Along with the growing pains of our guards learning to play inside out, I have noticed that our front court has HUGE problems with teams that have quick forwards and centers. Our top 3 PF/C types are all slow of foot, and it shows. Cato, Yao, and Taylor all lack lateral quickness. You watch a guy like Kirlenko and see all the hustle plays and blocks etc, and than you watch Ming consistently helping out and unable to recover thus allowing Ostertag to get Tons of offensive rebounds, and you realize that our front court is simply slow. I truly think Malick Badiane will have a HUGE impact in athleticism on our front court, and allow us to match up better with teams that are not as slow as us up front. I think it is a major problem for this Rockets team, our frontcourt is just too dang slow of foot. DD
Is there any word at all on how Malik is doing? Honestly... he's really got a ton of work ahead of him, but if he puts in the full effort, and works his ass off, he could make a difference. Problem is, many players of his type don't do that extra work... if he does, they might have something.
Nick, I seriously think this is the biggest problem the Rockets have, their frontcourt is slow on offense and defense. If they Rockets can not match up with teams that have quicker players at the 4 and 5, it will be a long season. Do we have any option on the Roster at all? Possibly Ford? DD
We HAD Torraye Braggs, who was pretty muck 100% hustle. The Rox felt that since they are paying man-teats 3 mil per, it was more reasonable to cut Braggs.
Torraye was not the answer... he's just as slow, if not slower, than Cato. And, cutting him was not for salary reasons... cause, I'm pretty sure him and Alton would be making about the same. I honestly think JVG likes Alton's instincts better, and not to mention the fact that whenever Torraye got beat, he'd commit a silly foul. Mo-T actually has decent lateral quickness... esp. since he lost weight, and thus he's not a bad on-the-ball defender (but he's terrible at both help defenses and rebounding...thus, he'll never get the label as a good defensive player). I also think all these minutes Cato has been getting is starting to take its toll... i'm not seeing the explosive Cato that was there at the begginning of the year. Ideally, I feel that JVG will go back to having Cato come off the bench, and start Mo-T... esp. when you have the risk of both Cato AND Yao being in foul trouble. That cannot happen, since we don't have any other Centers beyond that (Man-boobs isn't in the picture). Plus, that initial burst of energy Cato provides may be much more valuable off the bench... In some ways, DD, I'm starting to miss EG.
No, Ford is not the answer. I see no viable options for this team. This is one hole that they won't be able to cover up unless there is a trade. This is where the EG debacle is going to hurt them the most.
I also think EG could be an important part of Rox. By the way, Rox should play zone more. With slow-footed front court, zone defense would be much better.
I think it is "deliberate" not slow-of-foot. Deliberate is the term. Does that make it the right mode of operation? No. Note to JVG: "You're in the West now. Act like it."
I would like to think in the future that Malick could be the answer. But that seems like a ways off to me. I agree with your assesement of the frontcourt group of Yao/Cato/Taylor having poor lateral movement. Clearly these are teams where having Eddie Griffin would really help. While he was not a bull in the post like Cato he has long arms and was very mobile. He is the kind of person you want guarding AK 47, Garnett, Cliff Robinson, Radmonovic etc and all of those types of players. Griffin is the key....but sadly he is not here. :-(
Deuce, I concur that EG would have made a huge difference, but since he has gone AWOL on the team, is there anyone else that could help. The reason we get in foul trouble is because our bigs are so slow. DD
Yes !! Dakota I agree with you. If we are ever going to give as good as we get, we do need to bring Badiane and his athletic play to our Team.It looks like every Team we play has athletic players and we have plodders, we need a better balance on the Rockets.
Yeah, this is obviously a problem, but I'm not sure it's a fixable one since the team will continue to be built around Yao. Yao's got amazing agility for a man of his height and build, but with that said, he's still a couple steps slow for the NBA in the post and the end result is a lot of hacking fouls. I'm not sure if nature will ever allow him to improve in this area, but I hope it does. Mo Taylor has some speed in his footwork, but does not seem to know how or want to use his footwork to help him establish post defense or rebounding position.
