I think Head will replace Wesley..Remember what CD said after the draft, after some moves we would see the real reason why the Rox drafted him..
I don't see this glut either. You go with what matchups are working and what situations present themselves(injury, foul trouble, etc) Sura 25-30 mpg, James 15-20 Wesley 25-30, DA 15-20 TMac 35-40, DA 5-10 And barry jumps in when 3 point shooting is needed, foul trouble, injuries, or other players are off or ineffective for whatever reason. Head is an afterthought this season. Next year maybe the Barry role or more depending on how the roster shakes out and how his development goes. a 3rd pf isn't a big deal either, we have Bowen. It'd be nice to have another pf/c on the roster, but it isn't a necessity at this point.
How about bye bye Sura? When is everybody going to get off this Sura bandwagon? Sura did a good job for the talent level he has. He is not better right now than Wesley in terms of shooting or defensive ability. If anything Anderson and James should get a bulk of the minutes at either guard spot and Sura, Wesley, and James get what's left. Let's face it, the whole reason the Rockets considered Spreewell, got Swift and Anderson was to get better athletically. Anderson is not here to play spot duty to Sura or Wesley.
Yeah I don't think anderson came here to back up wesley, I hope sura and wesley are the ones that go, only because they are the only ones with value.
I think Bobby Sura will be traded before the trade deadline after playing injury free and well for the first couple of months of the season. Cleveland would be a great destination for him. Only problem is Cleveland has nothing want.
I think it will be James that gets traded. I believe he has player option next year and has already stated that he plans to opt out and go to the highest bidder.
This is absurd. First, why would you even think of counting Ward as having a "legitimate" cause to expect minutes? Next, as has been said, Mooch and Head don't really factor in this year. Five players for 2 1/2 positions is nothing. Our rotation is: Sura Wesley Anderson Barry James Yao Ming TMac Swift Howard Deke Our injury/insurance/garbage minutes guys are: Head, Bowen, Baxter (if we dump Ward and sign him). That is 10 guys for the regular season crunch minutes. 5 of those 10 guys have injury issues or history (Sura, Anderson, Wesley, Swift, Howard). So where is Lopez's 12 and 13-man rotation? Further, our two best players will get as many minutes as they can handle. Teams such as Memphis or the Blazers of a few years ago don't have the big playoff success because they don't have dominant guys - their best players were platooned like everyone else. Not the case with us. Finally, Barry, Wesley, and SUra are not going to complain about minutes. The only ones who have the potential are James and Anderson. Well, James is a career backup who has never complained and Anderson just came from a platoon situation and chose the Rockets over teams where he could get definite minutes. I don't see chemestry being hurt by these five guys.
The irony here is the chonicle reported the same thing after we drafted head, and what did we do, add another.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Head in the NBDL until Moochie and or Ward are traded to a team needing cap room or until they are cut after a trade can;t be worked out fort them. I don't think Head would spend the whole year in the NBDL.
CD basically said he isn't interested in the sending Head to the NBDL. I personally don't think it wouldn't be a bad idea, but cutting Ward for an extra roster spot is a very logical solution.
I know we are going around and around on this but here goes: Tmac can defend. Wesley can defend, James can defend. Anderson can defend. Sura can defend. Yes DW and Sura in particular can have trouble in particular match-ups, but our top 6 vets guards/SFs, only Barry can't respectably play most of his opponents. I think the likelihood Head as a rookie can defensively play quick PGs better than James/DA, or 1s with size better than DA/Sura, or explosive swingmen better than Tmac/DA/Sura, is remote. Head is giving up strength and/or size, AND NBA experience/savvy, to all these vets. It seems lots of the push for thinking Head is needed stems from the Dallas series where our small and overextended 3 guard lineup took a beating defensively, and thinking Head is the key to addressing this. But after seening what Mike James did on both ends of the court to the even more highly regarded rookie Devon Harris in the playoffs, does one thing Head really would be able to handle seasoned players like 6'6" and strong Stack or the cat quick release and pick savvy Terry? I'd take my chances with the fully rested DA, James, DW and Sura versus those guys. The fact Head probably won't be as good a defender than these guys (except Barry) versus most opponents, we now have a much deeper and flexible backcourt to match with based on size/quickness (with DA arriving and Tmac never having to play the 4), and Head's outside shooting is below all these guys at this point, he won't get meaningfull PT if we stick with the current roster. Now maybe it is worthwhile to keep him in the NBA (not NDBL) for the practices and a few garbage minutes here and there, but whether this is more important than the minutes of competitive PT he could get in the NDBL I guess lays with coaching philosophy. Maybe this is what JVG is thinking. Makes perfect sense to me, at least for the regular season. The Spurs were able to play Manu 30MPG and TD 33MPG (Parker got the most minutes onm the team at 34MPG) because they had control early with a good mix of stars and decent role players. The Spurs also played 6 guards/SFs significant PT: Parker, M. Ginobil, B. Bowen, B. Barry, D. Brown, and B. Udrih. I don't see why we should not do the same (Tmac, Sura, DA, MJ, DW and JB), where over 50% of the games we have gone up big early and broken our opponents will, and get Tmac to 35MPG. Except for Barry (12-16MPG) and Tmac (33-36MPG), all other Rocket guards could get 20-27MPG. Seems like close to an optimum number to let vet players get in the groove but also allow them to go 100% every minute they are out there without overextending and risking injury. In the playoffs, if all players are healthy, probably one player does get cut out mostly. But that is a small problem to have, and assumes perfect health of a largely very old and somewhat historically brittle backcourt. Oh I saw it late, but I also concur with everything Rimbuad said.
I was a big fan of keeping Wesley until they aquired Anderson. Now he is the most expendable guard excluding Ward and Moochie because those guys won't play. Guard rotations are usually no more than four deep, Anderson will play, and Barry has a specific role as an energizer off the bench. Sura will most likely remain a starter and the only other viable pg is James. CD said that he doesn't have any plans for Head to go to the NBDL (which I completely agree unless he just flat out isn't ready for the NBA). That's five guards who will probably see minutes. There is just no room for Wesley, unless D.A. has problems adjusting to this team.
Actually, he said that no decision had been made on the possibility of sending Head to the NBDL because CD didn't know enough about the way the NBDL works yet to MAKE a decision. Essentially, he said he wanted to find out if you can send a guy down for a stretch and then call him up when you need him, like how the minors work in baseball, before they made a decision on Head. He never said that he flat-out "wasn't interested" in sending Head down. I actually agree with you that cutting Ward to get Head on our bench might not be a bad plan, but I just wanted to make sure you knew exactly what CD said in case you didn't hear the interview.
Why do we need another big man? Our 4 are good..but might get injured..Badiane I think James should be traded since he might just leave anyways. He's a good backup but maybe we can get something for him? The rest of the guys are good. I like Sura, Wesley, and Barry. Anderson is gonna be good with them in the backcourt. Also, I want to see Head get to play and play well. Maybe I'd trade Wesley. So Wesley and James. Spoon, Baker, Mooch, and Ward.
barry and sura have a good rapport, and sura and DA have a good rapport ... mike james is expendable but not as much as david wesley ... i attended U of I last year and you really get to learn alot about the players (esp when the team is No 1 and scrutinized so much) ... and luther head is no genius defender... he is athletic but no mcgrady, and his defense can improve but he's not a lock down guy ... has alot to do and not even a pure shooter he's at best a bench contributor at the NBA level ... you guys who want him to star in the backcourt with Yao/Swift/TMac may be wrong on this...
I think it better to see or (check) The G. the Rockets will have next 2 year. Ward, Moochie. Will be out of Rockets and NBA for good.(cut). Wesley, Barry. Will play for there last year in NBA. Sura, James. Will play for the Rockets till con. ended in 2 year. D.Anderson. Will play for 1 or 2 year,and may get ext. L.Head. Will be in rotation next year and for a long time. V.Spanoulis. Will be in rotation next year and for a long time. So in 2005-2006 We will have 6 G. in 2006-2007 Will have 6 G. Because VG like G.and will draft one in N.Y.draft Or from NY.
