Deke the best back up center in the league and a top 12 center in the NBA. Head a top five six man and would start for some teams. Howard shot is erractic but ex nba all star that helped with Yao out. Big Jake 7'2 six fouls V-Span has shown solid skills and has a bright future. Novak I believe top five shooter in the league that doesn't play. Kirk started for us, New Orleans, Jazz, only 23 with athletic ability and ball handling skills. JLucas six to ten teams wanted him and had trade value before the deadline. A small quick point guard with a outside shot. Just becasue JVG doesn't play these guys doesn't mean our bench sucks, he just has a tight 7 to 8 man rotation. So if one these guys shine in the playoffs don't believe the hype like our bench just woke up.
deke has no offense howard USED to be an all star Jake wont get many minutes vspan wont play novak wont play kirk has incredible athletic ability but not a great shooter jlucas cant shoot
figures a thread like this would start after last nights performance...the team scored 120+ points...what did you expect the bench to do?
I actually think the Rockets bench isin't too bad either. We finally have our 6th man stud in Luther and we have 2 solid vets in Deke and Juwan as well as a good slasher in Kirk Snyder. Considering the fact that we have hands-down, the best starting lineup in the league, that bench ain't so bad. If Bonzi had played up to par and Sura hadn't been injured, you'd be looking at the second or third best team depth-wise in the league C: Yao/Deke/Jake (easily the best in the league) PF: Hayes/JHo (Probably one of the weaker PF combos, but completly counteracted by our awesome C rotation.) SF:Battier/Bonzi/Snyder (Very good SF rotation (top 8 in the league I'd say), if things had worked out with Bonzi.) SG: T-mac/Head (One of the strongest SG rotations in the league. (Top 3) PG: Sura/Rafer/V-span/JL3 (Solid PG lineup, if Sura hadn't been injured, this would've been pretty awesome. PG would probably be a strength for us if Sura were still here. Top 8 in the league) ...So yeah, Rockets bench ain't bad at all, and if things had gone as they should've in my imagination...ah. Oh well.
of the 3 players that get burn on the Bench Head Howard Mutombo we expect no offense from Deke, but his defense is always there... Head and Howard have to be the entire bench offense almost 20 points a night.. if they are off it puts tremendous strain on Tmac and Yao because there arn't many more players that can step it up
I really like the Synder he has size, strength and handle and he is also very young (23) i fully expect him to start if he can add a jumper to his arsenal and add some IQs to his brain
yeah the bench isnt that bad the problem is that the bench isnt that good either. luther has come on strong since his shoulder issue which is a good sign to see, but there have been times where he has been inconsistent in the season, scoring 11 one night and 3 the next. the same can be said of juwan whose play has taken a nosedive recently (hopefully the good fourth quarter he had against the hornets continues) if we could get 20-25 points consistently from our bench i would be satisfied. i figure tmac and yao will combine for 55-60, hayes and battier get around 15-20 and rafer around 10 on his own. on the lower end that adds up to 100 points which on most nights should be enough for the rockets to win since their defense is the most consistent thing about the team.
thread started by a guy who only has 99 post in over 2 years, and replied by a guy who has over 300 post in 1 month
why does everyone say deke has no offense? He does, he just can't create. He's vital to our offense on getting putbacks from our misses. Plus he can hit the occasional close-range j/hook. It's not like he's ryan bowen.
- Luther's been great, but he needs to improve over the summer. The improvement we've seen has been incremental over last year and I'd like to see him develop at a faster rate. He needs to show us that he can be more than just a shooter, he needs to be a playmaker. Scoring or passing, we need him to do more of one or the other. - Juwan was great when Yao went out, but he's mostly struggled since then. His rebounding's gone down, his defense is worse, and his mid-range isn't falling. Unfortunately, we'll only see him decline from this point on. - Deke is all-world defense. If Yao's got foul trouble, we don't have to worry too much. Deke's got his back. That's our bench right there. Not much, and definitely needs improvement. We need a true sixth man; someone that will come into the game and make the other team say "Damn! We have to guard him too?" We also need to replace Juwan, pronto! Right now, our bench is one of the weakest in the league. That's not too surprising as we have one of the best starting lineups in the league.
First half bench points: 6. Luther seems to be the only Rocket who can put up any points off the bench.
Juwan has to step up offensively. Luther will have some jitters in the playoffs. You can't expect him to score consistently in the playofffs and be a spark off the bench unless he pulls a Cassell. If Juwan doesn't give us at least 8PPG, our bench will be a detriment.
