Leunen is already signed to play in Turkey. After we cut Strawberry, there will be one more spot availabe that should go to Deke or another backup C.
rafer is going to play off the bench because tmac will take his job, then artest will apear on the lineup sg. why do I think tmac is able to play PG? I found it according to his name,tmac, which means conTemporary MAgiC. then the list of the benchers: rafer, deke,C.L.,barrry,abrooks,j.dorsey;chuck;luther(likely to be cut off);.... Of course ,Steve.
Obsolutly, you are right. Houston always looks like a stronge team but played like a weak team; because we lack of rich boss. so we are only able to buy some secondhand stuffs.
Leunen is gone and I don't think Dorsey will join the inactive list. I believe we need a roster of 15 with 3 of them being inactive per game. Most likely Francis (until he can contribute), Harris (when Battier comes back from injury), and Hayes would be my guess. If Francis can contribute 2nd half of the season, Luther would be on my inactive list.
since we are talking about depth charts now, here's my take: Starters yao scola ron tmac rafer Bench landry shane barry brooks Spot duty dorsey luther hayes IR steve harris strawberry / deke / other
"Depth" is overrated, IMO. Especially this time of the year, where fans generally presume certain guys will be productive. Remember, at this exact time a year ago, Houston supposedly had a 'logjam' at PG. Rafer was predicted to ride the pine...then it turned out Francis and Mike James were absolutely washed up, and in a short time we went from having too many PGs to needing a back-up. That's just one example. I don't think I need to remind you guys of all the guys Houston acquired in the past that we expected to be productive, only to disappoint. Chemistry is what we should focus on. A year ago, Boston's big 3 was supposedly surrounded by a bunch of scrubs..."on paper" of course. But they coexisted well enough to form one of the best defensive teams in history. That should be Houston's focus. Year after year, Houston adds offensive talent to the roster, yet we continue to finish no better than average in the league rankings on the offensive end each season. Depth is NOT an issue. Chemistry is.
I wouldn't say extreme. Back before Bonzi, when Tmac was out, Head was the starter behind him. And those were 50 win teams. Maybe I am just a Head-lover (and aren't we all *rimshot*), but I think he could be a Rafer Alston type of starter on a bad team somewhere. If not a starter, he could easily get rotation minutes on a lot of teams. There is always room in the league for a shooter.
I think people is ignoring too much Strawberry, he can make an impact on the rotation; he's a potential tall point guard with defensive capacities. That's hard to find, and the opposite to Aaron Brooks. If he can mantain good %s along with a good defense... we don't need more for a backup PG, we don't need Brooks' talent, maybe yes without Yao, Artest and Alston in playoffs, but no with all of them. We need to keep a high physical and defensive level when bench is coming, no more creative talent is needed.
Depth is underrated if anything. Remember back when we first acquired Tmac and we were rolling with guys like Wesley, Sura and Howard starting with Barry and Weatherspoon and Ryan Bowen coming off the bench? When Tmac had an injury we were ****ed. There was a while there where we couldn't win ANY games if Tmac wasn't playing. Now that we have Scola starting instead of Howard, Landry backing him up instead of Weatherspoon, Hayes as the hustle guy instead of Bowen. Instead of Jon Barry we have Brent Barry, instead of Sura we have Alston. And instead of Wesley we have Battier (with Tmac being the 2 guard). And now when Tmac gets injured we still win 2/3rds of our games. Depth is important because it provides relief for when someone gets injured. We aren't going to win a playoff series if Tmac or Yao get injured, but we can still stay competitive in the regular season if they do thanks to our depth. But also, depth can be good for those random games when someone gets hot. Not to mention the more depth you have, the easier the job is for Tmac and Yao.
Strawberry also has a non-guaranteed contract and the Rockets are past the luxury tax threshold. He's a goner.
we still lack a perimeter player who can create his own shot. basically a go-to scorer. t-mac is too ineffecient to be a go to scorer and yao is too easily taken out of a game.
Are you kidding? Ron Artest. I do agree we could use another coming off the bench (I support starting Ron) but Artest does help address this need.
That's why Artest should come off the bench. Even signing Dikembe, we have 14 guaranteed contracts, he has a chance for stay and is fighting for it with Harris and Von Wafer. I think if he does a good job in preseason, we should keep him.
Certainly if Yao, Tmac, or Artest are not injury prone, then i would place them together on starting lineup. however you think too much and given too much importance on the starting lineup. it is the last 5 mins of the game counts the biggest most vital moments. our starting lineup shoulde be Alston Tmac Battier Scola Yao, last 5 mins should eb Alston Tmac Artest Scola, or Landry (as he got more offensive power) Yao second unit should lead by Brooks, or SF Berry or head Artest Landry Dersey or Hayes
This was Posey's stat line last year: Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 07-08 BOS 74 2 24.6 0.418 0.380 0.809 0.4 3.9 4.4 1.5 1.0 0.3 0.88 2.50 7.4 This was Battier's stat line last year: Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 07-08 HOU 80 78 36.3 0.428 0.377 0.743 1.6 3.5 5.1 1.9 1.0 1.1 0.98 2.50 9.3 This was Barry's stat line last year: Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 07-08 SAS 31 1 17.9 0.481 0.429 0.950 0.4 1.4 1.8 1.7 0.6 0.1 0.58 1.40 7.1 This was Landry's stat line last year: Season Team G GS MPG FG% 3p% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 07-08 HOU 42 0 16.9 0.616 0.000 0.661 2.3 2.6 4.9 0.5 0.4 0.2 0.62 2.30 8.1 Luther Head even averaged 7.6 points per game off the bench last year eventhough he choked in the playoffs but I think we have a lot of guys that can produce off the bench this year with Artest starting over Battier and teh addition of Brent Barry.
