he in essence goes where he wants and makes the defender come to him where he feels the most comfortable and effective.

Rafer is more than capable starting PG for this team, but that is for another thread.

As for the thread topic, I completely agree. I've actually thought about this once the season ended. I REALLY believe they drafted him thinking he would become a good combo-guard in the mode of Antonio Daniels and he clearly showed that he coud not become that. He has the most value of anyone on the team that they would have on the trade block and proved that around the draft.

I don't know about the Lakers though. I really do not see spot for him there, though I would think Cook would be expendable after signing Radmanovic.

 

I'm with you Old Man.

Luther Head's a great talent with a shart eye from long range.

But I think he's undersized, particularly for our defensive scheme.

I like the guy, but I don't think he fits our "system." Plus he's a good value at his rookie scale. Good player to package in a deal somewhere.

Don't mind if he stays, but wouldn't be surprised in the least if he was some sort of trade bait.

 

Luther Head doesn't have any trade value by himself.

He's on a rookie contract so we won't get equal value in return. Only way Luther gets traded is if he is a throw-in as part of a larger trade ...which is definately possible.

 

I'm not sure how or why you assume that, prior to any actual play, Head gets squeezed out of the roster by one guy who has never set foot in an NBA game (spanoulis) and a problem child who has been run out of his first two stops (Snyder)

 

JVG did not like Head so much last season, that he just keep playing him.

Head is a tradable commodity. He is also a player that the Rox will never be 100% satisfied with, since he is undersized for the position he plays. But he is still young and may yet develop 1 skills. BTW Daniels was not a great combo guard coming out of his first year in the NBA; he took time to develop.

Also some of the other 7 guards have big question marks. VSpan will need time to adapt to the NBA game, gaining PT as the season goes on. Sura more likely than not has played his last NBA game, but if he does come back he will take away minutes from the rest. JLIII needs to show his summer success translates to the NBA level, day in, day out. Casey may turn out to be expensive training camp fodder.

Thus, Head is a know quantity with trade value. Trading him though is not a certainty.

 

I feel Head maybe gone as well. I don't know but I think there is at least one more trade coming.

 

If I were the Rox coaching staff, at the end of last season I would have told Luther to shoot 25,000 three point shots over the summer (~150 per day) to get him ready to be a floor spacer. If he did that, he would be money from three point range just like he was at the beginning of last season.

We need a guy that is capable of shooting .482 from long range. Luther is that guy.

 

Trading your contract friendly rookie, while none of the new guys coming in has proved himself more than Luther did, isn't the way to go at this point.

 

You know what I would love for all the Rockets to get that kind of practice..
Why is it that when your an NBA player you have to stop practicing? Should take 200 shots a day from different angles.... Then maybe we can have a higher field goal percentage. Which by the way is very low.

 

yeah, I've felt this way since last season.

Head is clearly bench fodder, but other teams might see that differently. Now might be the best time to sell high while he is still perceived to have a higher ceiling.

 

well i love head . Really, i do like the kid and would like to have him around but he does seem to be the odd man out.

he would have to be coupled with someone else or a pick to get anything of real value in return. although im not too thrilled with the lakers trade idea. I dont think they have to trade for an outside shooting 4 anymore since battier can essentially fill that role.

 

The ironic thing is Head is the closest thing to a known commodity. Though I would say they are more talented, we have no clue what we will get from Snyder and VSpan.

As for the Lakers trade idea, anyone who saw the Lakers last year should want no part of those players not named Kobe and Lamar.

Well said. The high numbers of guards is precisely because we don't know who will come through. Unless it was part of a deal for a clearly superior guard, it makes little sense to trade Head.

 

I would love to get Milm, I think he would flourish in this system, PF and back-up Center. I have the same feeling about Head, it's more of a vibe that a rational analysis, but you made an interesting case.