Bonzi won't be back next season, sort of obvious isn't it. Bonzi may get a few minutes in the playoffs, but he is gone.
The idea of having last years Bonzi in the playoffs remains a hot topic of discussion, but so far this season Bonzi has given the Rockets exactly what he thought his 2.1 million salary he was stuck with after turning down the Kings insanely high contract. I still don't think holding onto him past the deadline was a bad idea, at a salary so low and expectations so high that the Rockets were never going to get close to equal value in return. People saw how easily he dominated the Spurs great defense, he was too strong for Bowen and too quick for Duncan, he was also the Kings only low post threat, so he could use the lane fully to his advantage, Shareef Abdur Rahim, Kenny Thomas, and Brad Miller are all perimeter oriented big men. With the Rockets he has big men who's production only comes in from down low in Yao, Chuck Hayes, Mutombo, which clogs up the lanes for Bonzi to post up or penetrate. Bonzi needs the ball in his hand to be effective, and we already have superstar that is most productive in driving, dishing, and pulling up for jumpers, with amazing court vision and accuracy. People always look for someone to blame, and it is going to be the same excuses when the Rockets get eliminated in the playoffs eventually. The matter of the fact is Bonzi has maybe had 2 or 3 good games since joining the Rocket the ones I can recall vs Boston with both Yao and T-mac out and vs the Spurs with T-mac out. The rest of his games have been mediocre at best. He will never be the 3rd scorer people were expecting him out to be because he doesn't fit with our style of offense. Nor does with pretty much any team with any low post present offense at all. He had one good year last year with the Kings but before that he was bench guy for Portland and Memphis. Is he worth cutting Yao's or T-mac's minutes just to see him succeed, in our offense, no but that pretty much is the only way. Which is why it sucks whenever the Rockets lose, that this forum pretty much explodes, of the typical excuse Rafer sucks, why doesn't JVG play Bonzi more, trade T-mac, fire JVG, and so on and so forth. I usually disagree with about 95% of whatever Dakota says but this argument he was dead right on. The expectations were waaaaay to high for a guy who no one really known how he would react after losing that contract thus leading to about 50 pages before he even came here, just like Novak with his summer league shooting and people wanted to give him a nickname despite being a 2nd round draft pick, with V-span and his total domination of team USA in the FIBA World Championship. Oh well this has been a fun season and huge roller coaster ride, starting with the draft day trade of Battier for 8th pick and Swift, to T-mac's early back trouble, to Yao playing like at an MVP level, to Yao breaking his leg, to T-mac visiting the back specialist Dr. Patterson, to T-mac carrying the Rockets to a 20-12 without Yao, to Yao slowly but surely regaining his top form, to almost a 50 win season, Go Rockets!
bonzi is going to opt out of his contract after this season.....so i dont see how its possible that we trade him.......
When this thread was started it was before the trading deadline, after that passed it morphed into a thread about whether Bonzi fit in with the current Rockets team and coaching staff. DD
He played horrible yesterday, but I still have a glimmer of hope for Bonzi. His cutting and slashing ability is something the Rockets only have in two other players, who seem to shy away from using it. Just the second game back... I got no problem giving him some time.
I agree. We have 5 more games to get him into game shape. I really do think that to beat the Mavs/Spurs/Suns we will need him. Hopefully 5 games is enough time for him to get into decent shape. This is still a low risk high reward type situation. What do the Rockets have to lose if they play him 20 mins a game for the last 5 games. At worst they start off on the road against the Jazz (i do want home court but think we can beat the Jazz without it). Give Bonzi more minutes and lets see what he can do when he is in game shape.
HE SHOULD ALREADY BE IN SHAPE!! we are basically done with the season. jesus...all the guy does is continue to show that he doesn't want to be here and his play last night was another example. he looked like a rookie out there. when yao came back from a real injury he didn't look that bad. bonzi, not van gundy, has killed any chance of scoring a decent contract. sure we can play the guy as much as we can but it would be stupid to play him if he costs us 1st round home court. and he will cost us home court if he continues to look as bad as he has all year. the bottom line is bonzi doesn't take advantage of his opportunties when he plays.
If playing time is what Bonzi needs to get ready for the playoffs, you can forget it. He split 6 minutes with Snyder yesterday. JVG is not serious about getting Bonz ready for the playoffs, he is still playing that short rotation for the HCA. If teams go strictly by how Bonzi has played this year when he opts out, he is going to be sadly disappointed in the FA market this year. We may be able to trade him for something in the offseason or keep him for the duration of his contract.
just heard this morning on espn that bonzi didnt show up because he felt that he was messing up the team chemistry by sitting on the bench....tmac later commented that bonzi is not messing up team chemistry because they dont know what the hell is going on....anyone know whats up with bonzi and gundy?
DD - sorry I guess I didnt read when the thread was started. I usually just check whats hot in the forum on the main clutchfans page and read up on that stuff.
