Tell me about it. He's become the latest "player that will take Houston to the top" At least we don't see any more threads about how Bo Outlaw is a superstar just waiting for his shot with the Rockets.
garcia is a solid choice. he can play 3 positions, shoot, pass, and handle the ball. he is exactly what we need, a backup 3 who can develop into a backup 2-3 when barry retires, and then eventually start at the 2 for us. the PF's are nice too, but he would be my first choice.
Draft Simien or Frye @ 24 or trade upa and land May or Taft. Sign Joe Johnson. He will definitely be changing addresses because Phoenix has to save money to lock up Amare before next season. Sign Joe Johnson at all costs...then trade Wesley for to address other issues.
* All selcted 24 or lower 2004 David Harrison, Anderson Verajo 2003 Kendrick perkins, Zaur Pachulia 2002 Nenad Kristic, Carlos Boozer, Darius Songaila 2001 Samuel Dalembert, Mehmet Okur 2000 Primo Brezec, Mark Madsen , Jake Voskuhl, Brian Cardinal 1999 Andrei Kirilenko, Scott Padgett 1998 Al Harrington, Nazr Mohammed, Jerome James, Jahidi White 1997 Marc Jackson , Predrag Drobnjak, Mark Blount 1996 Othella Harrington, Malik Rose 1995 Greg Ostertag I think the better statement would be that you are almost guranteed to have a chance to select a big man that could at the very least play backup PF/C for you.
......if only it was that easy. In regards to drafting Francisco Garcia, i'm all for drafting the next Reece Gaines.
I don't watch too much college basketball... Can somebody give me Wayne Simien's stats? I want to see what he would bring to the table.
last year simien played 26 games and an avg of 34.3 minutes per game... scoring an avg. of 20.3 pts and grabbing 11.0 rebounds a game. his assist turnover ration was 1/1.7. he also averaged 0.6 blocks a game. his field goal percentage is pretty damn nice with 55.2%... and his freethrows were at 81.6 percent... apparently he is not great at shooting three pointers since his percentage was 28.6. although he doesnt take a lot of threes now, i bet with practice he could shoot them since his field goal % and FF% are both relatively high... apparently he has some skill and touch. a lot of people think he may be too short for the pf position in the nba, but his strength and speed with prove that isnt true. if simien goes down to 24, the rockets would be r****ded for not taking him...
the major downside to simien is his injury worries. i have a feeling david lee could be this year's nick collison not great but good and consistent.
Do you watch college basketball? Did you notice that with Gaines leading Louisville, they went nowhere, but with Garcia as the team leader, the were a force to be reckoned with? Francisco Garcia is a WINNER. His only knock was getting into foul trouble. He makes his teammates better, he shoots big shots, and he drives to the basket when necessary. You calling Garcia the next Reece Gaines makes about as much sense as saying Cedric Benson will crack up and move to India because Ricky Williams did.
as an avid fan of big12 basketball and having watched wayne simien multiple times in person and on television ill throw in my 2 cents about him. keep in mind i dont pretend to be a professional scout these are just my perceptions about him... simien was a phenomenal college player, but i dont think that will translate to the nba. he was very adept at getting position against smaller college competition, and he was the benefactor of two heady senior point guards miles and langford always giving him the ball at the right time. he was always the finisher of plays, not the starter. although his rebounding numbers were outstanding he wasnt the type of rebounder that grabbed the ball at the apex, his rebounds were the type that would get juggled around and then he would snare them because he was such a good 2nd/3rd jump leaper and had an excellent nose for the ball. in essence he didnt control the boards like a ben wallace, garnett, or a duncan ... he was more of a reggie evans hustle type rebounder ... take that for how you want it. he was a very good 13-15 foot baseline jumper, but id like to see him hit that shot from the elbow a little more. in my opinion i see simien as a player who is at or near his peak. he doesnt have plus size or length, hes not especially fast or quick nor is he especially explosive. he wont be able to bully or manuever by nba forwards. those are just my observations about him from watching jayhawk games. i personally dont think our answer to the PF will be answered in the draft. as history as proved, the better power fowards in the league are going to be lottery picks who dominated college competition and are considered plus prospects for the nba. i think we're better off drafting a swingman to shore up the SG and SF position. this draft is deep at that position ... danny granger, joey graham, francisco garcia, antoine wright, kennedy winston .. even hakim warrick if we feel like he can play the 3 sufficiently.
The posters here touting the depth of this draft at PF are correct. This is the deepest PF draft I've ever seen. And even better for us - it's backloaded. I'm betting the teams at the top will be looking to trade down this year. There's just not that big of a difference between the guys at the top and bottom. Bogut? At #1? Pffft. He might be the best player out there - but he's a very, very weak #1. And the guys after him? Wow. If there's a Dwayne Wade or Stoudamire, I don't see him. What I do see...is a lot of guys who can help a team. More than enough for us to nab one of them. I think that the darkhorse is Turiaf. At his absolute best, I like him more than Simien, Diogu, or Frye. But sometimes he seems awfully ordinary...even against Gonzaga's conference competition. If he pans out, though...I could see him being the steal of the draft (along with Joey Graham, if he doesn't get taken in the top 5 or so). Simien's a "safe" pick - or at least as safe as a pick can be in the lower 1st round. TBH, I doubt he'll fall to us. He's a helluva rebounder, and he's got a soft enough touch. But I think his sizes and lack of great defense will prevent him from being a real star.
haven - if youre a fan of undersized PF's ... sure this draft is loaded with them. with the exception of taft and maybe villanueva there arent any ideal or plus PF prospects in this draft. after being burned by motay, eddie griff, kenny thomas, padgett, weatherspoon, juwon howard, blah blah. im convinced we need a protypical PF to match up next to yao. memphis - i read through this thread and caught your list. youve got to be joking right? aside from the players who are absolutely terrible most of those players are foreign (or hs) players. no one knew what they could (or couldnt do). simien is a 4 year college player, scouts can write a novel on this guy. he has played 4 years in the best competition outside of the nba, scouts will know what this guy can and cant do. the only player comparable to simien on your list is boozer. ill give you credit for him. the rest are either absolutely terrible or were considered projects when drafted. i reiterate my point, it is very very very difficult to find quality big man in the latter stages of the draft -- i would even venture out of the top 10 (i dont really care to research it myself). you should have included udonis haslem in your list =p
Yeah because going 24-6 in college basketball is absolutely TERRIBLE. That was in 02-03 on a Gaines led squad when him & Garcia were teammates. Gaines' other season they went 19-13. A Garcia led squad went 20-9 last season and of course, 29-4 this year. You make it sound as if Gaines was some kind of terrible college player that never won. I'd say 19-13 & 24-6 is pretty sucessfull. Good point though......
Oh lord. The myth of the "prototypical PF" has returned to ccnet. There's no such thing. Oh. Correction. There is. And they're all superstars. If you try to fill your roster with "prototype" players, you'd better either: (a) plan on bribing them under the table to avoid salary cap problems or (b) err...find a new plan. Once you have a couple of stars, you have to fill your roster with "useful" players who fill a role. The prototypical roleplayer PF doesn't exist...because he doesn't have the flaws that devalues that player from an elite level.
Juwan Howard - 9.6PPG/5.7RPG - 26MIN Wayne Simien? I'd be happy if he could give us 12PPG/10RPG. Surely he's a better rebounder than Howard. The only other player - other than Tmac/Yao - that averaged in double figures was Mike James at 11.6PPG. We need more double figure production players. It'd be nice if we could find a player that could give us 14-16PPG in free agency. That's not asking too much.
Harder than it seems. There were 46 players who averaged 15 ppg this past year. There's 30 teams in the league. We already have 2 of them. You do the math. On average, a team is going to be paying a 15 ppg scorer to be their #2 guy or more. The most easily obtainable one out there imo is SAR. Offer him the full MLE, or Portland would likely be agreeable to a S/T in which we took one of their bad contracts for expiring ones.
Nikestrad: were you the guy who, a few years back, proved the statistical absurdity of believing that any PF who didn't average something like 15 and 10 was somehow substandard? A "protypical" team at every position would rule the league...
