Eddie Griffin seemed to play some pretty good interior D. Forcing missed shots from close by. His outside shooting looks very raw. He doesn't jump enough in his shot, thus making his shot hit the front of the iron everytime. I hope the coaches work with him on getting more arc on his jumper. Perhaps Glen Rice could help him out? Francis was amazing tonight. Only thing I wonder is why he's playing 43 minutes in a preseason game. I don't care if he missed the Orl game. What does Francis have to prove in the preseason? It was great to see the Rockets dictating the fast past in the game. Also, seeing them abuse the Spurs on the boards put a smile on my face.
I can say I like the look from the backcourt, but the frontline was a different story. Francis and Cat did what we all expected them to do and Cato played good in stretches, but everything else wasn't so encouraging. I hope Rudy doesn't turn Eddie into Taylor II. He shot a lot of jumpers with matbe 1 post up chance. If we are to be serious about making the post season, we can't rely on just jumpers by our guards. SA gave us a look at how teams will play us with the 1-2-2 zone. Most teams will extend that and trap Steve to get the ball out of his hands. I know its preseason, but i hope during the season we don't try to throw so mnay ally oops in traffic. I didn't say anything about KT's play because i didn't want people to say I writing bad threads about him all the time. Good win, long way to go.
Regarding Griffin, his shooting numbers don't truly reflect his shooting ability. In shoot around, it was surprising to see how true his shot was... the ball had perfect rotation on it. Most scouts didn't particularly like his mechanical shooting style, so I just found it surprising how natural his stroke was. Think Rasheed Wallace with less offensive and better defensive ability.
Griffin could be a rebounding machine and defensive specialist. Once he gets over the nervousness, I'm sure he'll find his shots start to fall often. It'll be interesting to see his development over the next couple weeks.
Griff needs to bulk up big-time. Ideally, if he will be the PF down the road, he should be at the 250 lb. plateau. I also pray that Griffin doesn't settle for jumpshots.
We need frontcourt help badly. More quality bodies then anything. I hope the Rockets can pull off a deal for Gatling. That would help significantly. A veteran PF who can score and rebound. I don't care if he has a rep as a blackhole get him. Forget a center, we just need quality bodies up front. I'd take Keon Clark and Chris Gatling. Cato is doing well, but he is a bit injury prone, so we need insurance. Collier is under performing right now, and Griffin isn't ready to play a significant role right now. KT is a key big man, he isn't the answer starting at the PF spot. I would love to drop Gatling in there. He's experienced, gives us offfense and rebounding, and more importantly depth. The depth up front scares me.
Griifin and Rudy defended his shooting saying he was coming up short because of conditioning and lack of practice time with the injury.
