The truth of all this is none of us have seen him in a full chance. Some minutes here and there and poof, injured list. I conjecture his possible contributions. But I conjecture with a good and practiced eye.
Oh man... That person that took a year off is STEVE FRANCIS. Someone that is 10x your talent and integral to the success and future of the Houston Rockets Yao Ming is getting his chance to succeed because he has the tools to succeed and become something Jason Collier cannot. This guy is pretty dense. Man, you can't be comparing your chances to those of Yao Ming and Steve Francis -- you'll lose your mind if you did. At best, he is a backup center for an Eastern conference squad and he should recognize that. Anyways it must be frustrating to play mind games with oneself.. i wish him good luck but heaven forbid he go to the team that gets Darko or Lebron next year... he'l be complaining about how they are given all the chances to success and how unfair it is to the talent-and-potential-challenged... STuart
DD, 48min. stats are that meaningful for players who only have spotty PT. For one, those numbers can be a fluke. For two, playing less gives you more expandable energy to "give it all out" while you're in. I'd say you'd have to have at least 15 mpg to have meaningful 48min stats. BTW, Collier is also our leading ft% shooter with 100% accuracy (2-2)!
I totally agree! I know I was one of the few who was pumped to draft Pryz then the trade was annonced and I hated it. I will admit I was excited to get Griff but in hindsight I wish we had Pryz. Don't know exactly what we would do with him since we have Ming and Cato but I'd much rather have Pryz.
"Member on Crack". . . that's really funny. Yeah, Clutch is pretty cruel sometimes. It'd be nice to have more of this kind of membership "ranks" like "Badass Member" "Machine Gun No Life 30 a day poster" "Mad Yao Disease Fan" "Cat Hata" "Closet Lakers Fan" "Get Riddy". . .
Anyone care to wager that Jason Collier never makes as much money playing basketball as he did his 3 years with the Rockets? The stiff was darn lucky we picked him 15 and he got a 1st round contract based on that--because most years, especially those w/o the Rockets with a mid-late pick--he would have been a 2nd rounder and not had a guaranteed contract. Jason is a great basketball player. Probably one of the 1000 or so best basketball players in the entire world. But quality NBA material he is not. Jason will make a good euro player or a persistant 3rd center/IR player (he probably isn't as good as league min vet salary player who eptomizes this role--Cherokee Parks) in the NBA--his choice. Either way it is a nice living, he should be happy and take it all in while he can--the Rockets did him and his family a huge favor he probably never can repay them for.
In Amsterdam, Netherlands. What a waste of valuable draft pick. Benefited from playing with Ed Cota, Sherman Williams, Antwan Jamison and of course the Vinsanity himself. Oh btw, I like jason Collier and I think he is no worse than Joe Prysbila.
Chuckie Brown was a role player to the nth degree, so you wouldn't really expect him to go off or kill the Rockets with a clutch shot. Hakeem was definitely washed up by the time he went against the Rockets (which I think was only once). Baloney should not even be discussed. But ever since Horry went to the Lakers, it seemed like he always hit some big shots against us in the times that we have lost to the Lakers.
I love how people get attached to certain bench scrubs and think that "if they only got a chance..." All of those so called hustle players have one thing in common. Their prospective teams are constantly trying to get "real" players to replace them. You think LA is going to turn down a talented PF cause they got the Mad Dog? If you can play, you play. People were saying the same thing about Langhi last year, and now he's the tenth man on Phoenix instead of being the 11th man here. Big difference. BTW, heart is defined as "Courage; resolution; fortitude" I never saw Collier do much more than come in, get his shot bocked. Grab a board or two, get dunked on, and pick up three fouls in five minutes of glory before he went back to the bench. PS. Let's see how Jefferson plays when Kidd leaves next year.
Just to clue in Collier, he came in out of shape his first two seasons and ended up with shin splints and other injury problems. He got beat for the job by Cato, a guy who had almost no confidence over the past two years, despite really having the job in his lap if he wanted it. So, after two seasons of allowing opportunities to pass him by, now he b****es playing behind Yao and claims that the reason the Rockets won't let him fail is because it would make them look bad. Oh, brother. And don't kid yourself. This guy would have ZERO chance of defending at the four. He doesn't have the quickness to defend at the four, let alone against some of the most athletic players in the league at the four spot. If Collier is getting minutes at the four on your team, your team sucks or has been destroyed by injury. Period. Good for the guy that he has some sac and decided to fight for himself. It would've been nice if he made that decision a couple years back. Of course, if that were the case, we might have not had a shot at Yao so, whatever.
I can understand the guy's frustration, but I dislike what he said that he was not granted opptunities. He is playing in NBA, and that is opptunity. It is up to him to prove what he is worth. If he comes onto the court in those limited minutes and cant deliver it, it's over, face it. A lot of under-valued players shine the moment when they are granted chance, but Jason, I am sorry, he didnt. So quit whinning, wuss, please it's not even his business to be jelousy of Yao Ming or Cato. What a kind of jerk to something like that to the media at a critical moment like this, not a man at all.
Easy, I know that stats do not tell the whole story. I am pointing that out to Pgabrial, as he uses stats to try to bolster his arguments. I am just turning the tables on him. DD
Jason Collier's stats aren't as relevant because the guy only played in 25 games. That's not a large enough statistical pool, IMO. He's only played in 13 games this year.
I thought this was another late-breaking April Fools joke or something. Jason just doesn't have the talent right now...he'll either be sitting on someone IR next season, or he'll be in the NBDL. He has had a few standout performances, but every time it's like he's going all out and tremendously overachieving. I doubt he'd be able to keep that up with a steady number of minutes.
And the Rockets are debating whether or not they need a real PG to replace SF at that position. The point is???
I think the Rockets are more than willing to give any player a chance provided they make the most of their few minutes. Case in point: Juaquin Hawkins. Nobody here would have thought that Hawkins would make the team, yet he proved during preseason that his defense, court-vision and outside shooting was good enough to merit a spot. Even now, he continues to produce consistently whenever he plays, no matter how few minutes he gets. Collier is simply not an NBA caliber player and that's why he's on the injured list. The Rockets made a huge mistake in choosing him with Milwaukee's pick. Either we would have gotten Magliore and could have traded Cato, or we would have the 3rd guard/forward that we need so badly now (Desmon Mason, Morris Peterman, Turkoglu).
The problem was, was that Rudy just loves big stiffs that can "shoot" (Zwikker, Meek, Collier). We kept trying to find one that would be decent and we kept losing out. FINALLY we have someone like Yao. Hopefully this will stop the trend of this team continually reaching for a big guy with limited athletic ability.
It's clutchcity that is debating that question. I doubt the Rockets entertain the notion for very long.
