First of all... wtfux0r? l4m0r n00b comez in n lk urry1 sux0r 0n teh n00bz pen0r!!!!!1!! Second, David Wesley is NOT as great of a basketball player nor even close to the physical speciman Sir Jimmy "Action" Jackson was. Now I know what DBC went through when Walt was canned. relient energy and colin pine be damned, Oscar Torres and now Jimmy, now what obscure figure am I going to find to obsess over? Reece Gaines? Lastly, this is purely for my own b*stard curiousity... but you have that username so you can say a large amount of people, namely feminine entities (LOL omfg TITIES) have called you by it. y/n>>>> ?
its not like I wouldn't have had a breakthrough thread if I was to assert my own opinion, of course I've only seen 5 rockets games this season (HORRIBLE SIN), but I'm back in Houston for 2 weeks untill prague, all thats been said is that, yeah, this team looks better, but I of radio mcgrady 4th quarter tricks and giggles, don't know much about a team I know not of, I thought barry was good, I think wesley does look a little bit like mario, he is definately well muscled boki I always will love jimmy, you were beautiful NOW LETS WIN SOME FU*@&i&%N CHAMPIONSHIPS
You forgot to mention the fact that those teams we're chasing have all had great records over the past several seasons. Good record = low picks. The Rockets not only have had pretty high picks over the years. #14, 16, 18 in one year, Followed by #9, #7(after the trade with NJ), #1 & #15. If any of the top teams in the league had those picks in the past years, I'm sure they'd have A LOT better players picked. Your cut-off year(1997), btw, seems a bit suspicious. Since two players drafted in the year 1996 were Kobe Bryant and Peja Stojakovic.
so, who are we talking here. chicago?? golden state?? the clippers, nuggets, knicks, blazers, celtics, magic, bucks, raptors, wizards, cavs, hornets, hawks etc...?? which one of these teams have had a stellar draft record that has stood out to you?? bad record = high picks. high picks = better teams than ours. who are these teams that have done such a stellar job of drafting players and not missing a beat?? if you cant name 15 teams that have a better future, then you cant tell me that cd is below average. did you look at all the talent that slipped past those top teams, or are you just concentrating on houstons imperfect science?? i dont get it. i think you are missing the big picture here. your off looking for gold while we are polishing our diamonds. every team drafts in hopes that they will find just one of what we have. while cds off assembling a young two headed monster for the next decade that is going to attract players like flies, you all are worrying about why we didnt draft rashard lewis or keep richard jefferson. i started in 97 because that was when cd became gm. you are welcome to add those 2 players so that sacramento and la at least have something to show for that time period.
I made that statement in another thread and a regular poster responded with a list of about 20 teams that supposedly had the equivalent of one of our stars, then another list of 8 or 10 teams that had 2 stars comparable to ours.
CD's record: 1997 24. Rodrick Rhodes 1998 14. Michael Dickerson 16. Bryce Drew 18. Mirsad Turckan 41. Cuttino Mobley 1999 22. Kenny Thomas (#24 was AK47) Steve Francis trade 2000 15. Jason Collier (Turkoglu went #16) 31. Dan Langhi (traded Eduard Najera to Dallas) 2001 Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong traded for Eddie Griffin 2002 Yao Ming, Bostan Nachbar, Tito Maddox (2nd round) 2003 44. Malik Badiane 2004 56. V. Spanoulis trade with Dallas And between Rudi and JVG, both known Veterans coaches, we have developed who? Cuttino and Steve who are still two of the most undisciplined freestyle guards in the league. Yao who under JVG and Ewing seems to have gone backward in his development in so many ways. Not angry at anyone but I am frustrated and tired of ugly ball. As much as it seems some of our players are as well. Interesting comments SF came forth with in the latest Magic thread about his former coach. So we live and die now with CD and JVG's ability to trade for and attract Veterans. This team reminds me of Helen Hunt with Jack Nicholson in "As Good as it Gets" - "I just want a normal boyfriend, why can't I have a normal boyfriend?" and her mother comes up behind her and interjects: "It doesn't exist, honey." When does Maloney come off the cap?
He didn't do much of anything, except surround Hakeem with minimal talent. Horry and Cassell were Rudy picks, and Elie is a guy Rudy coveted. You can maybe credit him with the Thorpe trade - the drafts prior to Horry though were awful.
Tha's been my whole argument as to the reasoning behind why Nachbar was traded. He's had almost a full season worth of NBA game time to prove he deserved to be played regularly. He never broke out. He never dazzled the coaching staff who, after 3 years, I trust to know if he has the skills and talent to perform at the NBA level consistently on a regular basis. I'm sure that if he was even remotely impressive, he would have gotten the PT. His alleged differences with JVG aside, Boki clearly didn't impress anyone enough to warrant the minutes or the roster spot on the Rockets. Let me also add that if Boki was in fact becoming a problem, I'm glad he was traded. This is Yao and T-Mac's ship, not Bostjan Nachbar's. BTW, you should post more often. Good discussion has become hard to come by over the past couple seasons. If I recall, most die-hard Rockets fans weren't too thrilled with that pick at the time.
Great posts Daddy. While I agree CD"s picks have left something to be desired,he is a master of " Let's Make A Deal".I also have the utmost respect for him as a person,so when he is denigrated in the manner he often is,it gives me pause.CD has represented Houston well in numerous capacities. Like Daddy said,he consistently puts us in a position to succeed.Isn't that the measure of whether he's going his job well?
Could you elaborate on this please? I think Yao Mings game has shown improvement each year. He is becoming a goto player, which he certainly was not when he arrived.
Excellent post. I'm glad you mentioned the dislike of JVG's dictatorial policies that one mag described as "relentlessly manipulative" as it has been a stumbling block for me to supporting the team as much as usual. I can tolerate him if they play well. Well I thought the Wesley trade was very dumb. We got smaller and older, though I was not a Boki believer. Our rebounding seemed like the main problem. I missed the last game, but apparently we looked so much better. I can see that it could well be that our defense and team speed got better. I wasn't thinking of it as T-Mac solves the small forward problem and Wesley is is a somewhat adequate soloution at point. Maybe this could turn out to be like the Thorpe for Drexler trade in which the overall good play of Clyde made up for the loss of Throrpe's rebounding. With Tracy getting more boards at forward and Wesley helping wiith the longer boards maybe we haven't lost too much rebounding, an existing severe problem.. I am now cautiously optimistic that we will look better for the next two years, until all the old guys, including Barry and Wesley come off the books or resign for old role player contracts. That is really our only hope as we still have next to nothing to trade with.
I agree. I agree that we have our core down. And I agree it is MUCH eaiser to find role players to build around a core than it is to obtain a star player and the core iteslf. The problem with finding the role players is DOING it. • Can CD/JVG (and the Rockets scouts) find that hidden gem in the draft (assuming we draft somewhere in the teens)? Having the pick and FINDING the talent are two different things. We can't whif on this pick like we have in the past. • Can CD/JVG lure a good player here for the MLE? Someone like a Stromile Swift for example? Will FAs want to play here? • Can CD/JVG be able to make the right trades for the right fits? (sometimes garbage for garbage that fits better). We have shown some ability here with the Barry and Wesley trades. Barry was a slam dunk. Wesley was questionable but is looking promising. • Will Les allow the team to take on more salary and use the team's 5.2M Trade Exception?
This may be a strange place to bring this up, but I don't like new threads on on-going and intertwined topics. Is it possible that JVG is not an inept offensive coach, but that he is using a crawl, walk, run (or to be more basketball specific; crawl, walk, run, fast break) strategy. That is we have to start somewhere. It is an unreasonable expectation that all players will fully understand all the plays on day one (or day two, or maybe month one, or perhaps even year one). As I understand JVG, he does like practice time and he will never have enough of it. Did he start the team off with a remedial offense because that is all it could handle? Basketball IQ is a phrase that has been used around here often. And with good reason, IMO. The first offensive set he implemented was getting the ball to Yao Ming down low (hard to argue with that strategy). We know how long that one play took. But you have to admit, it is starting to work. And of course JVG being JVG, he started with the defense first. With that more established, he is turning to the offense. The offense has opened up recently, is that just the logical extension from step one? Are we now growing to step two? I think that it is very likely that our offense will grow into something more sophisticated and better with time and repetitions. Peolpe often complain that JVG does not adjust his coaching style to his players. Maybe he has. Maybe he had to "dumb down" his plans because this is all that players unfamilure with each other can handle, at this point. Just two cents from a guy who thinks JVG is a high quality coach who has a clue as to what he is doing. Comments appreciated.
hmm who knows maybe! Sounds optimistic to me and yeah see CD has obtained some good playersl ike Cat and Dickerson and KT. Francis, Yao, Tmac.
Tivo'd (that a word?) the Cavs and Bucks games. Just watched them both and we are a changed team. Moving the ball crisply, not much dribbling, penetrate/dish, hitting the open man, pushing the ball. TMac is one incredible player with great court awareness, passing skills, and the ability to get into the paint almost at will. And down the stretch, he'll win a lot of games for us. Yao is slowly figuring it out and Deke is the perfect backup for him. He needs to tutor Yao in Elbows 101. Our soft underbelly is still the 4 spot, but what team doesn't have one? A healthy Sura, with the additions of Barry and Wesley are making a real difference. Howard is finding his niche. All in all, we look much better; was really impressed with our D. If our guards can knock down open looks they are going to get all season long, we'll be tough come playoff time. D R
which one of those guys did you hope we would develope?? rhodes and dickerson brought us steve. im pretty sure it was us that developed cat and kenny thomas. im pretty sure we were on our way to developing eddie griffin untill he started tryin to shoot people, but i was never happy about his release. maybe yao ming developed himself, but he did it on our watch. 1997 19. scott pollard 31. charles obannon (missed bobby jackson) 1998 11. bonzi wells 40. korleone young (missed harpring, davis, r lewis and mobley twice) 1999 55. melvin levett 2000 14. mateen cleaves 44. brian cardinal (missed q richardson and m redd twice) 2001 9. rodney white 37. mehmet okur (missed joe johnson, r jefferson, randolph, t parker, and areanas) 2002 23. tayshawn prince 2003 2. darko milicic 21. carlos delphino 58. andreas gliniadakis (passed on carmelo, bosh, wade, heinrich, and every single player not named lebron james) 2004 54. ricky paulding this is your world champion guys. who better to compare drafts with?? the team that has what we want. this where you ultimately want to be. its not counting your draft picks, its holding a trophy. from what i see, the best team in the land hasnt done a stellar job of drafting anyone.
My guess, which I think is right , is that they were also looking at Sura's rebounding, which they had mentioned a number of times before in the press - Sura is a really good rebounder for his size. Unfortunately, playing point, he gets fewer chances and has to concentrate just as much on getting back on D or getting out for the outlet to run the break. With both Sura and Wesley in the backcourt, Sura can be an aggressive rebounder while deferring more of the PG duties to Wesley and vice-versa. Theoretically, Jim Jackson could have done this, too, but he was much much much more of a SF than a PG. What has happened is, the Rockets have essentially gone to one semi-PG (Sura) and 2 SF (Jackson, T-Mac) to 2 semi-PG and a SF (T-Mac). Assuming your rebounds amongst the 3 stay the same, you get more speed, better ballhandling and more on the ball pressure/better d. We'll see?
Daddy - Your argument is good but flawed in one vital respect for me. I don't care what other teams are doing. Either Houston is winning championships or they're not. Either they are making good draft choices or they aren't. In every draft there are picks that end up being good and those that end up being bad. Inevitably, any GM will have some stinkers (especially if they don't have great picks) and it is easier to compare across GM's, but at the end of the day, even when doing well, you can't settle for it. That is why San Antonio continues to get new, good foreign players, etc.
