Well, to be fair to chuck, Landry was an animal and there was no way chuck was going to get time over a stud avging around 17 ppg
Maybe they have a certain presumption of hayes, but if they had such a high opinion of him, why have they drafted 2 times and traded at his position? If there were a limited positions at ur job and they brought in 3 people to do what you do, what does that say about you? All I'm saying is looking at the lux tax, and the position and rol they can and will play, head and hayes are the most expendable. When and where will hayes and head play? Artest,tracy,barry and battier are going to get all the 2/3 minutes. If you need a situational shot, isn't barry a better option? Scola and Landry will get the 4 minutes and along with dorsey who isn't th defender but longer and more atheletic will factor in also. Now if they can get a 4/5 type of guy, it would really make him end of the bench fodder/cheerleader. I mean on our ring teams we had charles jones and zan tabak types as well as scott brooks who was playing ahead of sam for a while. The thing is back then there was no lux tax so 1.9 and 1.7 really didn't mean much. If you can manuver and get a player for that price which can eliminate hayes and a resigned landry for the price, you do it. If you can shrink the positions with versitility and save the price, then you do it.
Given the depth that the Rockets currently have, I have no problem with the team holding on to Luther. He is a quality 9th or 10th man on a good team. The reason why most people on this BBS hate him is because he is NOT a good 6th man, which was the role he was forced to play given the Rockets' prior lack of depth at the guard position. The fact is, most teams have worse players making much more money than Luther that are lurking just outside of the rotation. If Luther Head can be used in a trade to net the Rockets a quality backup PG, then I'm okay letting him go. But just to dump him would be imprudent in my opinion. Unless, of course, it was absolutely necessary to avoid the luxury tax. Les needs to save as much money as possible so that he can afford that big new contract to Ron Artest next summer.
These are still significant minutes. In fact, during the SAC game, Chuck was the only one on the team who could slow down Ron Artest. 9 or 10 minutes a game may not look like much, but these minutes can change the dynamics of game. It's still important to have a quality guy to fill in these minutes. Also, one cannot forget that both Yao and Landry have significant health concerns for which the team has to be prepared to deal with.
You know what's kind of interesting: The two most recent comments about Chuck from NBA people are: 1. Tom Thibodeau's comment to Jonathan Feigan, praising Chuck's impact and explaining that having Chuck enabled them to do a lot of things they couldn't have done otherwise. 2. Ron Artest calling Chuck a "great PF." And yet people don't recognize Chuck's impact.
These stats just debunked your own argument. Those are some pretty significant minutes for a 4th big man. Most teams don't even go that deep in, but you can see there was a need for him in spurts during that stretch. Again, it doesn't get any better than Chuck Hayes as your 4th big.
1. one of them likely will get hurt combined with the fact that there needs to be a concerted effort to reduce yao's minutes drastically. that means stockpiling quality bigs. 2. i don't think his trade value would be nearly as high as his value to the team. you won't get someone equal in worth in trade.
Of course, they are situational players. Of course neither should play more than 8-10 minutes a game. They are our 11th and 12th men. You want versatile players that can "morph the team" at the end of your bench? Damn, you are hard to please. Look, I am not going to sit here and defend Luther Head after trashing him the past 3 years. As a 6th man, he blows. But as 11th and 12th men, Chuck Hayes and Luther Head are as good as you can ask for. If you can trade them for better players, fine, but I seriously doubt that will be possible. If you need to trade them to save some coin on the LT, fine. But this sentiment held by many that the team should just dump these guys for 2nd round picks just for the hell of it is ridiculous.
Minutes that would still exist with the addition of another PF/C hand picked by the GM and who he calls the best defensive player in the country?
Haha I thought about 2 guys on our roster last year who made more than Head and languished at the end of the bench. SF3 and Mike who?
Can we at lease see Dorsey in a few real games before making tha call? I mean, the same GM hand-picked Mike James, Steve Francis AND Aaron Brooks in the same offseason and yet Rafer Alston ended up having to play a ton of minutes. The year before that, the team got Battier and Snyder and thought Juwan Howard would do little more than warming the bench. Didn't quite work out that way. The year before that, pur previous GM hand-picked Stromile Swift and we all know how that ended. Look, I'm excited about the makeup of the team. I think the team looks a lot deeper on paper at almost every position. But the last few years has taught me not to trust "on paper" evaluation too early.
You're referring to Scola, Landry, and Dorsey? We had no depth at PF when we traded for Scola -- that was a necessary deal and does not imply that Chuck was expendible. When we drafted Landry and Dorsey, the Rockets were pretty clear that it was a "take the best player available" scenario. They didn't expect Landry to overtake Chuck last year, and I don't think they are expecting it this year either with Dorsey. The Rockets gave up Spanoulis and used a couple second round picks to get those three players. All were savvy moves. They didn't exactly give up a lot in search of a replacement.
I could see us moving Head for not so much. He's expiring, right? He could end up going to another team later anyway. Hayes, on the other hand, is probably on one of the best contracts you can get someone on who isn't a rookie. If i'm an owner or GM, i am definitely a Hayes fan for that kind of money.
Morey made it clear from the beginning that Brooks and Landry were not expected to contribute but it's been a different story with Dorsey. Then there's also Artest's mins at PF and maybe even mins at C that he claims he can play.
