Seems like Alston, Head, and Hayes were the standouts at camp. Kinda takes away the excitement a little huh?
Alston and James showing out sounds like great news to me. Would love to see these two man the point with a little bit of Brooks and have Stevie pick up backup 2 guard minutes. Skip is underrated and will prove himself to be a top 20-25 pg in the league to fans here. I think everyone else around the league already sees this. He's not a great starter by any means but he is decent. As a backup he'd be top 5 for sure. Still a little puzzled about the Landry situation...draft pick was a reach in the first place, then the contract after having already traded for Scola? Think Morey might've been a little over anxious to get him in here, from what I understood we could've kept his draft rights for atleast a year if we had not signed him....anybody know if that's accurate?
This was basically the last year to get Scola over for some time. That's why the Spurs made the trade. His contact status/buyout would have blown up should he have returned to Europe.
I'm sorry, wasn't very clear...I was talking about Landry and his situation if we didn't sign him to a contract last week or whenever it was.
LOL! Top 20-25 pg in the league? First of all, he is not that. And even if he is, may I remind you there are only 30 teams. Nothing to brag about.
Let the chips fall. From this, perhaps MJ's shooting gives him the inside track at starting PG. Mike Harris could make the team and take Novak's spot. I can't see how in the world JL3 isn't cut. Good to hear Chuck is more effective on offense with his passing. I can't wait until Tuesday evening.
I'm rooting for Harris. Sounds like he's the long-body with the head on his shoulders that we couldn't get out of Snyder. Defense will decide if he can make the team I bet, and if he does his hunger to get to where he is today will only improve the team. Sounds bad for Novak though. Here's my guess for the rosters: TMac Yao Battier Scola Hayes James Francis Alston Deke Brooks Bonzi 12. Head 13. Butler 14. Harris 15. Landry (on roster, assigned to D-League) ------ Snyder Novak JL3 Reed Sura's Contract It would look too bad for us to have basically bought Landry's draft rights with the first pick in the second round, then signed him to a rookie deal but not even keep him on the roster.
^ I think you might be right. Not sure if we keep Harris instead of Snyder, though. Snyder is proven as a rotation-quality NBA player, and has a better all around offensive game.
I'm very glad to hear that Alston is playing well. I've always thought that we should keep him, if only because he's the only true pass-first point guard on the roster... and this offense features a ton of passing. Head's ability to flourish in this offense makes the backcourt situation all the more chaotic. I've always figured that he'll be riding the bench all season long. After all, he has consistently shown his inability to play SG on defense, and inability to play PG on offense. He plays best with a big PG like Steve Francis, but then where does T-Mac's SG minutes and Bonzi comes in? We now basically have Bonzi, Head, Alston, James, Francis, and T-Mac's 20 minutes or so at SG to fill two positions. I'm guessing at least two of them will get DNP-CD come opening night. And that's not even including Brooks. On one hand, it's amazing how much our depth has improved since the last season. But also, Adelman's got some ego issues he needs to work out in a few weeks.
Agreed. I haven't seen much, but Harris seems more like a true 3 or a 3/4 than a 2/3. Our backcourt is littered with runts (Alston, James, Francis, Brooks, Head, not counting JL3). I just get flashbacks to the playoffs vs.Dallas -- images of Stackhouse vs. Wesley in the post are etched in my mind. Maybe TMac, Battier, and Bonzi are enough in this area. I don't know.
Some people here thought I was nuts for speculating that Luther could have a breakout year under Adelman. There has always been more to his offensive game than spot up threes. We've seen flashes of his offensive potential during preseason last year and a few times during the season when he was forced to shoulder the offensive load for the team.
Plus, he's entering his third season in the NBA, usually the breakout year for those who are going to end up being quality rotation players, a la Kevin Martin last year. Odds are he will improve measureably, but is it enough to wrest PT away from proven scorers at his position? I'm almost hoping for minor injuries early on to help us figure these things out.
Damn, it's bad to hear that Francis didn't do too well. I have him on all my fantasy teams so far. He needs to get some minutes. Good to hear about Hayes though. I know durvasa would be happy.
Yes top 20-25. And no I wasn't trying to brag. I haven't seen anyone around here say Skip was a great PG, but he's not horrible by any means. As I explained in my OP, being that there are 30 teams in the league that makes him nothing special as a starter but decent. Being able to bring him off the bench or simply play less minutes than MJ would automatically put him in the top 5 or so backup PGs in the league. On a personal note, I really would prefer he start games, we usually started games very well with the unit we had last year, that was not the issue, the huge drop off when going to the bench and inability of anyone besides 111 to get a shot at the end of games was. Having MJ come off the bench and finish games would seem to alleviate both of those issues in my eyes....thoughts?
Yeah, the depth in the backcourt is the main thing working against Luther. Unfortunately for him he'll really have to do something special to get into the regular rotation. Hopefully he's patient enough to pay his dues -- he's got a nice long career ahead of him IMO.
I am rooting for you. I remembered a game he scored about 30 points when Yao and T-mac were not on the court. If Head replaced of Reed in his rookie year, he may be a star. Forgiving me my crazy idea.
