Has the deadline for signing a player eligible for playoffs passed? I have a bad feeling that it has.... Evan
The new rumor has the Rockets trading Vin Baker to Dreamjob for Air Bull.... Seriously though, I agree that we should look into James Thomas. I fell in love with the guy's ability while he was at Texas. I think he's a poor man's Ben Wallace.
GATER, I wish I held your optimism towards Baker. While his "bench demeanor" has been good, what I am worried about is his lateral quickness in terms of defending and getting rebounds. I see a foul machine waiting to happen. The one game he DID get in he looked like he was in mud. I wouldnt be surprised to see more minutes from Bowen at the 4 spot depending on who we play. His quickness is an asset there. Despite the fact that Howard isnt a good rebounder, the guy really hustles out there and is a lot quicker than I think he gets credit for. I think that really gets lost on fans. And even if Howard DOES get back, that knee probably wont be 100% and will really effect his quickness. The Howard injury REALLY is unfortunate and I DO think it will have a big effect on our playoff push. With that said, I think we can perhaps mask the loss of Howard much more easily than we could with some of our other role players.
I really wish I agreed with this. When speaking of our other roleplayers, the only one that is possibly as important is Mutumbo. Now that we have a guard rotation of Bobby Sura, David Wesley, Jon Barry and Mike James we could afford to lose one of them and still have a solid guard rotation (as we did before Sura returned). Juwan provides us with some things nobody else on our roster can give us though. I just can't see Padgett, Spoon and Bowen being able to give us what Juwan did. I hope you're right though, Deuce. This is definitely one of those situations where I actually want to be wrong.
I don't think so. I think Padgett's role stays the same and Spoonman gets the starting nod. Man, what a blow. I hope he's okay. If my guess is right, Howard's gonna be out about a month. This is a pretty big blow.
Not an update. Until we hear anything official it could be anything from missing a few games, month, or season. When I saw the play to me it did not look devastating (I didn't see the knee twist or go the wrong way or anything), Shaq and TD both had similar looking incidents this year. The initial report (sprain) also is hopefull. But really no way to tell untill they do all the tests. Couple of other points: -On playing Yao and Deke together. The key problem with this is between them they don't have much more than 48 MPG to give. It is absolutely critical to our defense that one of them is back there as the 5. Better to have them fresh as our defensive anchor. The only cavout is maybe a few critical minutes down the stretch for defesive reasons--say playing Deke on TD or Shaq yet wanting to keep Yao on the floor too. IF we see Yao-Deke paired, we are talking 2-3 minutes max, and these are the only two teams I'd considering trying it at all. -On the starting 4 if JH misses games (I assume best case scenario is he misses a few b/c we need him healthy and ready for the playoffs far more than 3-4-even 5 wins). I think it is a mix and match approach. If we are playing a beast of a PF I think Spoon gets the nod. Most other match-ups probably Padget. -On Vin. No question, if Howard is gone for the season, we have nothing to lose to play him a lot. A team is not going to advance in the WC playoffs with Spoon and Padget gobbling up all the 4 spot minutes, period. Baker does have the size and has shown the skills before, our chances with him are extremely long, but better than the alternatives such as combing the world over for an out of the NBA 4 who could bring a presence come playoff time. Look at it this way, there is a reason we have not just bought out his contract to open up a roster spot. So in the world of Jim Carey/Clyde "so what you are telling me is there is a chance" In sum, all I want is JH to be ready for the playoffs. Without him we still have a good chance for a #6 or even #5 seed based on our opponents injuries. Even the #7 seed isn't the end of the world if we get our key 8 guys ready--that would be the #2 seed (SA/Suns) worst round 1 nightmare.
Bottom line folks, every team goes through this... Look at the other good teams around the league and they're all playing hurt, playing without their stars for stretches at a time... Look at SA, with Duncan bothered by an ankle all season, Ginobli missing time, now Parker missing time. Dallas with Finley and Dampier, plus now Stackhouse, out for what seems like half the season have been winning all year and are 4 games ahead of us... PHX lost Nash for bit, now Marion's hurt, still a top 3 team in the standings... Miami lost Shaq for a week, still dominated... Denver lost KM for weeks on end still rallied to play their best ball of the season... Sac lost 3/5 of their starting lineup for a month or more and are still ahead of us in the standings, for now... Lakers lost Kobe for about a month, Odom stepped up in big way and carried them to several W's, have a shot at the 8th seed now because of him... Memphis has lost Swift for half a season, Gasol for about a month and they are still currently breathing down our necks... As a matter of fact, injury wise, I think the Rockets have been pretty fortunate. We've remained very much in tact and competitive all season long (largely due to having the GM of the year) and have the one of the NBA's most durable players in Yao Ming (how many games has he missed in his 3-year career, 2?, 3?) And how many games due to injury has "injury-prone" phenom T-Mac missed this year for us, 2?, 3? Don't get me wrong, JH's absense will be noticed, especially on the offensive rebounding end. But let's see what we're really made of, what kind of depth we really have. Can this team overcome injury or will the "machine" break down? Hopefully our team chemistry/comradary is as good as CD says it is...we'll see. Can we still compete and win without JH for a while, I say of course. Bottomline, this will not be the season-ending event that some here are predicting...
Don't let the looks fool you. Once I was playing and all I did was go up for a layup. Came down in a way that looked pretty normal to everyone in the gym, but next thing you know I'm on the ground clutching my knee. I think they called it sprain or strain or whatever simply 'cause they didn't have an opportunity to give it a good look. We'll find out once he gets it examined.
This is terrible if he is out for a while. He has been busting his tail for Houston. Howard has seemed more determined to go for rebounds now and is playing all around better basketball than the beggining of the Season. I think we depend a lot on Juwan Howard and I think without him, Houston will not be able to contend in the West. I think he will be back before the end of the season.
I agree we must wait for the tests. I am just saying it goes both ways. Seen guys in agony where it looks like their season if not career is done and they are back next week, and things that look minor that are season ending. Just saying 1) the fact I didn't see they knee go the wrong way or contort, and 2) that the 1st report was a sprain gives some hope. I am still worried, absolutely. Looks like 5 to 5 1/2 weeks before the playoffs as of today, if the report has JH will be back in 3-4 weeks I'll take it.
pretty sure thomas was picked up by the t-wolves I think i saw him play sunday against the mavs that could have been john thomas though i was wearing my old glasses so i cant say 100% for sure
Howard is like Otis Thorpe, he's not the star but you notice when he's gone....I hope for a fast recovery!!!!!
