I voted Mutombo, too. I liked the idea of him playing for the Rockets as soon as the rumors of getting him began, but he's far surpassed my expectations for him. What a beast he's been off the bench! The fact that he's a bona fide philanthropist makes it even better that we've got him. I always hate seeing Yao have to go to the bench, but this season it's been great to see Deke pick up the minutes when he's needed.
My vote is for Juwan Howard he has been doing a lot of the dirty work lately. Grabbing rebounds and getting put back points.
it sure does feel good to not have an easy answer to this question. that means we have some guys playing some serious ball. i'd say sura is the 3rd most important piece on the team but at this point he's not really unsung anymore. he gets his credit. my vote would be for deke but only slightly above barry, whose only slightly above wesley. edit: for just this run we've been on my easy answer is j-howard. he's been playing his a$$ off.
Everybody on this team is 'unsung' except for T-Mac and Yao. I'd give a four way prize to Sura, Wesley, Barry and Deke and I'd put Howard and Padge right behind. When we landed McGrady and Shaq split for Miami it seemed like we were poised to be the next Lakers, with the best one two punch in the league. But the real story of this year is how much better and how much more complementary our supporting cast is than the Shaq-Kobe Lakers cast ever was. With our starters plus Barry and Mutumbo we have a seven man rotation (add Padgett for eight and I won't complain) to rival the deepest Kings years. The turnaround between that and the Ward-Lue, etc. combo we fielded at the beginning of the year says to give the prize to JVG and CD but I'm more comfortable giving it to the whole team.
On the Blazer/Rockets game broadcast last night Van Chancellor said that the team's "unsung hero" was Juwan Howard. It was funny when he said it because I immediately thought of this thread. Howard, Sura, Wesley, Mutombo, Barry....man take your pick!
Padgett has won some games for us........LITERALLY. So he gets my vote. But really, they are all an unsung hero on a night to night basis. Depends on the game really.
i hear you. i was gonna post something similar. the fact that we are having this "debate" shows what a good job the front office did of assembling this group; what a fine job JVG and staff have done preparing the team for games; and how the players have really come together with great unselfish chemistry.
