Nah, you can't compare Bowen with Oakley. Oakley had a reliable jump shot. Bowen doesn't. Oakley would start a fight any time. I doubt that Bowen would easily be provoked. Oakley b****ed with his teammates. Bowen just does his things and shut up.
It was an Iowa night at Toyota last night. Bowen and Davis were both Hawkeyes and LaFrentz is also a native Iowan. Chris Street's death was tragic, everyone looked up to him, and the whole state mourned. I didn't know that's why Ryan wore #40. Good thing Bowen did well for the Rockets- the Hawkeyes stunk it up and lost to UNI last night.
What we saw last night with Bowen is really what this team has been missing with Bob Sura being out. Someone that is "scrappy" and gets those long rebounds and just gets in the way of people defensively. We need that kind of "scrappy" player on the floor at all times. I think putting Bowen in the starting lineup and moving Tmac to the 2 was a good move. We just need that scrappy type player in the starting lineup. Ideally it would be nice to get that from a more atheltic player, but for now Bowen will have to do. You cant help but appreciate the effort he is putting out there. It can get contageous!
Yeah, there were about five positions were Bowen either knocked a ball loose, tipped an offensive rebound, or flew in to deflect a pass and it meant anohter possession for the Rockets. I just yelled my head off every time he tipped it. People in the stands next to me probably thought I was his boyfriend or something the way I was gushing about his play...
But you have to admit EASY, the hustle, intangible, and big body factors make for a least some worthy comparison here. I honestly think JVG, wittingly or not, has been trying to find the right personnel a la memories of his Knicks of old. With Stro, I think the idea was to turn him into a rebounding machine like Oakley. Yet in drawing the comparison, I think RYBO plays more like OAK than Stro does. I'll never forget RYBO's play last year in the first round of the playoffs in lieu of JHo. I mean, sure he fouled a lot but it's JVG ball and it sets a tone of sorts. Somehow if we can meld RYBO into Stro I think we'd have the ultimate power forward... ---------------------------------- For all you computer guys out there... RYBO is like a PC running on 1. twin Celeron processors, 2. NVIDIA GForce 8700 3. 100MB of Rambus R-DRAM 4. and of course running Microsoft JVG XP theSAGE
"What you get from (Bowen) every night or every day in practice is exactly what you see right there," Van Gundy said. "You would have to be comatose if you're on a team and you're not inspired by his play. When you pay a guy, that's what you expect." - Nice Comments from JVG from last night's game --------------------------- Post Game Commentary "The energy, the hustle, the intensity. Charles Oakley reborn!" -Bill Walton "RYBO! RYBO! he's my man. If he can't do it, no one can." -Jeffster "He's just such a robotic stud... ...you know, on the basketball court." -Paris Hilton theSAGE
No question Ryan Bowen has been very consistant when he has played. I think the lineup of Wesley,Tmac,Bowen,Howard and Yao is the winning ticket. Thats by far our best defensive lineup. Also with those guys starting you can bring the youth and scoring trio in Head,Anderson and Swift off the bench. This upcoming 13 day 6 game road trip will tell us where we are as a team. If we play well and win the majority of the games I think Van Gundy keeps the team together and if not you will definetly see changes. That being said I hope this team stays together cause I just like them. Go Rockets!!!
I think I'll just cycle through them as the game goes on... "Nice hustle Spastic Man!" "oh for cryin' out loud Napolean Dynomite... why do you wanna' foul him with a second left on the shot clock?!?" "ohhh, Flyin' Ryan to the hole... what's he got now? Two points?"
