i can see why chase dropped as low as he did. the guy had a lot of hype going to Arizona but the knock on him was that he was very unagressive and dissapeared throuhout games. the guy probably played 40 mins a night throughout HS and college so hes never had to fight for his minutes. in the NBA, you have to be productive if you want to see the court. chase already has a short leash on him being a rookie so i think he gets he has to be assertive everytime hes in the game.
Hey, so what if the Rockets have the draft rights to nearly if not a full team of International players. At least we are not getting hosed like Rubio did to Minnesota. Although, I agree the money we put on Lull pisses me off.
They are undersized. San Antonio traded Scola because they thought he couldn't get his shot off in the NBA, other words, he was too short. Landry is 6' 7.5" - 6'8", max. The same as, Maxiell of Detroit, Blair with the Spurs, and a few others. A Prototypical power forward is 6'10" - 7' feet, the Rockets problem is, we don't know when to stop accumulating the smaller power forwards. One is all most teams will have on a roster, not four! The Rockets think the opposite, of most women, "Size doesn't Matter".
actually, I'm surprise they didn't go after Blair. He fits what they normally go after, hard working SMALL power forwards. Oh yeah, we can't have enough of them. Actually, they passed on him because, he had one too many knee surgeries.
Well considering the fact that Llull is the 2nd best pg from Spain behind Rubio, and he plays on Real Madrid (one of the best European teams) and on the Spanish National Team behind Rubio, I'd say thats as safe a bet that you can make on a second rounder...
Why does it piss you off??? The Rockets spent that money to draft Llull SO THAT THEY COULD STASH HIM OVERSEAS!!! He is MORE valuable to the Rockets by playing in Spain this year and next. He wasn't going to unseat Brooks or Lowry this year. But in a couple of seasons, if he develops on the same trajectory at which he has already progressed, the Rockets will find themselves with 3 young, talented PGs (Brooks will be 26; Lowry will be 25; and Llull will be 23). I don't get what's so hard to understand about the strategy of drafting international players. (Oh, and by the way, don't put Llull in the same category as Newley and Leunen. The latter two were drafted in the 50s, after most other teams had their crack at them. The Rockets HAD to take Llull as high as #34 because he was an actual commodity. Other teams would have taken him before the middle of the second round. He's got a higher ceiling than the other two players. Personally, I see his potential as somewhere in between Rudy Fernandez and Vasilis Spanoulis [Greek League version].)
The reality is that the Rockets have Budinger now and he is part of the rotation. Many rookies who were picked way ahead are not even in the rotation of their respective teams. I think DM made a good pick in C Bud, albeit as an afterthought.
yeah, but...T-mac being out for a while will certainly give Chase more floor time. More time to shine! But you're right overall. There are lots of picks ahead of Budinger not in a rotation. I hoping more experience will get him to smile just a tad bit more.
Hm....we shall see by the end of the season. I think Wafer's 'court awareness' was underrated by many because they have preconceptions of him being a 'low BBIQ' player. I remember some pretty sick passes from Wafer. I don't see how you could state Wafer didn't have ball handling. I'm not dissing C.Bud in any way by saying he's similar to Wafer, in fact it's a compliment because I think Wafer's a decent offensive player. Sadly he just didn't have the right attitude and patience to stick in the league. That, imo, is what C.Bud has over Wafer.
The ability to dribble competently in a straight line is not what I consider quality ball handling. That's about all Wafer brought to the table in that skill category. If there was a relatively direct path to the rim, yes he was good at getting there, but he had no change of direction or hesitation moves to speak of. Not to mention he was bad against even moderate ball pressure. He looked terrified trying to bring the ball up against Sasha Vujacic. While Chase has by no means put on a ball handling exhibition so far, he looks very smooth and confident dribbling the ball. Some of his forays into the lane have shown levels of dexterity and versatility that I didn't see in Wafer. And don't forget we're talking about a small forward and a shooting guard. There's somewhat of a curve to consider.
chase has a higher ceiling than blair from what I can tell; wait for blair to blow out his knees again... sorry to say that but it IS going to happen...
That's the big fear with Blair that kept most teams from drafting him, including probably Houston. For the Spurs, though, it makes sense. Blair cost them very little, and I think they'd just be happy if Blair makes it through his rookie contract, while Duncan's window for a championship is still open. Everything after that is gravy.
Adelman surprised me with the minutes he's giving Chase. Yes, it's very early, but I think Coach A sees the same thing we see. That Air Bud has the potential to be something special this season. That, or he's desperate. Pretty amazing that a second round pick has already got himself into the rotation.
I don't know who is the better player, but Chase Bud who can shoot and score is the player we needed more. Enough with undersized PF.
Budinger definitely finished it. Not sure if Battier was in as well. I want to say he wasnt though...
Budinger stayed in until around 3min were left in the 4th if i remember correctly. He did not finish the game to the end but played a significant amount in the 4th quarter.
Although I like Blair, I'd still take Budinger. I think he has more potential than Blair, not to mention the fact Blair could hurt his knees any day.
Chase only fell because of his perceived lack of toughness and fire. I can tell you that during his college days, it did seem like sometimes, especially things aren't going his way, he becomes almost like a sideshow (but he did have guys like Mustafa Shakur and Jerryd Bayless handling the ball most of the time). But now ever since coming to the NBA, I have seen some newfound hunger in him. He's eager to learn to play proper defense from a guy that probably has half of his athleticism, yet still able to dominate on D.
