I will go as far as saying this, Walker is the reason why Miami had hard time pulling away from Dallas.
Antoine Walker 2005-2006 $7,000,000 2006-2007 $7,773,500 2007-2008 $8,547,000 2008-2009 $9,320,500 2009-2010 $10,094,000 Team Option 2010-2011 $10,867,500 Enough Said!
Antoine Walker was the primary reason I rooted for Miami Heat. Gotta love his wiggle. With all the negatives you guys paint him, Walker is the kind of personality solely missed in this Rockets team.
JVG is going to put all of his hair out if Walker is on his team taking treys, screwing up layups and wont pass.
Not the hair part, which I could care less one way or another. I was talking about how to manage Walker's 'ego,' of course.
If it wasnt for the salary matter, I would take Walker over Swift anyday. What is Swift good for anyway? People say that Walker takes bad shots and such.. but i dont recall him taking ridiculous shots that has no chance of going in. (in 2006 Final). Most of his 3's were wide open / clock winding down shots, and it just didnt fall. Im not saying that Walker is the solution for Rockets' problem.. I am just saying that Swift is useless.
I would rather have had walker than Swift. He may have a low three point shooting percentage but it is better than Swift's who is a none factor at the three point line. Walker is still a threat if left open. He can still take it in too. I was on the pro getting Antoine W. here. Heck I would have even asked if boston would have taken juwan howard for the guy. Walker may not be the best option but he was a better option than the pf's we have now. Yes it is a what if issue now and it isn't worth discussing it much but the next time we look for a player, let's not look for a guy in the highlight reel section. There are plenty of those guys around. Walker would have definitely been a big help on this team. He would have at least been another offensive threat on the court rather than most of the guys we got who couldn't hit a shot to save their lives and when they weren't hitting shots they didn't have the knowledge or maybe the urge to do much else to contribute.
Looking at his numbers from this year and in years past I see no difference other than the amount of playing time. When you put him on the court he will be the same Antoine Walker he has always been. I don't think that by labeling him the 'third option' he will adjust his role. In fact, I think that is his primary problem and the reason he is inefficient - he has never altered his game to make it more effective I don't think he would alter it to be "part of the team." I also think that he was somewhat effective for Miami because beyond Shaq and Wade they have nothing, though it was more evident last year. If the choice is between a 24 second violation and Walker heaving up a fade-away three, the Walker option looks surprisingly good. My main thought, to reiterate, is that the idea that he would adjust and become a “third option” doesn’t seem to stand up to scrutiny in my estimation. If the choice is between a non-factor and a negative factor, I will take the non-factor every time.
What I was implying was Reily's got more tools and players to manage Walker. He can afford to put a 10 mil guy on the bench in the crunch time. We dont have that kind of luxuary. The hair part is also true.
Team option last two seasons? Not too bad. I'd rather pay Antoine than Juwan. I'd also rather pay Antoine than Stromile. Again Antoine ain't perfect but he is better than what we got. We could sit around and wait for the perfect player or we can go out and try to win some games. Right now we DIDN'T get the perfect player AND we aren't winning any games.
But isn't that exactly what he has done in Miami? He is their third option. I don't follow your logic. ...and that is why we are picking #8 in the lottery ...Swift was a non-factor.
Miami won that series, in part because Riley jerked Walkers leash. Opening two games, Walker was his usual self, throwing the game plans out and jacking up any shot he could the second they fell behind. Game 1: 19 shots and 6 TO. Game 2: 16 shots. Game 3: 17 shots, cut short when Riley planted him on the bench for the duration of the Heat's comeback. Grand total for those first 3 games: 21 for 52 shooting. That's abysmal, and the very definition of a volume shooter. Riles kept him on a leash for the next two games (he never got 40 minutes PT again, after playing 40+ in the first two games), playing Posey increased minutes, and Walker took only 18 shots. Not as a coincidence, Wade is tearing things up ever since Walker got benched at the end of game 3. It helps when your real star doesn't have to fight off a phoney one for shots. As an aside, Walker went ballistic on a reporter during the games in Miami when he asked a question that referred to Antoine as a supporting player instead of a star. Telling. Last night, Walker went back to his usual mess, going 6-17 so he can say he got a ring playing his normal game. Finished the series with 34-87 shooting. Walker hurt the Heat as much as he helped them. For every time he bailed them out in a dry spell, he squandered one or two possesions. He may as well play blindfolded with his shot selection. If this guy ever joined the Rockets, it would seriously damage my affection for this team. I've been attending games for 13 years, but I would boycott if Antoine Walker put on our colors. Evan
Walker is Miami's 3rd option only so long as they're winning the game at hand. The second they fall behind or Wade/Shaq struggle, he decides it's time for him to be a hero. He abandons the game plan and starts going nuts with the ball. ESPECIALLY in 4th quarters, where he starts throwing up 30-footers haphazardly. He's done this crap his entire career, and it costs teams games almost every time. On the Rockets, he'd play nice as a third option only if McGrady and Yao were thriving. But this is a guy that looks for ANY excuse to start letting loose shots, no matter what the coaches ask him to do. He won't stay within the offense, he never has. If there was a hell, it would involve me having to root for a team that was made up of Marbury, Baron Davis, Walker, Kwame, and (today's) Chris Webber. Yes, we're bad right now partly because Swift doesn't give us much of anything. But Walker would be a shortsighted bandaid solution that would ultimately hurt our team. Enjoy watching the Heat as Walker becomes persona non grata in the next couple of years. Evan
Nice points. As you say, Riles jerked Walker's leash. JVG has been known to do that once or twice. Walker is a talented player (more so than Howard or Swift) and it is the coaches job to mold the team. I'm not saying Walker is ideal but he is an improvement over what we got. Had we had him, we likely would have been in the playoffs.
That may be the single most optimistic comment on Walker's abilities that has ever been recorded in the anals of human history. We were 10 games back of Sacramento for the 8th spot. With all the time T-Mac, Yao, Rafer, Derek Anderson & co. missed this year, the Rockets recorded 17 fewer wins than the previous year, but somehow Walker's presence would make up for 10 of those?
EDIT: I forgot to mention Sura and Barry as well, two key guys from the prior year. If Walker could have taken us to the playoffs last year, he wouldn't be a role player for a championship club, he'd be their star - if not MVP of the league.
As it stands, I just counted 12 games we lost last season by 5 points or less. That doesn't include several overtime games where we got blown out ...in overtime. Given that our #1 problem last year was the lack of scoring, Toine would be immediately addressed our biggest weakness. It is hardly a stretch to claim we would have been in playoff contention. I don't know if he'd have been enough to push us over but it would have been close.
