Can Chase Budinger contribute this year?

Chase looks smoother than I expected, and that jumper looks soft. As for contested shots, I was cringing at that FT line jumper last night thinking it was a bad shot, but he hit it for the 3 pt play.

What about Walt Williams as a comparison? Not what he COULD have been, what he was.

Wizard Stats

 

If you think its personal with morey, then that's your thing. If you can't decipher the words or if you hang on to every word, then that's your deal also. Of course you need a cornerstone, but as a gm, you have to get that guy that no one expected to be anything more than average. I can sight example after example but you wouldn't nderstand it more than likely. So instead of giving many, I'll will use 1, the lakers.

The lakers have been the best franchise in sports over the last 30 yrs mostly because the have great management. They have been able to always stay 1 step ahead by knowing when players have maxxed out and moving them a yr early vs a yr late. You can start with the showtime lakers when they traded Norm Nixon for the rights to byron scott. Magic was pissed at the time, but the move opend their window longer and scott helped them win 3 more titles. After struggling for half of the 90's when Magic suddenly retired after a finals appearance, they started to collect some good talent to add to vlade and elden, the drafted nve in the 2nd rd, eddie jones in the first rd. In 96 they traded a very solid vet in vlade for a high schooler and signed shaq as a free agent. Of course shaq was the main cog, but have a assortment of good players around playing at a high level helped a lot. NVE, the 2nd rd pick made the asg as well as eddie jones and young kobe. The team won a lot of games and even some playoff games. West saw the flatline in the team and traded jones, campbell, nve and got guys like glen rice and rick fox to accent the shaq and kobe. After that run was over, they traded shaq a yr early vs a yr late, but they got odom,grant,and butler. Can't replace shaq, but they got disposable talent. They drafted bynum, traded for ariza, and stole gasol. Through this, they still acquired young pieces. In 4 yrs after trading shaq, they made a finals appearance and won a title. The long drawn out moral is at some point, morey is going to have to draft a all star caliber talent. Yes we know duncan is the wheel, but manu challenged him for finals mvp against detroit and parker won it last time vs cleveland. If parker and manu are just avg role players, the spurs aren't still the powerhouse they are. As duncan has gotten older, parker has gotten better and now the team can play well even when duncan isn't the old duncan. That's what I mean by getting a all star talent late that can help sustain the high level of play of the team. You may call it unfair, I call it the truth. Budinger and taylor may be solid, landry,lowry, and brooks may be good and young, but somewhere in there, 1 needs to be in conversation as top 10 or so for his position. You can't always trade for or sign those kinda guys. Not to mention, if they do show explosive upside, they become very good trade chips. Right now, the rockets can't send a single player out and get quality back. They could package a few together to get something back though. We can go on and on and you can think that dissecting every word of my post will stop me from speaking my mind or thoughts. I'm not from the pink shirt wearing, metrosexual generation that can't take critique or criticism. I can talk for days about who I played with and against as well as who I know in pro sports and break down plays,angles, and matchups on a chalkboard far better than a lot of guys on this board. It doesn't make me any better, but if I played D-1 and played against Doug Christie, Mashburn, wesley, and guys like that or played pro am in my college days vs a guy who never played even jr high, then I think I may have a little more knowledge. Just like I own a trucking business and through experience, I think I can tell a guy about the highs and the lows associated with it. It never has bothered me to get challenged and there are a few guys that jump on every post I make, that doesn't faze me either. I can cut and paste and destroy a lot of posters post with pure basketball concepts, but I would rather uplift the knowledge than surpress it. Speak as you will say what you want about me, but I'm as loyol as rockets fans as there is, but that doesn mean I have to be blind.

 

I think Budinger can and will contribute this year.

 

Morey is a better GM than Mitch Kupchak.

What percentage of second round picks become All-Star types?

Any GM would be lucky to get one during his whole career. At that point it is rarely skill and scouting - but pure luck. Otherwise, that particular GM would have drafted him in the first round or traded up to get him. If you know someone is going to be an All-Star you don't wait until the second round even if he is a sleeper.

Lee - do you mean to say that Budinger was a bad pick? Or even Landry? Because they probably won't be top 10 at their position?

 

I don't think that it matters if Scola can't make the contested jumper. At least he can make most of the time when he's open. You can't say that for most big men in the Nba.

 

Scola doesn't take a contested jumpber, you know why? Because it is a bad shot and he is smarter than that, if they contest it, he backs them down or drives by them.

Contested Jumper...come on Leeb.....that is so meaningless it is not even funny.

DD

 

I enjoy reading his originality but I doubt he's disagreeing with Morey just for the sake of being original. Any long time sports fan knows there are a thousand ways to do this thing. There have been plenty of successful franchises that didn't follow Morey's model and I'm sure there are quite a few great basketball minds that disagree with him, maybe even some within the rockets organization. He's just one guy, putting the team together his way. It's hilarious how it's become taboo to disagree with him. People are still disagreeing with Phil Jackson's coaching style and he's got more jewelry than Mr. T.

People should give what they believe to be "valid reasons" for any stance even if it's in agreement with Morey, there's really no right or wrong here - just arguments. Leebigez was right about Brent Barry being too old, Morey was wrong but at the time of the signing everyone was in full support of the GM. What's the point of coming here if everyone just agrees with the organization?

 

Excellent post, Morey has done a lot more good than bad, but some of his moves have not panned out.

Being a GM, I am sure he expects to get 2nd guessed and his skin is not as thin as many on this board...including me.



DD

 

First year players are subject very much to the whims of the coaching staff and coach 'A' in particular.
If Adelman give him the opportunity to try and fit in, is the big question here.
If he does, I expect Big Bud to blossom into one of more intellegent players and become a crowd faovrite,he will add to our depth and he should be a decent contributor by the playoffs.

 

I have a good feeling about CB's chances!! I really like his smooth jumper with no wasted motion! He also seems to be athletic! JT on the other hand, may need to go to the Vipers for seasoning, which is good for me becuz, I live in the RGV, so I can watch him play!

 

Jerry West was a pretty good GM so I will give some credit there but Kupchak, comeon he's average at best. Don't think for one minute that it was management that made Shaq sign a lesser deal to LA or management that got Gasol for nothing. It was Hollywood that got Shaq and luck that got Gasol. They capitilized on a desperate team in dire financil straits like a vulture. The Gasol deal even you could have made. You over estimate those deals and underestiate picks like Brooks and landry.

 

what about at the Air Bullard level?

 

CBUD = ROY

 

Building a championship team is as much about luck as skill. A GM needs luck to get the cornerstone players, they need skill to find the right role players to surround their cornerstone guys. Most of the GMs in the league can get a champion after you've given them a foundation of Bryant, Gasol, and Odom. All of the GMs in the league cannot build a champion if u give them the injured foundation of Yao and Tracy.

There are two guys this decade that you can say used pure GM skill to build a champion: Danny Ainge and Joe Dumars. Geoff Petrie came close too. You could even say Ainge got lucky that he lost out on the #1 pick and Garnett was available.

 

I don't overrate or underrate any picks or players I mentioned. Its one thing to say any person can do them and its another for the person to actually do it. Personally, I thought they shouldve let him play his last 2 yrs out and use the 30m for talent. They thought the choice was between kobe and shaq and of course you lean to the younger player, but to trade shaq and to get back 2 good young players and a throw in took big nuts. Shaq got the ring first and is still one of the better players at age 37, but La is set up, if the retain odom to be championship quality for at least 4 more yrs especially if bynum plays like he did pre injury 2 yrs ago. What I do give Kupchak credit for is turning the lakers from a spot up,shaq based team to a kobe based transition team.

Anyone that see my post know how much I like landry and brooks. I think they're the kind of players the rockets have needed for a while. I created a thread before the season asking why brooks and landry shouldn't be the starters. I'm not discounting that, i'm saying Morey needs to either be lucky or good and find a all star caliber player either in the late 1st rd or 2nd rd. If you don't find one, you will have to trade for one and give up players. Low risk , medium reward is cool, but low risk(mid to late first rd-2nd rd) high reward (all star games) is even better. The Jazz haven't won a title,but they have transitioned from the stockton malone era by using smart free agent signings and great drafting. People are offering Milsap 8m per and he was a 6th man. Who on the rockets right now on the open market can command 8m as a free agent not named Yao or McGrady? They have 4 or 5 guys that can because they have assembled a high talent base. The only lotto pick in that bunch was williams and I think brewer was late lotto.

DD, contested shots are not dumb. In the nba, you have to be able to make them. Now, you don't want to have to shoot a lot of them out of balance and all the time, but to be a good player, you have to be able to hit contested shots. That's why some guys are low attempt guys because they need a lot of space to shoot. Shane is a example of that. He has to have a lot of space to shoot and that's why he can't even score unless Yao is getting doubled or tracy is kicking it out on penetration or brooks. That's another reason why it would seem logical to get in transition and cut or slash in the offense to get some easier scoring chances.

 

I think, in a way, it makes sense to compare decision making as a GM to hitting in baseball. Morey is sort of like a high percentage hitter, but maybe with a low slugging %. He hasn't gone for home runs, but he'll get that ball in play and get on base. Now to win championships, you have to be able to hit home runs too. Does that take luck? Yes, but part of being lucky is also being willing to take risks on players with budding talent. From that perspective, I do get how some people have a problem with Morey's style.

But the way I look at it is he inherited two very good players who were supposed to be in the midst of or just entering their prime years. If he didn't already have those players, then yeah by year 3 or 4 I would expect him to have made a serious bid for another big time player by now. Instead, he was focused on putting good role players around the two stars. And, to me, our role players have been great. How many other teams could withstand all these injuries to their star players and still consistently win 50+ games and be at least competitive in the playoffs? Some people here think he should have had the foresight to know Yao and Tracy weren't good enough to build a championship team around. To me, that's a legitimate perspective. I'm not going to beat him up over it, but in retrospect I'm sure he'd do certain things differently.

Anyway, if the Rockets haven't added another big time, "top 10 at his position" type player by the beginning of the 2010-2011 season, then I think its time to really start questioning Morey's approach. But I'll give him that grace period, because he just doesn't have a lot of great options right now with 40 million dollars tied up in two broken players.

 

CXbby, No one expected a first rd pick, the first pick in the 2nd rd, and the best pivot in europe to be garbage, at the very least they were picked or projected to be solid players. Parker,Manu,Lewis,Arenas,and boozer had the same expectations, but difference is they became all stars. I'm just saying that many will consider Chase or taylor as being "steals" just by being a rotational player, but to me steals are guys that are picked in the the mid to late first who turn out to be all stars or near all stars. I've said many times that I thought morey was doing a good job, but I don't go ga-ga because a lot of the moves look like major moves. I applauded the artest trade and b****ed about barry. I thought getting wafer was a good move, I think letting him go is a poor decision. It works both ways.

So back to the original topic of chase being a contributor. If that's something you can answer by summer league games, then why play preseason games? Summer league is a overblown pickup game. Yeah, there are things you might can see translating into the regular season, but right now its just fodder.