Our two stars will mature with time. But in the mean time, we need a few things: * Rebounding * Speed * Athleticism A few guys come to mind. Swift, Posey, Wells, Evans, MOBLEY...guys like that. EDIT: Ratliff/Nene too! Our foundation has already been setup: That's TMac/Yao. Everyone else should just be complimentary. Right now, we have smart and versatile players like Howard, Barry, Sura, Westley, Paddget, etc...Sura being our most speedy/athletic role player. But we still need more to get faster and more rebounding. Especially rebounding! Our PG spot is fine for now (we have many guys that can do the PG job: Sura, Westley, Barry, Sura, Barrett, TMac...). It's just that the other factors are more priority now.
The more I watch this team, the less I feel the urge to wish an upgrade at the point. The plays are almost never ran through the point guard. Usually it's T-Mac or dump it into the post. Occasionally they'd mix in some pick and rolls with the point guard, but it's hardly important. On the other hand, our PFs are absolutely killing us, especially on defense. Not only are they not producing, they're also making Yao worse by not complementing him well. I personally think we're can be an elite team with a solid PF. Someone along the lines of a Horace Grant or Charles Oakley in their primes.
As long as the Rockets have Yao Ming at C, an athletic, weakside shotblocking PF is far and away the most important upgrade. IMHO, if the decision is between PF or PG...it's not even close. In today's NBA, a play can be initiated by any perimeter player, a good PG can make up for his diminishing physical skills by playing smart, and a lack of footspeed on the perimeter can be compensated for with good team defense. But in the WC, there are a variety of PF challenges that await....Tim Duncan, Amare, Shawn Marion, Dirk, KG, Gasol, Kenyon Martin, Radmanovic, CWebb and even Lamar Odom. All of the Rockets perimeter players have a favorable +/-...McGrady @ +10.1 / Sura @ +4.2 / Barret at +2.8 / Barry @ +2.0 @ DWes @ +1.4. Other than Mutombo and Padgett with favorarable +/-'s, here's what our other "bigs' do....Taylor @ -0.2, Howard @ -3.3 and Yao @ -3.9. Yao will become a better player but he's never going to get any quicker. It's the PF position that needs the biggest upgrade. Our best hope is an unresticted FA PF. I hope the Rox start at Stro and work their way down. Actually, I hope that don't have to work their way down.
When he was playing for Stanford years ago, you know that he would be a special playmaker in the league someday.
There is one thing in common among these players you mention: they have all the ability, and gut feeling to make passes to the superstars they were playing. Not a knock on Bobby, I wish that Tracy and Yao could have his energy and hustle. However, Bobby is really a natural 2 that is playing out of position. He wants to win badly, but too many times that he just dominates the ball and looks for his scoring opportunities too much. And his lack of court vision sometimes cost us lots of golden oppotunities under the basket.
It's not just the responsibility of the point guard to find their star players, it's the responsibility of the entire team. The only primary job the point guard is responsible for is dribbling the ball up the court. Smith and Fisher were usually not the ones making passes to their superstars, it was Robert Horry that usually made the entry pass. The past 14 championship point guards consist of Billups, Ron Harper, Fisher, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell, BJ Armstrong, and Parker. Pretty much all of those guards lean more towards being shooting guards rather than pure point guards.
Agreed, the West dominates the East even there are a bunch of great guards in the East. Why? 1) PF is more decisive, nash without amare or dirk won't average 12 assists per night 2) When you have a great SG (Kobe for instance), the need of a great PG isn't that necesary Conclusion: we need Ratliff/Swift/Nene type of players to consolidate our position in the paint.
That's just wrong on so many levels. Amare without Nash wasn't averaging almost 26 PPG either. In the Rockets perspective, we probably are gonna need a good 4 more than a good 1. But saying a good PF is more decisive is just bull and you know it.
I think we are a good 1 & 4 away from contenting. Imagine this summer scenario: • Rockets use their #1 draft pick on a PG. Perhaps we can get lucky and draft a player in the Jamaal Tinsley mold, or Luke Ridnour mold. Someone like that. (of course considering recent Rockets drafts, I and I am sure many have their doubts we can find a player like that, but perhaps we will luck out on this one. This upcoming draft is supposed to be PG rich.) • With the MLE in FA we put on an all out full court press to go after Stromile Swift at the PF spot. Guarantee him the starting PF spot next to Yao. Swift probably would like the fact he doesnt have to play C on this team. I think the Rockets have a SHOT at Swift, but it will be tough. Atlanta is the only team with cap space that I think would move on Swift, but they seem to prefer a TRUE center over Swift. That would leave Swift looking at teams like NJ in a S&T for their 10M exception. Rockets have a shot, but we would have to do some convincing. I am not sure Swift would leave money on the table but we can hope ;-) • Bring in Vassilis Spanoulis our 2nd round pick from last year. From the Chonicle article it seems he is playing well in Europe. Maybe he can be a "poor mans" Ginobili type energy guy off the bench? It doesnt seem like he is a "true" PG but more of a scoring PG. Sounds like he is more of a 6th man type player. Clearly something this team would love to have with energy and scoring off the bench. • Bring Malick Badiane over. If nothing else he could be another "energy guy" on the floor. Rebounding and shot blocking. Perhaps his play would be good enough where we dont feel the need to resign Mutombo after this season. Just someone that can be a shot blocking presence in the lane while Yao is out. Of course Swift would also bring that if we moved him over to the 5 while Yao is out. With those moves alone we could bring in 4 players to this team next year. All adding YOUTH and ATHLETICISM to our veteran team. That also doesnt account for any additional moves we could make perhaps with expiring contracts of Wesley and Spoon next season. Their 2 contracts combine to 11M expiring. Those could be VERY valuable! With a little luck and some smart decisions, this team could add alot of youth and athleticism this summer that wouuld be a huge boost to the team.
The facts of the matter that we are talking about the obvious problem we have at the 1 and 4 shows you how weak management is! Who puts this freaking team together in the off season?
We KNEW we were going to have 1 and 4 problems when we lost Francis and Cato (and Griffin). But you make the Tmac deal anyway. We just have to "hang in there" until the offseason. This offseason I feel we will definiately be able to add some pieces. Maybe we wont be lucky enough to get a Swift, but at least get someone that is serviceable. • 1st round pick • MLE • 5M T.E. • Expiring contracts of Spoon and Wesley combining to 11M+. We have some assets there to add to the team.
I agree. It's obvious that the original quote came from a college coach where it seems to hold true. Not so in the NBA.
IndianPlaya, I think you are taking the quote out of context. For example, those players you mentioned each have different skills and talents. And each of them bring something different to the table. Also, the reason those teams won rings was mainly because of their respective STARS; Jordan/Pip, Hakeem/Drexler, Duncan/Robinson, etc...not because they did or didn't have great PGs. If the Bulls, Rox or Spurs had a chance to get Stockton, Isiah, or Nash (at their peaks), they would have. It's simple arithmetic. If you have a choice of average passing, with good scoring. Or great passing with good scoring! Take your pick. It's simple. You take the one brings *more* to the table. It's not like you are sacrificing anything when you pick up a great PG. That's why they call them *great.* They have few weaknesses. If your point is that you can win a title without a great PG, well, point well taken (pun not intented). But that's not what's at issue. All that coach was saying is that if you can find a great PG, he will make your team better than just having a scoring PG (slasher) or a shooting PG (spot up shooter), that's assuming that the great PG that you acquire doesn't have a bad FG% (Nash is around 50%). (Kidd is around 38%).
I wish we could get an excellent athletic defender, but moreso a very tough bruiser to punish anyone who gets too physical with Yao, especially when the refs are allowing it. We need a hard rebounder and a (thoughtfully restrained) dirty player. We need a Fear Factor next to Yao who will both take some of the heavy contact from Yao and motivate him to be as aggressive. Yao gets too tired against all the double teams, especially when everyone is making up for the lack of height with beating him up low. Let's help Yao first, and allow him to continue to develop into the star he's slowly becoming. That's way more important in the long term than a point guard now.
