Dampier to report to Rockets! [UPDATE: JT's agent says Houston-Dampier not happening]

LMAO i mean really! Without a trade we will get it together we have a good team.

 

Just to be clear, this is all speculation right?

 

Of course.

 

Our chemistry is already screwed, we don't need to bring anyone else in until we figure out how to play with the guys that are already here.

DD

 

I know i am going to get some heat for saying this. But i am pretty sick of the Yao situation.
Let the coach play him all he wants and if he breaks up, then well, lottery and a nice expiring contract to trade. Let his body determine how much he can play.
What if we play him 24 minutes, he plays all season, we resign him and turns out that if he plays 34 minutes he breaks again. THAT would suck.
We have to use him now that he is an expiring, not wait untill he has an albratross contract again.

 

When is Eric Dampier going to play? we need stops in the paint here!!
Anybody know?

 

Seems to me that the time for bringing someone new in may be perfect. Their is no way it can disrupt chemistry cause their isnt any. And if we are trying to build some, then a trade now brings a new player(s) into the making of it.

 

In light of our earlier discussion, it is funny that we're trading JT because he "couldn't play defense," when Brooks/Martin are even worse at it. To me, JT would've been a smaller Corey Maggette.. now another team will reap the reward so that we can add another 7 footer to crowd our rotation. Sweet.

 

Maybe we should start Jermaine Taylor! Whose with me?

 

OMG... I'm gonna have to root for the 2nd best center in the league!!

 

Makes you wonder, LongTimeFan.

You don't like to think that bias creeps into decision-making at this level among coaches and GMs. You want to believe that they're clinical in their observations and evaluations of players, particularly with players they draft.

But people are people. Even people who should know better.

I saw no need for the Rockets to trade Trevor Ariza for Courtney Lee, when Lee and Jermaine Taylor are essentially the same player, other than the fact they were able to save a few bucks between contracts.

The one thing that tends to happen on teams that have a lot of lateral (seemingly one-sided) talent, to me, is that you get a lot of redundancy from position to position. You get a roster of a lot of the same types of players at a lot of positions, generally...which is what should happen when you're building a talent base for a team.

I don't know what the coaches see or don't see in Jermaine Taylor. I'm not at any practices. I don't have any insider knowledge. I've been around basketball as a player (D-2) or fan/armchair coach for about 20 years, but I don't pretend to understand how one player's flaws aren't as significant as another players' flaws to a coach.

But sooner or later, players determine their fate. The best a coach can do is define player roles and gauge how well players fill them.

I like Courtney Lee. I think he's potentially a great "fit" piece...he's balanced, and can play either guard spot for you in stretches, particularly as a defender. He doesn't need the ball on offense to be effective. He's tough, and from all accounts, very heady.

He's what Shane Battier should have been, LongTimeFan.

The advantage Lee currently has over Taylor is being able to play without the basketball on offense more effectively between the two. That type of player always is a better fit, especially when you look at the players currently playing for the Rockets' backcourt. Neither Aaron Brooks or Kevin Martin are particularly good at playmaking or decision-making, and their struggles defensively are obvious. But as it stands, those two have the starting jobs for the immediate future. If you sit either of them, you would need a player who could defer handling the basketball to the other.

Again, to me, the hardest thing to figure out is who's playing with whom. Until some hard line is drawn with Yao Ming's minutes (either a lot more or a lot less), the lineups will be in flux.

Yao Ming's impact and role for the Rockets is as a franchise player. How you feel about that is how you feel about that, but that's the reason the Rockets have been cautious with him. The only similarity between Yao and Zydrunas Ilgauskas is what they mean to their teams. Ilgauskas was never a franchise player for Cleveland, and was never expected to be. Yao's not a "secret weapon" that you can just pop onto somebody and hope you get good results from it.

If Yao's got more in common with Gheorge Muresan or Manute Bol (NBA sideshow attractions...and the both of them were good people, so I mean no disrespect)...

...then you can't keep the team handcuffed to him. If he doesn't give you the best chance to win, then you don't skew things his way in order to make him comfortable.

Nobody can figure out what their jobs are, because nobody's decided what Yao's job is, LongTimeFan. Got to get that fixed, my friend.

First things first, you know......

 

That was an very long, well thought out post for someone responding to two lines of my drivel; it's Friday and I'm bored so I'll discuss.

I agree with you about the Trevor Ariza - Courtney Lee swap. I was one of the few who was adamantly against it when it happened and I still am not a big fan of it. Judging in hindsight through four games of the season, we traded our starting SF for a backup SG that plays 17 minutes a night. Is the difference between JT playing 17 minutes/gm and Courtney Lee playing it worth losing Trevor Ariza? I don't believe so.

From a strictly basketball perspective, would I trade JT for Dampier? Absolutely. But when you look at how Brad Miller is(nt) playing, how Jordan Hill has worked himself into the rotation and is playing well, and how Chuck Hayes continues to be the defensive cockroach who won't sit, is it realistic to think Dampier will get any significant minutes? I'm not so sure, which makes me want to back away from cutting JT in favor of Dampier. The obvious choice of who to cut IMO, strictly from a basketball perspective, is Jeffries. But because of his contract situation ("expiring contracts are so valuable!!?!?!"), he isn't going anywhere. So instead, we're going to lose a cheap talent to add another 7 footer who most likely will be keeping a seat warm on the bench.

No coach is perfect. Critics of Adelman will gladly point out Gerald Wallace. Say what you will about Wallace's lack of performance in Sacramento, but the talent was obvious to anyone who watched him. It took another coach to bring that out of him. I don't believe JT will be Gerald Wallace, but from our time watching him I do think he's an NBA rotation player. Specifically, I remember the Lakers game where he was the best defender on Kobe that we had. How is it that one minute a guy can play great defense on one of the most talented players in the league and the next we're letting go of him and blaming his defense for it? The answer would seemingly be consistency or lack of focus, but that's hard to come to those conclusions when we're not present for the practices/scrimmages/etc. Instead, we have to rely on the word of management; some will take that as gospel, others will hold on to the impressions they got while watching JT play. But I think we can agree that surely.. SURELY.. he can't be any worse than what we're seeing out of Martin and Brooks right now.

I like Courtney Lee as well. I'm not sold on him as a spot up shooter, which holds me back from calling for him to eat into Martin's minutes. He's a good defender that can play multiple positions and attack the basket; he seems to prefer the mid-range pull up to the three pointer. On a related note, I've actually been very disappointed in Martin's shooting. He was supposed to be a deadeye who would punish teams for double teaming Yao.. and right now I don't believe he's a very good spot up shooter. There was one instance in the last game where he was wide open for three; instead of taking it (he's supposed to be our best shooter, TAKE THE SHOT), he hesitated long enough for his man to recover so that he could take him off the dribble. That play really stood out for me because we needed a big three in that instance and Martin seemed to not have the confidence in himself to knock it down.

Here's the thing that nobody's really talking about with regard to Yao. For years, the Rockets played one way -- inside-out. Yao would be force fed his touches and our offense would work off that. However, once he went down Adelman decided to shift gears offensively and turned us into Golden State. He routinely played Brooks 40 minutes last year hoping we would outscore teams. For years we had talked about playing up-tempo, but it wasn't until Yao was out that we really saw what that was.

Now, Yao has returned and our offense is stuck between the GS-hybrid and the old style of letting Yao punish teams. Aaron Brooks' discipline as far as running the team and making sure we play our game has been disappointing so far. I just don't think the up-tempo offense should be as big a part of our offense as it was last year. Sure, take the fast break when it's there, but we can't expect to be a good defensive team if we're racing up the floor every possession.

In the end, I find myself agreeing with Bill Simmons: this team might have too much talent. If you look at our bench and assume that Lowry, Lee and Budinger are going to be regulars, you're already at an 8-man rotation without including any backup big men. So now we're looking at a 9-10 man rotation.. which would make us Hubie Brown's favorite team.

One interesting thing: there's been no deal yet. Moving a player should be relatively easy, especially considering the reported interest teams have in JT. To me, that signals that DM is trying to make a bigger move -- perhaps one that would unclog the jam we have with our rotation.

 

This here is the crux of my argument with Yao's handling, LongTimeFan.

The offense is stuck between two styles because Yao's time-limit is hindering ANY group of players who play with him to play with any discipline.

Whether or not the feeling is that Yao is not a franchise player doesn't excuse Yao's mixed-bag minutes. A young team needs to have as much stability as can be manufactured, because the heat of battle is not the time to try to decide what's going to work and what's not with them.

My biggest worry with Aaron Brooks has been his role as a starting point guard. On average, we could do a lot worse (and got away with it for a while), but as the team's makeup and talent has grown and evolved, so, by default, has Brooks' role...especially if he's going to be the starting point.

A team of scoring options doesn't need a point guard who's better at thinking "get-my-shot" than he is at thinking "get-the-best-shot". Brooks would have to change a great deal of what made him successful last season in order to function better with the current starting unit.

He has show flashes of being in control of the action, but he's at his best when he's looking to score. We've got enough guys starting who can do that. Brooks has the ball in his hands a great deal of the time. Shot attempts shouldn't be at a premium for him. He has to pick and choose when and where he can get offense for the TEAM, especially with Yao on the floor.

The way Tony Parker had to learn in San Antonio with Tim Duncan.

But of course, Duncan wasn't yo-yoing in and out of the lineup, and the Spurs had better team defense, too.

The "two-different-styles" muddle the Rockets are in goes right to point guard play, to me, LongTimeFan. But any team that wants to run should probably decide on one of two routes:
1) run every chance you get (like the Phoenix Suns of yesteryear), or
2) play stingy defense and get out in transition as often as you can (as the Miami Heat have discovered).

Chris Paul plays that way for New Orleans. So does Deron Williams. Even Chauncey Billups in his "dotage" up in Denver ASSESSES EACH OFFENSIVE POSSESSION (PARTICULARLY LATE IN GAMES) AND MAKES SURE THE TEAM GETS THE MOST OUT OF THE POSSESSION.

The playing styles don't matter as much as the decision-making.

The biggest attribute for a guard is decision-making. A guard that can't make good decisions with the basketball late will kill a team quicker than a bad call or foul trouble or leaky faucets.

The only defense I can offer for Brooks in this is the uncertainty of Yao's availability. Brooks has shown an ability to play with Yao in the halfcourt effectively, especially with better ball-handlers and passers.

But Yao is KEY, LongTimeFan. Whatever direction the team is deciding to go has to be determined here in a hurry. However Yao is defended automatically makes the game easier for everybody else. That's one definition of a franchise player. If Yao needs time to get back to form, that's fine. He can't do that (for a young team with a lot of young players and some modest expectations of success) as a bit player. No matter how the minutes are divvied up.

 

So if we have two different styles - Inside/Out with Yao, and a GS-hybrid up tempo style with both, why not play two different 5-man groups each 24 minutes...that's NO MORE PLAYERS THAN WE PLAY TODAY, but try to do it with two distinct groups/units.

Pick the 4 players (with Yao) who plays best Inside/Out, that can make a post entry pass, and can hit the open 3 for Yao's 24 minutes. Battier can still play some 3 since he can make an entry pass and hit a corner three.

Pick the best 5 for an Up-tempo GS-hybrid. Let Jordan Hill play the 5 for the Up-tempo group. Budinger should be the 3 for this group.

Scola could play 4 effectively in either group, so let him play 32-36 minutes and have Patterson or Jeffries play the rest.

Kevin Martin could play 2 effectively in either group, so let him play 32-36 minutes and play Courtney Lee the rest.

At PG is where it gets dicey. Not sure that Brooks or Lowry fit well with Yao. Brooks as the better outside shot, but little discipline or defense.

Keep both groups fresh, and let two sit all of the time unless someone is injured, in foul trouble, ejected or ineffective. Miller, Chuck, Patterson (or Jeffries), JT, Ish don't play most nights.

 

According Richard Justice, Dampier will arrive next week. Is that true? The Taylor trade is already done?

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/7280176.html

 

There's probably a lot of issues with this idea:

-You seem to be suggesting to limit players to 24 minutes aside from a few exceptions. I'd rather us have our best players on the court as often as possible.

-In practice, you would have two different styles of offense to go over -- this just seems overly burdensome to be worth the effort.

-In games, players get in foul trouble. It's inevitable you would have to mix and match players, and if you keep two distinct rotations like that, you will run into a lot of players being unfamiliar with each other's games when you mix and match.

-It still doesn't solve our identity crisis -- in fact it just makes it worse! The Rockets would go full schizo (and you never go full schizo) if they had two units who played completely different from one another.

We just have to find out who this team is.. and IMO, to be successful, it's an inside-out team. Brooks has to do a better job of leading this team and keeping it's composure instead of looking to score.

I think Justice is just assuming that a deal will get done by next week. Dampier agreed to play for us this week - how long are we going to let him sit on his couch?

As soon as we make a deal, you'll see it on Clutchfans (or twitter) before anywhere else.

 

I hope it's a 4:2 or 2:1 deal. We do have too many average/above average players and not enough difference makers.

 

But what we do with a guy like Brad Miller? Who is willing to pick his awful contract.

 

We're stuck with that. Morey's worst contract ever - and on the heels of having to overpay to keep Scola and Lowry. This wasn't Morey's greatest offseason...it was below average at best.

In spite of that we do have a lot of contracts rolling off the books after this season, and some interesting decisions on the direction of this team:

1) Yao - $17.7 million expiring. Resign or trade him before year end?
2) Battier - $7.4 million expiring. Trade him before year end?
3) Jeffries - $6.9 million expiring. Trade him before year end?
4) Brooks - $2.0 million expiring. Trade him, or lock him up long term?

Scola, Lowry, Martin and Miller (w/option) are all signed for two more years.

 

Morey has been nails, but so far he has missed on EVERY single veteran player he thinks has tread left on the tires. Guys around 30ish...

Mike James
Steve Francis
David Andersen
Brad Miller??????
Eric Dampier?????

So far, his batting average for veteran players is zero.....

And other misses he has had to clean up pretty fast.

Dorsey - high pick in 2nd round
Ariza - just never fit, overpaid for the guy

So, while folks have lauded Morey and they should, his hitting percentage is dropping lately.

DD