Imagine if the Rockets had selected Earl Watson at #34 instead of Terrence Morris in the draft last June. (Watson went #40 to Seattle.) Then, rather than throwing $22.7M/6 yrs. at Moochie, the Rockets could have had Earl, a pure point guard, as Stevie's back-up (at $332,817). I think that Earl would be the perfect complement to Steve. Coming off the bench, Earl's M.O. would be to get his teammates involved. If you've seen him play in Seattle or even at UCLA, you know that he understands ball movement and running a smooth offense. He rarely takes a bad shot. In Seattle's victory, Earl played an extremely efficient 17 minutes, scoring 8 points on 4-of-5 shooting, 3 boards, 2 dishes and a block. (Also, did anybody notice him elevate above 4 Rockets to put back a GP miss?) Watching Mooch hoist up 18 shots last night, it's clear that he believes it's his responsibility to score in Stevie's absence... perhaps he thinks his increased salary somehow equates to increased offensive skill. Not to bash Moochie too much for one off game, but coupled with T-Mo's deer-in-headlights performance and Earl's veteran-like play, I'm thinking this could be one of those "shoulda/coulda's" that may be remembered in the coming years.
I totally disagree with you. I think Morris is our future at the 3/4. We will later look at him as a steal similar to Mobely. Just give him a chance to grow confident. The "dear in a headlight" look only has to do with confidence, not capability. I don't know how good Morris will be coming off the bench, but he'll be a great starter, who works within the flow of the game. I'm hoping that Griffin develops into our future 5. Then we'll see: Griffin Taylor Morris Mobely Francis That will be a great team. Although, I sortof agree with you about Norris...
Yeah, it's way too early to make an assessment of T-Mo's potential in the NBA based on just a few games... however, I followed his career at U-MD, and remember that the big knock on his game was his general unassertiveness (and disappearance in big games). That's one of those intangibles that is hard for coaches to teach and for players to learn. As the Terps' supposed marquee player last year, there were times when you couldn't even tell he was on the floor.
i think i would rather have loren woods to be honest. I kind of like a line up of WOODS Griffin Rice walt or a new guy CAT Franchise
I've tried to stay out of the commentary about Tmo's play this year because I haven't seen any Rockets games, Maryland doesn't give you the option of subscribing to any extra packages for their cable service. But I have to disagree with you Don, I've watched almost all the games Morris has played in for his carrear at Maryland and I don't agree with most of the critiques of his game. The biggest concern everyone had was that he never tried to take over a game and be the dominant force on offense. After seeing what he was capable of doing while on the court with a talented playmaker, everyone assumed that he would take the skills he had shown and call for the ball the majority of the time. The fact of the matter is that he'd never shown that personality at any point throughout his basketball carrear. The simple fact is that the only place he "disappeared" was on the offensive end, and not because he wasn't capable but because he rarely tried to force the issue on offense. On defense though, I don't think I've seen him disappear at all. Every year he's consitantly gotten better on the defensive end. The second issue was Gary Williams, I like him as a coach but he's got signifigant flaws in his coaching schemes. He has his players adapt to his coaching, as opposed to adapting his coaching style to the players he had. A lot of people wondered why Morris would spend his time sitting around on the three point line when he could have been doing other things. The problem was that was exactly where he was supposed to be in Gary's flex offense. If that's where the coach want's you that's where you're supposed to play. Contrary to what some people may have thought, Tmo played the 4 for his entire carrear at Maryland, and he had many talents that very few college 4's could match up against. Most specifically, Morris's ball handling and passing abilities were never utilized at all. Aside from Battier, there were very few college 4's that I thought could have kept up with Morris on the drive. This year I see Mike Dunleavy doing the exact thing I'm talking about for Duke. Most 4's don't have the quickness to keep up. Morris also rarely posted up, an area where he showed some talent but I never saw develop. To utilize this more fully, he would have had to play the 3, which is where I would have liked to see him play more at Maryland. He could have at least posted up against a smaller defender and had the quickness to keep up on the defensive end. A lot of this is kinda off topic and a little bit of a rant by me. But Morris was one of 3 marquee players for the terps last year, and was looking like the best of the three up until the Duke collapse. After which he withdrew from the offense as Dixon started to call for the ball more. I have to assume Morris is pretty nervous out there and I hope he gets over it soon. But it's going to take some time, and he'll need time on the court to develop. I do think that process will be greatly accelerated if Rudy can get Morris on the floor with his buddy Steve. A little familiarity out there will definately help, because he's not the type of player that is going to try to light things up in garbage time. And he'll also be much more successful as a starter rather than an instant offense bench player in my opinion. He just doesn't have the mentality to fulfill that instant offense role, at least not yet.
Shouldn't any comments about the Rockets not drafting a player who went to Seattle in the second round be for Rashard Lewis? (Sorry, that's probably a low blow). Watson's been a fantastic backup point so far. He's committing turnovers at a very low rate, giving him a better-than-adequate 2.44 assist/to ratio thus far. Defensively, he's disruptive, recording 5 steals while helping lead a run against Golden State last week. I don't think Houston would be disappointed whatsoever if they had Watson, but when Francis is your starting point, a backup at the position isn't really much of a concern, now is it? When Norris was in Seattle, his potential was evident. He has slowed down his game quite a bit since, making him much more valuable. He may have shot quite a bit last night, but I know I was hardly cheering in KeyArena when he did. With Franics and Thomas out, and Rice playing terribly, Norris really becomes one of the Rockets' top offensive weapons.
I watched Watson quite a bit while he was at UCLA. He really needs to work on his shot, and is an average to below average passer at this point, but he's good defensively, and most importantly, he's a competitor, which I'm sure McMillan likes. Still, it is odd how Shammond Williams seems to be out of the mix in Seattle. He was the lone bright spot against the Jazz in the playoffs 2 years ago and I always liked his game when he was at North Carolina. Has he fallen out of favor with McMillan or has he just not been effective?
Great points and I agree with you for the most part, though I think that Gary Williams is a pretty good coach. Speaking of the Terps ... outside of a subtle physical resemblance, does Juan Dixon's game remind you anything of Cuttino's? I'm thinking he could be a draft sleeper next year. Like Cat, he's got the fearless shooters' mentality and a lot of heart. He doesn't have the first step but he's very quick...
Draft a PG? Huh? We should have drafted a Center instead of TMo, that was our one huge glaring weakness, and we instead chose to draft a SF on a team full of SF's. I'm still going to give Tmo the benefit of the doubt, but we had a glaring hole, and Rudy and Co. did very little to fix it. Loren Woods would have been a very nice addition right now... Has anyone said why he fell as far as he did?
My recollection is that Loren Woods fell in the draft because of medical reports regarding his back and a reputation for disappearing on the offensive end in some big games. At the time of the draft there were also some conspiracy rumors that had the NBA owners deliverately passing on Woods so that Minnesota could draft him in sympathy for the heavy penalty the NBA imposed as a result of the Smith contract fiasco.
Awwww... don't worry about that TSG. Lewis probably wouldn't have developed as quickly in Houston... and now the Rockets can just get him this summer.
This has been a case of Watson winning the job, as opposed to Williams losing it. Shammond was out with a broken finger at the beginning of the season, and Watson played very well. As you note, his style is more McMillan-esque, so it was generally assumed Watson would eventually claim the backup point guard role; nobody expected it to happen this fast. Shammond has struggled a bit since coming back, but it's only been four games. He'll probably get back to normal, but with the only benefit being to showcase him in a trade.
I think Gary's a good coach but not one of the elite coaches in college basketball. He does amazingly well with the talent he's able to bring into the program. He's a little rigid for my tastes and doesn't utilized matchups as well as he could. He also seems unsure of himself at crucial times of important games. But in spite of that he's made progress as a coach each year and has done better and better. As for Terps potentially in the draft, I think Dixon could be a sleeper that could get picked up in the second round. He's undersized but deceptively strong. He's got the talent to be a success on an NBA team but not the size. If he can handle the ball a little bit better, I could see him as a backup point guard or shooting guard. I agree with you that he's never shown a tendancy for that quick step off the dribble, but after seeing his quickness both on defense and up and down the court I think he may be able to show it later. Then there's Baxter, a straight out beast. Unfortunately I'm not sure where he'll end up. At 6-8 260 he's a beast in the paint but his size could be an issue against stronger taller nba players. He's got great hands and can run the floor very well for a man of his size, but he needs a bit more range on his shot in my opinion. The guy the Rockets should definately keep their eye on is Chris Wilcox. He's a 6-11 sophmore weighing in at about 220. He's got incredible speed and leaping ability. He's a natural shot blocker with good range to about 15 feet, and a solid post up game. The one problem is that he did not get much playing time last year with the great number of big men the terps had. I almost positive he wont' stay 4 years, but it's questionable if he'll come out at the end of this season. I hope he doesn't because he'll be a great asset to the Terps but if the Rockets can pick him up, I think he'd be a very very good center for the future.
Please. Backup/3rd string PGs are a dime a dozen in the draft. Athletic, 6'9'' combo forwards that play good defense and instantly fit into team chemistry aren't. Cook is a free agent. Tinsley went what, #23? Stud PGs are hard to find. Backups without a jumpshot will always be plentiful. I guarantee there'll a backup PG caliber player where we pick in the 2nd round. HEB-Isn't it sweet of the Sonics to develop him for us? Sandwich Mo between Rashard and Eddie, and you won't have to worry about Mo's rebounding.
I wish with the 13th pick we got Tinsley (who would've known though) and kept him. Moved Steve to the 2, Cat to the 3.
call me crazy but I'd rather have tierre brown than earl watson Rudy should have let him play at seattle with steve out for some serious minutes...he has a different approach than moochie, but I think it's actually alot better for the Rockets system I know I've hardly seen Tierre play during pre and regular season, but its just my opinion
I'd rather have gone for Loren Woods, too. Injury risk... blah blah balh. Whatever, most 2nd rounders don't work out anyway. If you can get a guy with mid-first round potential (I never bought the lottery crap on Woods) in the 2nd... you do it. Especially if he's a C.
ACtually, I think alot of us thought Tinsley would be pretty good. But with Stevie, he was an afterthought.
I'm not sold on Loren Woods at all. He just isn't tough enough. If he does turn out to be a bit tougher it'll be because of Kevin Garnett. Other then that, I'm happy with Terrence Morris. He can play both frontcourt positions, is a good rebounder and defender, and has an offensive game. When he will get more minutes I don't know, but in the end he'll be a better player then Loren Woods. And as GMs tell you they would rather take the best player instead of drafting a certain position. We definitely don't need Earl Watson.
