Hakeem was short for his day and gave up height, reach to lots of centers. I don't know actual height, standing reach. He lost a lot of jumpballs against opposing, taller centers who had better reaches. He just was much more agile, better leaping ability, and better skill.
It does seem like a really long time since we had a size advantage. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were starting Chuck Hayes and Jordan Hill at center. Then last year having Scola play center.
Its not about the size, its what you can do with it that matters.(thats what She said) Seriously though, I dont think this team is any "bigger" than past years teams other than the couple seasons when Chuck Hayes had to play in the middle. The main difference this year is being able to play 2 + defensive bigs on the court at the same time. Asik is as good a defender in the paint(when he's on) than almost any center in the NBA. Patterson is a great team defender. Scola really cause a great deal of damage in the paint in previous years with slow quickness on help defense. Also there was the whole perimeter defense thing too which Lin, Harden, Douglas are worlds better than Lowry, Martin, Dragic. All that being said though, the Rockets are STILL in the bottom of the NBA in defense, and have a ton of work to do to live up to their abilities on the defensive end. Still, at times they have shown that this team, in a few years(hopefully just months) can be a very good if not great defensive team.
We still need a long, athletic 4 ...DMo has a good chance of being the guy, but given Les's short term wants, I'd wager he gets dealt for an established veteran.
I think the reason you feel last year's team is undersized is because now they play fast pace and pretty much every other possession is a full court fast break. I don't think having taller guard like Lin is an advantage if he can't shoot. Plus you got Asik pulling down rebounds. I don't know how Asik does it though because watching him jump is like watching fish swim without water.
Olajuwon played big and my point is that greg smith is not undersized, he's a legit 6'10 center and like OT, he also played big.
We were undersized during the chuck hayes years. Last year we were big at the 5 and so are we this year. The only way i would call us small these last years was at the 4. But it is almost a necessity because we need a 4 that can spacethe floor. Now if we can find a taller 4 with range (love or aldrige miracle). then wed be set at the 4 or 5.
If 6'7" (actual height) Marcus Morris with his short arms plays the 4, the Rockets are severely undersized. The Rockets don't need a poor man's Al Harrington playing the 4. Find someone bigger and dump Morris.
Greg Smith measured 6'8.5" the same height as Blake Griffin and shorter than Chandler Parsons. That's not center height. That's forward height.
Campy played 19 games and Thabeet barely got on the court. Our 5 rotation of Asik and Smith and sometimes PPat is bigger than Dalembert/Scola/PPat from last year, and as others have pointed out, way more athletic. Plus, we used to a have Courtney Lee slide over to the SF position far too frequently. Having Morris as a backup option there has sized up that spot.
Nobody measures NBA players by their height without shoes on unless they're looking to downplay the guy's size and make him seem smaller. Morris is 6'8.75" in shoes, hence his listed 6'9" measurement.
Without reading a post in this thread, I'm here to say Marcus Morris is an undersized 4, and Greg Smith is an undersized 5.
Harden actually has average size (height) for an off guard. Jeremy is above average, and Asik is just above average. only Parsons is considerably taller (more than 2 inches) than average at his position. but this is overall an athlethic (deceptively?) group.
Hayes had a decent wingspan: "Savvy NBA personnel gurus surely have known this for some time. It's probably no accident that Daryl Morey, the Northwestern- and MIT-educated general manager of the Rockets, who is renowned for his Moneyball approach to hoops, has drafted several of the most superficially undersized players in the NBA. (Among them is Jones, who is 6'8¼" tall with a 7'2¼" wingspan.) Three seasons ago the Rockets made 6'5½" Chuck Hayes the shortest starting center in NBA history. Fortunately his arms are 6'10". The value of such a reach is easy to grasp." From: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1206340/index.htm
