Couldn't agree more. If you had seen Luther, you would be even more pumped for the season. He was impressive for a rook.
This could be our deepest bench ever! Finally we'll have a bench. There will definately be some playing time challenges for JVG this season. Go Rockets!!!
That is like saying the Empire State Bldg. is taller than an ant hill! Thanks guys for all the recaps, your insights are great.
I couldn't agree more. Luther might wind up an All Star or at Cuttino's level. What a back court we are going to have. No more gettin burned by some athletic guys in the Dallas back court.
I like what Luther Head does. The guy brings speed and explosiveness, something that the Rockets' backcourt desparately lacked last season.
Luther Head played awesome tonight, but it kinda sucks he won't get much playing time once the regular season rolls around.
Skip: Looked good out there. Excellent handles. Quite the contrast of painfully watching Sura bring the ball up last year against pressure. With Skip, the other team is almost wasting their time & effort when they full court press. Got the ball to Yao in scoring position! A+ for Skip. Baxter: Liked what I saw. Can hit the offensive boards and put it back in. Very strong inside. Luther: Very impressive, but remember Derrick Chievous (some of you knew that name would come up). Today's game is a bit misleading since any time he gets on the floor with the 1st team this year will not involve him shooting the ball hardly at all. That said, it was good to see him stroke a few. Had some good assists and other good passes that weren't converted. Tell you what, if the Rox have the expected increased in blowout games, Luther could get plenty of garbage this year. Based on this one game, maybe Luther could crack the rotation late in the year. Then again, many of us thought the same of Derrick Chievous. Moochie: Same old ball hog who should quickly establish himself as player #12. Since Luther referred to Alston as "Skip" in the postgame interview, I will never use Rafer's real name again.
I was VERY impressed with the team after this game. The passing and the ball movement is what struck me the most. The passes were crisp, clean and on the mark; and the ball movement was great either in the half court or the break. This is going to be a REAL good offensive team just because of these alone. Alston looks to be the perfect fit. I thought Yao looked pretty good overall, just looked like he was trying to shake off some rust. He made some nice passes from the post and some good aggressive moves down low. 19 points in only 21 minutes while not playing his best ball. He still got himself into bad defensive positioning a couple of times, resulting in a couple of fouls, but let's see what it looks like with Swift by his side. The defense looks to have a REAL good foundation. They were aggressive and quick to rotate to the ball. They gave up some baskets, but the offense always has the upper hand at the beginning of the season. What can I say about Mr. Head. Granted, we are only going by one preseason game against bench players, but he looked like a steal at the 24th pick. His natural defensive knack will get him much more playing time than we originally thought. Props also to Baxter and Howard.
I really believe that Stromile will bring out the very best in Yao and vice versa. Look for Yao to make nice pass down inside to Swift for easy dunk. I hope Swift can get Yao's back and help defend the paint and shut down the paint.
Will tomorrow's game be broadcast outside (in Austin) of Houston? It isn't on NBA TV and doesn't appear to be availiable on NBA League Pass yet. Thanks in advance.
It won't surprise me if Luther Head become a regular backup off the bench. Having come in from a winning program and several years of college ball, he will find his game really soon and contribute to the team sooner than most of you expect. I'm always quite high on Head.
The best thing about it is that all of our nice guys played tonight and looked great. When Stro steps in, we'll get to see the nasty side of the Rockets...you know, the Josh Howard-type that irritates the hell out of you because of his ultra-physical play. I'm excited about Luther Head...not just because of the points he scored or assists dished out...but because of his court demeanor. That guy looked like he knew exactly what he was doing, where he should be and what needed to get done. Granted...it's only been one game...he'll definitely be under the Rocket Fan microscope for the next five preseason games. This looks like it will be a very exciting year!!!
For a preseason game, i was impressed. that game was very entertaining. t-mac and yao played longer than i expected. i thought they were gonna only play for 10 minutes, then sit it out. but they actually put on a show. i was kinda pi$$ed off because stromile did'nt play. Luther Head surprised me. that dude got mad game . even though its only one pre-season game, luther head did the damn thing on the b-ball court. dude is quick, and his jumper is better than i thought. i really did'nt keep up with luther's game in college because deron williams and dee brown were getting all the attention. im glad juwon is back and playing up to his potential even in a pre-season game. t-mac impressed as usual "Reefer" Alston did a great job with ball handling all though skip and anderson should shoot the wide open jumpers instead of driving through the lane passing up easy shot opportunities. even mooch did okay for in this game even though he turned the ball over constantly.
Yeah, no one is really talking about Skip because of Luther playing well in the 2nd half, but I agree. I loved what I saw from Alston tonight. Unlike Head, he was playing against regular players and it was hard to believe he's only been on this team for a week or 2. Already the offense looks more fluid with him at the controls and this is only the first preseason game. We are WAY ahead of last year's preseason. The new guys (Skip and DA) looked as if they've been on the team for a year.
The box score at cnnsi.com says: Ward - DNP, coach's decision Yeah, and *Ward* was the coach who made the decision.
Yea, Mooch better be careful or he is going to find a rookie a'Head' of him on the depth chart. OK, I know, it was lame.
Let's see. Tracy was Tracy. Not much to say, he played incredible, as always. Yao was Yao. A bit up and down with the fouls, but he got a good shot pretty much every time he got the ball down low. 19 pts in 21 minutes. Can't really beat that. Wes was a bit ehh. His shot wasn't falling, but his defense was solid and he had a couple of nice passes. Howard played great. He was hitting his shot, and was very solid on both ends. If Swift beats him out for the starting role, then I'll be very happy. It would mean that Stro is playing really, really well. Skip was terrific. He had a bunch of nice entry passes to Yao. He's got a fabulous handle, and a lightning quick first step. He passed up a bunch of open shots though, but he'll learn. Anderson was a bit up and down. He shot the ball really well, but he had a bunch of turnovers. Some of the TOs were from not being on the same page as some teammates on passes, but a couple were from mishandling the ball. Hopefully he'll improve once he gets more comfortable with the plays and his teammates. Deke was Deke. Not much to say. He was basically solid. His complaining to the refs is in mid-season form however. Baxter played pretty well. He hustled, showed a nose for the ball and cleaned up on some garbage points down low. Head was awesome. He was very active on defense. He aggressively went for his shot and had a couple of really nice passes. His first step looked very quick. I did notice that he doesn't have much of a left hand though. His game is going to need a lot more polish, but I think someone on this board had it right when they called him the lovechild of Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley.
