[Dallas Morning News] Rockets could be looking for help

if only we could get Camby or Kaman...pipedream as usual!

 

Bring Shawn Bradley or Michael Olowokandi out of retirement.

 

nice time to figure this out.

 

I can't believe we came into a season without a back-up center. WTF we're we thinking? What does that say about Adelman...when now he is complaining about it when Yao goes out for the first time? You think we would have taken care of this much earlier. I don't get it. It's a big blunder is what it is.

 

Everyone knew this is what we needed. Sad to see it took so long for it to happen.

Will we have to cut anyone if we sign a Center?

 

Why Morey dont sign one big guy as Yao's backup?

How can it happen?

How long should we need to wait?

 

I don't know about bringing in Deke after seeing Brent Barry. As much as I love the guy nobody is ageless.

 

adelman sounds pissed

 

you can blame adelman and les for this situation.

les wanted to save money so morey had no other choice than to go into the season without another big.

also, adelman wanted to run his offense and so he didn't like the idea of mutombo getting some playing time behind yao.


before the season started i thought that this would actually be no problem at all. adelman wanted to run more with a small ball line-up and i actually thought that this was the only way to go. rafer and brooks like to run. i thought barry would be a big part of this with his creative passing and deadly shooting. i also liked the idea of ron or shane at the 4 with scola, who loves to run the floor, as the center. i thought this would be a line-up that won't be very good defensively but could make up for it by out-running and out-scoring the opponents.

sadly, until now, we had no running game at all and so the plan didn't work out.

the way we're playing right now, with the stagnant offense, no fastbreak opportunities and winning our games mostly because of our defense we might as well have deke on the floor to give us a defensive presence and some size in the post.

 

Look at Singleton on the Mavs. We had him once and let him go. I wish we still had him cause he would be able to run with our second unit. I sure there is a big guy out there some where that can play 15 minutes for use. Hell go get Darius Miles for the vet minimum.

 

I thought the same thing, I am starting to wonder if some of his gears may be slipping. His rotations are sometimes inexplicable.

If you think Francis is done, what about Mutombo? He is almost 40, maybe over 40. He might be 50! He is not a viable option anymore. This was a glaring need well before the season started, and I never thought Mutombo was going to be the answer.

 

A couple things can be drew from the loss.

1) Yao is one of 2 or 3 keys to rox defense and offense.
2) Morey or RA made one mistake on the assumption that we can live w/o a real backup center. Focus on signing Landry really doomed the chance to get Deke. Rox had to hold the money for Landry. Landry is a good bench player. He is not going to be a super star. All evidents indicated what he is, a good bench. By that time, what was the #1 priority issue? Morey or RA came up shopping list with wrong order.

 

Hey, more people (media) notice what was obvious when Yao was out last season: we need a legitimate back-up center like Mutombo !! Sometimes I really question the Rockets organization's IQ. First they tell us we'll be fine with what we have, which is 3 PFs all under 6'9 and a rookie who can contribute "right away." Now as we've all seen, we're too small at PF again and do not have a back-up center because Dorsey will probably not play.
I like all of our players but if we have to clear some room, please do it asap, even if it means shipping Hayes / Landry / Dorsey out of here.

 

In theory,it looks good. I was very skeptical that Barry at his age could be part of the running unit.His defensive deficiencies have been apparent from day 1 which curtails his minutes and he hasn't shot well either which was the main reason why he was brought here.
Ron at the 4 and Scola at the 5 makes sense but Shane has been a failure at the 4.JVG tried it and had to put Juwan Howard back there if you recall. Shane can function very well as a backup 3. Rafer likes to run at times but is more of a facilitator at the 1.

Landry and even Chuck can be part of a running unit,perhaps Dorsey too in the future,but our lack of size,defense and rebounding in the low post is proving to be fatal. Unfortunately we can't expect much from Deke either even if he re-signs with us.

 

Finding a legit center in the NBA is as hard as finding a virginal prostitute.

 

I say we trade Barry & Luther for a legit backup center if possibly and maybe add SF3 if needed.

 

barry would be just fine in a running unit. actually, one of the reasons barry hasn't contributed much this season is that our offense isn't working. i think he would fit in way better if the team could run adelman's offense well. he's in a shooting slump, yes, but his shot is so fundamentally sound that it's only a matter of time until he starts hitting them again.

actually, shane at the 4 didn't really come out as a failure. it's just that jvg recognized that the team is far better off if shane's defending the opponent's best perimeter player. also, we're not talking about a halfcourt offense here. shane could probably handle playing the 4 in a small ball line-up pretty well. unfortunately he was injured so we don't know yet.

i don't think shane should be a backup 3, though. we'll be better of with him in the starting line-up and artest off the bench.

rafer always does a great job at pushing the ball. but half of the time he ends up waiting for the rest of the team to catch up. on the few fastbreak opportunities the rockets get you can always see how much he enjoys running the break.

what you can expect from deke is that he comes in and plays hard nosed defense. he's still a great shot blocker and he's still got his reputation. he'll give you size in the post and get you some rebounds. that's all we need right now for about 10 - 15 mpg depending on matchups. i'm pretty sure deke can still bring that.

 

You can't trade Barry. Deals like that kill a teams credibility towards free agents. Horrible PR/Mgmt move.