The past is the past.. Eddie needs to focus on bulking up and stop slacking off! The future lies ahead for the Rockets and so they need to do something now instead of worrying about the past.. Hard work will pay off later if they start now.
Toast, francis, mobley & yao are all primary offensive options. the offense flows through them. griffin is a safety valve and garbageman on offense. that's why 23 point nights are breakout nights for him, but not for the others...
EG has as much potential as Yao. The guy is long, quick, and athletic with a good touch from outside for a 4. The problem with him is that he is young both mentally and physically. How many of you guys at 20 and with millions in the bank would carry yourself like MJ or Hakeem when they were in their 30's? Hell MJ and Hakeem both had problems with their personalities up until their late 20s. Eddie is a kid and kids shouldn't be playing a man's game. Until EG gains much more muscle and gets a hold of what it is he should be doing I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. EG should get until his rookie deal runs out (2 more years) for judgement to be passed on him. Those of you who dislike him now will only be more upset when he is moved and in 2 years is a Rasheed Wallace clone.
sydmill, thank you. eddie is going to be a monster once he grows up mentally and physically. what confuses me is: didn't everyone expect this when he was drafted? i mean, of course no one expected the mar1juana possession charge, but so what? that comes along with the immature mental part. physically, we all knew he had a long way to go, as well. but now everyone's in a huff and ready to ship him out because he hasn't been productive before the age of 21. it's ridiculous. do not give up on eddie griffin. if we do, we will regret it later.
IN THREE YEARS... Steve Francis, Bostjan Nachbar, Eddie Griffin, and Yao Ming. I'm telling you. In 3 years... If Boki is not a bust...and is better than Ginobili and Okur...he will be like Peja Stojakovic...but not as good. Eddie Griffin will be like Rasheed Wallace...but not as good. Yao will be like Arvydas Sabonis...but better. Francis will be like Baron Davis was last season and Jason Kidd combined. They are our future. Francis, Nachbar, Griffin, and Yao. Mobley has to go. Taylor should go....Bye bye Cato...somehow get rid of Moochie. Trade Rice...or let his contract expire. Either bring in a point guard or a shooting guard...or Lamar Odom...and a banger power forward who can rebound and defend and be an enforcer for a couple of years. IN THREE YEARS. They are our future.
Yeah, I'll give you the "primary offensive options" argument. But consider that he only shot a little over 100 shots less than Yao. And then take a look at his free throw numbers, and how seldom he gets to the line. It tells me he's afraid of contact and settles for jumpers. And when his shooting average is right at 40%, that's simply not enough for a PF. If he's settling for the outside shots and afraid to draw some contact down low, he's out of position. As far as the theory that everyone expected him to take a couple of years to actually give us some quality minutes, I don't buy that argument. If he thought he was ready to leave college and contribute on an NBA team, then I expect no less from him. He's been given the opportunity to contribute, starting games and averaging over 24 minutes a game. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen enough out of him. At the VERY LEAST, MoT lost his starting spot due to injury, and perhaps it's time to give him his old job back. I wouldn't say I've given up on Eddie, but I don't think he's earned the starter's role, and I don't think he's earned his minutes. And I don't think the Rockets should be paying him to try to teach him the game of basketball, when he could have learned some of that in college the past 2 years.
Toast, you're right about the # of shots eddie took being ~100 less than yao. then again, the #1 complaint this season across the nba concerning the rockets was that yao ming wasn't getting enough shots. so, just because eddie's # of shots is close to yao's, doesn't mean he's taking a lot of shots. as for his # of free throws, there's a couple of things to consider. first, he's not going to be in the low block as long as yao ming is on the court...nor should he be. second, i don't think he is "afraid" of contact. i think he is just not strong enough to go in the paint yet. if you remember the summer leagues, eddie was quick to mix it up in the paint with the smaller pfs and centers of the nba. but in the regular season, he retreats. why? he's just not strong enough yet. patience... don't be so naive. the large majority of kids leave college early not because they believe they can "contribute on an NBA team". they leave because of the $$. nba teams draft these guys because they believe they can develop them into guys that can make an impact on an nba team. no disagreement there. the rockets are doing eddie a disservice by handing him the job, instead of making him earn it. hard work is a virtue. once again, don't be naive. that's the reality of the nba today...not just for the rockets, but the entire league. teams draft these guys coming out of HS or 1 or 2 years of college becuase of what they can become, not because of what they are. sure, it'd be nice to see more signs of greatness from griff, but the reality is that he came into the nba about 45 pounds underweight, and 3-4 years short of maturity. if the rockets did not see that, then they are fools. i hope they did and still do see that, and are not foolish enough to trade griffin away for a bag of pringles...
I really like EG and I think he''l be fine in a couple of years w/ the proper coaching. This debate between verse and toast is very interesting and both have made excellent points. I'm leaning towards verse b/c like him, I don't think we should give up on a 20 year old. And the development does take time. Hell, the only reason he got any PT last year was b/c Mo was out. If he were playing behind KT and MoT last year he would be just like Boki and no one has given up on him yet (as they shouldn't). Let Eddie put on some weight, let Yao put on some weight and in a couple of years that front court will be the only one to rival the Duncan, JO'neil or Brand frontcourt the Spurs will have.
man, I would be happy if Yao is half as good as Sabonis. the young sabonis is better than shaq I would say.
Young Sabonis better than Shaq? hummm... nah The Shaq of the past 3 years, with the officals lack of understanding of the dislodging rule, makes Shaq unstoppable the last 3 years.
yes. remember a couple games into griff's rookie season, we were all wondering why he isnt playing the post? rudy said he wasn't strong enough to hold his post position. when he first arrived we weighed him in as 215lbs. this year he played at 230 and was able to play closer to the basket. next year, if he adds 15lbs again, he will be 6-10 245 and ready to post full time.
Great atheleticsm can bring a player into NBA, even he is raw. But long arms and hop can't assure an all-star spot. It's all about hard working. If Kobe didn't work hard, he'd also be a bust. Eddie's been around for a while. We should stop looking at his gifts but his work ethic. If he doesn't hit the weight room often, get him another socalled motivator. If that still doen't work, get him out.
How do you know young sabonis is not better than shaq? Have you seen him play consistently on a regular basis to say that? I saw bits and pieces of Sabonis' game at his prime, he was a big freak of nature. I did not see him enough to lean either way. Back to the topic at hand, I agree with verse that we should be patient with Griff. I sometimes forget that he's that young. I see him as a solid contributor to a contending squad in the future but don't see any dominance in him based on the lack of improvement from his first year.
I watched some young and healthy Sabonis' games on tape. My feeling was: the guy was not human, seriously. He looked like KingKong at the court, in front of DRob. And he could fly, pass like what he is doing right now. He was a Hakeem in Shaq's body, plus Vlade's passing game.
He's young. We know this. But Eddie Curry's also young. Man, did he show marked improvement as this season progressed. Heck, Amare Stoudamire is even younger, and he bangs down low like a power forward should. EG has talent as a weak-side defender, but honestly there's not much else I can say positively about his game at this point. He came out of college too early chasing dollar signs, and really lacks the fundamentals to be a good basketball player. He SHOULD be in this year's draft, at the earliest. And from what you've seen of EG, would you rank him as a top 6 draft pick this year? I'd be inclined to call him a tweener who'll have a hard time finding a position and a role on any NBA team, but maybe that's just me. Prove me wrong, Eddie, prove me wrong.
Toast, amare and eddy curry are both stronger than eddie griffin. decidedly so. that's why they are down low bangin'. i'm tellin' ya, watch the summer league games when eddie isn't playing guys so much bigger and stronger than he is. sure, he'll still shoot turnarounds and a couple of 3s, but more important is the fact that he does mix it up down low. true that. then again, the same could be said for every high school early entry, with the exception of amare stoudamire. hell, that could be said for the large majority of college students that declare for the nba draft. Toast, the nba is a man's game. eddie is a kid - literally! - a kid playing a man's game. it doesn't make sense for you (or the rockets) to punish a kid for not being able to play in a man's game. on a side note, this is the #1 reason why amare stoudamire won the ROY award. he was a kid playing well in a man's game...and doing it with the panache and flashes of dominance (aka: thunderous dunks) that the nba markets to the hilt. that's why they called him, and kemp before him, a "man-child". what your concern should be, imo, is whether or not the rockets have a staff that is competent enough to develop a kid into a man. sure they've won championships, but that is immaterial. that makes no difference in whether or not they can nuture a troubled kid with a sh*tload of talent into a dominant force. last thing, Toast: 20+ ppg 10+ rpg 4.5+ bpg those were eddie's numbers as a troubled 18 year old freshman at seton hall. the kid has the talent. we just have to nurture/develop him into a man. such is life in the modern nba.
But the problem is, I really don't give a flip what he does in the summer league when he's playing other developmental players, and to a lesser extent, what he did that one year of college (what has he done for me lately?). So what if he can drop 20 on some guy I've never heard of and probably won't get more than 5 minutes in an NBA game? You may or may not recall even Kelvin Cato looked like a dominant force in the summer leagues, and look at him now ... he's on the bench spelling Yao. Sure, he's found his role for the team and is playing it well now. What do you expect our power forward's role to be on this Rockets team? Personally, I'd like to see a hustle-guy. Someone who works hard on defense and grabs rebounds. Someone with a big body who can hold his ground vs. the other PFs in the western conference. Someone with some semblance of a post up game. As Calvin Murphy likes to point out in broadcasts, just about every player in the NBA was #1 somewhere, so they all have talent. What they do with their talent is another matter.
Eddie has potential. And hopefully his brain has not been damaged. And hopefully he can still add. And hopefully he ain't smokin no more. But he should not be a starter. He should come off the bench against other bench players..he can play 24 minutes...like he is now. No big difference... But Mo Taylor has to go. Not for a power forward.....point guard sounds nice. But then we need to get a banger PF like Antonio Davis, Kurt Thomas, Jerome Williams, PJ Brown, Kenny Thomas
