A little Q & A with Chad Ford for ESPN Insider: Q: Who do you see the Rockets picking up in this year's draft? They're going to end up with a lottery pick this year and with a load of young talent already in place, who do you thin is going to be playing in Houston next year? -- Fletch, Lake Oswego, OR FORD: Right now, barring no rouge ping pong balls, they're going to have the fifth pick. They like UConn's Caron Butler, but some believe his stock has risen to the point that he'll no longer be around when the Rockets draft. He has the type of intangibles that the Rockets are longing for. Qyntel Woods, Drew Gooden, Chris Wilcox and Curtis Borchardt will all get a look here as well.
well if butler is gone woods better still be there. and borchardt at 5!!! noooooooooo! i don't think i saw him play once but all i can think of is slow and unathletic. am i wrong.
Slow and unathletic, it wouldn't matter on our team. We walk the ball up the court and dribble for so long, we could still play with Hakeem and his creaky legs.
Actually, Borcherdt is not slow and unathletic at all. He is really a pretty darned good rebounding and defending center. He suffers from the "slow white big man" stereotype. But I wouldn't take him here. He doesn't have much of an offensive game, and I don't think he'll become much more than an Eric Dampier kind of center.
No, he doesnt play anything like Erick Dampier. I go to the UO and since Im part of the PAC-10, I have seen Stanford play many times. Borchardt is not slow at all. He is a good shotblocker and has really good range too. In fact, I saw Borchardt hit a 3 pointer. He has a pretty good repertoire to make it in the NBA. I think he will be a solid NBA player. He is easily better than both our centers and could easily go around our pick. Only thing Im worried about is his injury woes. He has had foot problems in the past.
I really like the looks of Caron Butler though. This guy is fierce as heck and I would like to really see him in our lineup. We need defense, like we need fans and this guy will bring it.
come on, fellas...any of you watch Jason Collier in college? He didn't look slow in college either, but in the pros, he is. Borchardt is a Collier clone!
Errr...I saw Collier play in college, and he seemed pretty slow to me then, too. He had a jumper, like he does today, but he still wasn't all that accomplished in the post. Most people were saying that he was a 7 foot power forward--they didn't want to call him a center because he didn't play as the typical center for GT...Alvin Jones did that.
I think that if the Rockets have the fifth pick, it could easily come down to a choice between Woods and Butler. I don't know how some of you know so much about Woods, but which would you pick and why?
Remember gang, any time a Rocket official says they LIKE someone, it means they are looking at someone else. DaDakota
I consider this a fact, too. I think we can wipe Caron Butler off our board. phew! No tweeners for me, thank you.
I've just been reading some stuff about him on the Internet and looking at some his stats. I'm beginning to think he would be the best player the Rockets could get at #5.
Woods is one of the reasons why I changed my stance on trading KT. Instead of playing KT at SF, I thought we would get Woods, let him play behing Rice. We then add the #15 pick to KT to a team like Miami or Pheonix for their pick which we use to take Amare. Even add the second round pick to ensure the deal. Ten man rotation would be C......Cato..........Collier PF....MoT............EG SF....Rice............Tmo PG....Francis.......Moochie SG....Mobley.......Torres or for better defense with the starters and more offense of the bench: C......Cato..........Collier PF....MoT............Tmo SF....EG..............Rice PG....Francis.......Moochie SG....Mobley.......Torres Watch and learn: Woods Amare Brown Protection against injuries and leadership: Williams Langhi
Both Woods and Butler have their upsides, and listening to some of the "HYPE" you would think that both guys are gonna come in and put up decent numbers in their first year, BUT i remember last year when many experts were hyping up Rodney White as the next best thing. Which he very well might be but that's several years down the line not instantly.
I would say go for Butler because we could use his tenacity, and because I couldn't possibly imagine who we might otherwise trade our picks for (along with one of our contracts, as OP stipulates in another thread).
