I think Chuck Hayes was the Rockets best POWER forward last year. No reason Juwan Howard and Stro should get more minutes than him. I saw a TV report a couple of weeks ago and he was practicing with John Lucas on his jump shot. Could be to the Rockets what Udonis Haslam is for the heat. People said he short but he can play defense better than Howard and Stro. Like to see him get 25 plus minutes next year.
He won't be a Rocket next year. HE sucks. He couldn't get playing time last year when Yao and Deke were hurt. There is no way he is in a Rockets uniform.
Well, I suppose Lampe's not very good, otherwise someone would have played him; but does it ever seem that certain coaches break out in a rash when they have a Euro on their roster? Looks like Chuck Hayes will be an integral part of the roster next year. Good! Also makes me wonder if the deleted thread from a week ago mentioned Stromile's exit stage left? Anyone? Anyone? (sound of crickets chirping) Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?
No there were no hints whatsoever that they wanted to move Stro. They said he had stuff to improve on (in terms of consistency and stuff), but nothing that made it seem like they were shopping him.
does anyone know what hayes' wingspan is? i was wondering this last year because he just seems to be able to reach the ball when he shouldn't.
The way he keeps saying "shooting' makes me think Carney and Reddick and if you had your choice you would have to go with the added height and athleticism.
Not sure. I think he just has really good timing and quickness. Charles Barkley also blocked a fair number of shots early in his career, even though he was only 6'6.
Yep, it's his quickness and positioning. He gets perfect position and he has quick feet. He will block 10 times the amount of shots that Juwan blocks but they won't go down as a block. They will go down as steals or deflections because he is slapping the ball out of the opponent's hands before they even get the shot up.
Hayes needs a king-sized iron to iron out that shot of his. His best bet is to probably emulate Juwan's stroke. I doubt he can fully revamp his shooting stroke, so making it tighter and toning down the hitch is probably his best option.
I don't really care if he gets it ironed out. We need to put shooters on the floor around him and let him do what he does probably better than any other player in the NBA, that is wipe up any mess. You put Mike James, McGrady, Yao, and a shooter at the 2, on the floor with guys like Hayes, and Hayes can simply control the glass, just like Big Ben does in Detroit. We need shooters at the 1 and 2 and we need to ditch that clothesline jumper of Juwan's. I hate that thing.
[After Juwan finally hits a jumper, after 4 straight misses] Bill Worrel: You can hang a wash on that jumper. Me: SHUT THE F*** UP!
If I was Matt, I would retort "Yeah, and you can hang the whole neighborhood's wash on that thing when he misses it."
Just the opposite. It sounded like he didn't think power forward was a position of need and seemed optimistic that Swift will eventually catch on to what he wants. Talking about team needs, he mentioned a shooting guard with size, backup pg, but didn't mention power forward. I would guess we have Howard, Swift and Hayes at the 3-man pf rotation next season.
For the record I think JJ is a college basketball god. If he gets on the floor with Yao and Tmac, he will get open shots and he will knock them down.
Btw, BigM, I hope you wrote to Clutch about everything you're afraid to post here. It might be nothing really new, but I'm sure we'd at least like for Clutch to be as well-informed as possible, and he can tell us the things that are safe to reveal, or everything after the fact.
