[Fox 26] Rockets to Sign James White through 2009-10

I think that people are over speculating by saying this pushes Wafer out. I think the reality is that Battier comes off of the bench next year which will allow Wafer and White to battle it out during training camp to give us two legitimate shooting guards. I'm pretty sure that having Ron and Battier starting wasn't/isn't an ideal situation for Adelman (how many teams start two slow, natural small forwards) but he used it because Wafer wasn't/isn't ready to assume that role on a regular basis.

If this is the case, our depth chart would be crazy with AB and KL at the one.....Wafer and White (or vice versa-dependant both of their progress over the summer) at the two....Ron and Battier at the three.... and Scola and Landry at the two. If we can just pick up a 4/5 to back up Yao we'd be the deepest team in the league hands down.

legend215

 

I'm not saying White won't pan out but dang I think this signing is being overhyped. I believe in Morey and feel confident in the moves he makes but talk about overhyping a player. If anything James is just an extra body at practice.

I hope he pans out. Dude has great athleticism and definitely would bring a lot of excitement back to the TC along with Von and Landry in the dunking department but lets not get carried away he has yet to prove anything in this league. It remains to be seen if he will turn out to be anything worth something down the road.

 

The Rockets can now enter the 2010 Sprite Slam dunk contest!

It has been a long time since Steve Francis.

 

i'm surprised at the signing, but i'm shocked that there are five pages to this thread. he's done jack and people are calling this a great signing and applauding morey.

he's played 4 minutes and people are talking about him competing for wafer's spot?

i think if there was any chance for that, he'd have played a few more minutes than he has.

 

His stats from NBDL. Looks like he can shoot for sure.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/playerfile/index.jsp?player=james_white

 

of course everyone wants to see only the positive in white

but at the same time this is another low cost high reward move that Morey has become known for. i think its our faith in Morey that has people happy and excited. Really in terms of signings/picks he has only one real mistake in Dorsey but there is still a jury on that pick, dorsey has all the tools to be Ben Wallace 2.0 he just needs to embrace the role and work at it.

The only mistake signing wise I would say is Steve Francis but even then I believe it was more of a Les move to get more fans back in seats and give Steve another chance. Francis did not work out but most everything else Morey has done has so I give him a little benefit of a doubt on this signing.


if white is not the player we thought/hoped he would be his contract doesnt last a long time and at a small cost and can either be moved real easily or waived without any real impact to the makeup of the team and salary cap.

 

Hey Tb-Cain......you're a 99'r which means that you've been a fan of this team for a long, long time....personally I'm 35 and I've been a non stop fan since '83......I'm pretty sure that you can understand why people get excited when we actually sign YOUNG talent.....if you remember, prior to RA and Morey getting here, we had a string of over the hill, past they're prime, formers stars at home playing B-Ball with their 20 year old kids kind of signings

This definately isn't about White coming in and taking anyones place, but when you start to see fairly young talent (AB, both KL's, VW, & JW-although we won't know what he's about until training camp because of the playoff run) after all of those years of trading young talent to get washed up ballers and signing free agent washed up ballers, there tends to bring a certain level of hope and optimism around the team.

I never bought into that whole JVG and CD mantra of being in a constant state of "Win Now Mode" because it felt like we were mortgaging our future for what turned out to be pipe dreams.

If Von and James hit the off season hard - in Von's case, actually have a chance to study RA's offense and know where his offense should come from - and come into training camp with improved skills AND are focused, we could be in for a hell of a ride next year

legend215

 

Yoyo, I agree with you, but I think White could have been another Les move. He's probably one of the best dunkers in the NBA, so I bet that counts for something...

 

Like others have said this is most likely Von Wafer insurance, but White has the potential in my opinion to do what Wafer has done for us. What would make me throw out the extra money at Von after this season is if he lights it up for us in the playoffs and makes clutch shots that help take us deep into the playoffs with his scoring and energy off the bench. Though Battier has made a few threes at the end of close games, 95% of the time the Rockets are playing 4 on 5 basketball with him on the court. Artest has earned his spot as a starter, which he should have had from the get go. Bottom line is if Von is sharp in the playoffs and helps carry a good portion of the offensive load along with Ron, Luis, and Yao, he has earned himself a starting job on this team. Battier is noting more than a defensive role player who camps around the perimeter on offense. Yes, he's a good defender, but so are Ron, Yao, Luis, and Lowry (who should be starting in my opinion. He is much more of a true PG than Aaron, who is just a tremendously undersized SG that is lightning quick and shoots threes, but has terrible court vision), though Von is not a very good defensive player the others help make up for it. After looking at film from this season during the off season, Shane shouldn't be surprised at all that he is no better than the defensive 6th man on the team, who should be getting around 20-25 minutes a game. Bottom line is if the injury to Tracy doesn't look like he is going to make anything close to a full recovery to the player he once was, lock Wafer up as the replacement at SG.

 

Great job by Morey I love this signing.

Bring in and sign youth that has some sort of potential, work 'em, train 'em and hopefully it will pay off for the near future at a minimum salary.

 

how many systems? I remember him being only on the Lakers and Denver for significant amount of time, other than the NBDL....he never had his head on straight there as he does now, and that was his biggest problem.

 

i completely trust morey's every move...he must have seen sth in james...

 

If he was coming out of college averaging 25 points a game he would be a sure fire 1st rounder. Instead he is coming out of a hungry d-league full of players just a step below the NBA, which is more impressive really. I'm happy that the coaching staff has seen something they like in this kid -- he is definitely an exciting prospect.

 

I think some of you are forgetting it's not just up to houston. Obviously Wafer won't be back unless we want him back, but wanting him alone doesn't guarantee he'll be back. It's up to him as well. I think he's shown he's not going to settle for a small role if he can get a bigger one elsewhere. I can see him leaving even if he's getting just 5 mins more of PT.I dont think he's at a point in his career where he just wants to win, he seems to be driven more right now by his personal goals than the teams, not that i can blame him since this is a job afterall. I wouldn't say other teams won't want him more than we do, there's some bad teams out there looking for young talents who can score, and he fits right in.

As for him getting more minutes and battier getting less, it's not as simple as that. I think Houston still intends on getting tmac back and playing white some, even if you reduce shane's minutes, White will get some of those and Von knows Tmac will eventually cut into some more minutes. I know he's a good guys overall, but i think he's just more about his personal growth right now, i can't see him passing on more PT.

 

Haha I don't know if any general manager in the nba has a following like Morey. This guy has done a damn good job, along with the entire franchise. Morey needs his own commemorative jersey with a dollar sign on it.

 

You're not making any sense. Even if DM hadn't fired JVG, DM would still be the one getting the players. We probably wouldn't have gotten Brooks though. That's all on RA, but the rest of the players (I'm not sure about Artest though) would still be here. But that's beside the point, let's not derail the thread, ok?

Morey has done a great job evaluating talent. He missed out on Batum in trading him for "40 pts then fading away" Donte Greene, but that's ok cuz he pawned him off Sac for Artest

 

I hope he pans out better then Mike Harris...excited about this signing though

Chilcutt

 

Is White better than Gerald Green??

 

At the same time, I'm pretty sure the Rockets organisation has a good idea that Tracy's recovery time will at the least cut into a good portion of the season. If Tracy's recovery is average to say the least and he comes back around January and we're winning ballgames at a top 4 in the west clip with Von starting, there's a very good to great chance that Tracy will see minimal playing time, it's not like RA will immediately insert Tracy into the starting lineup. Even if Tracy at some point does start over Von, he's gone after next season anyways....

 

If nothing else, he appears to have a better work ethic.