If they're just waiting for the CBA to come out, we may hear one way or another from Stoudamire by Monday, maybe even as early as Friday. I doubt we're doing a S&T with Portland. If it's backlogged, I could see us trading a guard or two for a backup 3.
Aren't we restricted to only having a 15 man roster? The way I see it is Ward, Baker, Spoon, Moochie will hold down the bench and our playing rotation will be: Yao/Mutumbo Swift/Howard T-mac Sura/James/Wesley/Head And we also have someone named Zendon Hamilton signed. That's already 14 people assuming we really are bringing back Mutumbo. If we also bring back Barry, we're tapped out at 15. If we cut Zendon Hamilton, we can bring in one other person. It might be D. Stoud or Glover or Baxter. I'm not sure if we can only have a 15 man roster including injured reserve or maybe we can have 15 and then a few more in injured reserve. But if it is the former and we can only have 15 total . . . It hurts me to say it, but I kinda understand why we aren't rushing to resign Barry even though he'd cost us nothing. Mutumbo, I dunno what the deal is . . . Does he want more than the vet's min? But hopefully we can trade someone to pick up D. Stoud. Just pointing out the 15 man roster so that we don't create superLARGE rosters.
Aren't we restricted to only having a 15 man roster? The way I see it is Ward, Baker, Spoon, Moochie will hold down the bench and our playing rotation will be: Yao/Mutumbo Swift/Howard T-mac Sura/James/Wesley/Head And we also have someone named Zendon Hamilton signed. That's already 14 people assuming we really are bringing back Mutumbo. If we also bring back Barry, we're tapped out at 15. If we cut Zendon Hamilton, we can bring in one other person. It might be D. Stoud or Glover or Baxter. I'm not sure if we can only have a 15 man roster including injured reserve or maybe we can have 15 and then a few more in injured reserve. But if it is the former and we can only have 15 total . . . It hurts me to say it, but I kinda understand why we aren't rushing to resign Barry even though he'd cost us nothing. Mutumbo, I dunno what the deal is . . . Does he want more than the vet's min? But hopefully we can trade someone to pick up D. Stoud. Just pointing out the 15 man roster so that we don't create superLARGE dream rosters.
DS often played SG for the blazers last year, and maybe we'll have the same situation here. I can see Sura playing the 1 and DS playing the 2 on O, then switching on D. JVG loves Sura's toughness and I just can't see him trading Sura away. As of now, whether it's his actual position on O and D, I see Sura as our starting 2. Sura is a solid 6'5", hopefully his offseason surgery helps him regain some of his quickness, but this guy is an all-out warrior and he played through multiple injuries. We need his gritty-ness in our starting lineup. Someone please name a better 2 currently on our roster not named T-Mac.
if the rockets had to get rid of mike james in order to get damon in houston, i would do it immediatedly. we need some one who can pass instead of a steve francis jr.
someone better than stoudamire?? damon fits our team perfectly. we need someone who has a point guard mentality, is quick enough to penetrate, has 3-point range, and can lead the fast break. stoudamire has been doing all of these things for years. and especially after hearing that he wants to play for us, that sounds like a perfect situation to me.
I'm not sure if it was in this thread or one of the other 10 Damon Stoudamire threads, but a reason against was mentioned that he smokes pot. LOL. You guys don't honestly think none of these guys don't ever light one up every once in a while? Beggars aren't choosers. Some of you continuously mention his faults ie: that he's too short or doesn't D up. While I've maintained my minority opinion that our backcourt wasn't really a problem last year, it still remains that we probably have the least talented group of guards in all of basketball. While I feel they played their roles beautifully last year, a talent infusion would be a huge boost. We are strapped financially with what we can do, so it is beyond me why anyone would be against acquiring a former All-Star caliber point guard. Some may say we have a 6 year window of opportunity to win, so we should pick and choose the right fit. I think this is ludicrous. It's not like this would be a big risk like trading for Jason Kidd. When you have a team good enough to compete for a championship, you need to give yourself a shot to compete for the championship. Heaven forbid T-Mac demands a trade or Yao returns to China in a year. Play for now if you're at that level. We are at that level. What ever happened to making teams defend you rather than worrying about matching up? We're already a great defensive team. Sure, he'll get eaten alive by the Pistons, but it's not like there's any other physically imposing pg's in the league. He'll have his problems, but he puts constant pressure on the defense on the other end and that's better than anything we have right now. I've always felt that perimeter individual defense is vastly overrated. We will have 2 shot blockers in the game now at all times and a great defensive system. Interior defense is what wins championships. There really isn't any such thing as perimeter defense. Some guys put more pressure than others or get more steals, but for the most part, any starting NBA guard can get by any other starting NBA guard. It's the inside guys that make the difference. Stoudamire vastly improves this backcourt. He's good in the open court and a good shooter. He's also very good in the pick n roll as seen with Sabonis in earlier years.
This is crazy. First, "DS is a pure point guard", then "Sura should be the starting SG". What's next? Yao is a true PF, and TMAC becomes J Kidd? DS is definitely an upgrade over any PG we have, but he cannot be further away from "pure PG". I think his shot selection and defense will drive JVG crazy. Sura to start at 2? Are we talking about a team to compete for playoff advance, or a lottery team? Sura started for us last year because we had absolutely no one on the back court. The guy is a career bench player!
If he wants the LLE give it to him. If he wants a sign and trade . . . work with portland. As of now, I don't see any more legit points knocking down the rockets door. Any sort of talent infusion into the back court will go a long way to getting us deeper in the playoffs. MJ can hold the starting role if needed, but I don't think many on this bbs or JVG would be jumping at that option. Bobby Sura can't be relied upon for 82 games as a starting point. He worked his butt off last year and played through injury. The likeliness of that happening again is slim. David W. is a great player and a good undersized two, as a point though . . . don't think so. Ward . . . hmmm . . . nope. Head is a valuable addition, but that's a heavy load to place on the shoulders of a rookie. In the end, the rockets could be ok, with the same group in the back court as last year. But if we have the opportunity to role the dice, roll them. I am not sure how much I love the idea of a super athletic front court with an older, injury ridden back court. We need a pretty good point or 2 guard. one or the other. between our current mix of guards the rox can platoon the other position. If Damon wants the job, get him here. Sign and Trade. LLE. whatever. If anyone wants either job . . . lets look at him. The LLE itself won't bring anyone to this team. The players and organization will though. Looking at the current back court . . . anyone is worth considering.
rockets used the LLE last year they only have a couple of TE (one at 1.7 million) if damon signs for that that's a bargain if he doesn't try jeff mcinnis or chris duhon. the bulls finished off strongly when they made the changes and had duhon starting with hinrich at sg. duhon played around 20 mins a game but it was formula that worked. wesley and sura aren't bad players they're just old, using duhon to save their legs could work for the rox. mcinnis and duhon have d will work.
Has there been any news about McInnis at all out there? The guy has talent. I'm surprised his name hasn't come up at all, let alone with the Rockets.
We do have our LLE and I think the most of our two TEs is like 1.3 mil, it can't be combined with anything and thus is very unlikely to be used. Duhon is restricted, no way to land him with what we can offer. McInnis is not known as a team guy and I am not sure he offers much over our collective group of Sura/James/Wesley/Barry anyway. DS is a 10 year NBA starter. He has always generated good assist numbers, has a fine A/TO ratio, and is a good outside shooter (I think he would not just be "good" but be a Kenny Smith-ish dead eye off the looks created by TM and Yao). That sounds like a significant upgrade to me. BS has played a lot more of his career as an SG than any other position (some 1 and some 3 too). Would he be a better than average starting SG? No, however a lot of championships have been one with guys like this who had some less than stellar facets but who played their role really well. In fact except for Detroit of last year, every recent champion has had guys like this who would not start for most NBA teams but who found a nice niche and played to their strengths.
Of the point guards that are available that have apparently been discussed by our club and could possibly wind up on our roster or are already on our roster, I would rate them this way: 1. Damon-the best offensive PG out there. He can flat light it up. He knows how to get his shot off, even in traffic, he runs the break well, and he knows how to distribute. On the flip side, he's the worst defensively out there. Still he seems to be TMac's fav. If we could get a good, tall, defensive SG to go with DS, then maybe his lack of size and defensive presence could be overlooked. 2. Jason Williams-very effective offensive PG. Not a bad shooter but definitely not as good a shooter as DS and sometimes plays out of control but a good distributor and would be great on the break. Has more size and better defensive skills than Damon but nothing to write home about on the defensive end. 3. Bob Sura-tough, hard-nosed attitude player, with a nose for the ball off the glass. Always has a nack for being in the spot where the ball comes off the rim, a skill that can't be taught. Slow as molasses-not effective running the break, doesn't look to run the break, most of the time is too busy rebounding the ball to even get out on the break. Very slow setup on his jumpshot/set shot and not all that accurate. Gives the defense time to recover because it takes him so long to get his shot lined up. Not all that accurate on top of that. Too slow defensively to be effective especially against PGs in this league. Really, too slow to to even guard SGs. But he brings all the intangibles, all the scraping, hitting the floor, diving for loose balls, etc. etc. etc. And even though he is slow, he has a nack for getting in the lane and hitting the dipsy doodle shots. (DS also has this in his reportoire) 4. Mike James-the modern day version of Vinny "The Microwave" Johnson. Will have a field goal attempt within 20 seconds of entering the game. Not a good passer on the offensive end. Can create his own shot, and when he is on, he is extremely fast with the ball. His speed sometimes gets him in trouble though as he forces too much and gets out of control. However, when he is on the floor, he is usually the fastest player on the floor. He has a good jumper and can dribble to create his own space to shoot it. Not a good passer or distributor. On the defensive end, he has the potential to be a disruptive force by overplaying and playing the passing lanes. But doesn't play smart, gets beat because he gambles and then doesn't fight to recover. Doesn't seem to mesh well with TMac. Other possibles: Sam Cassell, Dickau, Brevin Knight, Nick Van Exel, Jeff McInnis--not real impressed with any of them unless Cassell can regain his 2003-2004 form. He would not be better than Stoudamire offensively, so he would have to represent an improvement over Stoudamire defensively for it to be worth it. I think he may be over the hill and not able to recover the defense. Just looking at our PG situation and thinking about how to improve this team, I am starting to think that maybe DS would be the best fit. If Van Gundy would be willing to design the defense so that DS could play the passing lanes, and keep DS out of post up situations as much as possible by shading help, then it may just work. I am convinced that having DS on the offensive will make our offense even more lethal. He can flat out shoot, he makes good decisions, he's smart, he can get in the paint, and he won't be looking to rebound but will be out in position to take the outlet pass. After getting Swift at the 4, I think having a rebounding PG is not nearly as important as it used to be. After considering Jason Williams, I am convinced that Van Gundy could make him fit as well. He would be great on the break, and not quite as good as DS in the half court sets. But he could probably be a lot more effective defensively than DS just because of his size. Either of these guys represents an upgrade to our current PG situation. I love Sura, and I'd still like to see him on this team. But I think his style will be less important this year than last year. The key thing that we need that Sura gives us is attitude. I'd like to have him off the bench as the 3rd guard. But if we have to move him to get one of the above 2, I think we have to do it. Swift is going to give us some of the attitude that Sura gave us last year. And McGrady is going to have even more influence on the floor with the players this year. It is clear that it is his team. He'll be in their face plenty.
I was flipping thru the channels and I happened to flip to fox 26 sports and I saw the very ending of them interviewing Damon Stoudemire....can anyone tell us what they were talkin about??
