That's what I thought. The guy has a good attitude and a strong work ethic. There is no way you get lazy playing at Temple. There are 3 guys that will run you into the ground in college and improve your work ethic, John Chaney at Temple, Bob Huggins at Cincinnati and Bobby Knight at Indiana/Texas Tech. If you have a bad work ethic after that you're a joke. And the guy played overseas, so he is battle tested, physically and mentally. He's hungry to prove himself.
It has been more or less mentioned by pops himself in the past Manny. And judging by his last posts, it would seem that a sign and trade with Moochie is a very likely possibility, specially as I don't see anyone outside of him and Walt that we could part with. We would have to eat up Sura's contract in the process, but he would be a nice backup 2, and i remember him posting good numbers in Cleveland awhile ago.
Rocksmillenium: Jackson's a good jump shooter from 10-17 feet or so. But that's not enough to really stretch a defense. If he could hit from 3 pt land, or even a couple feet in, I'd be excited. In my mind, there are three components to the perfect center: 1. A great post game. Jackson - has slow feet, a decent hook shot, but no versatility. Moves are telegraphed, it seems to me. 2. A long range shot - this is what makes guys like Sabonis, Perkins, and Lafrentz valuable. You can't take Shaq or Zo down low? Fine, bring them out. Make them play D. Open up the lanes. 3. Great interior presence - self explanatory. Jackson averaged about .5 blocks per game last year. Execrable. Jackson can't really do any of this. He can hit a decent mid-range jumper. Good. But taht doesn't make him really valuable... he'd need another 4-5 feet of range for that. He rebounds. But I don't think that's enough. Plenty of guys can board, like our own KT.
Jackson's a good jump shooter from 10-17 feet or so. More like 20-22 feet. If he could hit from 3 pt land, or even a couple feet in, I'd be excited. He can (a couple of feet in). 1. A great post game. Jackson - has slow feet, a decent hook shot, but no versatility. Moves are telegraphed, it seems to me. Good hook shot, decent post moves, pretty good footwork, and tremendous desire. 2. A long range shot - this is what makes guys like Sabonis, Perkins, and Lafrentz valuable. You can't take Shaq or Zo down low? Fine, bring them out. Make them play D. Open up the lanes. Jackson has about as much range as Sabonis. While he does shoot the 3 occasionally, his consistent range tops out at about 20 feet. 3. Great interior presence - self explanatory. Jackson averaged about .5 blocks per game last year. Execrable. Being an interior presence comprises more than shotblocking. It also includes defense and rebounding. Those 10 rebounds per game starting were pretty damn good... He can hit a decent mid-range jumper. Good. But taht doesn't make him really valuable... he'd need another 4-5 feet of range for that. He has that extra feet of range. Jackson can't really do any of this. He can do almost all of this (see responses above).
Terrible work ethic??? This guy is one of the hardest workers in the league. He had to work his butt off just to make it to the league, and since then has been working even harder to get better. Jackson is NOT anything like Michael Stewart. Stewart was a good shotblocker his rookie year, but could only manage 4.6 points per game in 22 minutes. Stewart had no offensive game at all, proven by his 2.8 points in 14 minutes career average, as well as his anemic 45% career free throw percentage. Jackson is miles ahead of Stewart in terms of offense, hustle, desire and maturity. The two are about equal in rebounding, and Stewart has the advantage only in shotblocking (but that's what we have Cato and Griffin for). Jackson was an excellent pickup and in 2 seasons when Mo returns this will be a great lineup: C: Jackson/Cato PF: Taylor/Thomas/Griffin (still developing) SF: Rice/Morris/Langhi SG: Mobley/Torres? Kelley? PG: Francis/Norris
BGM: You have a point, but it's like someone else said, thanks to Cato sucking and the injury of Taylor, desperate times calls for desperate measures. I don't think that Calvin Booth or Todd Macculloch have proven anything but they got similar even better deals than this one. It's just a sign of the times that teams would be willing to overspend to get a decent big man, and in some cases, just a big man. The Rockets probably had to make the deal long-term so that GS couldn't match it. We have a shotblocker...it's just that he needs a fire lit under his ass and maybe he has that now. If we didn't sign anyone like Jackson, we would have been hard-pressed to make the playoffs.
What I like about his shooting range though haven is that they can't leave him open. If they leave him he'll knock down the shot, meaning Shaq has to go out or sacrifice another 2 points. And this isn't just about rebounding, granted KT can rebound. But KT gives us 7 rpg, now with Marc Jackson they combine to give us 14 to 16 rpg and depth. Jackson is also capable of playing the PF and center spot, while KT struggled at the center spot. He is also a rookie, so he can develope his inside game. Jackson reminds me a lot of Horace Grant. Grant is a better defender, but wasn't a shotblocker and did fine. Both had the midrange jumper, both gave you 7 to 8 rebounds per game, critical to the fast break, and both could man the 4 and 5 spot. Both had what people termed "limited inside game", but Jackson so far, like Grant, has managed to put up double figure scoring. Basically Jackson is the roleplaying, rebounding, low post scoring (at least 13 to 15 ppg) player we need. We don't need him to be a creative low post scorer, just a capable one.
OBVIOUSLY THANOS DOESN'T HAVE LEAGUE PASS. I'M A LATE NIGHTER AND I USED TO WATCH GS ALL THE TIME. HE IMPRESSED ME TO THE FULLEST. HE MAY NOT BLOCK SHOT BUT HE HOLDS HIS POSITION ALA THORPE,PJ BROWN, CHARLES OAKLEY. EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT HIS WORK ETHIC BEING GOOD, SO I DON'T KNOW WHERE HE'S GETTING HIS INFORMATION FROM. PLUS THE GUY IS HUNGRY! HE CAME OUT EARLY BECAUSE HIS FAMILY WAS VERY POOR, WENT OVERSEAS TO HONE HIS BODY AND SKILL AND GUYS LIKE THAT ARE MORE APPRECIATIVE OF WHAT THEY HAVE. WHAT HAS MO TAYLOR DONE SINCE HE CAME INTO THE LEAGUE? HE DOESN'T PLAY DEFENSE, BESIDES BEING 6'9 260, AVG 5 REBS AND SHOOTS MORE JUMPERS THAN BILL LAIMBIEER USED TO. TAYLOR IS THE ONE WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE CONTRACT HE GOT. AS FOR ROLES WHEN TAYLOR COME BACK, AT THE BEGINNING OF 2003 HE AND CATO WILL BE PLAYING FOR THE SPURS OR COMING OFF THE BENCH. TAYLOR WILL BE SLOWER THAN HE WAS IF YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT. I REALLY LIKE OUR TEAM NOW IF WE SIGN JACKSON.
That's ok! We signed Marc Jackson didn't we? He's actually a 6'10 guy who isn't a good defender, but is a good rebounder (something we've been missing) and a good shooter - range all the way out to 3 point land (on a couple of occasions last season he hit 2 3's in a game, and has legitimate range most of the way out).
That's that Philly attitude Swopa! Seriously, he has a bit of an ego, I agree, but I wonder if he said some of that to get out of Golden State. With a healty Fortson, and Jamison, and Dampier he would get very little minutes, and have a small role. In Houston he would get to play with his buddy Cuttino, have an expanded role, and get decent money. Either way Golden State doesn't need him, Fortson will be an All-Star caliber player in my eyes, and Jamison goes without saying.
My recollection is that Jackson's shooting range does extend to 20-22 feet. However, whatever you want to classify as providing an interior presence on defense, Jackson didn't show it last year. He did not use his body to play good positional defense on a consistent basis -- he did have one good game against Karl Malone, but that was when Malone was having back spasms and the Jazz lost 5 games in a row (no doubt every opponent in that span congratulated itself on defending Malone well). Now, maybe that was the groin injury limiting his ability. But whatever the reason, he was a poor defender in every way last year. BTW, Rocks, I agree -- because of the Rockets' frontcourt situation, I think Jackson will be much happier with his minutes/role in Houston than he would be in Golden State.
Yea, I knew that about a Moochie for Mookie but I didn't know about Sura and I thought that Walt was going to be traded for Jahidi White but that must be a dead issue. You sounded so confident that this trade, Moochie and Walt for Mookie and Sura, would happen, so I thought that you might have more info on it. Also, I'm still confused if Jackson is a part of that trade or is he just a regular free-agent signing.
Sigh, as SteveFrancis3 has already cleared that up, (thanks) do yourself a favor and cut the Mo bashing and figure out where the CAPS key is located... and please, edit your post. thanks.
He isn't, but we may have to throw GS a bone or two to make sure they don't match our offer to Jackson, even thougn looking at the years, it's highly unlikely that they would... and it sure looks like there's a lot of bad blood between MJ and GS. One way or another, IHMO, even though he is a fan-favorite, at his asking price, i would rather have a savvy veteran who could be a great mentor to Francis like Mookie instead of Moochie. And Sura is a capable player, at least when it comes to filling a box score... i've never seen the guy play. He fills a need, backup 2, while Walt is redundant. Looks like a no-brainer to me if that's what it takes to get Jackson in training camp oct 1.
Ah, great news! I can't tell you how happy I was when I logged into clutchcity and saw the headline. This is why I love the Rockets. There is no major rebuilding. If the Rockets run into tough times they won't be down for long. Carroll Dawson is awesome. I'd rate MarC as a top 10 center. My Athlon magazine I'm reading now rates him as the 9th best fantasy center. He is definitely better than Cato. He can actually score on a shot other than a dunk. This move might actually help Cato. MarC and Cato could play together and Cato could concentrate on what he knows best; defense. Cha-ching! I smell postseason.
Cat, you're very funny. He averaged his points and rebounds on a terrible team. Look at how Mo Taylor did on the Clippers, he was 17/7. Now look how he did on the Rocks. A big bust, IMO. Actually, I think you're the only one I've ever heard to say Jackson has a good work ethic. He had one good year on a bad team and is getting a big contract for it. Yogi had one good year on a bad team and got a big contract for it. Please don't make me point out the OBVIOUS similarities. If he was really this good, why wouldn't GS pony up some money for him? It doesn't make sense. At least with Mason we get a tested player who can do more things than just score. Jackson is HORRIBLE defensively. We're talking worst in the league here. Jackson has a good jumper. WOW. I remember John Amaechi had a good year where everyone said he could hit the J. Same goes for Ike Austin. Now they're hitting like 30%. Cat, Jackson does not have good feet or tremendous desire. He b****ed behind the scenes about his role, which is something a rookie should never do. Why are you making this stuff up? This guy will not bring us to the post-season. Mark my words on this. And we don't want Mookie Blaylock or Bob Sura. Mookie is a bad apple and Bob Sura sucks in every way. btw- How about you show me some articles that say Jackson has a great work ethic and the like. LINK PLEASE.
I'm not expecting Jackson to fill the Center void well, I think he'll be more of a replacement for Mo than a new center to go in front of Cato. If Jackson ends up averaging 13-7 again, he will be a better player statistically speaking than Mo was last year. Jackson will do just what Mo was going to do this year, and he will provide a big body. I lost all hope for this season when Mo went down, but I'm feeling a bit better now. Hopefully the Rockets will sign Moochie "twit" Norris to complete the offseason.
