Around this time last season, we had acquired Jimmy Jackson through free agency, along with Adrian Griffin and Eric Piatkowksi, to help fill the void left by James Posey. JJ was known as a turnover and injury prone player who played tough defense and had a streaky jump shot. We basically figured that he would be a decent bench player who would share duties with AG and Pike at the 3. As it would turn out, Griffin and Piatkowski were complete busts, but Jimmy emerged as a solid solution at SF, playing more minutes than anyone here expected, and helping the team to win with his tough D, frequent 3pt explosions, and steady ball handling. Back to the present now, we have acquired Bobby Sura through free agency, along with Charlie Ward and Tyronn Lue, to help fill the void left by Steve Francis. Sura is known as a turnover and injury prone player who plays tough defense and has a streaky jump shot. Most here figure that he will be a decent bench player who will share duties with Ward and Lue at the 1. Could Sura emerge as a solid solution at the point?
It basically depends on two things: 1. Can he keep his turnovers down? 2. Can he make an open jumpshot? After a year of having to scrape out wins despite a terrible turnover margin, I'm not looking forward more of the same. Sura does a bunch of good stuff on the court, so if he can keep his TOs down, he'll get plenty of playing time. And if he's going to get JJ status on this board, he'll have to make some shots. He has a nice shooting stroke, but has an extremely erratic career shooting percentage. Here's hoping that it's due to playing on bad teams and not getting decent looks. He'll get plenty of open looks on this team, so this is probably his best chance to succeed ever (shootingwise at least).
I really don't think turnovers will be a problem with Sura. T-Mac will be handling most of the ball handling/playmaking responsibilities, Sura just has to help out. That should cut his TOs down considerably. That's what happened with JJ. His turnover numbers early in his career would make Steve Francis blush, but later in his career as he became more of a role player his TOs went way down.
I can't argue that. But is there a difference between a good role player who used to be a star and a good role player who has always been a role player?
I think Ward and Sura will be a Kenny Smith / Sam Cassell type of thing. Ward will start, as Kenny did, and provide the veteran leadership to get us off on the right foot. I see Sura coming in, much like Peanut did, and giving us a lift. I also see Sura, as the better player of the two (Ward/Sura) being the closer. The exceptions being when he is streaky cold, turn over prone, or generally out of controll. Sound familure? I think this will really help Sura's game, because he won't have to be playing when he is not doing well.
I don't see it that way at all. I think Ward will play the same role on this team that Avery Johnson played on the Mavericks. Don Nelson loves the guy but Avery never saw any real playing time on the floor. He was more of a player / coach.
You don't REALLY believe that do you? We tried to acquire him last year as well. This time, we gave him a 3-yr contract, which starts somewhere above 1.9M (otherwise we would have used the vet exception). He will definitely get his 25 minutes, and that's a GOOD thing. He's a masterful team defender, and he has a sweet 3-pt shot. The backup minutes at PG will be a fight between Sura and Lue, while Sura will get all the backup 2 minutes.
Ward will probably get most of the minutes at the 1, but Sura played very well for the last 27 games last year. I think Sura has a 50 / 50 chance of being this years JJ or he could be this years Piatkowski... who knows...
You hit it right on the money as far shooting down the "player/coach" notion. No way he gets a 3 year contract to do something an assistant could do without taking up a roster spot. I think Lue's luck ran out the day Ward/Sura were signed. He went from the default starter before their signings to probably the odd man out. We'll have to see what happens though.
Slightly off-topic, but is Mark Jackson under contract for next year? If not, is he now officially retired?
I think it is possible that Sura could have a huge impact on this team. Perhaps not as large as JJs but still he could be solid. Right now he looks to be an 'energy' guy off the bench which is really something this team sorely needs. Sura is a sound player and very gritty and I think his energy off the bench will be a huge plus for this team. I can even see him as the PG in the fourth quarter of games to close them out. Because of Sura's versitility I see him being used in all sorts of situations and will be a player JVG will really be able to utilize.
I don't know how Sura fits into an offense with Yao unless Yao becomes Joel Pryzbilla who is a jumpshooting center. I saw that Hawks game that went into overtime. Joel Pryzbilla and Chris Crawford were making jumpers while Sura and Terry were creating shots. This is why I think it does not make sense for Sura to get major minutes with Yao unless Yao's role in the offense changes significantly from go-to player to roleplayer.
Sura's never going to be on par with Jimmy Jackson. Jackson was the fourth pick in the draft,a guy that got big money,and never lived up to it.He played with many crappy teams,and was alway one of the go to guys.That being said,he sure knows his role now and seems to play within himself more..letting the game come to him.JJ's always been a major talent. On Sura, I just don't like the signing one bit.Hopefully it will work out,but I don't know. I think Sura is his own worst enemy.One of his best attributes is his ability to beat guys off the dribble.When combined with him playing out of control this will create many turnovers.He's not just a streaky shooter,Bobby's a streaky player.Let's hope he is one of those that will benefit the most from playing with TMac and Yao..I definitely feel we need consistency out of these role players....and he's not Mad Max defensively. I would love to see Bobby slow his game down here.We'll see. ..and I like him as more of a backup 2.
That sounds a lot like Juwan Howard for the bulk of his career. These two guy are going to provide a whole lot of experienced veteran leadership for this team. I think just about ANY of our PGs would be able to do pretty well.
Not true at all. First off, the million dollar vet exception which you're referring to can only be used on 2 year contracts. For a 3 year all along, that immediately discards the use of the million dollar exception (really $1.6 mill this year). Secondly, in the case of a future free agent signing. Distributing the money (taking away the MLE from discussions), makes all negotiations about a player wanting to play with TMac/Yao, rather than trying to milk the Rockets for more money.
I loved Howard coming out and still do.This guy is short on athleticism,but is so fundementally sound.The consistency that has marked his career is a reflection of this and his professionalism.It would be nice to pair him with a defensive minded 4.
I don't really like the Sura-JJ comparison. JJ had always been a fine individual player and all around individual talent whose main knock (and reason for being a journeyman) was his impact on chemisty and personality. He was also coming off two extremely efficient seasons prior to the Rockets acquiring him where he shot above 40% from 3 land and 44% from the field. Sura is more of a hustle and energy guy who is a journeyman because of obvious flaws in his game (erratic shooting, TOs). What I hope from Sura is he sticks to his strengths-- defense, energy, and finishing, and limits his erratic play. Further I see him as a back-up all the way--more back-up 2 than 1 in fact. In no way do I expact a duplicate of JJ season, but I hope for a valuable back-up who gives us versitility and the ability to make so favorable floor match-ups by going big or small/quick. Also, those who think Lue is out of the equation I think are way off. He goes in as probably the 2nd most reliable 3 point shooter (behind JJ) and quickest player on the team. I expect Lue to get the most minutes at the 1 than any other player (around 24 MPG). Ward will get some, but at 34 we will want to keep him fresh for the playoffs (maybe 20 MPG for games he doesn't miss do to "tired related injuries"--note his career average is only 22 MPG sand he hasn't averaged 25MPG or more since 99-00). Also, Sura will get more minutes in swingman posiitons than at the 1 unless Lue or Ward are not available or unless Boki starts kicking ass.
