In none of my posts or threads about the 09ers did i ever call them potential star players. The whole time i felt they could at least contribute. I always felt they could be role players.
Hill's regular season and playoff stats with the Lakers were very similar to his Houston stats. He is the player he is. Nothing special. Pacers must be idiots as well as they let OKC signed Deandre Liggins. How could the Pacers EVER let him go? And, how could the world champion Heat ever let Reggie Jackson go? I mean, he MUST be a potentially great player because OKC signed him as well.
So you're bawwwing about the fact that we lost a couple role players? First off, Hill is the only one who's actually a role player. Neither T-Will or Thabeet are going to get any minutes on their teams, they're just 14th men. Don't forget, the Thunder already have one bust of a center. If Aldrich doesn't get minutes, why should Thabeet? And where's T-Will going to get minutes behind Pierce and Green? As for Hill, well, I think we only have about 50 young PFs, all of whom possess greater potential than Hill. So I'm not exactly concerned about losing him.
Sorry, I know your getting flamed on this enough already Coach, but I couldn't help myself here- So tell me what the is the point of that when the Rockets already had a bounty of role players last year, and the year before? Are you trying to convince us that Hasheem Thabeet was a better role player than Dalembert? T-Will a better role player than Budinger or Parsons? Flynn better than Dragic?? Truth is all of those "potential role players" all got beat out fair and square by the other role players who saw minutes. If they were better role players, then they would have made it easy for the coach to play them instead of the other guy. If you dont think they can be much more than that whats the point of keeping all of them to not move on to fresh blood/higher upside youngsters who have the potential to be more?? Seems to me your crying over spilled milk on a dairy farm. This team did not need more role players, much less not as good of a role player as the ones that were currently on the roster. And whats the point of carrying them on the roster ANOTHER THREE YEARS(picking up their options) if the coaches, scouts, development personel, front office, etc. all thought they weren't going to become all-star quality players. If you thought these guys all had the potential to be all-stars then thats one thing(even though your probably still wrong its a valid argument), but saying they should have played them because they had the potential to be role players is pretty ridiculous even for you coach.
How many times did we make the playoffs in the past two and a half seasons? 0. We would have been in the same situation or better(as far as picks) if we would have just played them when we got them. We had nothing to lose. There were even times during those seasons when we knew way ahead of time that we were not going to sniff the playoffs. They should have played them then. If they would have gotten the playing time here, they would have been a little better. We would have had better picks in 2011 and 2012 for starters and better seasoned 09ers for our bench. We would have had a better, younger team than we do now. It is also possible that we would have ended up in the same situation that we are in now, but not likely. What ended up happening is they all went to other teams and showed that they were at least good enough to be considered to play on contending teams. What's even more aggravating is the fact that they earned that consideration in less than half a season of play.
Yes. Playing Hasheem Thabeet for the four or so games at the end of the 2011 season when we were eliminated from playoff contention would have been the difference between Hasheem Thabeet being a role player and Hasheem Thabeet being Hasheem Thabeet. Sure.
You said, "we knew way ahead of time that we were not going to sniff the playoffs." Given that we have been the 9th seed again and again, this is patently untrue. We only knew for a few games. Secondly, I just sincerely wonder, coach, whether you've performed in any sport at a serious level. You do not go to meets to get better. No one does. No one plays in a basketball game to learn how to play basketball. That's what practice is for. Thabeet had his chance. He went to practice and did stuff. And yet McHale openly stated at the beginning of the season that he would get worn out after 10 minutes of playing at a NBA level. Do you realize just how pathetic that is? You could probably take at least 25% of this board, plunk them into a NBA game, and they could do better than that. Same with Williams. After all, Williams did get minutes in Sacramento. Did he improve? Did he learn how to play off the ball? Did he learn how to shoot? Did he learn how to actually finish once he got to the rim? Nope. Shows how much playing gametime improved him.
Koji, if you would have told me this 2 or so months ago, i would be agreeing with you whole-heartedly. But now, none of this means anything, because guess what? OKC, one of the top teams in contention for a title, just gave up a roster spot and money to sign Thabeet. So he has already shown them that he can at least contribute in some capacity from their bench. A potential championship bench.
no sir.... You are now backpeddling. Before, you said the 09er's should have played so they could help contribute. Now you point here is that they should have played, despite being worse role players for ANOTHER PURPOSE... to not contribute, but to actually lessen the quality of basketball play on the court for a better draft pick situation. If you want to pull a Portland Trailblazers 2012 move and play Hasheem and Johnny instead of Kurt Thomas, and Raymond Felton to actually lose games on purpose then thats one thing. If thats your angle then so-be-it. Maybe the Rockets should have taken that approach to try and lose games on purpose despite the fact that it would have made very little difference in the quality of player drafted. I personally dont believe in fixing games for draft position, but thats just me. However, your point all along is that they should have played because they could contribute, or that they are now contributors on a contending team, and the Rockets weren't smart enough to realize their supposive talent. Complete contradiction here in your point. So what is it, are these players truely better role players than the Rockets coaches played in front of them that obviously beat them out for minutes in practice, or are they just long shot players you play to tank games????
My point is there is no telling where we would be if they would have played. We still didn't go anywhere. The whole time this was going on, my argument was, how can you call someone a bust if you have only seen them play limited minutes? But now it seems they can't be complete busts because other good teams besides the Rockets are interested in them.
He played a total of 115 minutes last year - 26 in the final game of the season. Who exactly did he defend to show he is a pretty good defender? He only had 5 games all year where he played double-digit minutes. Who did he shut down in those games?
