Winning a title is not indicative of what makes up a playa. Otherwise, guys like Al Wood and Easy Ed Pinckney would have been playas while guys like Stockton, Malone, Barkley, Iverson, Wade, Artest, Ray Allen, CWebb, Tim Duncan, Scottie Pippen, Jeff Hornacek, Paul Pierce, Jason Richardson, Baron Davis, Steve Nash and a whole host of others would not be playas. Keep it real man.
Your asking me to keep it real? All of those guys have a way better all around game than Reddick. There was no point in you mentioning all of those players. Its obvious that he isnt as good as any of these players other than maybe Hornacek. If he was....he wouldnt be projected to go so low especially in a draft that has no highschoolers. Dunleavy had higher expectations coming in and he is a bust.
Should add Wilt Chamberlain to that list. Dude could not will Kansas to a title and lost to UNC in triple OT in the NCAA title game. He sucks and is no match for Carmelo.
I never understood the buzz on Dunleavy before the draft and is not surprised to see that he is a bust. He was a good but not great college player at Duke. Dukie V hyped him and it was silly to see NBA scouts bought into it.
It is going for historic proportions, but to be fair everyone has their man or reasons. Some say JJ some say Brewer but i can guarantee that other than whe the Rox had the #1 with Ming did they guarantee anyone. I just think that when they evaluate, they will take the guy with the largest upside which is Brewer. I think they will do the homework and check with the coaches and see his work ethic. If he has the work ethic they hope he has, then you can get a guy similar to Jefferson,Marion,Johnson,Richardson or any other guy with that great atheletic potential to be very effective. The NBA is now set up to attack the rim because of the lack of handchecking. The team with guys that can do that are successful. Even when teams play the zone, teams needs to penetrate, if not all you see is long jumpers starting someone else fastbreak.
Doood you gotta point, in fact I don't think anyone in this draft is going to have impactability so at this point anyone we get has to fit into our plans and needs. I think what you are forgetting though is that we have a 7'6 guy in the middle and no one in this draft is going to take the ball from TMac and what we need is someone to play off of these guys, not take the ball from them and make things happen. I personally think Brewer will stagnate on this team because his game is not to stand around and wait for Yao and TMac to make something happen and then get the rock. Especially with a wide open look and be expected to knock down the shot more often than not. That's why although Redick may not be the best player in the draft he's the guy most likely to be there when the Rox draft that has the game to do what the Rox need. If someone drops out of the top 6 guys you gotta take them otherwise you have to find the guy who'll fit in with what the Rox do best, get the ball in Yao's and TMac's hands and knock down shots.
This is not intended to be a shot at Redick, but as I read your post I realized something that's a bit ironic to me... Everyone and their mother can admit that Redick was the better player at Duke, as you said. However, Dunleavy is a starter which Redick is not generally projected to be in the NBA. Also, his "bust" numbers are likely on par with what would be considered by most to be very solid production (surprising, even) for Redick. Of course Dunleavy's rebounding is superior, but you get the point.
I'm just thinking playoff basketball, not regular season. I think that when you play a team in a series, teams make adjustments. When the Rox play a team like the Spurs or lets say Miamia or Det, those teams will single cover McGrady and single Ming and take their chances. If Ming goes off for 40 and McGrady gets 40 thats only 80pts, who else can score. Can Reddick get his own shot against say a posey,rip or Manu/finley? What about Rafer,Howard or Stro? I just think that a guy used to attacking the hoop or getting offensive rebounds or steals can generate some offense without the aid of others. If you feel confident that Reddick will be able to score over bigger longer atheletes, then JJ is your man. I for one even with him score 28 in a offense designed especially for him has seen him struggle when those long defenders guard him and be ineffective even when the gameplan is to run him off screens and other stuff. I could go on and on and really wish we could trade the pick or a player for either Lewis or Ricky Davis or someone of that ilk.
You are right about the playoffs for a guy like JJ. I think his effectiveness would dissappear. However, his regular season play could lead us to be the 1,2 or 3 seed instead of 5,6,7 or 8. That's a much easier first round game and lets the players rest if we sweep. JJ would still contribute in the playoffs. It just wouldn't be in the same way as the regular season. His games where he's dropping 21 points worth of threes shouldn't last, but he still might score 10. That's dissappearing, but contributing. My problem with Brewer is that he only has upside and no current side. In addition, look at my post with videos (#1219, I think). The guy is just on the court, he's not that special, his contributing plays are not a big deal. He does look big though. That's all I can say about him. The rate at which Brewer learns to shoot the three, JJ can learn to dribble and pass. This learning curve goes two ways. I want the guy that is ready to contribute next year.
Brewer is smarter than T-Mo, which might make all the difference. Or maybe not, if Brewer is unmotivated. The point of doing a minimum analysis should be clear: if we take Brewer, we want to be happy with him even if he doesn't overachieve. And that's the problem with him. I'm not so sure that we would be satisfied with only a decent defender who is rather spotty on offence. This is why I prefer Redick, because I do think we would be happy if he were only a dead-eye spot-up shooter who played adequate defence -- that would be an excellent fit for our team.
I disagree on the part about it being a weak and tired argument, though I completely respect your opinion. Ability to hit an open shot translates directly to the NBA. Athletic advantage goes away. In college, Brewer could do some things better than the competition because of his size, quickness and strength, but the NBA is full of guys that are his size and strength. In other words, it won't be an advantage. Now, your point about Redick not having the size and athleticism to counter it. Good point. The same way that athletic advantage will go away for Brewer, it will pass over JJ Redick. Redick will now be playing against guys that are all longer than him, jump higher and are stronger. (he's got the same/similar quickness and speed as a lot of the guys that play SG) I think what JJ Redick lacks in size will be made up for by awareness of what is going on and his basketball IQ. He won't get lost on what to do. He just won't be big enough to stop a guy from posting up on him once his guy is in the low post. How many SG's out there like the low post? Not many. Brewer doesn't seem to know how to use his strengths. Not from the footage I saw. His head is in the clouds, just like Stro. Even when he gets the ball one-on-one against a guy, he does that little hesitation that Stro does. Both Stromile and Brewer seem to want the rest of the defense to dissappear when the one-on-one starts. It's like Swift takes a picture in his head and assumes that no one will move while he's got the ball. However, Brewer did seem to recognize that he was not going to drive to the hole and dished off. The dish was to a perimeter guy, not a dunk pass or layup pass. It wasn't impressive at all. I'm becoming more anti-Brewer than anything else. I'd rather take a shot on Rodney Carney at this point. Rodney can do some things on offense for himself. He doesn't really play a team game offensively, but if he learns the plays, he's got real tools. Look at this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2BGlGuMel4&search=rodney carney Long arms, closing speed, good timing. Both Carney and Redick are better than Brewer (at #8). I'd take Brewer at 15 though. Carney and Redick will be gone by then.
Redick won't have to create his own shot, not even in the playoffs. With him on the floor, we won't need to park all of our shooters beyond the arc, as we did in the 40-point loss to Dallas. Actually, JVG might be stubborn enough to try it again, but a good coach would realize that Redick has a motor that doesn't quit, and would start running him off picks all day. The other team won't dare to counter this by swarming him, as LSU did, because he won't have the ball while he's running around, and because Yao and T-Mac are even bigger threats than Redick would be. So just having Redick on the court would open up our offence enormously.
You sir, clearly understand that basketball is a TEAM sport, and that is why Redick fits so perfectly. It makes our TEAM better. We have 2 guys who can beat people off the dribble, Tmac and Rafer, now we need shooters. DD
So if we got Brewer (or Lewis or Ricky Davis) and teams decided to play their normal defense, is he going to score whatever Redick would have against single coverage plus the 33 points that we lose from Yao and McGrady dropping down to their averages? I don't know if I have ever seen a more preposterous argument. I guarantee we win every game that 2 of our guys score 40 points in, and you can have my signature for a year if we don't (provided I get your's if we do).
Basketball is a team game. But the best half-court team defense starts as 1 on 1. (See Pistons, Detroit or Spurs, San Antonio). If you can't contain whomever you are assigned to guard, you become a liability to the teammates behind you. If you don't have the size, speed or athleticism to matchup well in transition D, you become a liability from a numbers (2 on 1 , 3 on 2, etc.) standpoint and you are an easier postup to whomever you've picked up in transition. If you don't have the size, speed, and athleticism to finish well in transition O, you will have to park your arse at the arc. That is what the other JJ did and it's why the Rockets were a dramatically better transition O team after acquiring Wesley for Jim Jackson. Most of the elite NBA teams single cover Yao and the majority of them single cover McGrady until he gets on a roll. If an opposing team doubles, it will be off of that particular games' least productive Rocket. Given Juwan's inconsistency and Rafer's inability, that's where the double comes from. Not SG. (BTW, the next time Rafer beats Parker, Terry, Cassell, or Nash off of the dribble will be his first as a Rocket). In the Rockets' half-court set, the post is usually fed by the SF or PG...the SG is weakside. It is not too difficult for the better NBA teams to play the passing lanes and obscure a pass to the weakside SG. The Draft can't get here soon enough to end the mad obsession with Redick.
Yeah, why would anyone want a guy who averaged nearly 28ppg at the top college basketball program in America? I mean, why would anyone want a guy who was the focus of the other team's defense night in and night out, yet still managed to school top programs like Texas & North Carolina. I mean, really.....Redick is probably going to be a failure.....or.....maybe, just maybe we can see that he is MORE than just a spot up shooter. Perhaps a lot of us see that he moves without the ball, passes well to the open man, knows how to use a screen, and above all shoots LIGHTS out from all over the court. And, he is 6'5" in shoes, and a pretty good athlete according to the tests the NBA gives......not to mention plays basketball with a passion lacking from some important components on the Rockets team. Gater, I respect a lot of your posts, but I think you are out to lunch on this one. Teams do not double team, each possession, but they do a lot, and JJ would thrive on that, also, he knows how to move to the open space in transition. JJ is the best shooter to come into the league in the last 10 years, and that says a lot. I am TIRED of watching Rocket Guards and others brick open shot after open shot, Tmac and Yao generate a TON of open shots....we need someone that can hit them....consistently. Hello JJ Redick. DD
DD, he's supposed to have a disc problem. Are you willing to take a chance on that at the 8th spot, putting aside his obvious attributes?
