Jay's blog: http://www.nba.com/blog/blog11.html Dude, that sounds ......... bad. (and FWIW, Eddie was always a risk; that's why we were able draft him ... he dropped )
Are you serious? Teams with at least 1 McGrady/Yao calibre player Minnesota Miami Lakers Detroit Phoenix Dallas San Antonio Cleveland Seattle Indiana Denver Boston Philadelphia Orlando Charlotte Sacramento Clippers That's half the NBA. Half of those teams above have more than 1 superstar (or combination of better players): Minnesota Phoenix Cleveland San Antonio Indiana Denver Detroit Miami Dallas Seattle That's 1/3 of the league. 2 Superstars and 10 bench players = mediocrity. And how exactly are we going to suddenly add a decent supporting cast when we have Maurice Taylor-esque contracts inperpetuity? Through the draft? When was the last time we drafted a decent role player? How many teams in the NBA (since we drafted Cuttino Mobley)have added a borderline allstar to their roster who was drafted below the 10th pick? Want to take a guess?
Certainly a risk, but a very cheap one with potentially high rewards. If the Rocks were serious about it, they could sign him THIS year and monitor his progress. I just think it is a potentially HUGE reward, at a position we could really use some help. DD
is Sura our prototype PG? dont get me wrong I think the guy is great and love having him on the team but he wasnt what we were looking for when we went PG shopping. Sura has never been known for his court vision or passing.. I've been watching him since he was a Warrior. He does bring heart, size and rebounding. I appreciate that on the team. J
Room, Sura has matured, and is a far different player now. He has good court awareness, and is showing it on the Rocks, now if he could find a jump shot we would be golden. DD
you dont always HAVE to have that *prototype* guard.....If you can get a guy that has the vision to make the good passes(Sura does), has the intensity to hold his own on defense, can knock down the midrange to long jumper(Sura isnt that bad at it), and provides you with the hustle to energize your team....you take him and dont b**** about it....not every team can claim the same.(some better, some worse) The Rockets have other more pressing problems than trying to get that "perfect" point guard......He can and will be a important part of this team being successful. As Bill mentioned on the broadcast(paraphrased).....Sura is just now getting thru with training camp, wait till he gets fiully into the swing of things. considering Sura's scheduled return and the need for any player to take some time getting back into game shape and on the same page with his teammates....Sura is doing a damn fine job so far, and I fully expect him to get better.
I obviously think more of Yao and TMac than you do. You just claimed that 27 other player are as good as they are. 27? Are you kidding?? There's only 1 center you can compare to Yao. 1. And who is as good as TMac? Who else could have done what he did against the Spurs? It was truly Jordanesque. If you accept that there's only 1 center who compares with Yao, I guess that means you think 26 other players can take over a game as well as TMac.
This board has gotten so miserable. I remember back in the day it used to be worth something. Tmac s*cks. Yao s*cks. Franchise s*cks. We need a true pt...blah, blah blah. CD is mediocre... I'm tired of it.
Having said it all and then some in this thread, I have to ask a simple question. If you were a betting man please name 5 teams that you think has a chance to win it all at least once in the next 3 years. Better put, rank your top 5 teams in terms of player composition and a chance to win it all within the next 3-5 years.
If you want CD to take a risk he might as well try for JJ + 2nd round pick/s for Marko Jaric. On Jaric's website (jaricmarko.com) he has listed himself simply as a forward. The Clips get an economically priced quality player in JJ for one more season while Jaric can resume JJ's role as a point-forward at the SF position. Since Jaric's a free-agent next year he might pull a Posey so that's the major downside to this proposal. Why would the Clippers do this? It's not like the Clips are going to compete for Jaric's services next year.
I agree with most of you... CD is pretty much worthless... lets face it, when he got lucky a few times (drafting Cuttino and Kenny Thomas) but most of his drafts have been horrific busts in my opinion. [See Eddie Griffin and Boki Nachbar] Not to mention he's overpaid almost every free agent we've ever signed during his tenure as GM (Maloney, Moochie, Mo Taylor, Cato). I'm ready to see a new GM, just as much as a new head coach. JVG is a good coach, his record proves that, but his pisspoor demeanor gets old after a while. How much longer before he drives T-Mac nuts? And will Yao want to stay in Houston knowing there are more player friendly coaches out there... ie. Rudy T. My worst fear is that JVG will run Yao/T-Mac out of town with his terrible attitude. PS. You guys know that CD was struck by lightning several years ago, right? That's why he's always squinting when you see him on TV... he was partially paralyzed. Maybe that's why he made all these crappy decisions... he lost a few brain cells too!?
You need some math lessons. I listed 17 teams with at least 1 superstar player. I said 10 of those 17 teams had a better combination of players that were better than our 1 superstar, 1 all star and 10 bench fodder rejects. Even if I accept Yao is the 2nd best center, he's not anywhere near being a top 10 player. He's an All-Star player but is not dominant. When you add in the absolute terrible supporting cast- not average - terrible, it makes for an average/above average team. People think this is an aberration and chemistry, blah blah blah. It's not. We have no PF, no legitimate PG, a SF better suited to come off the bench, and no legitimate bench. And with only a trade exception and a mediocre lottery pick, CD has not shown me anything that would indicate he could add 3, let alone, 1 decent role player into the equation. Jordan didn't win until they added Pippen and Grant. Even if TMac is Jordan-esque, Yao is not as good as Pippen and nobody on this team even resembles a Horace Grant type player.
Originally posted by RIET You need some math lessons. I listed 17 teams with at least 1 superstar player. I said 10 of those 17 teams had a better combination of players that were better than our 1 superstar, 1 all star and 10 bench fodder rejects. I was assuming that you were actually responding to my point, and not venturing off to a non-responsive issue. I essentially stated that some teams did not have a Yao or TMac. An individual. If you now want to respond with 'combination of players', you either 1) did not comprehend my post or 2) are intentionally responding to a claim that I did not make to make your point seem stronger. Which is it? And I find it amazing that we can win at all with '10 bench fodder rejects'. Exaggerate much? Even if I accept Yao is the 2nd best center, he's not anywhere near being a top 10 player. He's an All-Star player but is not dominant. I respectfully disagree. He may not be in the 10 ten for athleticism, but that's not the point, is it? I would expect that any team in the league would pretty much trade just about any player for Yao... maybe excluding the top 5 or so. When you add in the absolute terrible supporting cast- not average - terrible, it makes for an average/above average team. People think this is an aberration and chemistry, blah blah blah. It's not. We have no PF, no legitimate PG, a SF better suited to come off the bench, and no legitimate bench. And with only a trade exception and a mediocre lottery pick, CD has not shown me anything that would indicate he could add 3, let alone, 1 decent role player into the equation. Jordan didn't win until they added Pippen and Grant. Even if TMac is Jordan-esque, Yao is not as good as Pippen and nobody on this team even resembles a Horace Grant type player. Blah. Yao is much more effective than Pippen. Other than the last game, which we won anyway, our bench has been quite effective. And Sura may be auite effective starting at the point, but if you feel that it supports your point better to say we have no 'legitimate' PG, go right ahead. And you never responded to a salient point that I previously stated: you rarely come out of a blockbuster trade with all of the players that you need. We gave up 3 starters for 1. Everyone was excited about the trade ... you guys have such awesome hindsight, why couldn't you have a little foresight and understand that it would take time to build the right supporting cast.
