I like what I have seen from Andersen so far. Seems like he is confident in his shooting because our team is so used to running its offense through a big man. However, with he and Yao on the court at the same time our offense would be so slow and our transition D would be NADA. I like him as a backup, but that is all.
Saying what I said over and over again, but I don't mind. If the rockets are going to continue to have Yao in their long term plans, the guy at the 4 either needs to be like tim thomas/charlie v/odom type or a camby type. If people are still confused, let me go further. The first type in the mold is the charlie v/tim thomas/lamar odom type. That guy is basically a hybrid. He has small forward skills in a power forward body. His ability to shoot the 3 or play on the perimeter, put the ball on the floor on out of control closeouts and beat the other guy that's not guarding Yao is what is best.The reason this kinda guy works is because he gives yao a lot of room off a fronting defense and on ball reversal and closeout, he can put the ball down and get to the basket. Type 2 is the long rangy shot blocker type. He can cover the basket when teams put yao in pick and roll and he can also cover the basket when yao is out. He has to be a good weakside shot blocker and would feast when yao hold his hands straight up and the guy can come over and swat the shot and cover for lack of yao's footspeed. Now when I mention these guys, posters like v.3 like jump over the tim thomas mention or even the camby mention, but I never said the guy had to be a starter. Nor have I ever said that scola or landry weren't good players, but I have said the neither can make up for yao's foot speed or stretch the defense enough. A couple of guys that are young and coming free that kind of fit the mold is Tyrus Thomas and Yi, don't laugh. I mention those 2 because they fit the mold i'm talking about. Yi is in the hybrid mold and thomas is in the shotblocker mold. Neither are as good as scola right now, but both are much younger and provide the different and would compliment Yao better. As long as scola's range is 16ft, teams will be able to front Yao. As long as scolandry avg less than 1blk a game combined, teams will be able to pull yao from the basket and attack. Houston will always have problems with a team like Utah because they can't punish boozer or whomever while guarding on the perimeter.
Bigez, I've always wanted Tim Thomas on this team, people keeping hating on that idea. The versatile 4 has worked in the past for many teams. Lamar Odom, Robert Horry, Rasheed Wallace etc
That is what we were thinking when we drafted Eddie Griffin, and he was a far better shot-blocker and rebounder...What could have been.
Yeah, I'm already extremely satisfied with Scola/Landry as our PF duo. I don't understand why we need Andersen as another PF. We need a BACKUP CENTER!
Eddie Griffin had some games that show flashes of his potential. Remember that Laker vs Rockets game?
i generally agree. but all these guys are old/unavailable now. wonder which younger guns we can practically acquire. can't think of any at the moment.
Tell me about it. To this day Eddie Griffin has always been my favorite player. Yao and Eddie (as you know) had flashes of brilliance together. I remember KG saying that Eddie was the greatest shot blocker and rebounder he had ever played with, but also said that he was just depressed etc...
IBM, guys are available via trade like Yi and Tyrus. They just picked up the option on Yi, but tyrus will be free. Tinman, I said after the 08 season the rox shouldve traded Rafer and chuck for tim thomas. I said they should do this because I felt brooks was ready and should get the reigns and thomas backing up scola and playing with yao would negate teams from fronting Yao. Now when u play utah, boozer has to check thomas on the perimeter and that's a huge advantage for the rox.
thomas, yes, i'd love to have him. can't say i really know his game that well, but judging from his performance of last year's playoffs, the guy has been improving. yi? not so sure. maybe i haven't watched him much. from what i've seen, this kid is nothing special.
I liked your post above. Love Lamar Odom. Like Marcus Camby. But, Tim Thomas? Really? We're talking about a guy with an MLE-sized contract, and he was just bought out by the Bulls. That shows what type of effort he gave last year, and that would be the second time in his career that this dude was bought out (same team, even). And you'd rather have this player than Lowry+Hayes. I can't go along with that.
Durvasa, TT played well when he played last yr and he plays well in the playoffs. He's a horry type during the regular season when he's not playing, but imo, he creates mismatches. Mle sized deal with 1 yr left wasn't a bad deal. Having brooks as the starter from day 1 and thomas as the backup to scola wouldve given this team more versitility. Its not hard finding a backup pg, especially a vet.That wouldve also created room and salary flexibility. IBM, i'm not saying Yi is playing to the level of his draft pick, but his range and ability would really benefit playing with yao. He's the kind of guy that matches very well with odom because he's in that same mold.Its unnatural for scola or landry to guard a odom type and he's big enough to guard those guys.Styles make fights.
I don't think Tim Thomas would have gotten minutes ahead of Scola and Landry, honestly. And with the addition of Artest, the Rockets had that versatility you're talking about anyhow. Further, he had 2 years left on his contract. Further still, Rafer netted the Rockets a nice young PG who can play in transition and one of the other versatile bigs you were asking for in Brian Cook. I think the Rockets handled that just fine. If you were unconvinced the Rockets had the right pieces to be a championship-level team this time last year, adding Tim Thomas and subtracting Alston/Hayes would not have changed that.
