Alright, everyone's psyched about the draft. Us die hards sit down with beer, chips, etc. to watch a subpar draft pool in the middle of baseball season. We're expecting a couple of new Rockets with our lottery pick and 2nd rounder. First, Stern announces the trade with Milwaukee. I'm like, "okay, Rudy's probably got his eyes set on someone lower, plus we get an extra pick in next year's draft." Good move stocking up picks for a better draft next year. Second, the clock is up for pick #15. Excellent. Desmond Mason is still on the board. Saw the guy kill the Horns when he was at OSU. The guy had serious hops and could easily compete at the next level. He's my guy if I'm GM. Otherwise, I liked Jamaal Magloire, who impressed me during the NCAA tournament. Even though Rudy wasn't taking a guard, I though Quentin Richardson could have been a good one in time- in the mold of Tracy McGrady. Then my jaw dropped at Rudy's ridiculous selection. Was I the only one who threw the remote at the wall when the David Stern announced that the Rockets selected JASON COLLIER with the 15 pick? Third, we get to our second rounder. Rockets take Eduardo Najera. I'm thrilled to get this guy who single-handedly kicked the Horns' ass regularly in front of me. Tough defender, rebounder, and can put the ball in the hole. OK, Rudy nice move. Fourth, we trade for a skinny white dude, Dan Langhi, who's supposed to be Matt Bullard with athleticism. I'm like okay, that's cool, I trust Rudy, but still hate to lose Najera. CONCLUSION: Najera puts fans in the seats. Houston has a huge Hispanic population, and the Rockets have serious attendance problems. The guy would have helped sell a few seats, and you know he's gonna bust his ass. Dallas is using him effectively and he's producing regularly. Quentin and DMason are playing pretty well. The Sonics like Mason so much that they may even consider letting Rashard Lewis go next summer. Q has good chemistry with the other young guns in LAC. Collier stinks. Period. Injury-prone white guy who couldn't guard a rock. I don't care if he can sink a jumper or not. This guy isn't NBA material, much less worthy of a first rounder. Langhi is a clumsy guy who shoots airballs. His 3-pt shooting has been erratic, and still has yet to get off the end of the bench. May not stay in the league for much longer, even though he played some this year. Overall a very disappointing draft that could have netted us a couple of productive role players. Instead we're stuck with these two scrubs. Rudy really blew it.
For a team that has such a HUGE upside and future, some of us can't seem to get out of the past and focus on the future.
No knock against you, but I seriously don't see this happening. RL is gonna be tied up for a long time in the great northwest. I really liked Q at DePaul. What a weapon off the bench, he would have been a great fit...
maybe rudy could have done better that draft, but don't forget he is the same man who got both cassel and Mobley in the second round, and he got us Griffin
no team in the league could say they are happy with every one of their draft day decisions for the last 3 years...i challenge anyone to show me a team that has consistently picked the best player available at their draft position.
Kenny Thomas is better than Najera. Mo Taylor is better than Najera. Should we put Najera be out there instead of Griffin? Should we have Najera out there as our center? Where do you see Najera playing on this team? Mason and Richardson? This team routinely employs a 3-guard lineup. Do we really need MORE guards? Should we try for a 5-guard lineup? Actually, forget I said that. I don't want to give Rudy any ideas...
1. Rudy was drafting for size in order to have a team that could work as a unit. All we had was Cato and Dream working at center, and neither were working well. The only serviceable centers that were drafted after Collier were Tsakalidis (who had contract issues that scared people away) and N'Diaye. I'd have preferred a flyer on Tsakalidis, but Collier was a fair choice for a center, given the options. 2. I can just imagine all the 'tweener comments I'd have to put up with if we took Najera. All the 'body-type' arguments. All the 'he's not really 6'7"' crap. Najera is working out better than Langhi, but I'm glad to not have to hear that. 3. Jamerson, I took up your challenge to find a team that should be happy with their last 3 drafts. Please consider: Seattle: 2001: Radmanovic in the first round. Maybe Jefferson would have been a better choice, but he'd be the only one. Watson in the 2nd rounder. No one with a recognizable name came after him. 2000: Desmond Mason in the first round. Came in a bunch of guys who all look promising. Hard to say whether Q Richardson would have been better. Oyedeji in the second round. No one notable follows him. 1999: No picks. 1998 (since there were no pick in '99): Stepania with #27. Nazr Mohammed, Cuttino Mobley, Jahidi White, Greg Buckner would have been better. Second round Rashard Lewis and Jelani McCoy; the above were available except Nazr Mohammed. Lewis was the best they could have done. Phoenix: 2001: Alton Ford at the end of the first round. No one notable after him. 2000: Tsakalidis in first. Best player left and a center too. 1999: Shawn Marion. Best choice. LA Lakers: 2001: No picks. 2000: Mark Madsen and Corey Hightower. Najera would have been a better choice than Madsen, I suppose. Neither would see PT in LA. 1999: Devean George in round 1, passing up Kirilenko, Vonteego Cummings and Jumaine Jones, in addition to 2nd rounders picked after Celestand Eschmeyer, Calvin Booth, Wang Zhizhi, and McCulloch. Bad draft. 1998: First round Tyronn Lue and Sam Jacobsen. Lue was fair, but passed on Al Harrington, Mohammed, Rashard, Mobley. Second round Ruben Patterson was a good pick, though Lewis and Mobley were still on board. So, despite assertions that Lakers know how to draft, they basically are not very good. Seattle is pretty good, though '98 would have been a failure without Rashard Lewis. Phoenix has done a pretty perfect job the last 3 years.
Pheonix has been the most consistent in the league for a while. I have been overall pretty happy with the Rockets track record, but that doesn't mean I haven't been frustrated. My main problem is there have been big men even I thought before hand had good potential relative to their draft status that we could have gotten for cheap over the last few years--Tskalides, Miller, McCoullach, or even Woods (TMo pick) or Haywood (say the Toronto pick plus what we used for TMo)--and never took it. Phx did their homework with Tskalides (people thought he was decent but were unsure about the contract), and we took Collier
Too bad Rudy chose size over skills. Collier has no skills. I was really high on Magloire before the draft. He's better than Jake Tsakalidis and Ndiaye.
http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=28364 Considering the thousands of times we've been over this draft, there's hardly a need to post a second thread in the last five days...
The trade was agreed to prior to the Najera selection, it was actually Dallas’ choice to pick Najera (a la Houston picking Richard Jefferson for NJ).
I’ll have agreed with JuanValdez on this one. Phoenix: 2001: Alton Ford at #55 overall. 2000: Tsakalidis #25 overall. 1999: Shawn Marion #9 overall.
Going back further for Phoenix: 1998: Not a good year for Phoenix. Took Garrity, passing on Al Harrington, Nazr Mohammed, Lewis, Mobley, Jahidi White. Took Toby Bailey before Greg Buckner. 1997: Took Stephen Jackson with Alvin Williams on board. 1996: Took Nash, passing on Jermaine O'Neal. Both are only recently successful and they traded Nash for peanuts. Passed on Malik Rose and Shandon Anderson for Russ Millard and Ben Davis. 1995: Took Finley. Passed on Eric Snow for Mario Bennett. I think Utah also does a good job: 2001: Hard to tell with recent rooks. But, took Raul Lopez over Tinsley, Parker, Loren Woods. Jarron Collins a good #2. 2000: Stevenson and Kaniel Dickens as good as they could do. 1999: Quincy Lewis (passing on Kenny Thomas), Kirilenko, Scott Padgett (passing on Eschmeyer, Calvin Booth, Zhizhi, McColloch), Eddie Lucas. 1998: Traded away Nazr Mohammed. Took Torraye Braggs -- best they could do. 1997: Jacque Vaugn (passing on Marc Jackson and Alvin Williams -- no big loss) and Nate Erdman. 1996: Shandon Anderson with 3rd to last pick in the draft. Real coup.
While I agree with you, I have also seen reports recently to the effect that the SOnics are quite happy with D-Mason and, if it is possible, he is seeing even greater imporvements on a game by game basis that Lewis (mainly because of his college experience)
I, too, was dissappointed in the 2000 draft. But what am I gonna do? This year, we should have a concensus on who to draft in the up coming draft on CC.net. I think they(Rudy and company) might pay us some mind.
A bad draft. But don't forget that 6 teams passed on Griffin this year. A few teams passed on Cassell. A few teams like all of them passed on Mobley. So, don't blame the Rockets. If Langhi could hold on to the ball, we'd all be saying Rudy was a genius. Too bad, he has no skill whatsoever, except a nice looking erratic shot.
