HOUSTON -- Dikembe Mutombo is planning to wag his finger at would-be dunkers for at least one more season. Or is he? The Rockets reserve center is once again considering retirement after having a reduced role in the second half of the season and playoffs. Mutombo said he'd take some time over the summer months to make his decision. Mutombo and forward Chuck Hayes are the lone free agents on the team. "I just spent the week with my kids and talked to my wife about it again," Mutombo said. "I'm going to see how my summer goes. I'm just frustrated with the fact that there was a chance for us to go to the second round." Mutombo, the league's second oldest player, will turn 41 in June. He initially said after the All-Star break that he didn't want to leave behind the game because he was having too much fun. However, the center has had second thoughts since playing reduced minutes over the final two months of the season. He played a total of 40 minutes in the playoffs. "After contributing the way that I did over the course of the season, I felt like I did deserve a little bit of time to play," Mutombo said. "I was disappointed about it and I'm frustrated that we're still not playing." The Rockets center helped keep Houston among the top teams in the Western Conference even though Yao Ming missed almost two months with a fractured right tibia. During Yao's absense, Mutombo averaged 5.4 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocks. He moved past Kareem Abdul-Jabbar earlier this season into second place on the NBA's all-time blocked shots list, although he said he won't play long enough to catch Hakeem Olajuwon. The center will focus most of his attention this summer on opening the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The hospital is named after his mother, who passed away nine years ago. "I'll probably think about the people in Africa and how I can help change their lives right now," Mutombo said. "After that, I'll think about basketball and if I want to do that." Training Days: Since the Chinese national team will be training for the 2008 Olympic Games, Rockets center Yao Ming is expecting a somewhat less hectic summer than usual. He's hoping that will give him more time to train and get his body back in shape before the 2007-08 NBA season. "I need some training this summer to get back into shape," said Yao, who will take a couple of weeks off after having minor surgery on his toe. "I need to work on my skills." Yao said he might even attend Hakeem Olajuwon's Big Man Camp in Houston for the first time. "That would be great chance for me if I could learn from one of the best centers in NBA history," Yao said. "He's a legend for the Rockets and I would love to." All-American forward: Rockets forward Shane Battier, who helped Team USA take the bronze medal at the 2006 World Championships, is planning to be in training camp with the U.S. national team in mid-July. The Americans will be competing in the 2007 FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifier from Aug. 22 to Sept. 2. "I'll go to training camp with Team USA in July," Battier said. "I'll be in the qualifiers for the Olympics if I end up making the team." Spanoulis' future: Rockets reserve point guard Vassilis Spanoulis, who was disappointed with his playing time in his rookie season, will decide over the summer if he wants to continue playing in the NBA. "I came here with a lot of expectations and willingness to work, but things went different than I expected," Spanoulis said. "But you never know. I'm happy I came here. I hope I come back, but I'll sit down and decide what's better for me." http://www.nba.com/rockets/news/Notes_Mutombo_once_again_cons-224331-34.html Sounds like Billy wants to stay....
Has anybody watched the Jazz vs Warrior game tonight? Sloan played the rookie-Dee Brown 12 minutes to score 6 points and finally save Jazz's game. Basically, Dee Brown is a player playing 1.5 min totally in the series with Rockets in garbage time. If the Jazz were caoched by the fxxxing JVG, the Warriors would have taken the home court advantage out of Jazz's hand. Fire JVG!!!
not really deron williams had picked up his fifth foul and derek fisher was not available for the game, the only pg that sloan had left was brown. you cant risk living williams in with 5 fouls and that much time left in the game. had derek fisher been playing i can guarantee you dee brown would still be sitting on the bench right now. outside of milsap sloan hasnt played his young guys that have "potential" either too much in the playoffs
if according to the reports, vspan can create his own shots and he can penetrate. So isn't this just what the team lacks in the utah series? someone that can penetrate and create own shots to help spread the defense from tmac and yao? its jvg's fault he didn't play him the entire season even at times when tmac, bonzi, yao all were down
I looked back to the recaps/box-scores of his run in nov/dec and it seems like whenever span played more of his own game (driving and trying to make things happen) , he did well. Other times when he played more of a shooter's role he didnt do as well. I'm not saying this is JV's fault for sure. I don't know what JVG asked him to do. Maybe at times Span himself was not confident of driving and bricked the shot. Whoever coaches the rockets next year should work with Span because he can make things happen and he should be very good for at least 15mins per game...
I think thats a bit flawed, if Vspan will relentlessly drive, what on earth is T-mac going to do. I think its right Gundy is a good coach but he needs some offensive help maybe in the form of an assistnat
Does T-Mac drive now? I'm not saying he should relentlessly drive. But def not stand at the 3pt line all the time. Also, i'm advocating span as a backup/6th player playing about 15mins...maybe 20. At least to start with. He doesn't have to be just Rafer's backup, a few of his mins might be while T-Mac is out: sth like Rafer+ Span + Battier+Hayes+Yao.. Also, If we use Span in the pick and roll with T-Mac at the game, T-Mac can cut to the baseline from the side. That's why we need an athletic PF. With Battier at SF and T-mac at SG: Say you have the PF set up a screen for Span. Span who is very quick on his first step will drive past the mismatch with the opposing PF and (his original marker will be out of the play): a) get to the layup, b) get closed down by someone coming to him which will be : 1. whoever is marking Yao. Span will be able to find yao for the bucket 2. whoever is marking t-mac... w/ T-mac cutting to the baseline : dunk 3. whoever is marking battier....to Shane for the open elbow 3 Yes, I do have enough confidence in Span to run these kind of plays. Ive seen him do it repeatedly. That's just one of them. There are quite a few plays and scenarios I can see him being a part of.
