I am kinda-sorta ambivalent about this idea of Mutombo. On the one hand, can he be any worse defensively at the 5 than Cato? Mayyyyybe just a little, if only because the Kelvinator finally started moving around a tiny bit last year. However, when you have a player on the floor who, whenever he gets the ball in his hands, the other team yells 'Shoot! Shoot it!', then you have a BIG problem, and that is what we had last year with Cato. I don't see how Dike could be any worse than Cato offensively. Since we have Howard now, there should really be no need for our backup 5 to have to play the 4, except under (hopefully) extreme circumstances. Heck, for that matter, I would rather see Dike at the 5 and YAO at the 4, if push comes to shove, if only because Yao has the ability to draw defenders away from the basket, unlike Mutombo or Cato. The problem, as I see it, is that Yao has not yet shown me that he is capable of avoiding foul trouble on a consistent basis. That means, unfortunately, that whoever we get as a backup 5 is probably going to have nights where he will have to log over 24 minutes. This is where I worry about Mutombo. If the league officials finally decide to give Yao the respect he deserves this year, and stop calling so many stupid ticky-tack fouls, then this may never develop into a serious problem. But, like all things, only time will tell.
I watched deke on the knicks last season, and there were a few times where he would dominate defensively for ten or 15 minutes a game, getting something like 2 or 3 blocks. however, NY wanted to use him more than he was capable so often times it was often he was just conserving energy. If we can guarantee him 15 minutes a game, it might just be enough for him to put in significant efficiency. And are we really worried about his offense now that we have howard at PF and Tmac in the backcourt? considering that pike and griffin combined don't even avg 15 minutes, we are getting a good deal. opening up for a young center to play garbage minutes would be ideal (cough badiane). in other words, Go cookie monster! on top of that we have a pretty diverse team, congo guy, christian guy, chinese guy, college guys, slovenian guy, new york guy, and wanderer guys, sitcoms can't make this stuff up.
Deke averaged 23 minutes a game last year. I'm sure he will be able to play that many minutes on occasion. And he might be more effective over the entire season if he doesn't have log so many minutes every night. Mutombo and Cato are a wash offensively, and he is better than Cato defensively, with a smaller contract. Good move.
I'd rather go after Alonzo Mourning if he makes a comeback which I think he is attempting despite the Nets discouraging him. An 80% ZO is better than a 100% Deke. I don't know if it would be possible or not but I would much rather wait and go after ZO.
The only problem with Zo and I so badly wanted him to be successful is that he's alredy had 2 failed attempts. His heart is in the comeback but his body just keeps saying no. It's very unfortunate but his track history with comebacks from his unfortunate condition doesn't bode well for stability for this position. I even picked up Zo in my fantasy league as one of my sleepers. It didn't pan out well unfortunately
I wouldn't want to give up any players who get decent playing time, but bear in mind: we would be giving up 3 players who get little or no playing time in exchange for a backup center to give Yao some much needed minutes on the bench. In other words, the choice is between keeping 3 players who we won't use versus adding one player who we will actually use for a specific important purpose. The goal isn't to have Deke in there to replace Yao or deliver starter-quality stats; rather, it's just to have a serviceable center who, together with McGrady, can hold things together until Yao is rested and can return. (I would think JVG will generally keep either McGrady or Yao on the floor at any given time.) True, Deke's skills are significantly diminished, and I'd certainly rather get a younger player who can play both the PF and C positions, but I doubt we can get such a big man in exchange for giving up 3 players who don't actually play.
Wanna know why this is a better situation for him than NJ or NY? Those teams didn't have half the weapons in the half court set as we do. They figured to run more often than us and it didn't fit his strengths at his age. Now he can just park in the middle, grab some boards, block some shots, set some picks, for 10 minutes a game, and assuming he can handle the very managable 10 mins/game, we've got our backup center with all the qualities that we wanted in the first place.
For a second, I thought this was my post. Then I thought someone horked my name. It looks like I copied yours. Sorry. It is good to know there are some more Rockets fans here in DFW.
I know alot of people on this board don't like Mutombo and think he is 800 yrs old and washed up. But if you look at his block shots per 48 minutes compared to the rest of the young guys in the league it's amazing. Looks like he is still a force in altering a game. Garnett 2.64 blocks per 48 Dampier 2.74 Ming 2.78 Ostertag 3.10 Shaquille Oneal 3.23 Nesterovich 3.37 Duncan 3.51 Ilgaskus 3.80 Ben Wallace 3.87 Mutombo 3.94 Camby 4.15
Worst case scenario: Mutumbo doesn't fit with the Rockets. Trading deadline comes along and the Rockets trade him and another player for a big man on the block to a team thats going nowhere this year and whose looking for the salary cap slot that Deke's expiring contract creates next season. Best case scenario: Mutumbo keeps gives Yao a good 13 minute breather a night. He makes the other team think twice about driving in the lane just because Yao is on the bench. He clears the boards and gets a few finger waves in per game.
I think your "best case scenario" assumes Yao can play 35 effective minutes a game. And for a whole season. And without missing any games. I hope he can, and we should be able to expect that from him (I'm talking about the minutes... you never know how any player will hold up during a season. you cross your fingers and hope you stay lucky, but that's why you have to have depth), but he hasn't yet shown he's capable of doing it. Not in my opinion. We haven't signed this guy yet, and maybe we won't, but we are in deep do-do if he has to play more than 15 minutes a game... game in and game out. If Mutumbo is needed to replace Yao for any length of time, the poop just got several feet deep.
I disagree completely. Mutombo showed last season that he can be effective in stints, he won Player of the Week early in the season. I'd feel more secure with a veteran like Mutombo manning the middle, with Juwan Howard getting the call on the post-up plays, than with a guy as wildly inconsistent as Keon Clark (who would be a better bench player because of the energy he brings). If Yao were to miss a few games in a row, Mutombo would fit in just fine. Just like the Spurs, if Duncan goes down Horry can fill in for a couple games. If we lose Yao for an extended period of time, we can still be a .500, or slightly below .500 team with Mutombo, I think.
