wow, for some reason i thought he snuck close to a 20 PER one season. but a 14.7 career best? and .128 WS/48 career best? and not exactly any great post-season play to speak of. now the deal seems even funnier. i guess orlando just couldn't resist sending another young, in-his-prime, best-center-in-the-nba the lakers way.
This. Anyway, sorry to break it to everyone but Bynum and Howard aren't the only centers in the league. There's actually a lot of quality centers out there like Marc Gasol, Nene, Chandler etc who could be had for peanuts around the trade deadline. Hell our we just got a 7 foot defensive and rebounding beast for free (assets wise), why not give him a shot first and then see what's on the market?
This x2, it is easier to teach them play offense, shoot free throws than to play defense. I say we give a chance to our new center and see how it pans out. I'm excited to see this asset increase during the season
Considering Roy Hibbert just got a max contract, if Omer can stay on the floor for 30 minutes, we will have extreme value at the 5 spot.
We don't need a big scoring center as long as the other 4 guys on the floor can score in multiple ways and can do so efficiently.
There won't be any deal at the deadline that hurts our cap space, because Morey will want all his Summer 2013 options open.
It doesn't matter if it comes from the 4 or the 5 spot, but the Rockets do need someone who can score in the low post. The only way you are going to win games without that is to either have guards/wings that can attack the basket consistently, or play uptempo and sacrifice defensive positioning. As much as McHale might want to play uptempo and stress hard nosed defense, we all know defensive positioning is going to win out here. So just go ahead and rule out the Rockets being an uptempo team that leaks out for fast breaks like an Adelman team would. McHale will make sure that the guards stay home on defense, and help out on the boards. So that leaves the Rockets most likely running half court sets, most likely pick n roll. Jeremy Lin showed last year that he is pretty exciting to watch(not necessarily efficient) when he is attacking the basket in a pick and roll set so I think we will see quite a bit of guard and wing attacking. I really liked watching Royce White attack the basket as well in Summer League, and I really think Chandler Parsons has the ability to create well of the P&R as well. The problem with this is that teams will start packing the paint like they did last year, and make the Rockets hit open shots. This is when you need a go option in the post which the Rockets do not have now that Scola is gone. Motiejunas could be an option here eventually, but he's not going to be ready just yet to handle being the go-to option in the post. So if the Rockets end up aquiring someone like Al Jefferson dont be shocked. Its not that the Rockets still aren't rebuilding around youth, but on the basketball court, bringing in a vet like Jefferson might be necessary to make all their other parts work right, and succeed. I agree that he doesn't fit long term with what they are trying to do, but what he does do is make the young guys better by opening up the offense. The Rockets dont necessarily need a scoring 5, but they do need scoring in the post or else it could hamper the development of our youth, and put them in a position not to succeed. That is unless teams can't figure out how to guard the pick and roll and the Rockets can run it every single play. Either way, this is going to be a young/exciting team to watch, but if you want them to be able to score alot of points then you might want to hope that they can find a way to aquire someone that can score in the post before the season starts or the basketball might be dreadful to watch.
The deal wasn't about getting a quality center... we have a guy in Asik that I'm fine with. The deal was about getting a franchise piece to build around. The deal was about moving the needle towards the only goal the matters in sports. We don't have holes to plug, we don't want stop-gaps, we're looking to turn the page. Nene isn't turning the page...
Not surprised at all by this. I think the ship sailed on Dwight by the end of draft night. In retrospect I think we might see that Daryl was a little gun-shy to go after two guys with injury problems that were risks to walk after one season. As is the case, he wasn't going to give up the farm for them. Because he easily could have had either one IMO.
The question now is how valuable is "our farm?" Orlando apparently didn't value it as much as we do. Then again we don't know if they got offered the "whole farm" or the lessor part of the farm. In any case, it's our farm and we are going to make the best of it.
john mitchell @JmitchInquirer Source: Bynum to undergo precautionary non-invasive knee procedure early in Sept. in Germany.
Tom Haberstroh @tomhaberstroh Nothing says "precautionary" like jetting 4,000 miles across Earth for a procedure not available in the United States.
Yes, Peter Wheling I think is his name. Same doc A-Rod, Kobe, and many others have used in the past couple years. It has something to do with platelet enrichment in the cartilage of the knee. Worked wonders for Kobe and A-Rod this past year, but there is no guarantee's long term yet whether it helps or its just a short term fix that actually hurts long term. Either way, its good that he's in the Eastern conference now so there is one less true big man the Rockets have to deal with during the season. of course, whenever he played Houston he would usually get himself ejected halfway through the game anyways so oh well. Good for Philly.
