In a way Im glad Hakeem is gone and Mo is injured. These young rookies wouldnt have played this much with them here. This year is going to be FUN!
People wanted a low post scorer, there it is! He shot about 60% from the field as well I believe. His rebounding will go up. It was low because the young guys lost their minds on the glass. Griffin had 9 rebounds, Morris had 8, Cato had something like 6, Francis had <i>11</i> Mobley had 4 or 5 rebounds, and so forth. That was crashing the boards at its finest!
One thing I like about Willis is his FT%- pretty good for a starting center.... Compare them with other probable starting centers for this year: Willis- .788 ATL: Ratliff- .760 BOS: Potapenko -.728 CHA: Campbell -.709 CHI: B. Miller -.743 CLE: Who will be starting for the Cav's this year? Big Z? Doleac? DAL: Bradley -.787 DEN: LaFrentz -.698 DET: B. Wallace -.336 GS: M. Jackson -.802 HOU: Cato -.649 IND: J. O'Neal -.601 LAC: Olowokandi -.545 LAL: S. O'Neal -.513 MIA: Mourning -.564 MIL: E. Johnson -.625 MIN: Nesterovic -.523 MEM: B. Reeves -.796 NJ: MacCulloch- .636 NY: Camby -.667 ORL: Ewing -.685 PHI: Mutombo -.759 PHO: Tsakalidis -.593 POR: D. Davis -.632 SA: D. Robinson -.747 SAC: Divac -.691 SEA: Booth -.733 TOR: Olajuwon -.621 UTAH: Ostertag -.556 WAS: J. White -.567 Why did I just do this? I don't know. Will I ever do it again? Probably not.
Kevin Willis is a freak of nature. This man is a workhorse. He is in better shape at 39 than most people in the NBA. He even was talking about one of his favorite training exercises consisting of running back and forth on the basketball court. He probably sprints it, because he was running the floor perfectly with Steve and Cat. I love the fact that he seems to be genuinely interested in developing Cato. I have a feeling that there may be some big surprises coming out of this team this year. I am really glad to have KW back.
You know, I was extremely disappointed about losing Marc Jackson, like most of us. But I think I'm happier now with Kevin back. He gives us more toughness under the basket, perhaps our only toughness. I don't know if Marc Jackson would've given us that, although he'd fit our offense much better. But we already have big men in KT, Eddie, and Collier (and Rice, Morris, if you care to include them when they play the four) who can space out the floor with their range. We don't have tough guys under the basket who can body up effectively on opposing big men. Cato has been playing better, but he's still more of a shotblocker/finesse defender, and not a great one at that, although much better this preseason. I think Willis complements our other frontcourt players in ways Jackson might not have. CD kicks ass. I love CD.
Could they alter Taylor's contract? Make it 4 year deal instead? And resign Willis next year?(Give the one year of Taylor to Wilis) I know Willis is old, but he's much better than Taylor, and is a banger. He can still score. I hope he has two more years left in him. Just waive all mediocre players like Taylor, Langhi, and Jason Collier.
I promise you I could shoot .336 on FT's backward. Hell I could probably throw in eyes closed (still matters even if you're already backwards) and only one handed and do this. Next time I get a chance, I think I'll try this. Anyway, I knew he was bad, but that's just pathetic. Makes Shaq look like Calvin Murphy.
The league should make a new rule regarding free throws: If you can't hit at least 60% of your free throws then you must do all of your free throws using the granny shot until your percentage rises above 60% I bet Shaq and some of the others free throw slugs would spend a little more time working on their free throws then!
I shook Big Kev's hand today at the ticket sale/autograph. He crushed my puny hand with little effort and gave me a smile. OT: Eddie Griffin was the other guy to show up early for autographs and smiled when I said how happy we were to have him in Houston.
