Give Lonny Baxter some minutes. I'm not the fair weathered fan who jumps off the bandwagon...I'm down with my team and players till the end. BUT, stromile isn't giving the effort I think he's capable of. For some reason....rebounding is not his thing lol. He seems to coast out there and wait for the occasional highlight. Yeah....he'll posterize someone, but will not get back on defense and when he does......he seems lost with assignments. Learning a new system takes time, I realize that....but effort should be given. I think that Lonny has the heart, talent and hustle to get minutes on this team. Hell, what do we have to lose? We are losing with this lineup......give the kid minutes. Luther is getting minutes and producing! Lonny's hustle and rebounding can only help right now.
I for one am up for it.. If Lonnie can give us 7+ rebounds a night with a couple of putback shots it would help the Rockets alot.
Forget about Stromile, if not for foul trouble he played real well last night. Juwan is sucking donkey balls right now. 1/5 last night. Every time he gets the ball it's dribbl dribble, bang the defender with the back, jump stop, hook, BRICK. Baxter has showed a knack for scoring in the post. I think we should give him some of Juwan's minutes, especially when Deke is in the game.
I would agree with you if the contracts were reversed, but with Stro's new contract and the fact that it's only been 11 games (+preseason), I think we have to give him more time and find some way to get him as a positive factor while he's on the court. There's probably not going to be a ring for this year's team so we have to think towards the future. And if we give up on Stro now, we have a contract to eat for a few years. We can cry about the fact that we didn't want him (he was last on my list), but the fact remains that we did get him and he may be here awhile so we need to find a way to make it work. And if it doesn't, we'll probably have to cough up a pick + him for an expiring worthless contract. Short term, I'd agree with you that Baxter would probably be better for the team. But long term, I think we have to give Stro more time - and that may be painful.
Now that is another story. I hate to be on tinman's side, but at this point a 1st rounder + JH for an expiring contract and more Baxter time would be a good thing.
Stromile did have foul trouble last night, but that has nothing to do with playing smart and hustling. He's not doing either. Atleast rebound.....atleast that. I know Juwan is playing bad right (as is the rest of the team...excluding Luther) but he hustles out there and gives max effort. I just want hustle out of Stromile. I think his basketball IQ is showing up before our eyes. Maybe thats why the hustle is not there cause he's thinking before he's reacting. I'm reaching......................I know
Agreed. Baxter will give us instant energy down low. Yao, Swift, and Howard aren't getting the job done on the boards, we're being outhustled every time and it just seems they don't want the ball all that much. Baxter is all hustle and he can rebound, I don't see what the harm could be.
Baxter appears to be a better rebounder than Swift or Howard, at least based on summer league performance. He also has a sweet shot. I would really like to see him get some time. I would like to see a Ming, Swift, Baxter, Head and Anderson lineup on the floor at the same time. At least as an experiment.
I think it is time to give each PF 16 minutes a night and see who produces the next half dozen games. Ewing can be coaching the bench warmers as the game goes along.
What "max effort" are you talking about? As far as I can tell, the only time Juwan shows any effort is when he's stealing meaningless rebounds from teamates. There, someone had to say it. Juwan is a rebound thief. How many times this year has there been an easy defensive rebound, no opponents nearby, three Rockets around the basket, and Juwan RIPS the ball from a player who was in position for the rebound. Or maybe it was the max effort Juwan put into missing that wide open left-handed lay up.
What do expect from him...he's getting only about 15 minutes a game? Expect him to go out and put up 10 and 5 in 15 minutes? Its not gonna happen. Yes, his bball IQ is horrible, but I think he played damn well last night, save for the foul trouble and 3 he shot.
