My thoughts: They played five 6 minute periods Collier was a crazy man worked around Yao 2 or 3 times. They had refs there to call fouls, but it didn't look like they were really calling things tight. Mooch played and was very intense. smacking the floor after misses like it was midseason. I got several photos but - I have no digital, so others I'm sure will have better before mine come back. Added: the final period the white team consisted of Cat Steve Glenn Yao Eddie Possible starting 5? they had replica Yao jerseys for sale $50 Pappa Mia in the food court had a huge sign saying - "Now Serving Asian Food"
I was there also and Mo played well. It didn't look like his ankle was bothering him. I second on Collier being a mad man out there. He was playing great. Boki was attacking the basket like there was no tomorrow and his was making more lay-ups than he was missing. Ming didn't look so good, but I'll give him more time before I pass judgment. He is trying to learn the plays while everyone else is executing them. I ended up catching one of Steve's #3 armbands. I'll report more later when I get a chance. B
What else did they do at the scrimmage. In years past, the entire team would sign autographs. Even my friends kids were able to go on the court and shoot free throws with the players.
Just got back myself…. things I noticed. 1) You could tell it was only a scrimmage, they were not very physical 2) Is it just me or does Yao never put his hands up ??? 3) Rice looks great ! much better then last year, his shot is money, 4) MoT looked ok…. Seemed like he missed a lot of shots. 5) Eddie is going to be a STUD this year. 6) Moochie looks good and ready to play. It's going to be a fun season !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mo played quite a bit and looked good - He's ready to go. Tito and Hawkins and Cato were the ones that rotated out for the most part. Everyone else was in the whole time, switching teams for different matchups. Kenny came out with a bag of Ice and layed on the scorers table for most of the time. I still think Yao looked confused by the whole process. There were several times where a coach was yelling to Ming where to be on the court. My wife also noticed and pointed it out to me and she only watches the Rockets because of me. There was one break where Rudy came out and was giving induvidual help to Yao to show him a pick position. On the upside, they ran a play Mooch called "Chicago" I think, where he got a great down the runway slam. A big point here too, is that the guys had their ear rings in and Collier didn't play with his face mask. This was an entertain the fans practice not a serious run-hard type thing. But I didn't expect it to be...
Please elaborate on Eddie's STUDliness. I haven't been able to see anything, so I'd like to hear more about what he was doing that impressed you.
Maurice was there and played well offensively. Some other notes from the scrimmage. - Nachbar looked really solid, IMO. I think when Rudy T. said deceptively quick, I think I figured out what he meant. One thing that leads to that "quickness" of his, when driving to the rack, are his really long strides. He finished one of the plays with a nice dunk, which received a nice ovation from the crowd. His midrange shot looked nice as well. - Rice looked surprisingly explosive, especially on that alley oop he received. He looks like a leader on the floor, as he pointed things out and I even heard him tell Eddie to shoot when he passed it to him. His shot looked very fluid and he had a nice lift underneath him on his jumpers. - Collier surprised the hell out of me. Some of those drives he made were very quick. His explosion on his jumps/dunks was impressive as well. I guess he did work hard this summer. - Maddox at times, when he drove in caused a lot of guys to commit to him. Once commited, he would kick out for the open jumper. I now see what they like about him. - Ming still looks hesitant, but I saw it as more of him trying to get acclimated to the plays instead of really playing. He pulled that quick baseline spin on Collier but stepped out of bounds. - Norris really pushed the ball hard every time a change of possession occured which was nice. Bad thing about him was he shot the ball on plays where he should have passed. - Hawkins plays hard and looks to get up and down. Looked nervous when shooting though b/c he seemed to rush it. However, on one play he let it go more smoothly and it was a nice looking shot that went in. Those are some quick mental notes I took while I was up there. Sorry if it was too long, but these guys stuck out in my mind the most. Not quite sure why they did, but they did.
A six year girl who sat in front of me calling Ming's name all the time. But Ming didn't try very hard. The girl was a little disappointed and started calling "Cuttino".
I could not agree more! That will be something that needs to be addressed soon. His height is not near as imposing without those arms. We sat right behind the Rockets bench and there was a point where Yao and Cato were facing away and you could see Yao's legs are solid and built, but his arms were like twigs. Weight training will fix that, but not in the near future. Boathouse: they did do autographs, but I didn't see how the whole thing worked. It looked like they gave you a pass to go to a certain section and whoever was at that section you got to photo and get sigs. Rudy signed autographs for quite some time before the start of the thing.
Thanks for the updates and observations guys... ... not to mention using the same thread instead of starting 40 different ones about the same thing!
Sounds like Mr. Creampuff is using his power he gained from the Summer League. Lakers, Kings, Spurs, you must all be aware of our secret weapon, because if you don't, you will become just another victim of the creampuff man. Now where did I put my Jason Collier poster?
i learned one thing that i wish i'd known before i went: cat gives away his armbands that have "CAT" embroidered on them if you just ask! damn! i was right there too, with cat sitting on the scorer's table right in front of me! arrggghhh!!
