I have never seen Ryan Bowen play, but have read alot of reviews about him. He sounds exactly like a JVG/Riley type player... tall, energetic, defensive player with a good work ethic. I think it makes alot of sense to sign a 6-9 player who can play 3 different positions (SG/SF/PF) to the veteran minimum. Kobe Stopper? Probably not, but at 6-9, he can at least alter Kobe's shot... and he can't, then Yao/Dikembe will. This is going to be a very strong defensive team. Our only glaring weakness is PG when we play quicker PG like JKidd, SCassell, TParker, SNash and MBibby. But, if they were able to slash and penetrate there's always good help defense from the PF (minus MoT) and Center. Let's hope for no more injuries.
He's the guy who does the football predictions for SI. There's a football pool that is used to determine home court advantage in the playoffs in case of a tie...part of the new CBA. They signed Zimm as a consultant...doesn't count against the cap.
Ugh. I had a feeling this was gonna happen, and it did. Dammit. I have to go to class now, but later today I'll post a more in-depth scouting report of Bowen for you guys. I like hte Chucky Brown comparison. He is HEART AND SOUL. You will not find a more intense player on the court, he is all hustle. Pretty good defender. Incredibly weak on offense. The most he should play is 10 minutes a night. After that, it's overuse. Will give you a good 10 minutes though. Damn you guys.
I agree with everything said up until the suggestion that we go after Vlad Radmanovic. Like Boki, he is an underachieving Euro forward with decent athleticism. The only difference is Radmanovic was given the opportunity to play right away due to Seattle's lack of depth in their dismal frontcourt. I seriously question if he would be any upgrade at all over Boki. This is make it or break it time for Boki. Last chance to prove to everyone he can play and is worthy of being a 1st round pick. This is the chance for him to do it. Opposing teams are going to have nightmares trying to defend Yao and T-mac so he will have plenty of opportunities to show us what he can do. We'll have to see what happens but i'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Completely agree Re: Boki. If Ryan Bowen is the reason that Boki isn't getting minutes, there's not much to be said for Boki. As for Zimmerman, I could definitely see him making the roster a la Wilks. As of now, we have 15 guys, and I'd think being the 15th guy signed gives him a better chance of being stuck on the roster than guys 16-18 etc. Right now, we go 3 deep at SF (JJ, Boki, Bowen) and at PF (Juwan, MoT, Spoon, plus Padgett). SG is a hurt by the injury to Sura, but TMac carries a huge load there and guys like JJ can easily slide down to fill excess minutes plus Gaines. C goes 2 deep, but one of them is Yao. At PG, we really only go 2 deep (Ward, Lue). Seeing as neither Ward nor Lue are clear cut starters, and without Sura, we lack anything behind TMac, I see us going with another guard over a 3rd center. Zimmerman's gotta be the early favorite for the coveted roster spot #15, unless Gaines shows the talent that got him drafted 15th overall. Of course, if we manage to land Lucious Harris, Gaines will be spending the year on the pine and Zimmerman will be in the unemployment line.
Hey, this is the best thing I've read about the signing yet. Look foreward to your more in-depth scouting report later, Nuggets4. Thanks. Keep D&D Civil!!
I don't understand why everyone thinks this is the end of Boki? Ryan Bowen, when he was with the Nuggets, was a hustle player, someone, unless he developed significantly over the last two years, won't play more than 15-20 minutes a game... It's all about matchups too, Boki is obviously more offensive while Bown more defensive. Stuart
Okay, reading through this thread now, I think you guys are mis-interpreting Bowen. If he replaces Boki on the depth chart, Boki sucks. There's no debating it. I LOVE Bowen, but like I said above, he's a 10 mpg guy. You bring him in for a change of pace, that's it. Unless you're planning on having Jimmy Jackson play 35 mpg, you're gonna need 3 SF's. Bowen: Positives: In the locker room, he's the opposite of Pippen (you guys'll love that). He is always working on his game (even though, especially on offense, it doesn't necessarily show). Even dives for loose balls in practices. He WILL raise the intensity of your team. Mature guy. Played in Turkey for a year (lockout) in which he routinely had batteries thrown at him by opposing fans. Hard to rattle. Good to potentially great defender. Gonna lean more towards good, but he's so persistent that it will frustrate opponents. I can't mention his hustle enough. Constantly diving. Negatives: If you're expecting serious minutes, sorry. He loses his effect when you do that. Offense is, um, suspect (he should fit in perfectly in Houston -- ba zing! ). Luckily he knows this and doesn't force up shots, will take them if they're open though. Not very athletic. Overall, for a one year deal, he'll be a great help. If the team is sluggish, you put the BOWEN FACTOR in the game and it'll turn things around. Any time you're relying on him for heavy minutes (see 2002 Nugs), you're in trouble.
Every thing I've read so far says he's a great role player on the defensive end. My concern is that JVG puts too much stock in heavily defensive minded guys and not keeping enough balance with offensive potential. Are the Rockets going to bank completely on T-Mac and Yao to shoulder the offense? Outside of Juwan and Jim Jackson, all the other players are either barely at or not even close to averaging 10 pts per game. That means an offensive deficiency if Juwan or Jim goes down and a disaster if Yao or T-mac goes down.
We don't need much offense outside of Yao & T-Mac. They'll average around 50-55 a game, then the other 13 players just have to average a total of 30-40 more a game to get a win.
I'm aware that is what they expect, but what about contingency? T-Mac's back goes out mid season. Yao's big toe problems escalate to surgery. So in the case of T-Mac, Ryan Bowen (3.2 ppg), Boki (2.8 ppg), Reece Gaines (1.8 ppg), Sura (8.4 ppg) who picks up the slack? In the case of Yao, Mutombo (11.7 career but 5.7 last 2 yrs) and who else other than already undersized PF in the West who have to shift to C?
HoRockets, I understand your concern. But You can make a case like that for every team in the NBA. What's Timberwolves gonna do if KG is out, what's gonna happen to Spurs when TD goes out? Heat without Shaq?
Wolves have Cassell, Spree, Wally.... Spurs have Parker, Barry, Ginobili, Rasho... Heat are screwed...
The Wolves and Spurs would lose so much defensively it's not even funny. So would we with Yao, but I'm just saying that a team losing it's best player would be really hurt no matter what.
It is a good signing. But remember Bowen and Padget are one-dimensional bench guys signed for the min. As many have said, if Boki loses his time to these guys, that says more about Boki than it does about anything else. If Boki is ready to be a big time, high minute, contributer, these guys absolutely will not stop him. They are nice insurence policies just in case Boki doesn't come through. As much as I'd like to have Lucious, I have a feeling we felt we probably could not land him with what we could offer and moved on. As for SG, really TM and JJ's ideal spots are there. We also have plenty of guys who bring different things to the table to compete for SF back up minutes (Boki, Bowen, Padget). So when either Tmac or JJ are sitting--and we probably never want both sitting except in garbage time--the one in there moves to SG. Someone mentioned back up center being shallow. Honestly I think we have the best group of people to play center in the league--Yao, Deke, Howard and Taylor. Howard or Taylor make as good or better back-up C's than most have, and we only need to use them based on situations (wanting offense, injury to Deke/Yao). I would like one FA PG or combo guard to compete with Zimmerman as the 3rd PG, and 5th guard, while Sura is down. I am concerned about how many games and the level of PT Ward can give us at his age. That is my only concern right now with the players on the roster.
