i doubt wafer will be on the floor at the same time as tmac and/or yao. strawberry might have a better chance especially on the final few minutes of a tight game. strawberry can guard the sg/pg, mac on the pg/sg, artest/battier on the forwards and landry or yao on the center for a totally lock down defense. only time i can see wafer being on the floor are during the times you'd normally send luther in which would probably be along with barry/brooks, artest, landry, scola. i cant see wafer on the floor at the same time with tmac.
Neither played in the Sacremento game on 10/23 so its going to be tough to decide. Strawberry is good defensively, but we have Battier and Artest. Wafer is a better 3 point shooter than Strawberry but there is no room for him at SG, cause Aldeman may go with Barry and Head as Tmacs back up. Neither has shown point guard skills. I am hoping whoever they decide that their is room for Deke to join the team, as we definately need a back up to Yao. Dorsey is raw and foul prone, he needs more time to hone his skills.
Head played really well tonight, leading me to believe that both are likely to be cut. I have no problem with the Regular Season Head; he actually does a good job in the regular season. It's just that Postseason Head is a complete choker.
Keep Strawberry, both strawberry and wafer are not going to get significant playing time, but I would keep strawberry for those specific times where we are playing elite point guards like Chris Paul and Deron Williams and they are tearing through our defense like D-will did last year in the playoffs. Strawberry shown he's got some defensive abilities to guard those quick or strong point guards that Rafer or Brooks can't handle because of their lack of size and strength.
Link One more day for Strawberry, Wafer Rockets guard D.J. Strawberry signed an amendment to his contract in the Arco Arena visitors locker room before Thursday’s game. That did not mean, however, he had made the team, only that he remained in the running. Strawberry’s contract was to become guaranteed if he was on the team Oct. 29. Because the Rockets would have put him on waivers for him to be cleared and released in time, he agreed to amend the contract to remove the guarantee, allowing the Rockets to take one more day to choose between Strawberry and Von Wafer. All NBA contracts become guaranteed for players on the roster Jan. 10. “Coach (Rick Adelman) really wanted both players to be available for an extra day,” Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said. “It allows a little more time to evaluate and with a couple players not available — Rafer (Alston, who remained in Houston for his DUI trial), and Shane (Battier, who is rehabilitating his left foot) —he was more comfortable with the extra player.”
I was leaning this way myself. Nothing against Strawberry and Wafer. I actually think Francis doesnt deserve to be on the team over them. And I know basketball isnt a 2-on-2/1-on-1 game; that some players are great in organized, team ball playing a role but not individually (Battier, Hayes, Mutombo, etc). Just that they're too unproven at this point. I'd go Strawberry over Wafer. I just like the idea of someone disrupting the other team's point guard. And if Rafer wasn't such an inconsistent shooter already, Strawberry would make more sense as a guy to bring something different.
Battier mightn't make it on opening night. Strawberry & Wafer both can cover SF. So they might keep one of them on a non-guaranteed. If they can't negotiate a non-guaranteed deal with Strawberry they might opt for Wafer. However I speculate that Bill Duffy played a part in the Strawberry-Singletary trade...
I am not sure who is better; DJ or Von Wafer .. as both seem to have pros and cons. But I have heard of DJ last season but not Von Wafer. I think if we cut DJ, he'll probably sign with another NBA team as for Von Wafer, I am not sure but his recent 3s parade must have caught some attention of some teams. I do hope we get to keep both for short term to make a 15 player roster.
Kind of what I was thinking. I expected them both to get a ton of minutes last night, but our trio getting playing time together was clearly more important and may be the reason neither played.
