I don't follow. Without Bonzi we would have had 3 1/2 players who could back up Tracy - Snyder, Battier (even if he starts he won't be full time), Novak, & Bowen. With Wells we have 4 1/2. I like Jame's shooting better, but I like Bonzi's size and versatility. Both have a fire that this team needs, both play solid D. Assuming Novak, Head, Battier, & possibly Jacobson can provide deep shooting, I am fine with Bonzi because he won't chuck and he has a solid mid-range to close range game. Or maybe he will magically recover his Portland touch and shoot 36-38%, even if only 2 threes attempts per game.
MJ would have been the better fit in the Rockets' scheme because he has range and can create his own shot. His proposed contract was also better because it would have been a long deal, not a one year rental. But, I prefer Wells' character flaws to James' character flaws. I only expect Wells to create some bad publicity with stupid off-the-court stuff, not disrupt the offense because he thinks he's the real superstar.
So you say we didn't consider Bonzi realistic. In fact once the MJ thing blew up we didn't even bother to save the MLE for a rainy day, and rather spent much of it on players we didn't need to (Nocak, JL3) because we didn't see any realistic target left. Yet you want to credit CD for being planfull this offseason in another thread. I don't get it. JV, I have a different take. I think Bonzi is more of a chemistry risk, he has been more a knucklehead on the court and with teammates. Mike James says some arrogant things, but plays super hard every night and has been a good role player (with us, with the champion Detroit team). But despite Bonzi having more character flaws, he is probably more talented and slightly younger. He probably covers even more of our team weaknesses and creates more mismatches. Like I said I would have been thrilled to role with either guy for a full MLE before the FA season started. I am thrilled Wells fell to us. I still have questions about our 1 spot, but without Wells I have questions about our 2 spot--pick your poison there. And their is no way to get around Wells at 2.1 mil next year or 4.5 mil after 2 years is fantastic. At a minimum we get a cheapy cheap deal for 1-2 years (probably 1 year even if he wants to resign with us), and we are in the best position to resign with an MLE (year 1) or Early Bird (year 2) if we want to keep him in our plans, I don't see over MLE offers coming from anywhere else. While I would have loved to have James in a full MLE too, it is possible you would be overpaying in year 3 or 4 based on his age and position, once quickness goes in a PG they drop off fast.
A little benefit of the doubt. I don't think he would play stupid with Tmac and Yao, and of course, JVG. Otherwise... nevermind..
I rarely make long well thought out posts, largely due to my weak attention span, but I'm going to give this a shot. 1) Saying that Bonzi didn't improve our shooting ability is a falsehood. Perhaps the season is so far our that people seem to think our only problem was three point shooting. Our problem was all shooting. When Yao and Tracy weren't in the game, there was no one on this roster who could consistently score. Not just hit 3 pointers, but actually score. You don't have to shoot the 3 to be successful, you just have to be able to shoot SOMETHING. Wells is a high percentage shooter and that is a huge asset for this team. 2) People aren't giving enough attention to this size of Wells. How many times the last two years have we seen the other team's 2guard back down our 2guard and score easy points? Way too often. 3) Bonzi is actually more a team first guy than Mike James. Bonzi may be a first rate jerk (I don't know but the stories seem to suggest it) but he has never been about taking a great amount of shots or wanting to score all the time. Also, from what I've read his teammates do tend to like him. On the nightshift last night they even mentioned how Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello, and Rick Adelman all said they'd coach him again in a heartbeat. James on the other hand is very concerned with his shots and scoring average. 4) The criticism of JVG is warranted in some cases and not in others. I saw a post where they said "when was the last wing player we had that JVG had post up" or something like that. My response would be who should he have posted up? David Wesley? Luther Head? Ryan Bowen? We haven't had the players at the 2 or 3 (other than T-Mac) who would be capable of posting up. Now we do, and seeing as how JVG is a fan of high percentage scoring and not volume scoring, I think he will certainly utilize Bonzi in the post. I wanted Bonzi from day 1 in the offseason and I believe I stated in that in the initial "Free agent target" thread. But it did seem like he wasn't an option for us and until recently he wasn't coming down on his price. This isn't a situation where the Rockets settled for Bonzi because they couldn't find a better option. Bonzi screwed himself out of a job and had to settle for a team that had something left to pay.
When the MJ deal fell apart, I think Bonzi was negotiating with the Kings on a larger deal already and Salmons was not in the pic yetm. there was no realistic probability to bring bonzi in. So, they went after Spanoulis rather than saving in case of some remote chance. After that, there is even less realisitc chance that Bonzi signs. So. They used more of the mle. Perfectly reasonable. I am not saying they don't prefer MJ anyhow. But if Bonzi said he was interested in playing in HOU for the MLE (as MJ did, they may well have taken a more serious shot at him early in July.
Wells will be way better than MJ. He's got fire like MJ, he can hit the long range stuff too, but everything else, Wells is better. Something I haven't read yet here is the mention of how much space Yao frees up for his teammates to get rebounds. Remember how many rebounds Sura used to get because Yao cleared space. Francis too in the beginning. The spacing created by Yao is going to make Wells look VERY good.
That's a good point, and it makes me feel even better about his signing. I shouldn't trip so hard on his three-point percentage; if open, Wells can score, and that's a step up from a lot of guys we had last year. The biggest advantage Mike James' signing would have brought is that it would have been guaranteed for more than one year. Even if Bonzi works out as well as we hope, we'll be right back where we were without him next year. Hopefully it will be a buyer's market next year and things work out great for him on the Rockets next season; that way we'll have a decent shot at resigning him. Otherwise we'll have to hope Head and Snyder come along great or find somebody else.
the only reason the rockets wanted mike james was bcuz he was the only decent 2 available in their price range. less money for bonzi, more size and rebounding, and i read somewhere here on clutchfans that bonzi actually doesnt need to take many shots to get his numbers.
Excellent points and descriptions for someone w/o an attention span. I only take contention with point 3. Mike James plays his heart out. He was a role player on the Pistons championship team (and LB spoke well of him) and he was a critical role player in our playoff run 2 years ago. He also was clearly our #1 free agent target. We wouldn't have put a 4 year contract on the table if we thought he was a chemistry problem. Too many people judge MJ on his media comments and the Tmac wave him off thing in the heat of one battle, but when it comes to court play or him as a hard nosed team player--which is what we should care about-- I have never heard criticisms. Bonzi on the other hand is even more talented and is more of a match-up problem. But if I recall he was traded from Portland (he wanted to be the man?) and Memphis didn't hesitate to send him to Sac. For a player as talented as Bonzi to be traded so much and not get lots of FA offers their must be reasons known within the league. Mike James on the other hand was traded because he was one of those solid excellent back-up marginal starter type players with little growth potential at a reasonable contract, until last season when he in fact he showed he was much better than just "solid". Mike James is a PG, he had as many assists as Rafer did last year. Mike James was brought in to be the starting 1, a guy to improve on Rafer's ability to knock down open 3s--key when you run an offense through Yao/Tmac, improve defense/toughness, and be scorer/creater when Yao/Tmac needed a break or are off their game. Getting either James to solidify our 1 or Bonzi to solidify our 2 took care of a major problem area. Both also provide important 3rd scorers. James improves 3 shooting and quickness more, Bonzi improves rebounding and size and can take more pressure off of Tmac/Battier at the wings. Either player does a ton to improve our line-up, I am thrilled we got one of them when it looked like we were going to have to count on much less proven guards.
Let me clarify that I wasn't trying to imply James was a chemistry problem. I think he is a volume shooter though whereas Bonzi is not. I never meant to imply that James didn't give max effort or get along with teammates, just that Bonzi doesn't seem to need the ball as much as James.
Absolutely, we have a littel insurance if things get touchy this season...We have someone who can man the ship if TRACY....well you know
Spanoulis will be the one pushing the ball up.For all this talk about Alston,I see him being relegated to coming off the bench after the first 10 -20 games.He and Bonzi will work well together out there.
Bonzi>>>>>>MJames Impossible is nothing! Just several days ago, most people thought it was impossible to sign Bonzi with such a contract, but now it is true! reallt sweet! Go Rockets!
can Lucas give us anything? I would suggest yes - he will. Summer league maybe just that, summer league and second rate. But JL3's numbers and control over the games was eye-catching. Got to expect he would at the very least push Alston and Span for minutes. Competition for spots is a good thing gentlemen. Depth, baby.
It looks like that James is better than Wells. But actually James gets 20.3 ppg with 15.5 shots, and Wells gets 13.6 ppg with 11.8 shots.
I'll tell you this much, if we had signed james and wells was available for a trade somehwere in the season, we'd probly them striaght up.
Since we have Bonzi, he's better. If we had Mike James, he would be better. In all seriousness they are totally different types of players. Also, You can't compare those two because mike james would of costed us the full mle. A better question would be Mike James or Vspan, Lucas, Novak, and Wells.
guys be serious with these off-season additions all we have is positives. Rebounds-Yao, T-Mac, and Bonzi will get there's and in the process because other teams want to prevent them from getting theres battier and chuck will use there high b-ball iq and hustle to surprise other teams, and thats not taking into consideration the rest of the roster Scoring- Yao, T-Mac, and Bonzi will do what they do, if one is double teamed the other two are open, but now battier is the mix and he will knock down the open shot, all are shooters will become better because of more open looks, the post up game will tremendous with the terrible three, slashing will be left to killbil, i personally think because of all the weapons we have we dont really need a slasher, someone is gonna get double-teamed at every play and someone will score Assists- Alston will have a year of competition for his starting spot and will step up his game, his And 1 talents will be seen this year, better passes than the reigning MVP Steve Nash, you better believe it, because of all the mismatches caused, there will be unlimited assist opportunities Defense- Just look at what we have now, if you think that are defense will suck, im sorry but you're just stupid We are making the finals, you non-believers better believe it
