or a nice back up 2? Jackson / Cato measure to the league We still have the worse Starting Forwards in the Western Conference and you know what We have had this problem since Barkley went down Perhaps that has more to do with our lack of playoffs than Steve or Cuttino???????? Esp since PF is so strong in the west honestly . . IMO .. if we would have kept Kenny and trade Mo . . . I think we would have made the playoffs KT and Posey > cato/mot/Jackson Better defense and about the same offense Rocket River
KT was not as good in offense as Mo. Mo hits plenty of jumpers to free up Yao down low. KT was a below avg 18 foot jumpt shooter. As for JJ, good question. But I think he does a decent job. I think he could score more in a high paced game, but its too bad we dont run any fast breaks......
JJ IS a 3, he IS a nice backup 2, and he IS also a nice third option as a 1 in certain situations. He's just a nice combo player, and I am thankful to have him (a decent defender in his own right as well). He is everything I though Adrian Griffin would provide and more.
Jackson is a servicable 3 but probably a better backup 2. Jackson at SF looks a lot better with a much better PF flanking him. But Jackson really should be a 6th man playing backup 2 and 3. At his age he just shouldnt be logging all the minutes that he is getting each night.
JJ is a 2 guard because of his size. He might've been a 3 10 years ago, but the size on 3 has grown tremendously in the past 10 years. Why not play Boki a little more?
RR, I'm sure the Rockets would have liked to have traded Mo and kept KT too. But, with Mo's contract, the cost of unloading him would have been too high. So, KT had to go. As for Jackson, he'd make a great backup SG... if only we had somebody who could play small forward better than he can. But, we don't, so JJ plays the 3. He's versatile enough that he can play the position and do it better than anyone else on the roster. I'll be happy to accept an upgrade at the 3 that moves Jackson to 6th man. Upgrading at the 4 is probably a bigger need though.
I was just thinking about this, everyone is blaming guard play and most have legit points, but the Rockets biggest problem is our forwards. Cato is playing fewer and fewer minutes every game, he knows this, so he jacks up as many shots as possible while he is in. MoT has a nice offensive game, but its not enough in the West. Above all, we have freak'n Weatherspoon playing majority of the minutes!! Even though he isn't playing that bad, he isn't the answer. THE ROCKETS WON'T BE A FORCE UNTIL WE GET A REAL PF. What's the point of not trading Cato when he is barely playing anymore, his trade value can only go down now. Please make a move for Boozer or someone.
I agree, JJ should be coming off the bench as a 2. but the fact is we don't have anyone better to play the 3. Boki hasn't been able to get off the bench again for some reason and other than those two who do we have that can play the 3? Adrian Griffin is a serviceable backup not a starter especially at his height. Eric Piatkowski is another backup that is a 2. What we have are three good backups at the 2 and no one at the 3. I don't have the time to get into our PF problem...
We start 3 guards and 2 centers night in & night out. Yeah, anybody will tell you our biggest problem is the forward position(s), 'cause frankly we don't have any forwards to play 'em.
JJ has been one of the bright spots this season. I think he has been a very nice role player and has come up big in certain spots. I'll take him as a 3 any day
I like JJ because he does so many things for the team, but he is not the dead-eye shooter the team needs. Anyone who goes 1 for 5 from a game is not a dead-eye shooter. I'm hoping Pike can turn into a great outside shooter.
We haven't had much of an oppurtunity to improve the quality of our forwards. It's kind of like we're patching up a hole in our ship. The patches may work good short term but for a cross Atlantic voyage like an 82 game season, it won't do nearly as well as we'd hoped after, say, 5 minutes into the journey. The roster isn't done yet. No way we stand pat at offseason.
If you have a whole in your ship why blame it sinking on the rudder and the wheel? we so busy critisizing SF that we overlooking our GLARING problems at the forward spots maybe steve is the reason we have done so well in the last 5 years and NOT THE REASON WE DID NOT GOTO THE PLAYOFFS? Rocket River
YOF Once Sf and CM are gone . . who will you blame then? Rocket River BTW . .. did Steve lose the Phoenix game? What happened there?
We have no team with out Francis. It was evident when he had his migraines with the inner ear disease. And when he missed the game due to bailing out on the flight, we sucked. Our forwards are weak, we have nice backup in MO, but our starters are weak. If it wasn't for our guards our last 5 or so season would have been absolutely horrendous. They were the only thing that kept this team alive. Now, to take the next step we need some real forwards, and JJ was a big step in the right direction.
Cuttino Mobley had one of his poorest shooting nights that game, and the guy he was defending in Joe Johnson lit him up. That's what happened.
