I think there are other big guys available. Thought I heard the Rockets watched Santiago for some time. If Dikembe is really too old and his agent asks for too much, Morey will do what he did to Landry again. I am not too worried even when we don't have big guys out there if Yao is out or injured. Many teams don't have 7 footers, but they can compensate their defense with quick offense. With Ron, Shane, Tracy and guys like Brent and Carl, I think we are fine.
No, your not alone. I was thinking about starting a thread about this the other day. If Yao goes out for an extended period of time because of injury, we are truly screwed. We need tall, lengthy, athletic players in the frontcourt...the tallest player we have besides Yao is Scola and he can barely jump over a pebble. And one thing about people saying resigning Deke will be all we need...I dunno if he will fit in with the new style of offense that Adelman is trying to run this year. I know your gonna say that Yao also limits the amount of running our offense can have, but from what I recall I remember Adelman mentioning that the second unit that comes in needs to run run run. So if thats the case, then ya signing Deke back is good, but we also need another lengthy frontcourt player thats at least 6'10" and that can run. That's just my opinion. And how far has that taken us??
first off, hayes never gets abused, he guarded boozer a lot better than yao did last year in the playoffs, because he can move around easier. dorsey is a big guy he can hold his own despite his height disparity, as long as they keep them from getting too far under the basket we'll be fine, make em settle for that outside shot cause no one can shoot like yao from the outside
Deke or Horry would be sweet when the rockets get down to their stretch run and especially in the playoffs.
I started a thread about this last yr and the problem still exist. One of my criticism of morey is that he doesn't look at size. If u look at the rox roster, they have 1 guy over 6'9 and 1 shot blocker. There are a couple of bigs that can be had who can add some size. Someone mentioned Hunter. Hunter would be a excellent 18-20 mins backup. He's very atheletic, 7ft and can block some shots. He makes 3m per so that's not a big deal. Francis makes 2.6m, so that's do-able. Another guy who is cheap is Calvin Booth. He's long, not ver atheletic, good ft shooter and has a spot up 15 ft er. He's 32 and basically makes vets min. That could be luther, plus that get rid of a guard. I've also watched Jelani McCoy play for la clippers. He's the kind of long atheletic player that would also help the rox. I never really undertood why he's out of the league, but the clippers have a glut of bigs and might cut or trade him. There are options and even yao know this team is small, its just a matter of morey making it happen.
Morey said that of the 7-footers that are available, he doesn't think any of them are any good (other than Mutombo). You're right, he puts relatively little value on size. He seems to put a much higher emphasis on skill and versatility -- getting players who can play at multiple positions. I think that's what he's betting will differentiate the Rockets from other teams, and give us an edge: [rquoter] "Everyone wants Kevin Garnett—he's got the perfect height, body, mentality—but most times, you're going to have to do with less," Morey says. "Behind Yao and Tracy, we've been willing to give up an inch of height, let's say, for more skill, a person who plays harder and creates for others, who defends and rebounds well." Morey's "basketball players" don't pop off a stat sheet, but they give coach Rick Adelman interchangeable and versatile parts that are capable of creating offensive and defensive advantages. "Chuck can guard anyone from 1 to 5; Shane can play 2, 3 or 4; Luis Scola can play 3, 4 or 5; and Brent Barry can go 1, 2 or 3," Morey says. "We're limited only by our strategic insight."[/rquoter]
I know big doesn't spell man. I also know what he means about versitility vs height. The problem is the rox big guys aren't multi skilled or multi positional. Other than Think about it, how many of the bigs can play 2 spots? Yao and deke are true centers and none of the pf's can play center for a extended time. Hayes can guard guys bigger than he, but he can't guard the rim. None of those pf's guard the rim. When u don't have someone to guard the rim, it opens the door for guys to attack it. That's why kobe kills utah. He's not scared to attack the rim anyway, but without that 7ft or shotblocker back there, he know it will be a easier finish. Teams aren't going to say, "be cautious going to the rim cuz hayes,scolandry,or dorsey is back there." That my problem and we seen it last yr once yao sits and deke isn't on the team. Even a guy like hunter will protect the rim better than any of our backup centers.
And yet we were still one of the best defensive teams last year despite having short bigs. Out of the names mentioned, Hunter is the only one that seems decent and he has motivation issues. The rest are scrubs. I think Morey knows that the feasible options out there to get bigger would more then likely make us take a step backwards defensively in the big picture. Shot blocking is an overrated stat anyways. You block a shot, it can go back to another player on the other team and he scores while everyone is still busy scrambling around. Or the blocked shot goes out of bounds and the other team scores on the inbounds play, I've seen that happen way too many times.
I'm sure someone has already pointed this out, but since when the hell does Hayes get "abused" by... well, anyone??? Dude can shut down guys who have six inches on him.
I agree the mere stat of shot blocking is somewhat overrated to a point, but there is something to be said for a guy that will contest a layup. It doesn't count as a block, but making a guy miss at the rim is huge. When guy get any of our bigs not name yao and deke, they just jump over those guys. Eventhough utah didn't block a lot of shots vs the rox, their size and length caused scola,hayes, and landry to miss point blank shots. Hunter and a guy like booth with their size can alter shots close to the rim.
I don't see much of a problem here. Chuck Hayes does quite well guarding any PF not named Kevin Garnett. Scola is a decent defender with good offense and Landry is such a handful for opposing PF to keep an eye on he more than makes up for his lack of defense (which is improving). Obviously, Morey has faith in these guys or a deal would have been worked to bring in the elusive 7 footer with athleticism. I would love to have an Andrew Bynum on the roster too but there just are not that many good, mobile 7 footers in the league anymore. You certainly don't have to have one to win a ring.
