Bottom line on Antoine is, on the offensive end, he would help us out tremendously and make us virtually unstoppable, with the first unit or with the second unit. IF he comes here, and if he plays with the first unit, he is going to come in and be the third option. He will play his role here. He won't be brought here without him understanding that. With that understanding, he is going to spread out the defense and would make Yao and TMac so much better on the offensive end. And then when he is playing with the 2nd team, he can run the paint a little bit more and get more shots. We know Van Gundy is not going to bring him here without a clear understanding of his role on this team. The jacked up shots will be history playing in Houston. With all that being said, on the defensive end, I believe that he would actually help us out a lot also. No, he cannot be the weakside help that we need. But he would be a very good perimeter defender, matching up against the perimeter 4's in this league. His biggest area of weakness is the fact that he is too small to be effective against the post up 4s in this league................................which are a dying breed, except for the 2 most dominant players in the WC, TD and KG. Realistically, the best answer to those guys, and it really won't stop them, is to have a good, solid rotation of players that force them to play defense and to work hard on offense, eg the Pistons. That's why I wouldn't mind someone like Walker, I think he would actually be an upgrade over Juwan. With Walker in the game, Duncan has to guard Yao. Who else is going to guard Yao. Is SA going to leave Ducan on the open floor guarding Walker out at the arc and leave Mohammed on Yao? That gives us advantage at both of those positions. Minnesota will be forced to keep running Garnett from pillar to post. They have nothing on the inside when Garnett is defending the perimeter and if they put Garnett in the interior, once again, a double mismatch because their 4 is forced to go to the perimeter with Walker and Garnett is left against Yao. There is no 4 in the league that can stay with Walker at the arc with the ball in his hands and the ability to dribble drive. They have to pick their poison, either give him the jumper, or body up on him and then he gets the drive penetration, or defend straight up and let him throw it down the block to a posted Yao or TMac. With the rules once again in favor of the perimeter penetrators, the defensive priority is having the quickness to cut off the dribble. Walker's ability to handle the basketball would be a huge plus in Van Gundy's system. The real key is who are we going to get to play the swing position with TMac. That player has to be quick and strong, with natural defensive ability that Van Gundy can hone to a sharp edge, along with the ability to hit the spot up jumper and handle the ball. Sure sounds like Bonzi/ to me......possibly Cat......dreaming Pietrus. Simmons may even fit this bill. I do question Simmons' defensive quickness though. But, defensively, our #1 priority is perimeter defense, not post up defense. I think we are going to discover that Yao is a much better post defensive presence when we get better perimeter defenders who are able to contain dribble penetration and cannot be posted up as much. With that in mind, I would be fine with Walker at the 4 as long as we get quicker and stronger on the perimeter. Walker would actually help our perimeter defense. Imagine this starting 5 Daniels Wells TMac Yao Walker I think that would be a very, very good defensive ballclub with explosive offense.
Remember when JVG was trying to get Mo to hit the threes? Maybe Walker is the type of forward he wants.
i would want swift before walker but swift is likely to go where the money is at. therefore walker i think would be the next good player to go for. walkers stats are nice and i think he would be a great player to get. he does do many things and just think maybe houston will have three players that will be all-stars. hell yea! walker should start over howard i just hope he doesnt jack up alot of threes. leave that up to t-mac. if he stays within his role on the team the rockets should benefit. i kinda hope we get him...
That was a great missed putback dunk that got us the win against Phoenix, but if he was on the team maybe he would have grabbed the defensive board something our players are uncapable of doing.
Good call. Or maybe JVG just figured since MoT stayed away from the boards he should find somethinbg to do from a distance???)
Those were two really good posts by jcantu. Like most people here, when i first saw that the Rockets had contacted Walker's agent I was thinking "why in the world are they going after that guy??". However, after reading posts from jcantu and Doc rocket i think Walker would actually be a nice fit here in Houston. If he comes off the bench we might have the most explosive and balanced bench in the league (Barry, Deke, Walker, and James). As long as we can get him for the MLE for 4 (at most 5) years then we are getting really good value for the MLE. Also does anyone here think that Walker could play the backup SF spot for 8-10 mins a game behind T-mac?? I realize that he cannot play that position for an entire game but he could matchup against SFs for small periods of time couldnt he?
What do you think it would take (including if someone had to be included from C's for DA to agree to an SnT) to get AW -- and do you think he's worth what it would take? For example, I believe an offer of MJ/DW - AW = deal. But, is that too much?
I would seriously think about doing that trade if I were CD. But I would have to make sure that we made sure that either L. Head or SV could play the backup PG spot AND make sure that we can find someone to play at the SG spot (Cat or Simmons).
We all know Walker's game, I think everyone in the league knows his game. The big question is whether he can become more of a team player, can JVG help him? Walker's defense is poor, but his offensive game (when he's not jacking up 3's) makes up for it. CD has reinforced the point that we want to get young, that we want a group of guys to grow w/ Yao and TMac. It's hard to fully evaluate Swift, 9ppg 5rpg 1.5bpg in 21mpg are pretty good number, how much can he improve w/ starter minutes? Overall, I like Swift more. I think his athleticism and blocking ability would be a huge addition to the team. He also has a decent offensive game, he's got a quick first step to go around other bigs, and he actually has a nice mid-range jumper.
"But, defensively, our #1 priority is perimeter defense, not post up defense. I think we are going to discover that Yao is a much better post defensive presence when we get better perimeter defenders who are able to contain dribble penetration and cannot be posted up as much" I wished more rockets fan would realize this. Too many people are obsessed with a rebounding and shot blocking power forward instead the real achillies heel of this defense. They need to keep the opposition in front of them making Yao less vulnerable. Better Perimeter defense and a legit 3rd scoring option on offense.....two biggest needs for this franchise.
Why not just take the guy who's better offensively than both and as good rebounder as Walkner in SAR?
You know, though, Antoine Walker makes sense for this team. Never thought I'd say it. A power forward who handles the ball (as long as he is kept on a tight leash in that department) and can shoot the three (ditto parenthetical caveat)? Two of the primary ballhandlers would be at the 3 (TMac) and 4 (Toine). And we'd have someone who could actually rebound.
I remember AW's early days w/Pitino in Boston and he wasn't a bad perimeter defense player. Pitino's teams in Boston pressed quite a bit and AW was hustling and helping to create turnovers from what I recall. Seems like he use to come up w/steals also, but I'll have to look that up. Like many I initially was "no way," but the more I think and read, the more I'm convinced AW has real posibilities with our team. The combo of JHo and AW provides depth an versatility at 4.
Actually, I like Bobby even though he's only done it for one year. The word on him is that he's a tireless worker and is extremely focused on making himself better. I'm not too familiar with his defense, an obvious must in the JVG system, but if he, like Antoine, SAR, Swift will BUY INTO IT COMEPLETELY like Tracy, Yao, Bobby, etc... then I'd of course love to have him. People tend to skip over the fact that we played a considerable amount of basketball virtually 4 on 5 because of Juwan. I like Scotty and Bowen..........as my 11th and 12th guys not as my starting power forward!! I think if you can grab Walker, and I really find it odd that I'm kinda on board with it, I think you make yourself MUCH more dangerous. Again, the 'perceived' threat, whether real or not, does indeed become a threat. If our 4 can shoot the 3 then our 3 and our 1 will score lots of 2's...know what'm sayin? I want us to get dangerous....Simmons, AW, SAR..whatever. I tend to think guys like Reggie Evans are nice pieces as long as you do NOT overpay but for 48 minutes the guy avg's 19 boards a game! Guys like that can fit but we do need weapons. DANGEROUS - my word of choice for the upcoming season!
Upon some research, we find that AW's has avg over 1 steal per game for his career, not bad for a PF. I remember him being a key part of Pitino's press. When you look at his overall stats, if he would increase his shot selection his overall game would be a solid addition to the Rockets line-up. YEAR TEAM G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 96-97 BOS 82 68 36.2 .425 .327 .631 3.50 5.50 9.00 3.2 1.28 .65 2.80 3.30 17.5 97-98 BOS 82 82 39.9 .423 .312 .645 3.30 6.90 10.20 3.3 1.73 .73 3.56 3.20 22.4 98-99 BOS 42 41 36.9 .412 .369 .559 2.50 6.00 8.50 3.1 1.50 .67 2.83 3.40 18.7 99-00 BOS 82 82 36.6 .430 .256 .699 2.40 5.50 8.00 3.7 1.43 .39 3.16 3.20 20.5 00-01 BOS 81 81 41.9 .413 .367 .716 1.90 7.00 8.90 5.5 1.70 .60 3.72 3.10 23.4 01-02 BOS 81 81 42.0 .394 .344 .741 1.90 7.00 8.80 5.0 1.51 .47 3.10 2.90 22.1 02-03 BOS 78 78 41.5 .388 .323 .615 1.30 5.90 7.20 4.8 1.49 .40 3.33 2.80 20.1 03-04 DAL 82 82 34.6 .428 .269 .554 2.40 5.90 8.30 4.5 .79 .79 2.46 2.60 14.0 04-05 ATL 53 53 40.2 .415 .317 .534 2.40 7.00 9.40 3.7 1.21 .60 3.45 2.80 20.4 04-05 BOS 24 24 34.5 .442 .342 .557 2.30 5.90 8.30 3.0 1.04 1.08 2.92 2.90 16.3 04-05 -- 77 77 38.4 .422 .323 .539 2.40 6.70 9.00 3.4 1.16 .75 3.29 2.80 19.1 Career 687 672 38.8 .415 .326 .642 2.40 6.30 8.70 4.1 1.39 .60 3.15 3.00 19.8 Playoff 37 37 40.7 .408 .361 .692 2.20 6.40 8.60 3.3 1.46 .51 3.22 3.60 18.3 All-Star 3 1 13.3 .350 .300 .500 .30 1.70 2.00 1.3 .67 .00 1.33 .30 6.0
