I would be extremely happy if we could land both Chris Marcus and Qyntel Woods. That would give us a player with huge upside who I believe could make contributions and a 7 footer who is a mammoth and has decent shooting skills. Tell me what you guys think do you think that it will happen? And would you be happy?
Yeah, I wouldn't be upset. The Rockets should definitely use their first pick on a small forward. I would rate them 1.)Dunleavy 2.)Woods 3.)Butler. The Rockets should use their second pick on a STRONG big man. Wilcox would be my favorite choice, but he'll probably already be gone, so I'd rate 'em 1.)Stoudamire 2.)Hilario 3.)Marcus. In all actuality, if the Rockets do keep the fifth pick and 15th pick, I think it will be Butler and Marcus. Dunleavy will probably be gone before the Rockets pick, and Rudy will take Butler over Woods because Butler will prove to be more NBA-ready. As far as the three big men, I have no idea when they might go. There might be some more foreigners that become lottery picks which could possibly move Stoudamire to #15, which would be great!
DCKid, so are you thinking Maurice Taylor is gone in a couple seasons or already washed up/permanent injured or is the big man a replacement/backup for Cato?
A combination of things. 1.) Its uncertain how Maurice will be after his recovery, or if he will ever recover. 2.) All three of our power forwards right now are either soft or small. It would be nice to have a big man who is actually both big and powerful. 3.) I think the distinction between a power forward and center can be pretty much thrown out by now. You have a lot of teams starting stick-in-the-muds at center simply because they are 7 foot and fat, while a 6'10" guy who is in great shape, has superior leaping abilty, and has twice as much talent is coming off the bench. I think the days of the ideal 7-foot center are officialy over. It's time to start putting the most talented players on the floor. But yes, my main reason would be to get a strong guy who can come in at either the PF or C position and give us some strength and tenacity (no more soft big men!!!). If all goes well, my hope would be for a guy like Wilcox or Stoudamire to step in and take Cato's starting center position eventually. I can't imagine either of those two players being less productive than Cato, even if they are a couple inches shorter.
Our two weakest positions would be addressed nicely if those two picks happened to be right. For the #5, I've been leaning towards Woods for almost a month now, with Dunleavy and Butler at a dead heat for second. Dunleavy has a little more creativeness with getting his shot off, but Butler plays hard on both ends of the floor. Anyway you cut it, we should get some immediate help from that pick. Now with the #15, I had been leaning towards Marcus because of his size and his impressive junior year at W.K. when he was healthy. The guy was a monster, leading the nation in rebounding at 12.1 a game and averaging a 20-20 in the Sun Belt Tournament to go along with almost 2.5 blocks per contest. (yea, that tournament is weak, but he used it to his advantage to improve his post skills) We really need a rebounder on this team who can give us a REAL post presence. I don't think it's accurate to judge him solely on his senior season after coming off a serious injury that kept him out of action most of the season. He was a monster his junior year and most of his sophmore year. He will alter alot of shots with his imposing presence (300 lbs.) in the paint much like Cato does now. If for some reason we can't get him through the pick or a K-9 trade or whatever, I'll be content to go with Nene from Brazil.
