THis was posted today by nbcsports.com via Houston Chronicle! http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusspt/tsn08-30-130126.asp?id=10&spt=nba By Michael Murphy "Ask not what your center can do for you — ask what you can do for your center." That seems to be the mantra for Kelvin Cato, for whom the Rockets have done plenty (about $42 million plenty), but they have received very little on that return. So far, anyway. That said, perhaps this will be the year Jason Collier becomes an NBA player. Collier was acquired in a draft-day trade with Milwaukee last year, with the Rockets sending the No. 9 pick, Joel Pryzbilla, to the Bucks for the rights to Collier, a 7-footer out of Georgia Tech. But Collier has been plagued by leg problems that required offseason surgery, and after a couple of fumbles in the rehab department, is starting to look like an NBA-caliber center. Collier spent the last part of the summer in the weight room, and it shows. He shed the baby fat that he carried around last year and finally has the upper-body strength required to be able to work on defense and box out — especially against the stronger centers in the West. That will be the key for Collier. Everyone knows he can shoot. Collier can take the ball out to 20 feet and knock down the jumper. Rudy Tomjanovich constantly raves about his ability to "space the floor" with his shooting. There is no denying Collier's ability to do that, and it would make him a very nice addition to the offense as a high-post and/or roam-the-baseline threat, a la Luc Longley, Bill Wennington or Rik Smits. Don't laugh — Longley and Wennington have six championship rings between them. With the Rockets' ability to carve up the floor with off-the-dribble types like Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Moochie Norris, having a center who can catch and shoot from the outside would be an enormous boost to the offense. But the game is played on two sides of the floor, and Collier has yet to prove he can guard anyone. No, don't bring up Shaq. Nobody can check Shaq, so don't even go there. Collier's value on defense will be keeping guys like David Robinson, Vlade Divac and Raef LaFrentz — and especially stiffs like Greg Ostertag and Michael Olowokandi — from having big nights against them. If they can get 10-12 points and eight or nine rebounds out of Collier, then the Rockets would be ecstatic. Just don't ask Cato to do it for them. POSITIONAL ANALYSIS Coaching: Rudy Tomjanovich has proved himself. After winning back-to-back NBA championships (1994 and '95) and winning an Olympic Gold medal (2000), Tomjanovich doesn't have to concern himself with impressing anyone. He's the blue jeans guy in the Armani world of NBA coaching. His teams seem to mirror his approach — simple, direct and uncomplicated. Tomjanovich loves to put the ball in the hands of one legitimate superstar scorer, spread the floor and let everything flow out of that. In the past, he did it in the low post with Hakeem Olajuwon, which worked well enough for the aforementioned twin titles. He is now doing it with Steve Francis, applying the same principles, only drawing the inevitable double-teams on the perimeter instead of in the low post. Everything else pretty much works the same way — Francis can either beat the defense and score or he can beat the defense and pass it off to a wide-open shooter on the perimeter. That's it. Nothing really complex (except figuring out why NBA coaches ALWAYS double off guys like Matt Bullard and Walt Williams, who do little more than drain wide-open 3-pointers. Don't they watch films?) and nothing overly attractive for the ticket-buying public. Tomjanovich isn't much of a "win-one-for-the-Gipper" motivator. He treats everyone as the professionals they are, and he expects them to carry themselves and perform that way. But that doesn't always work in the ego-massaging, tell-me-I'm-great world of today's professional sports, and some former players have described Tomjanovich as borderline aloof. In the past, Tomjanovich usually has had a roster full of veterans who really didn't need much in the way of vocal prodding. That has changed in the last couple of years, and Tomjanovich may have to change with the times, spending more time with each individual player.
Articles such as these are always misleading. At first, you say..."yeah, JC will be our saviour this year," then you remember that Collier was an extremely poor excuse for a NBA player last year and any improvement will be seen in 5pt/5 reb per game numbers, and little more. Not quite savior like, but hopefully COllier will become a decent 10-20 min per game backup.
I agree. I think we are subject to a little wishful thinking, but when I reread the article it sounded to me more like he is saying that the Houston Rockets have been guilty of being ioverly ndulgent with its latest group of centers and that Collier needs to step up and show us what kind of NBA player he has become.
While it is true that articles like this tend to generate false hope, I think it is unfair saying Collier was an "extremely poor excuse for a NBA player" when he was injured for most of the season. I suppose you can argue that being injured makes you a poor excuse for an NBA player, but largely we have yet to see exacty what Collier can bring to this team. But I see your point about the article. I remember last season when something very similar was written about Cato because he spent most of the offseason working out and putting on muscle mass. Look how great <b>that</b> worked out for us.
