Chuck Hayes is a basketball "Rudy." I love his hustle, his heart, and his nose for the ball. He is starting on the fifth best team in the West. That's something. He is a perfect compliment to Yao. If he ever develops a mid-range jumper, he will really be something.
wow, he is unbelievable awesome this season a double-double tonight surely his contract will be bigger
I think Hayes has made noticeable improvement on offense. He is finishing better and occasionally makes an aggressive hook. Hayes is great with McGrady and Yao on the court.
Anybody else think Chuck's performance this year bodes well for Moreyball? Last year, his PER, +/-, etc. were all really good. Now it looks like those stats may indeed have been good measures of how he would perform in the future. Hopefully, this new strategy will help the Rockets to have a big edge in finding affordable role players for a few years before the rest of the league catches on.
I don't know if Morey is behind the recent player acquisitions, but I thought we've doing a great job with personnel the last year. Chuck Hayes, of course, but also the Battier trade and Kirk Snyder was very solid. Even Bonzi, though it didn't work out, was a pretty good signing at the time considering we didn't have to pay a lot. The trade for Tsakalidis. Our personnel situation looked hopeless a year ago, but I think we did a great job turning it around.
Who says Yao doesn't make his teammates better? Chuck Hayes is the one benefit the most since Yao draws all the attentions. But give Chucky a lot of credits for being able to finish around the basket, which he didn't do very well in the beginning of the year.
Sorry if I was unclear. I didn't mean to suggest Morey has been running the show. I just meant that, with Chuck's success this year, Hayes may be the poster child for Morey's kind of statistical analysis. Even though he didn't really turn heads right away last year, the +/- stats, etc. indicated early on that he could potentially contribute in a big way.
Chuck is playing with a lot more confidence than he did last year and earlier this year. A lot of those missed shots and layups were due to him rushing shots, and playing out of control. He's a lot more calm now, and it's really showing in his improved play. Chuck just keeps getting better. He doesn't have a jumpshot, but he's gotten really good at putting the ball on the floor and finishing in the lane. And his FT shooting has actually been pretty good lately. He hustles on the boards, takes a couple charges, gets a couple steals a game, and allows us the benefit of being able to switch on pick and rolls with Shane or T-mac. If only he could cut down on the dumb fouls, he'd be incredible.
ugh dont put the two in the same league dennis is light years ahead of hayes. love hayes and everything he brings to the team, his fts have actually gone up lately to a point where i know he'll make 2/3 everytime he is on the line. he has added a little jump hook to his game which has helped tremendously. granted you will not see him shooting jumpers anytime soon but his hustle and heart are huge for this team. re-up this guy (for market value of course) as soon as possible. its actually great his style of play is so different from juwan because it helps juwan get wide open looks. it seems when he goes out and juwan comes in teams are so used to reacting the same way double teams rotate that they'll leave juwan open right away when he checks in thinking that its hayes' jumper there and not juwan's money shot. another reason why i think juwan's fg % is sky high lately he has been getting a whole lot of open looks thanks to yao and undisciplined rotations by the defense
Well, I think I would rather hire Isiah Thomas for this team as the GM now. With the salary structure like this, Isiah would be the perfect one just because he can draft, and he knows how to draft. I am amazed by how Isiah always drafted good players based on the drafting position.
Chuck has been great ever since his big Chinese sidekick returned from injury. Yao is an important glue guy.
18 mil for 5 years is really high. I think Chuck is about 2 milion/year for 5 years, so roughly around 10 mil for 5 years. Chuck is a good eastern conference PF, but not a western conference PF. He can't really defend those tall PFs in the west. He is only effective because of Yao and T-mac and because he has the hunger for the big contract. He is playing purely on desire. If he has a big contract, I won't be surprised that his level of play will decline. Malik Rose is a similar player as him, all hustle and energy. But after getting his big contract, he does not play as hard thus Spurs shipped him to New York.
