Now that we have Sura and possibly Mutombo...Are we th ebest rebounding team in the league? I mean, JJ was the best or second best rebounding SF in the league. T-Mac will definitely be among the top 2 rebounding SG's in the league. Sura pulleddown 8+ rebounds per game while with the Hawks, so I'm guessing he can at least pull down 5 or 6 boards, which is what the PG rebounding leaders are averaging. Yao played 33 minutes last year and pulled down 9. A franchise player in this league averages around 38 minutes per game, so if you adjust Yao's numbers to 38 minutes, he's actually pulling down more than 10. I'm not saying he'll be able to play 38 minutes, btu I'm saying for the number of minutes he's on the floor, he's pulling down a great number of rebounds. If he improve, skill-wise, in this department, I could easily see him pulling down 10 rebounds in 35 minutes next year. For those 15 or so minutes thatYao is not on the floor, Mutombo will be on the floor, and we all know this guy is among the best rebounders in the league. So with all those components in place, do you guys think we are the best rebounding team in the league? I think it's a very important stat, especially because our PF's are not the greatest rebounders, so if our TEAM makes up for it, their effectiveness could be improved.
i dont care to be the best rebounding team in the leauge, as long as we get our defensive rebounds, while getting a few offensive rebounds.
It's an interesting possibility. If we become less turn over prone with our new roster, increase our rebounds and stay anywhere near where we were defensively last season, we've got a scary team to say the least.
And with any of the PGs, TMac, and JJ or Boki, we will also have a nice fast break. We could really use some easy buckets.
We found osmeone with the same stats, half the price, better size, and better defense for (I'm estimating) 1/4th the price. The only thing Francis can do better than Sura is penetrate. I would say Sura has the slight edge in terms of rebounding, passing, shooting, defense, size, and experience. I love Francis, but this was better for our team. It wasn't smart to pay him 11M for what he brought to this team. He is easily worth 11M on a team where he fits, but we are not one of those teams.
The someone we found is wearing #1, and the 'throw in' will be wearing #3. I am really sorry Stevie is gone, but happier with TMc. I have always been a fan of Sura, tho his counterpart, Ward, is a non-fav of mine. I was referencing, slightly tounge-in-cheek, the rebounding ability of SF which has been prodigious in his years in the league.
ummm, his career percentages make francis look like larry bird (ok, not quite). perhaps you should take a trip to one of the many databases full of nba stats and familiarize yourself with sura's career production. all these gm's must just be crazy to let a guy who does virtually everything better than max contract steve francis just sit around in the offseason and not offer him big money. i mean, if francis is worth 11M where he fits, then sura must at least be worth that where he fits in.
The Rockets didn't lead the NBA in rebounding last year, and they've downgraded in 2 spots (PF, PG) rebounding-wise while only upgrading in one (SG). IMO there are 2 or 3 better rebounding teams than us in our own division, including San Antonio and Utah, and maybe Denver.
Actually, Howard's a much more consistent rebounder than Cato was. He doesn't have the 17, 18 rebound explosions, but he also doesn't disappear on the glass as much as Cato had a tendency to do. Sura's a definate downgrade from Steve, but T-Mac should be able to bring down about 3 more boards than Cat did, so it should be a wash there. Hopefully, Yao will improve his stamina and rebounding, and if we get Deke he'll give us some more strength on the boards. We should be top 3 in positive rebounding differential, I think.
That's not much of a stretch. We were 4th last year. And Cleveland, who was ahead of us, will probably go down now that they've been Boozered.
deke will give us what cato gave us but play 10 less minutes probably. overall, with mutombo we should be right around last year's numbers and possibly top them if yao steps it up, so another 4th or so finish in differential could be expected. #1? i'm not so sure.
Howard's per-minute rebounding is subpar for his career, while Cato's is above average. The fact that the 2 accrued the same number of rebounds last season per game, despite Howard playing 35 minutes per game to Cato's 25 per game, is especially telling. Juwon brings more to the table offensively, but to claim that he's a more consistant rebounder is ludicrous. Juwon Howard is much more akin to Mo Taylor than to Kelvin Cato. I.E., both will give you about 9 rebounds per 48 min, compared to 13 from Cato. Granted. Backcourt-wise, McGrady and (PG by committee) should come close to the 10 boards a game pulled down by Steve and Cuttino on an annual basis. McGrady can get you 6 to 7, and Ward/Lue/Sura should add another 3. Not a "wash", but close. It's the downgrade at PF that will weaken us on this front. I believe Yao can get better at rebounding, and a solid backup center will help, but it's unlikely that we will improve from last season's numbers. Which is not to say that this team cannot be a much better team than last year's, despite poorer rebounding.
I won't delude myself and say he's better. However, he makes a portion of the MLE. The Chron says him and Ward took up MOST of the MLE. So let's say 1M of the MLE is remaining. Let's say Ward got 1.5M. That leaves 2.4M for Sura. Now, that means Sura's contract looks like: 2.4M 2.64M 2.88M 3.12M (Option) Steve Francis makes around 11M or 12M? Let's say 10M, just for argument's sake. So now, Francis is making over 4 times what Sura is making. FOUR TIMES. Now, look at Francis last year. Scoring, rebounding, passing, defense, turnovers, FG%, FT%, 3PT%, leadership, etc.... Are you telling me that under JVG's system (hell ANY system), Francis is worth four times more than Sura? Hell, in JVG's system, I would argue tha he's not even 2 times better. He's probably 1.5 times better. BUT FOR ARGUMENT'S SAKE. Let's say Francis is, by some magical argument, 3 times better than Sura in JVG's system. Still, we got ourselves a good deal from Sura, and we got rid of Francis, who is not worth his contract on this team. Throw in the cap flexibility, the versatility, and the fact that we also have Ward and Lue? It's quite possible that our PG spot will be either as good as or better than last year, but it will costs is approximately 5M rather than 11M. It will also give us different looks in different matchups as well as the option of playing Sura at the 2 or 3.
sura is an EXTREMELY poor man's francis. his best stats on a bad team don't measure up to what steve CONSISTENTLY did for 4 years and on a competitive rockets team. i think sura could be a pretty good signing but lets not think we have an upgrade at the 1 spot from last year.
Does the fact that Howard plays more minutes than Cato have a lot, or even everything, to do with his better rebound-per-game numbers? Looking at it more closely, you're right. That said, I still don't think there will be a signficant dropoff. Let's say, assuming we sign him, Creaky Deke gives us about 5-6 rebounds in 18 minutes. Add that to 10 from Yao, 7 from Howard, and 4 from Taylor, that's about 26 boards from the two power spots. Last year we were looking at 9 from Yao, 7 from Cato, 5 from Mo, and 4 from Spoon. 25 rebounds. To be honest, if we dealt Mo and had Weatherspoon as our primary backup, we'd be much better off in terms of defense and rebounding. But I think we'll be all right. While it looks like I was wrong in saying Howard was a more consistent rebounder (I do think he's a better position rebounder), if we can add a good backup C I don't anticipate a drop in rebounding from the frontcourt. What McGrady, Sura, and Jackson will bring to the table may make the difference.
