I was surprised at Feigan's nugget in his notebook today, 'The Rockets had gone into draft preparations knowing Rockets owner Leslie Alexander would approve a deal to virtually buy a first-round pick to make up for the loss of this season's pick, which was sent to Utah in the Glen Rice salary-cap deal. But with last week's changes in the draft's depth, it no longer makes sense to spend much for a first-round pick who in other seasons would be selected in the second round.' http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2637378 I have heard nothing of Rox bringing in any players (with only the #55 why bother). Have the Rox identified someone they would take? Earlier Feigan floated Duhon, likely (according to most reports I've seen) to fall into the mid-2nd round. If Duhon is no better than that, why bother -- or is he a better fit for a team like JVG's? Have they identified a trading partner to get somewhere in the #35 - 45 range for him? Is McGrady this year's draft? (I hope.)
thats the way i'm approaching it. The draft is weak and i think we can address a couple of concerns with the mid level exception Don't get the Duhon hype, name 1 Duke point guard who has been able to cross over and have a successful NBA career. None come to mind.
i have allways thought darious rice was a JVG player. he is supposed to go in the mid 2nd round area.
I would be elated if the Rockets were able to buy an early first round selection this year. I know that coach has very strong input when concerning draft evaluation and selections.
So, the guys the Rockets had targeted jumped ship from the NBA draft! Who dropped out of the draft last week?
Official Withdrawals Updated: 6/18/04 LaMarcus Aldridge 6-11 225 PF Dallas, TX HSSr. Brandon Bass 6-7 240 PF LSU Fr. -- Undersized 4. [Story] Jermaine Bell 6-9 PF Notere Dame Prep MA HSSr. Odartay Blankson 6-7 220 SF UNLV Jr. Darren Brooks 6-3 205 SG Southern Illinois Jr. Deng Gai 6-9 250 PF Fairfield Jr. Ryan Gomes 6-7 238 SF Providence Jr. Daryll Hill 5-10 170 PG St. John’s So. Martin Iti 6-11 235 PF/C Charlotte Fr. Jan Jagla 7-0 232 PF Penn St. Jr. Marko Killingsworth 6-7 235 PF Auburn Jr. Louis McCullough 6-6 220 PF/SF Francis Marion (SC) Jr. Jason Moore 6-8 220 PF/SF North Carolina Central Jr. Kelvin Peña 6-4 190 SG Southeastern CC (IA) So. Roger Powell 6-6 220 SF Illinois Jr. Lawrence Roberts 6-8 230 PF Mississippi St. Jr. Nate Robinson 5-8 180 PG Washington So. Robert Rothbart 7-1 225 C Natomas (Cupertino, CA) HSSr. Imari Sawyer 6-2 190 PG Iowa St. So. Maurice Shaw 6-9 230 PF Bridgton Academy (ME) HSSr. Ricky Shields 6-4 185 SG Rutgers Jr. -- Small SG with a chance to get drafted next year. David Simon 6-10 250 C Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne Jr. Tremayne Singletary 6-8 240 PF Southwestern College (CA) So. Jay Straight 5-8 PG Wyoming Dijon Thompson 6-6 190 SG UCLA Jr. Official Int. Withdrawals Martynas Andriuskevicius 7-2 240 C Rimini (Lithuania) 1986 Ender Arslan 6-3 180 PG Efes Pilsen Istanbul (Turkey) 1983 Luka Bogdanovic 6-9 215 SF (Serbia-Montenegro) 1985 Gary Chathuant 6-5 SF Brest (France) 1983 Ivan Chiriaev 7-1 235 SF (Russia) 1984 Murilo da Rosa 6-9 PF Corinthians Mogi (Brazil) 1983 Marcus de Souza (Marquinhos) Corinthians Mogi (Brazil) 1984 Mickaël Gelabele 6-7 175 SF (France) 1983 Marcin Gortat 7-0 235 C RheinEnergy Cologne (Poland) 1984 Marcelo Huertas 6-3 185 PG (Brazil) 1983 Mile Ilic 7-1 230 C Reflex (Serbia) 1984 Ivan Koljevic 6-1 175 PG (Serbia-Montenegro) 1984 Erazem Lorbek 6-11 240 PF Skipper Bologna (Slovenia) 1984 Dirk Mädrich 6-11 245 C Energy Braunschweig (Germany) 1983 Miguel Marriaga 6-9 200 PF (Venezuela) 1984 Pawel Mróz 7-1 220 C Idea-Slask Wroclaw (Poland) 1984 Damir Omerhodzic 6-10 225 SF/PF (Croatia) 1985 Drago Pasalic 6-11 225 PF KK Split (Croatia) 1984 Kosta Perovic 7-2 240 C (Serbia-Montenegro) 1985 Johan Petro 7-0 240 C (France) 1986 Dusan Sakota 6-10 SF Panathinaikos Athens (Greece) 1986 Peja Samardziski 7-0 245 C (Macedonia) 1986 Armands Skele 6-4 SG (Latvia) 1984 Uros Slokar 6-11 230 PF (Slovenia) 1983 Tiago Splitter 7-0 236 PF (Brazil) 1985 Marcin Stefanski Dijon (France) Marko Tomas 6-7 PG/SG Zagreb (Croatia) 1985 Roko Ukic 6-5 185 PG (Croatia) 1984
No I think it was the overall number of international player's withdrawls that decreased the depth of the draft, not any particular player specifically.
You know if we would have kept our 1st rounder this year we would have had a legit shot at Sebastian Telfair because the scouts said he will go mid to late first round.
i've seen him play quit a few times. i don't think he is ready for the nba yet. maybe sometime down the road he will become a contributer...his career could be something like rafer alston's. bounce around a little, continue to work on getting better, and at your peak you can be worthy of a good amount of minutes.
I don't mind moving up in the draft, because personally, I don't think it would cost that much. This is a very weak draft and most teams aren't looking at the draft as a significant way to improve their team. However, this would be a good way to add some youth this team w/o having to spend a lot. I think if we can find our way to a Finding a backup PG (Duhon) will probably be our best bet with our #55. I would love to get our hands on Luke Jackson though.
I remember when he was a junior he had a bunch of hype and they were calling him the next Marbury but that hype faded after his senior season. Maybe he can be a Bobby Jackson type.
Ricky Paulding would be a nice spark off the bench. He's a streaky shooter, but can dominate when he's on. He's more athletic than Kareem Rush.
It's absolutely ridiculous that Telfair is projected in the 1st round and Duhon is in the mid-second.
Didn't want to start a new thread but I dug up some info on the history of the double nickle pick in the draft. Since the NBA actually started having a 55th pick here is who has been selected at that spot: 1995 - Micheal McDonald 1996 - Ronnie Henderson 1997 - Mark Blount 1998 - Ryan Bowen 1999 - Kris Clack 2000 - Chris Porter 2001 - Maurice Jeffers 2002 - Mladen Sekularac 2003 - Rick Rickert Mark Blount is the only one worthy of a roster spot and he took about 6 years to develop. Hopefully JVG, CD, and Co. can pull a rabbit out of their hat. I wouldn't mind them taking a chance on Andre Emmett if he is still around. info found at http://ok.kalnieciai.lt/nba/draft/
Darius Rice is sliding big time Drejer would also be a ncie pickup for the future if could move up in the second some
The Rockets couldn't have picked a better year to miss the draft. This one promises to be a serious stinker.
Ford's Mock today has Feigan and BBS fav Duhon going to Dallas at #50 and Ricky Minard coming to Rocketland.
...yepp, this years draft really is only 4-5 players deep, but somehow, the quality of the drafts seems to decrease every single year.... ...i hope the rockets are going to keep their 1st round pick next year, only because i loved the official "clutch-city-mock-draft-competition"
