I know that Bullard was on the free agent list and Walt was signed up, but Bull's knockin down 3's and jumpshots from all over the court for charlotte in the pre-season lead up, I think he's a little bit more reliable than a guy that doesnt know whether he's hot or cold..
Wait until the regular season when Bullard has to play D, rebound, and the other team forces him to put the ball on the floor to score. You might as well have Bull on the IR!!!
Attempting to post stats didn't work for me. So here's a narrative. With Williams playing 21.94 minutes to Bullard's 16.36: 3-point accuracy is basically the same. Bull has the edge on FG%: 42% vs. 39%. Bull has edge on TOs: .2 vs. 1 (in a couple less minutes). Otherwise, Williams has significantly better numbers in: 1. Free throw % 2. Free throw attempts 3. Rebounds 4. Assists 5. Steals 6. Blocks 7. Points I love Bull and I love the pick and roll he'd run. He just fit the offense so well. But, Williams gives you more production on the floor.
Matt is a bargain compared to Walt. Walt should be paid about what Matt is getting in Charlotte. Then Walt would be a good deal. Take Matt any day. Like the song says, "Can't stop bull!"
Matt was the team leader on the Rockets. Walt is just Francis and Mobley's caddie. We need veteran leadership, and Matt brought that. Matt was also the unofficial spokersman. Matt was a Rocket through and through.
Of course we are only looking at statistics here and not the intangibles...but based on minutes played, Walts absolute numbers should be at least 30% higher. Five+ minutes difference is not insignificant. BTW, the 3% difference in 3-pointers translates to 1 point for every 10 attempts. Or to look at it from a different perspective, it would be like an almost 5% difference in 2-point goal percentage. I wouldn't mind having that.
Since the topic's come up, I do want to say that I'm really sorry Matt's gone. I hope the Hewlett-Packard center cheers for him when we play Charlotte during the season.
Okay they both seem to have the same stats, and walt did well in the first game (even though he got 5-16 FG's) but when your counting for someone to come off the bench and help out the team.. i'd put my money on bullard to do it
1. You're right that the 5 minutes is significant and so Walt should have significantly better stats for it. But he does. Following are those categories and how much more productive Williams was than Bullard, if they played the same number of minutes: Min: 0% FTA: 571.1% Reb: 19.03% Ast: 45.89% Stl: 95.74% Blk: 88.9% Pts: 7.15% 2. You misunderstood about the 3-pt percentage. Those are actually 39.52 for Williams and 39.91 for Bullard. So the difference in percentage is only 0.39% which is not terribly significant. The 3% differential is in FG% and Bullard definitely has the edge there. However, Williams went to the line a lot more often than Bull too and as a result his points per attempt beat Bull's at 1.17 vs. 1.12. (Incidentally, Williams game last night gave him a 1.19 ratio of points per attempt which is pretty good though he shot a bad percentage.) 3. Obviously, there were other things that Bull brought to the table: (1) He was cheap (not that Williams' contract is any burden at all this year), (2) He was good chemistry, (3) He wasn't error-prone. I'm not saying I don't like Bull. I'm just saying that Williams is a decent rotation player and that his contributions shoould not be overlooked. I'm really looking forward to having Rice and Williams holding up their piece at SF.
You bring up good points. But, still gotta love the bull. I can't wait til charlotte comes to town February 1, 2002. Everyone come out and cheer "The Bull".
Anyone remeber after the second championship Air-Bull broke the trophy? He dropped it in the lockeroom and then did an interview afterwards and showed off the NBA Finals trophy albeit in two pieces.
