I would love to bring in Barnes and gives us maybe 20MPG at the 4 (plus 5-10 at SF to give Battier and Tmac more rest). Cook and Barnes (9.7) rebound in the same neighborhood as Howard, all much better than Battier or Novak, pathetic 6.5 and 5.4 per 48 respectively. So yeah, I would be fine with a rotation of Hayes, Barnes, and a bigger body (Big Baby/McRoberts) to handle the PF minutes. I simply don't think the Rockets have the assetts to get a big PF who is athletic, score and play defense and a platoon like I describe is our best shot.
Platooning is the only real option that the Rockets have like you said. I like Barnes,Hayes can help,and guys like Big Baby,Fazekas are realistic options at the 26th.McRoberts may not fall that far. There is no doubt that the 4 spot is our biggest need but I feel we should take the best player available at 26 and either keep him or possibly try to combine the pick with a player to move up in the draft.
I have changed my mind about a hypothetical swap of the 20th/26th pick if the Lakers want Head for Cook even though I still don't want the latter on the team. It is highly unlikely that the Lakers would want to do it as we all know.
im thinking that head for cook works if they swap picks. it guarantees us sean williams. and then we can trot out yao, cook, hayes, deke and williams as our big men. that seems pretty solid because they can all give you different things.
I just don't see Barnes as a 4. I love him as a backup 2/3, but the guy is rail thin. He would get abused by even the Chris Wilcox's and Tony Battie's of the world, much less Elton Brand, Tim Duncan and KG. Just look at what the Warriors did against Utah and Boozer running those tiny "4"'s out there. Sure it worked out great against Dallas. Nowitzki wouldn't play inside if his life depended on it. Maybe his offense in an Adelman system would make up for the defensive liability, but I think Adelman always had a tradionally sized 4 in the past. I don't know. I like Barnes, just not playing the bulk of his minutes at the 4.
Barnes is 235, fairly strong for his frame, and rebounds almost double of Battier per minute. Yeah he can't handle Boozer, Brand, Duncan--but he can match up with Dallas, Phx, GS the type of teams the Rockets most struggle. I wouldn't worry about Wilcox, Batties, etc, versus Barnes. I just think a platoon like Barnes, Hayes and a bigger body (Big Baby,McRoberts) is the best the Rockets can do without creating other problems (trading Battier, Tmac, Yao, etc). The times Barnes is physically overmatched via height or weight you have Hayes and the 3 option--but Barnes as a PF allows us to run a really athletic and floor spreading lineup around Yao without sacrificing the rebounding that happened with Battier at the 4.
My goodness man. Barnes as a 4? Come on now. He's barely a 3. He's a natural 2 who can play the 1 a little bit and play the 3 some. HE is not a 4, not even a Marion type 4. On another note, I agree completely with the suggestion that Novak is not a 4. It was obvious to me after a few games last year that he would never be able to play the 4 in the NBA. He's simply not strong enough and not athletic enough. He can't keep any decent PF off the offensive glass even and if you can't even do that, then you're pretty useless as a 4. He's a 3 and a 3 only and whoever he plays for will just have to deal with his defensive deficiencies by having a Ben Wallace type defender laying in the paint waiting for Novak's man when they blow by him. Offensively, there's no question, he changes the offensive dynamics of a team and causes defenses to have to adjust. He would have been devastating in a Rudy/Hakeem offense. If he is going to make a contribution to the Rox, it will be at the 3 spot, that's it. Spanoulis, same thing. He's a 1, he's a 1, he's a 1, he's a 1. Why in the world JVG kept running him out there and spotting him up in the corner is beyond belief. The kid is a 1 who can run pick and roll all day and all night from the top and simply kill teams with his penetration, finishing, dishing, and foul drawing. Can't wait to see Adelman put him in this spot. I will be sick if we trade him for peanuts. There is absolutely no way we are trading that kid to Dallas. Those reports have to be out there to tease Dallas and their fans because trading him to Dallas for some 2nd round end of the bench guy and watching him come back here and punish us would be too much. It's just not gonna happen. The one thing I never did understand about JVG is why he would never allow players to play in positions that best suited them, he would always try to make them something else. He did help Yao's low post game by forcing Yao into the post and working on his development, which was good, but he never made the adjustments to allow Yao's high post skills to be used when teams were literally collapsing 3 men on him in the interior. That's a key difference I see with Adelman and may be one reason we are looking for another interior post scoring presence to go along with Yao. I think what RA is planning to do is when teams starts collapsing in on Yao, he's gonna bring him out high and bring in another post scoring presence like Bonzi/other/Big Baby and play Yao high with another post scorer ala Utah, until he forces the opponent to make an adjustment back out as they are getting torched by a 7'6" 60% shooter from 17 feet. Ahhhh, forget the rant. I just get disgusted thinking about the missed opportunities we had last season. It was right there. And it was obvious running our offense the way we were running it that Rafe's shooting was gonna kill us. Gag.
I so agree with your observations. JVG is obviously a great basketball mind, but at times seemed so dense. He is a mystery. VSpan was stereotyped and locked permanently in the "doghouse," really unwise. So was Novak. Failure to develop these players hurt during the playoffs. JVG's defense of Alston is mind-boggling. His poor shooting was a playoff's disaster.
why must everyone think v mac and novak were the keys last year. has anyone ever thought they may not be good enough to play in a rotation for the 6th best team in the league last year. you think san antonio fans are saying the same things about flight white and jackie butler? ive heard billy has nearly developed a cure for cancer but md anderson is holding him back...they have a big dog house over there... there is no dog houses...coaches play the best players
oh and by the way, billy played the 2 is whole life in greece...the best point guard in greece is talking about coming here this year to the nba...i dont know how to spell his last name...in his country they think of v mac as a combo guard, not a true pg.
if you think rafer shooting 37% from 3 killed us, what do you think v mac would have shot? oh i know he would just drive dish or get fouled...sorry if a team knows a guy cant shoot, they will play off of him
ok so like i dont know how legit this cook for head deal is considering the rockets would have to give up another player....bonzi has till monday to make a decision but apparently all over the lakers board the supposed deal is bonzi and head for cook, vujacic and the #40....that would be a total rape in talent for the lakers. giving them a boderline all-star and a guy like luther who has a great shot and does have a thing about hitting the big shot for probably the one of the softest "power" forwards i have ever seen in cook and a guy in vujacic who is just as bad as rafer when it comes to shooting. yeah i am sure bonzi will opt out if he was truly to be traded to the lakers, if he doesnt opt out i am positive its only because he was assured by adelman and the rockets that he would have a larger role on the team this year.
I can't see Bonzi being involved in any trade with the Lakers, hell, I can't even see Luther being traded to them for Cook. When Adelman was given the head coaches' job of the Rockets, I think it gave Bonzi a new lease of life in terms of playing for the Rockets, they got a coach that he played well under and I think Adelman might be the only coach that will get Bonzi in the right frame of mind, Phil Jackson might be able to but with past relationships, Bonzi would be better with Adelman. Therefore, if Bonzi goes to the Lakers, chances are he will be just like he was this past season, if he remains with the Rockets, he might want to play under Adelman and get in shape for training camp, if not he just opts out and the Rockets don't lose any sleep over him.
The only trade out of those 3 that i would do would be JL3 for James singleton. Lucas doesn't do anything for this team and anything would for him would be considered an upgrade. VSPAN for a draft pick kind of make sense so i would do that one too. I would never do the luther head for cook because cook sucks at least head can do something.
Sorry, but I have to disagree. Spanoulis played play maker guard his whole career in Europe. In Europe, McGrady would be listed as a play maker guard, even though he was actually a SF being played at SG by Van Gundy. Alston would be playing point guard, but would not be listed as the play maker, McGrady would be the play maker. In other words, standing behind the 3 line at the corner a la Bruce Bowen, as Spanoulis was used is not the same position he played at any point in Europe. And notice that McGrady just said in the Chronicle that he was happy about being removed from that role. It's like arguing that John Paxson ran the offense for the Bulls title teams instead of Scottie Pippen, simply because of the listed positions, or like saying that Magic Johnson was really a SG or SF because Byron Scott usually defended the opposing point guard and Michael Cooper the top wing, while Magic usually defended the leftovers at SG/SF/PF. Spanoulis is a point. He can defend the 1 and 2 and he can play besides another two guard or another point guard. On offense his game is almost entirely pick and roll, lane and dribble penetration, and fast break, much the same as points like John Stockton, Steve Nash, and Baron Davis, although he lacks shooting touch beyond 21 feet, meaning he is not a good 3 point shooter, which brings the comparisons to Tony Parker, because the other 3 all had/have great outside shooting. But really he's more like those other players than Parker, remember Parker is a scoring guard that happens to be 6-2. Why does a player being more versatile than normal = pigeon holing that player into a very specific spot/role? Also according to 82games.com Spanoulis played all of his minutes last year at either SG or SF and zero at PG. That makes no sense, and why he would play SF is beyond me. As for Novak, he clearly has a game that is more suited as a SF on offense than a PF IMO. To me it's like trying to make Jamison play PF, it just doesn't work. Novak is a lot more well-rounded on offense than fans here seem to realize in general. He's not just Matt Bullard part deux. If anything, he's actually more like Peja. Peja is 6-10 and about 240, but people would never consider him a PF. Adelman didn't play either Peja or Hedo at PF just because of size. Hedo was listed at 6-10 243 during the Olympics, yet he primarily plays SG and SF. There really isn't any comparison between Novak and Hedo, but the point is just listing a player's physicals does not necessarily equal what his position should be. Novak is actually more like Peja than he is Bullard from my eye's viewpoint, or more say like a Pat Garrity (poor man's Peja) type of player, so I can see why Adelman would want him at SF. Whether or not he was right or wrong, or whatever, Jeff Van Gundy did seem to want these two players to fit his positional idea for them, rather than just let them play to where they were most suited, at least that's how I saw it IMO.
jamison plays pf for the wizards...novak is not even in the same ballpark as peja but keep dreaming...its the summer, the results are a comin so buckle up if you think novak is that good.
Yes and Jamison is more suited to play SF, thus my point. And I never said Novak was as good as Peja.
