He's more like a bigger version of E'Twaun Moore. Unlike Daequan Cook, James Anderson is more versatile. He can handle the ball and drive and play smarter defense, but has been inconsistent as an off-the-ball shooter (which probably explains why he's been waived so much: I don't think coaches trust his shot yet). I mean, if McHale is so dead set on having mostly a 3-guard rotation, then I rather try to develop this young player than waste PT on Tney Uglas. It's going to be interesting to see how Patrick Beverly fits into all of this.
I just looked up their individual stats/bios, and I'm surprised that James is better than Cook in almost every single category. He's younger, taller, has longer wingspan, reach, vertical, speed and strength(from their mesurements predraft). He played similar minutes per game this season with higher efficiency, better FG%, rebound/block rate. He's a capable defender and even beats Cook at his own game -3pt shooting %(45% to Cook's 37% this season). On top of that, he'll be much cheaper this year and reportedly next couple years at team option.
http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1223763 Seem Daequan Cook may land with the Bulls... if so, some speculate this is a precursor to a Rip Hamilton trade. Not sure if true, they can still wait until the trade deadline to deal him and still get under the tax threshold.
When it comes to assessing talent, Houston is a lot better than Chicago at this point. They can focus on the one game he started all they want, the Rockets were always more interested in the 15 other games he played in and was mediocre to bad in. Enjoy some Rockets hand-me-downs, though. Hey Bulls, I have some clothes here I was just going to give to Goodwill. Do you want to go through this stuff first before I do? I also don't want the rest of this soda.
Marc Stein @ESPNSteinLine Daequan Cook scheduled to clear waivers at 5 PM ET. If he's not claimed, I'm told, Bulls firmly in lead to sign 3-point specialist
I don't like Cook's game....he's a ballhogger. He doesn't play within the system, that's why he got waived. If he play within the system and let the game come to him, then he could turn out to be a good player since he's already a good shooter. I remember in the game against the Thunder, he try to do it too much even though he's just a bench player when there are better players in the roster on the court. It's like he's trying to be the man lol. That's why the team get rid of him. He's in the same mindset as Terrence Williams...who the Rockets also dumped lol.
Smart of teams to wait for him to clear waivers, so that they don't have to eat the big contract and can sign him for minimum, while taking Houston's free salary space down a notch instead of bailing the Rockets out.
This was never not going to happen. Also the Bulls board evidently had the inside track on the Cook signing for days and days. Knew somebody in his family who said he was going to be a Bull well in advance of any internet sources reporting the news. That didn't seem logical, but then when rumor spread that Morey was trying to trade Cook to them before finally just cutting him, I knew it to be true. So who knows what happens now. Maybe the Bulls try to get rid of Rip Hamilton now, or maybe they just feel Cook will give them some depth in the backcourt. Their show now. *shrug*
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Just landed safely in Chicago. About to go grab my bags and then off to take a physical. Pretty nice looking day today.</p>— DaequanCook (@DC4Three) <a href="https://twitter.com/DC4Three/status/287616619344195584" data-datetime="2013-01-05T17:48:40+00:00">January 5, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Would certainly be interesting if Cook signed with the Bulls then Chicago eventually traded Rip in a salary move with the Rockets. Cook was a safe bet to clear waivers at a $3M salary.
Yup. He'll go on to hit big threes in other crucial games iet in the playoffs, get big money in the offseason, then do nothing of any value ever again.
Assuming that Cook signs with the Bulls for only the prorated veteran's minimum (a fairly safe bet), don't expect any offset to reduce Cook's ~$3.1 million cap figure on the Rockets' books. I'm still trying to nail down exactly whether certain figures get prorated for offset calculation purposes. On the off chance they are, then you might see Cook's cap figure minimally decreased (by maybe $140k or so). More likely, though, there is no such proration, and the offset would be $0. I'm still a little surprised that the Rockets waived Cook--and his expiring contract that would have been useful at the trade deadline for salary matching purposes--to add a "non-difference maker" in James Anderson, especially when Scott Machado (and his rapidly decreasing remaining salary guarantee amount) was still on the roster. All the more reason to believe that Machado had already been pinpointed to be waived anyway to make room for Parick Beverley.