Yes!! One way or another, we will know who was right in the Play JT debate. Hopefully my position will have been proven correct in the near future.
I didn't like Courtney at the Back up Point against the Bulls. He didn't look comfortable at all when he was playing against the Bulls Back up point. I like his Defense though. We are going to miss Ish's penetration. It is only temporary so it will be nice to see what JT can do.
I don't mind JT getting minutes, but Ish should have been retained. Lee was starting to settle down,backup PG will be another change for him.
Retained? He didn't get let go.. he's just not in the rotation. Either way, he would've been booted from the rotation in 3 games when Brooks comes back.
Ish isn't a good fit for the Brad Miller half-court magic show that's been going on lately. But I really hope this move is about hard G. If you cut Ish or trade Taylor, you'll have a roster spot to bring someone in to push him.
Translation (as others have said already): "We are showcasing him (against weaker teams, which we hope to be able to beat even with him playing) and we hope he does not suck too much so that we can use him as a throw-in in a trade after Dec. 15."
A big tip of my hat to leebigez for his posts in this thread. But none of us could forsee how much we'd miss Ariza. I hated the trade but we'll have to see what the trade exception nets us. I feel like a jerk dogging Battier, but him beating the Thunder and the Lakers last week was a godsend and not because of the Ws. I don't want Shane to be a starting 3 for the Rockets, and I hope he helps another team win a ring - and of course get one for himself - but for his sake I hope it's this year. Everything I was wrong about in the offseason has just mushroomed into things we had no reason to forsee. Kyle was injured and he was terrible against the Bulls, but I'm still good with him - even his contract - but that's a shaky faith. Budinger scared me more in summer league than any player ever has, and then the ankle sprains and I was patient until he was healthy. He has been horrific. Courtney Lee has made a few plays, but I can't name a player on the roster that looks as clueless as he often does. How Ish (a rook) is getting benched so Lee can play some pg is... maybe the most desperate thing I've ever seen a Rockets team do. JT getting a chance for all the wrong reasons is hopefully a good thing. But he's going to have to improve on his team defense yesterday. You always wonder what the coaches see in practice that we don't see in games, but I can only guess what's really happening here. Maybe there's one thing I still believe: we're not going to trade Ish, but even typing that sentence made my head hurt.
Jermaine Taylor Time! I think this move has a lot to do with CLee's defense, CBud's shooting, and Ish's play. At this point, you just learned Yao will not return on schedule and AB won't be back for at leat a week. On the conspiracy side, this move would allow CLee to guard McGrady rather than having CBud on him by playing Battier for extended minutes in Tuesday's game.
If Lee plays well at PG and JT is able to contribute, we may be saying goodbye to Ish. Saw the Knicks were looking for a backup PG...time for another kill?
it's not an upgrade in playmaking...it's an upgrade in helping the team win. Ish is good at what he does, but so is steve novak. Without having a real jumper and ability to finish at the rim consistently, Ish was going to get taken back down to earth eventually. Teams just needed to get more film on him and get a better idea of how he was playing.
He's only taken 7 three-pointers all year.. the percentage is an extremely small sample size. Plus, his FG% is at 39%.. so it appears he's really struggling to score at an acceptable clip from inside the arc. I just checked his college stats -- the best he shot from downtown was his freshman year when he shot 35%. From then, his 3PT% went down every year.. pretty surprising since you expect a player to become a better shooter as he develops in college. In his senior year, he was shooting 22% from downtown.. and the college three-pointer is closer than the NBA's.
