Morey alluded to the fact that Bonzi's minutes were going to shrink, and if you think he would have kept quiet in a contract year......you don't know the bonz. DD
Depends on which of these people you call pf when... Battier Bonzi Mac Rafer and Scola on the court together. or Battier Bonzi Mac Rafer and Yao on the court together. Those are the lineups I remember where I would call Bonzi the PF (though you could just as easily call Batt the PF)
Well recently that might be true, because Luther Head wasn't playing. So that means the coaches could slot Bonzi Wells at the SG/SF position. And Head was going to return to the rotation because the Rockets value his shooting, which means Bonzi would need to steal Scola's or Landry's minutes to keep his minutes up. For the season, Bonzi has played 1124 minutes. He's played 297 of those minutes (26%) without one of our true PFs on the floor (Scola, Landry, Hayes).
Take his production AS IS now and he's a great player. Take what he does now and extend that over a full game. He would easily average a double double if he starters minutes (35+ minutes per game). I don't think he needs THAT much improvement to be a solid NBA player.
And although I am too lazy to look it up, I would guess a lot of these minutes came also when TMac was out.
Totally agree. Landry does look good though. Also, I'm not happy about losing Bonzi. He's a real good player, and extreemly clutch at playoff time. I think Jackson will help, but there's no real link between Landry's emergence and Bonzi's expendability. Bonzi was always slightly expendable because we can always run T-Mac out at the 2 and Battier at the 3, for 40+ each. It's if T-mac goes down again, then we're screwed. We shall see what happens. The truth is, our 4 (Scola/ Landry/ Hayes) has never looked stronger, and our 1 (Jackson, Alston, Brooks) looks solid. Head will have to back up the 2, and Green will have to back up the 3. We should be in good shape as long as no one goes down. ...but someone always does.
Not even close. Boozer can put the ball on the floor and go to the hole with ease, along with a very good post up game. Landry don't have those yet.
And Horford plays on the worse team too. One thing JVG said was that it's easy to put up stats on a bad team, but much more difficult for rookies to thrive on a winning team. That's why he had Scola as the ROY. Landry needs to perform on an extended basis before we can anoint him as the "steak of the draft". He's kinda like a pitcher coming out of AAA-ball: opponents haven't had time to adjust for him yet, we'll see what happens when they do.
He is definitely shaping up to be the steal of the draft. The more the season goes on the more legit he is becoming. With his work ethic he really could end up being a very good PF for quite a while.
I think the Boozer comparison is a stretch. Boozer was (in college) and still is a much better post-presence and has shown a very good mid-range jumper. The comparison to Millsap seems to be more accurate: an under-sized hustle guy who can hit the boards and pick up garbage points. He seems to finish better than Millsap due to his hops, though. Either way, I have to admit that he's a big surprise this year. I hadn't heard of him prior to the draft (I wason the Big Baby bandwagon) and wasn't even sure if he'd make the team with his late contract agreement and quiet pre-season. He looks like he's gonna be playing a bigger role down the stretch as teams focus in on Yao and T-Mac looks to dish to him off the drive.
His rebounding makes me think of Elton Brand. He finds a way to snatch boards when it looks like he's completely boxed out of the play. Offense I dunno, he's mostly cleaning up on people setting him up, but damn what a finisher!
I'd take that. The Rockets don't need Landry to be a superstar like Boozer, but Spoon in his prime was pretty good.
We'll see. I think he'll turn into a Superstar. He should be plenty motivated. at $400K, the more he works and the more minutes he's able to garner, the more jack he'll make. He's got it all but they don't run plays for Landry yet like they do for Boozer. You haven't seen Landry coming off a screen or a high post pick and roll yet have ya? Or a kickout for a 3 ptr because he's roaming the baseline for rebounds. That's fine for now but later, as Adelman gains more and more confidence in him, he will want to start experimenting with Landry.
Yes, the ACL injury was a huge reason why he lost some explosiveness his senior year. Apparently, Morey and it sounds like Dean Cooper said he wasn't as explosive but he should bounce back nicely within a year or so. It looks like he bounce back alright. I guess it took him about two years to be fully recovered. If he did not get injured, he may have been an even higher pick or possibly even lottery but the injury dropped his value quite a bit, luckily for us.
Knowing what they know now, how many teams in last year's draft who had a first round pick would pass on Landry now? Probably no more than 10-12. THAT is the definition of a steal. Now is he 'THE' steal of the draft? Won't know that for sure for a couple of years, but he is already far more productive than his draft position would have warranted. And this is exactly why Morey was brought here - to find value where others see none.
LOL! I am the first self-proclaimed LOF. But I take Horford over Landry in a heartbeat. U guys really have fun with these kind of box score analysis.
Landry should appreciate that he has two superstars willing to help him. Yao always gets double team and leaves Landry wide open, while TMAC passes the ball to him a lot. But the kid grabs the opportunities, and I really like his hustle!
