I'm sure you guys are watching the game on TBS like myself, but did you hear what Danny Ainge said about Glen Rice!?!? I know, I know, all we need is yet ANOTHER Glen Rice sucks thread, but Danny Ainge knows the game, and sure as hell knows shooters...I don't have what he said word for word, so I'll paraphrase as best I can recollect... " I've played and coached against Glen Rice, and have been watching him for a long time...and I can't believe it...He's not even close to the player he used to be...He seems to have a lot of trouble moving, he seems very slow...it's nothing like how he used to play, back when he could create his own shot with Charlotte.He's not the same player at all." Add to this the fact that the guy can't defend my grandmother, rebounds a little better than her, and attacks the rim fewer times per game than any of of backcourt players, and, phew....and this is the guy we're hoping helps lead us to the playoffs without Stevie et al!?!? I still think he'll find his shot. I'm just not convinced he's able to get it off on his own anymore, and screen or isolation shooters are a fairly cheap commodity,and one dimensional ones are a dime-a-dozen. ************************************** Okay, since I first wrote this, all three announcers have concured. Ainge has said that he has lost his athleticism, and watching him in practice, his shot has no lift to it anymore, he just seems to be a different player, and he's carrying a lot more weight.Also, he thinks that RT might think that Rice now struggles getting his shot off alone, hence the call for Oscar Torres on a crucial 3-pt play. Both other announcers basically agreed, although John Thompson said he thinks that he's rather see Rice's misses than Torres' attempts, and that Rice needs more touches, but that was before that God-Awful shot that clanked off the side of the backboard at crunchtime.
All of that might be true but we should be feeding him the ball while the Cat and the Franchise are injured. GIVE UP THE FREAKING BALL MOOCHIE. YOU ARE A POINT GUARD. QUIT PLAYING WITH THE BALL AND GET THE OTHER PLAYERS INVOLVED. I AM TIRED OF WATCHING YOU HIT THE FLOOR EVERY TIME YOU GO TO THE BASKET. WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY.
I wouldn't be surprised if there is bad blood b/t ainge and Rice or something. Nobody would be surprised if ainge made use of such an opportunity to take a cheap shot. ainge actually mentioned his disappoint w/ Rice several times during the broadcast.
Disregard anything Danny Ainge says - as he probably has some bizarre agenda. Recall his chicken style of play-hitting Carl Herrera with the ball in the head during a playoff game.
It was Mario Elie he threw the ball at in the Phoenix series. Rice is Done....he stinks out there....he can't do squat. Get rid of him, or let him collect his retirement from the Bench. DaDakota
I dont know if anyone else noticed, but the kings were sending a lot of help whenever rice got the ball in the post. They really wanted to shut him down, and they did. He forced up some bad shots expecting calls, and without our best penetrators/kickers, they were able to blanket him outside the arc.
I noticed that too, KeepKenny.... And on 2 consecutive possessions in the 2nd half I wondered why no Rox players would cut to the basket when Rice got doubled. Our tortoise-like no-motion offense makes it very easy to shut down an old-man shooter like Rice.
JAG - I was one of the few who agreed with your anti-Rice sentiments before the season. I thought Ainge's comments were right on the money, but he wouldn't have changed my opinion had he been on a pro-Rice bandwagon. Facts are facts. Rice is struggling bigtime! Now for the really depressing parts: 1) Rice was and is redundant to Walt. At his current age and physical conditon, he is marginally better than Walt even when Rice is having a good game. I'm still waiting for that game. 2) Walt's contract is about $3m less than Rice's. Walt's contract expires after this season. Given the chemistry that exists, I suspect Walt would have given the Rockets a Bullard-style "hometown discount" to finish his career in Houston. 3) The less expensive Wiz will be gone because of a SF backlog and we have 2 more seasons of Rice's expensive contract. And lastly (da-DAH) 4) For the price of Glen Rice, we could have re-signed Bull for $1m, Anthony Mason for $4.5m AND still had some additional change to throw at Marc Jackson. I don't think John Thompson & Ainge would have made the same comments about the Rockets "D" if we would have signed Mason. I love the Rocks and I honestly want Glen Rice to succeed, but from Day 1 I have had the gut-level feeling that this was going to go down as one of the Rockets' biggest blunders.
I agree- Ialways thought Glen Rice was expensive, whining, injury prone, no defense player. We are stuck with him now-I don't think we could get anything for him except with somebody trying to unload an expensive long term contract in trade. I don't like it, but hopesfully Glen Rice can find his shot and at least contribute something. This is a good observation that for Rice money we could have signed Mason , and thrown money at Mark Jackson.
Speaking of Ainge, I must say that I was quite entertained by the announcing trio of Kevin "Big Game" Harlan, John Thompson and Danny Ainge. Good chemistry in the booth. Thompson/Ainge as a team are much better color guys than Mike Fratello.
Gater.... Some very good points, and not just because you agree with my bias . I do foresee this being a long, drawn out error on the part of Rockets management, and do not envision a Pippen-to-Portland solution. That being said, if and (more likely) when Rice has a 34 point night or something this year, I know people are going to be on here saying " See, you were wrong!". In order to clarify my position, re: Rice,I just wanted to say that my concerns with him have never been predominantly about his offense, although those are growing, my concerns have been about outside scoring being the ONLY thing he brings to the table...I mean, Defense? Rebounding? Attitude? Hustle? Durability? Inside Scoring? COurt Vision? Ball Handling? Can the man carry extra towels!?!? Seriously, his once-incredible shot, and the ability to get it off on his own afforded Glen Rice the ability to develop into an extremely one-dimensional player, whose value was measured ONLY by how many points he scored. Now that his shot is suffering, and his ability to create it for himself is very questionable, he has, in my opinion, become one of the least valuable commodities out there...and an expensive one at that. Should he recover some of his offensive prowess ( Let us hope!) he would still be a liability to this team, because he'll never again be the kind of offensive force that can compensate for the fact that he brings absolutely nothing else to the team ( relatively speaking), that his man is sure to have a big night, or the defense will have to account for Rice's ineptitude and Glacier-like lateral quickness, thereby opening up other holes...But at least he would be contributing SOMETHING....Right now he's a black hole... I'm sure you all have heard that truism, about buying/selling stock? Buy on the way up, sell on the way down? Well, I'm afraid that, like with Barkley and Pippen, we bought this stock on the way down...Unlike those two, however, this stock will, I'm afraid, neither provide enough to justify the investment ( like Barkley did), or retain enough percieved value so as to afford dumping it on someone else (Pippen). In this case, I fear, we were the ones who fell for the dump.
Screw them, they were ripping on the Rockets all night. I'm not going to take anything from them, I'm going to give Rice a chance to prove himself, I'm not going to just say he's through because he isn't going off for 30 a night yet. <b>4) For the price of Glen Rice, we could have re-signed Bull for $1m, Anthony Mason for $4.5m AND still had some additional change to throw at Marc Jackson. </b> None of this is true! We could have re-signed Bullard, we had his bird's rights. The Rockets just didn't have a roster room for him and Bullard is playing MUCH WORSE then Rice. We couldn't have signed Mason or Jackson let alone both because we didn't sign Rice straight up and take up cap space we signed-and-traded Shandon Anderson for Rice. If we would have let Shandon walk we couldn't have got Rice, Mason OR Jackson, so none of that is true. People keep saying they want to give Rice a chance but they've been all over the guy since the 2nd week of the season. Be patient. As for the broadcasters saying Rice's career is over, this is, what, the first game they've seen him this season? They're veterans of the game yeah, but they can be wrong to. Aren't they the ones who thought that all Dream needed was to get his "fire" back to be back to his old self 2 years ago? Dream can still contribute in Toronto, but that was far from the truth.
Anyone remember how good Rice was in NBA Live 98 for PS1? He dominated. As of now, he's nowhere close to Live 98 form. Doubt that he'll ever return. I think he's slower and streakier than Walt. He has not earned the chance to start. Sit him on the bench and give the Gizzard, Morris, and Langhi the minutes- at least they have some sort of lateral movement. Hell they couldn't do any worse from what I saw of Rice last night. Wonder what his stupid wife has to say about him now. Old, fat, and slow. Can't shoot.
Glen rice needs screens to help him get some space. We need to run some pick and shoot plays. He cannot create on his own.
Respectfully disagree. For the sake of easy understanding, we do not have to concern ourselves with Bull or Moochie (who had forms of Bird Rights) or Griffin (guanteed 1st round contract). We could have signed any or all of these three with no concern for being over the cap. This is within the CBA. The reason for the S&T was to match Anderson and Rice's contract because the Rockets wanted Rice. After Dream's departure, the Rockets had nearly $16m in cap space. Subtract MoT's $6m hit and there is still $10m remaining. Rice's $8m contract is a direct hit to that remaining $10m. Had the Rockets chosen to let SA walk, all of that $10m was left for Mason, Jackson, and Morris. If you disagree and decide to respond, please do not muddy the water by including Bull or Moochie, or EG as the CBA allows the Rockets to go over the cap to sign them. The simple fact is - we had $10m after MoT and Rice got 80% of it because the Rocks chose to S&T for him.
Bullcrap. RIce is stinking up the joint now, but he has game left. He is coming off injuries, conditioning problems, and a new system. Is the still the All-Star MVP anymore? No. But he is not a total washout, give him time. I dont recall Mo Taylor doing jack squat his first months either. It takes time, relax. CBFC
I recall that Mo T (who is about a decade younger) was on a one-year contract for the mid-level exception. Big difference in the expectation level. I don't recall anybody calling Mo "one of the purest shooters in NBA history". Some day the Rice apologists will have to realize - he was damaged goods before he got here.
You never forget how to shoot. NEVER. Once in a while, you may have some trouble, but you NEVER forget how to shoot. Glen Rice had 3(?) foot problems entering the season. The rest of our team have played training camp and preseason. 10 more games is not out of the question, although I don't think he'll need it. There's no question he's been almost horrible so far, but has definitely improved recently. He played well before last night's game, and last night, he was the only scoring option Sacramento knew of. So obviously, he had a lot of attention on him. When Mobley and Francis get back, he'll be great. We're 7-8. In 4 more games, it's likely we'll be 10-12. When Francis get back, I expect us to be 4 games below .500. When Francis returns from his injury, I think it's realistic to expect us to finish the season at 45-37, and IN the playoffs. the West isn't as competitive as was expected, so I think last year's record will get us into the playoffs. That's when we need Glen to have his legs back, and his touch too. Have faith, it's only been 15 games. 25 games, and then you can start judging Rice, Cato, or whoever you want to judge.
I thought it was Vernon Maxwell, because I was thinking, thats the wrong guy to do that too. does anyone have the tape of the game? I also enjoyed how he hopped around like a little girl after he did it, it was like he was in shock and excited about it, and didnt know what to do.
IVFL, It was Mario Elie...I remember that play as it was yesterday, it was up in Phoenix and the Rockets had pretty much sealed the game up with a basket. As the clock was running out, Elie and Sam Cassell started celebrating and may have had their arms around each other! Anyway, Ainge like the classless punk he is, stood out of out bounds and threw a baseball pass right at Elie's face! It hit him, of course, and went back out of bounds. As best that I can remember, Elie started toward Ainge, but Ainge walked off and ignored him and maybe someone on the Rockets held Elie back. This happened in the 1994 playoffs in the second round..it was either game 3 or 4 (can't remember which one). I have heard several people theorize that was one of the reasons why Horry threw the towel in Ainge's face, when Robert was with the Suns and Ainge was coaching (to sorta get back at him for the Elie incident). Sane..you said that we were 7-8 and after 4 games, we will be 10-12? I think you meant to say 7-12, but I don't know..that's why I'm asking. I also will have to respectfully disagree, somewhat with RocksMillenium, on this issue. I know that I'm not a patient person, but with Francis out and Mobley hurting, we have got to have Glen Rice step up! No other way around this...he has to come through. I'm not expecting the guy to average over 30, but with 2 of our main offensive cogs missing, someone has to step it up. A veteran and former all-star like Rice seems to be the perfect candidate on paper to do this, but it hasn't happened. I would love to see the guy succeed, but as every game passes by, I can't help but wonder if GATER is right. Speaking of which, GATER, you are very good with the salary cap - CBA stuff...I always enjoy reading your posts because I learn more about this from you than others. Not saying that the others are bad, I'm just saying that for some reason I relate to your explanations of this topic better than the others' explanations of it.
