his numbers may have gone down this season, but with the addition of yao its acceptable. yao may get credit for a block that eddie could have had. or yao gets a rebound that eddie had his hands on. eddie may stand by the 3pt line a lot, but he was forced out there to make way for yao in the post. eddie in his rookie season dribbled the ball about 5 times.....the whole season. and he only took 3's and layups. he had no offencive game at all. in his sophmore season, with steve, yao, cat, moT, rice, and posey getting shots before him. its not really fair to blame him for his scoring problems. most of the shots he took were with the clock winding down. he doesnt really look to score, just play defence, rebound, and hit an open shot. isn't that the type of PF we keep screaming for on the BBS? he showed a lot of improvement this year. he has a ball fake-one dribble-pull up shot. he has a turn around shot from the post. and he has a fairly good mid range J. for next year, he should keep practicing those shots. 3 solid moves/shots is enough to get by if you are the 5th, 6th, or 7th option. eddie went form 3's and lay-ups, to trying to post up some this season. next season i'll bet anything that we see even more from the post from eddie.
I guess. Yes. Improvement. But getting busted was not that positive. You are right....but he did get more shots than Glen Rice. He usually took between 7-13 shots per game. And he usually only made 1/3 of his shots. I don't expect for him to become a star anymore. But in the future...if he can be like our Robert Horry but better...that would be nice. But I think he should come off the bench for a year...to gain confidence. He has improved kindof. Once he can hit the open shot...then the Rockets will be good. IN THREE YEARS!!!!!
Mo Taylor could really help Griffin. He is already very athletic for his size, and can move with out the ball. If he had some of Mo's offensive moves, he would be pretty dangerous. Face up jumper, baby hook, or even Mo's nice little cross-over.
More than anything he needs to bulk up this offseason so that he can be more physical with all the all star forwards in the west. If he does that and improves his shot selection and confidence I would be happy to start him again. I like Eddie and see alot of room for improvement with experience, He is already an amazing shotblocker and good rebounder but his defense is still too much of a liability to go into the season. If he can improve that by more than just alittle than I will be happy and the Rockets will be set at the PF for a long time. That's a big IF...
there shouldn't be a 5th, 6th, or 7th option on a team. beyond the 1st, 2nd, and possibly the 6th (since he's the spark off of the bench) everybody else should take their shots within the flow of the offense. looking at his stats from his college years, 1/3 of his shots came from behind the arc. we've seen little change in his game. either he accepts his role as a robert horry type player (feed into the post... his 3pt accuracy must improve though) or trade his buttocks to see if we can get more from other teams. maybe they'll be dumb enough to believe in the "young and full of potential" load of crap.
i really love eddie. he got that defensive presence that makes "class-a" superstars think twice of shooting the ball when he is defending them. i dont get it though, alot of people criticizes eddie's performance generally when he is really one of the main casts of the rocs. everyone has their own opinion but for me, eddie is the best young pf in the nba. with the combination of yao and grif on the post, it'll be hard for opponents to have a low post play. we should keep the duo together and give grif some time of improvement. he's still 20 you know.. let's not rush him. he has an offensive game, he showed it alot of times.. he just needs consistency.
Like I've said before, the guy has GREAT potential, but I'm not sure we can wait 2 more season for him to become consistent. Eddie needs to be told to stay inside. I think sending him to the Heat could be a turning point in his career - Pat Riley makes men out of big guys.
good lord people! be patient! do you all realize that in 2 years, eddie griffin will be 22 years old and yao ming will be 24??? imagine the improvement griffin can make, once (and if) he gets past his personal problems. as is, he has improved: 1) getting better separation on his turnaround jumper 2) slightly improved his ballhandling 3) anticipating rebounds better 4) gained 15 pounds of muscle if he can duplicate that improvement this offseason, he'll be close to a double-double player at age 21. that is incredible. DO NOT GIVE UP ON GRIFFIN!!! in 2 years, we should have a dominant frontcourt, at ages 22 and 24 years old!!! that is unheard of!!!
Sane, what do you mean? why can't we wait 2 more years? the reality is that this team will only go as far as yao ming - and to a lesser extent, steve francis - take us. yao ming won't be ready to carry us deep into the playoffs for at least another 1.5 to 2 years, anyway. so if eddie's development coincides with that, where is the problem? like i said, a dominant frontcourt at 22 and 24 years of age, respectively is insane. throw in a dominant combo guard in the prime of his career (francis) and you're looking at a potential dynasty. ....just be patient.
Our system is not good for Griff (same goes for KT, pippen, ect). He's not a great post up type, one on one kind of a player like MoT is in the post. He really does need to get a lot stronger... His defense really disappointed me this year! He's just too weak to bang with the big boys to play the 4. Both his position and helpout defense were horrible last year.
ChenZhen: those are things that the rockets already knew when they drafted griffin. of course his body needed some work! but isn't that exactly what he has been doing for the past 2 years? he has put on 15 pounds, so the effort is there. as soon as he can put on another 20-25 pounds, he'll be able to play more in the post. until then, just be patient...he'll get there.
People with great potential show flashes of greatness or brilliance but I did not see any of these signs from him last year.
Exactly. We saw signs of SF's ability in his rookie year, we saw signs of Yao's ability his rookie year. Can you remember a game when we saw EG's (his first 2 years) not counting when he blocked a few shots or happened to hit a few 3's? Potential is fine, I just haven't seen any from EG. All that chronic has made him passive.
yes. 1. his breakout game versus los angeles his rookie year. - eddie was not just shooting 3s. he was coming off screens, grabbing rebounds, etc. 2. versus kevin garnett this season. - i forget what game, but eg's defense was stellar 3. versus rasheed wallace - see #2 4. second half of this season - again, i can't recall who we were playing, but there was a stretch of games where eddie & motay flip flopped in the starting lineup. many of those games, eddie damn near would have a double double in the first quarter! eddie's problem is consistency and focus. hmm, think personal problems are contributing to that? all we have to do is dedicate some time, counseling, and teaching to eddie griffin and we will have everything that we need at the power forward spot.
Eddie showned enough "flashes" to be considered "one still with potential". There just isn't anyone out there to compare the time needed to grow into his full potential. Now, should he be traded? Only if a killer deal for a "veteran PF" in on the table. That doesn't include anyone over 30years old or else it's not going to be good for the Rockets in the long run. Ming will take at least another 2 years before reaching his full potential. You don't want the veteran PF to be OVER THE HILL by the time Ming is ready to lead the team. In a way, Eddie not killing might be a blessing for the team. Imagine if Eddie was all that and make the Rockets good enough to just miss the playoff instead of missing it badly in 2002, that would mean no Ming (highly likely since the odds are really too long for the 10th to 13th place lotto teams to win it). This year, Eddie got better but not enough to be great. Give him one more year before throwing him out.
EG needs to get the ball more often. Coach needs to say, give Eddie the ball and Eddie, go do you stuff. ISO him. But of course Yao, Steve, Mobley, MoT all get priority over him. So put EG on the second team, let him play maybe 15 minutes a game. For like between 5-10 minutes of the game let him be the focus of the offense, give him the ball and tell him to go. And if he still shows nothing, no improvement, no aggresiveness, no skill. Well he's in trouble.
He had some good games. Late in the season vs. Seattle, he had 23 & 8, with 3 or 4 blocks. 10-15, 3-3 from the 3 point line. In February, he had a similar game against Sacramento. Those were some good games, but I really wouldn't call 'em "breakout" games. On any given night, guys like Francis, Mobley and even Yao will score 23. Those were career days for Eddie.
