I share the same feeling. I'd be happy to get Damon Stoudamire if he can be signed for the LLE but I'm not so sure about picking up bad contracts just to get DS in a S&T. There are many other options for the PG position. Brevin Knight is definitely someone worth considering. He's a very smart player, makes good decisions with the ball, and almost never make any mistakes. He averaged 9 assists, 2.2 turnovers, and 2 steals in 29.5 mpg this past season. These are pretty impressive numbers and are even more impressive if you consider the people catching his passes. Knight is also a much better defender than Damon Stoudamire IMO. He's one of the best at staying in front of his man and denying dribble penetration. Several people have commented on his inability to shoot the 3, but the guy actually makes 18 ft jumpers pretty consistently and has fg% of .422 which is much better than DS (.392) and is enough to keep defenses honest. The biggest concern that I have about Brevin Knight is his health. Other than his rookie season, he has never played more than 66 games in a season. But even with that said, I'd still be esctatic if the Rockets somehow manage to get Brevin Knight for the LLE.
Just something to chew on, in 2 games in which the Pistons beat bobcats by a total of 3pts, brevin knight had 13pts and 34ast! Yes he shot 20%, but if the Pistons can only beat a expansion team by 2pts and a guy has avg 17 asst against you, something has to be up
Great post Desert Scar. The question we should ask ourselves is, will the Rockets be a better team if they acquire DS? The answer is YES. The Rockets biggest problems against the Mavs in the playoffs were athleticism and too few scorers. Swift takes care of the athleticism but not necessarily the scoring. Although I could see him averaging 10+ pts a game, most of those pts would be junk pts off rebounds and fast breaks. DS on the other hand could very effectively score in the half-court game with pick and rolls with Yao or hitting open jump shots when teams double Yao or T-Mac. To beat teams like the Mavs, Suns, or even the Spurs the Rockets need another scorer that can score in an up-tempo game or in the half court game. DS is exactly that type of player. Although I do agree his defense could be a bit of a problem, I don’t think it will be as big as some make it out to be. With Sura and James both capable of playing the point guard position, they could guard opposing PGs that are too big for DS. Getting DS for the LLE might be even a bigger steal than getting Swift for the MLE.
Count me in the pro-DS camp if we get him at a good price. I guarantee you his FG% will go up next year. He also knows how to pass the ball inside to players like Yao where they want it. Whether it's DS or someone else, if we add a real PG to our roster, Yao will get more easy looks (and FG attempts per game) and we will debate hard on whether it's because of the new PG or because Yao got rest in the offseason and came back stronger/more physical because of the rest. You heard it here first.
And we were swept by that same expansion team... Andre Miller averaged close to 11 assists a few years ago. Everyone thought he was the purest point guard in the league, taking the throne after Stockton, but that wasn't the case. The Rockets need a guy who can take advantage of open looks. Knight isn't that. As much as anything, it seems Damon wants to be here, and wants to win here. JVG is trying to build a team of players who are hungry to win and to win in Houston and can fit the team. I wouldn't be opposed to Van Exel for the same reasons, but Stoudamire is younger, more productive, and has fewer injury questions at this point in their careers.
I'm not real big on Stoudemire. I think there will be some nice players that shake look later in the season, especially after the October One-time Vet exception cuts. Our points were adequate last year.
Damon Stoudamire gives you a legit starting point guard, a third scorer, and somebody that you cannot leave open cause he will burn you. He would be a major upgrade over what we had last year. Correct me if I'm wrong but I also dont remember Damon ever missing any significant time due to injury. If he can be acquired then I'm all for it. Try double teaming McGrady with Stoudamire running the show.
Hmm...I wasn't aware that Knight was a free agent. I wouldn't be opposed to having Brevin Knight on the team. He's about as pure a point guard as you can get for cheap. He has had a very good assist/TO ratio his entire career and put up surprisingly good assist numbers on an expansion team last season. Unfortunately, the argument that he put up 9 assists/game on a expansion team can also be used against him. Historically, everyone's numbers go up when they play on a bad team...yes, even assists go up. Also, the fact that he was left unprotected during the expansion draft raises a few questions. If he were such a great playmaker, why did Milwaukee leave him unprotected? Why was he traded twice during the 03-04 season? On top of all of this, his shooting has been suspect his entire career...much more so than Stoudamire's Regardless of the knocks on Brevin Knight, I'll agree that it'd be an interesting experiment if he could be signed for VERY cheap...like the vet's minimum. I'd prefer Stoudamire though, since all sources (albeit not the most reliable ones) point to the fact that he actually wants to be here and win.
I have a better question...why do people always insist on trying to pick up terrible players? first it was people lobbying for chris anderson, and dan dickau...now brevin knight? I'm not sold on damon stoudamire, but brevin knight can't shoot for crap. we have better than him on our roster already. if damon can be had for the lle, I'd take him 20 times over brevin knight. the end.
If Ming plays the way he's supposed to, McGrady would never see a double team in his life like Kobe never saw one when Shaq was there. I imagine if sura shot 14 times a game, he could put up the same numbers as Damon.
I agree with you that knight, anderson and dickau are terrible, but you can't put Stoudamire in the same category. Stoudemire is a very good player. The fact that he played with the Blazers the last couple of years, doesn't diminish his achievements as a player. When he's been on good teems, he's been terrific. If the organization wants him, don't you think he would be a really good fit? Tracy said that he wanted Swift and Stoudamire. He didn't pull those names out of his azz. Those are the names that the organization told him about and he did his best to lobby publicly in order to help get them and make the intentions of the organization known to those two players. I know people are put off by Stoudamires legal troubles, but come on he's just a pothead. I am sure he's more mature and is in a stage of his career where he wants to win. Putting those issues asside, there isn't a better point guard that would fit better with our team given our financial situation. He would give us just what we need at the PG position for the next two years. He's a great passer, ballhandler, a scorer and extremely quick. Those are attributes that we lacked last year from our starting point guard. I was just watching some Rockets clips from last year's playoffs and Bobby Sura is a hustler and does a lot of good things but he's a terrible decision maker, ballhandler and passer. He could barely bring the ball up and put us in the offensive sets. Frankly, he's not a point guard. He just played the position last year because we didn't have anybody else that could.
Check what he did against the very good teams and check the score. When you lose to Det by a total of 3 pts in 2 games and avg 15 asst, that says you were in the game and was breaking Billups and the whole team down. If a guy can live at the dots of the defense, every defense is broken down and giving up quality shots. Think about it, 15 asst per game against Det.
True but we all know that Yao has his bouts of inconsistency whether its due to foul trouble or just lack of intensity. Damon gives you another guy that can assume some of the scoring load if needed. Basically he could be a very good insurance policy if either Yao or McGrady miss time due to injury.
So now we're comparing SAR and Randolph with Yao and Tmac? If SAR drew a consistent double team then maybe one of his teams would have made the playoffs by now. Even Yao in his 2nd year drew consistent doubles and lead his team to the playoffs. Randolph has been exposed as a joke of a max player this year, so using him to knock Damon is pretty sad. He's mostly a jumpshooter and rebounder like Brand. This argument sounds like when everyone complained about Wesley's shooting when we traded for him, and then he shot a very good percentage from 3 for us and helped us win 51 games. Damon can shoot the 3 about as well, and he is a threat to penetrate. And he's younger than Wesley.
All I'm saying is Damon is an upgrade compared to any point guard currently on the roster. We desperately need a third scorer and that showed during the playoffs. Getting 16 total points from the rest of your team in a playoff game is unacceptable.
Chauncey Billups was injured in one of those games. In another, it was the last game of the season and Billups played a half-ass 15 minutes. The assist numbers are impressive, but you have to take it with a grain of salt. He was up against Lindsey Hunter and Smush Parker the other two times. Those assists are nice, but still a bit flukey and misleading. Getting 15-20 assists per game against Detroit doesn't make you a playmaking god. Moreover in those games, he shot for a combined 7-22 (31%). As important as playmaking and ball control is to the Rockets, we need accurate shooting too. If you honestly think Stoudamire sucks at shooting, you've never seen Brevin Knight play. Stats can be very misleading. When you shoot that badly, of course your first impulse is to pass the ball all the time....thereby giving you a hell of a lot of assists. For the love of God, NOBODY is expecting Stoudamire to be the savior of the Rockets. All we're saying is that he'd be a pretty good fit and an upgrade over our current point guards. For the right price, he'd be worth getting IMHO. Frankly, if one of our two stars misses games (knock on wood), I'd feel a lot better with Stoudamire on the floor than with Knight.
How many times did he turn the ball over? So avg 15 asst against the best defensive team and losing by a combined 3 pts is misleading. Saying Zach is a joke is a joke. The guy was hurt and was still a double double. Evereyone was saying that the reason Damon shot poorly was because he had no one to pass the ball to which is lame. How can you have a guy who has scored 13000 pts not have anyone to pass the ball to? How can a 50% shooter SAR not be reliable? I know Knight shot 31%, but to keep the bobcats in the game against det and drop 15 dimes isn't chickenfeed.
you misunderstood me, I wasn't putting him in the same category at all. stoudamire is very good...as to why I'm not sold on him, it's simply height issues -- with that said jvg has shown me he makes nothing but top notch decisions on this team, so if he's good enough for him, he's good enough for me.
I'm really not getting you leebigez... First you said that assist/TO ratio is an unimportant stat. Now you're using it to defend Brevin Knight. Let me just put it this way then...Knight's been a backup for the majority of his career. Why was he left unprotected in the expansion draft? Why was he on three different teams in a SINGLE season? Yes, he's a pure point guard. Yes, he gets good assist numbers, but he can't shoot if his life depended on it. No amount of good passing is going to help when your man leaves you wide open to double down on McGrady or Yao. I wouldn't be opposed to having Knight on this team for very cheap...but there's no way I would take him over Stoudamire. Have you ever watched either of them play? Stoudamire has a bad FG% because he takes bad shots. When he's open though, he's very dangerous. If JVG can get him to be smart about his shot selection, he'd be valuable to this team. Knight on the other hand...can't even hit an open shot.
