"After all, Yao and Nachbar have been banging heads against 30-year-olds longer than Francis and Cuttino Mobley and they have actually been in more playoff games as professionals. " this is damn right. Rockets are going to fly.
The Rocks get an A+ from me. Both Yao and Nachbar were who I was hoping we'd pick. Nachbar will contribute a great deal this season (imho). He's been playing in the Euro leagues for 5 years, progressing to the highest level, so he should have an immediate impact off the bench. Maddox is a curious pick... guess we'll have to see what plays out. Maybe there's a trade or two down the road. Superb draft!
Th 30 year olds Ming and Nachbar have been butting heads with are not near the talent steve and cat (or any other player in the league for that matter) go up against on a nightly basis. I bang with 30 year olds all the time at the Y, does that mean i am more prepared for the league than anyone in the U.S. to go to the league. That is just a ridiculous statement. Put that China or Trevioso team up against Duke or Maryland from last year and i guarantee the college teams would win.
Thank you RT & CD for a great Draft! I know you are happy with the selections Yao & Nachbar will be great starters for our team.
# 1 ptw1 NO centers in the NBA are easy to come by, jump-shooting or no. I simply feel like your evaluation of this draft is wat too negative, you have to enjoy this man, neither pick is as bad as you say they are. # 2 NOone thinks that Ming will replace Francis right now, to think that would be kind of premature, especially when Ming himself said the journey will be long. The only thing I know about Nachbar is the clips I have seen and the tidbits I have read, but he looked darn good to me. And anything is an improvment over Langhi, and Rice (I do like Rice, but he is hurt all the time) smile man and chill....trust me it wont hurt you!
A+ Yao-hooo! (In honour of the upcoming Calgary Stampede) We got the Nach! Mad ducks!! Mad ducks!! Tea-toe Mad-ducks!! You’ll never think of him the same way again… And I believe the 30 year olds Nachbar has been going against are the same ones Gasol went against. Didn’t seem to set him back much.
I think they took the business route with ming. It was all about the money, nobody outside of Houston thinks he will be much. Frankly, I think you're wrong. You don't have to take Clutch's word for it, but he's said more than once that all the GMs have been calling CD so they can get Yao. Not Jay-dub. We really have nobody backing up Cat and if you were going to take a flyer on a 3 it should have been the 1 with the most upside Actually, I think there's really potential for Nachbar to play some 2. I think he's got the handles. But I could be wrong. I think our priorities are different about the 3. I'm willing to wait on Yao. I'm not willing to wait long on the SF. I don't think Woods is ready to contribute and I don't really want an undersized swingman starting SF for us full-time (with the exception of Caron Butler). If you feel like we should have traded for a veteran, I can respect that, but in my book, if Woods is the project made out to be and Nachbar as ready to contribute as he's hyped to be (and yeah, it's hype at this point), I'm very glad we passed on Woods. The selection of Maddox just tells me we are going to move Mooch I'm not intentionally trying to disagree with you , but my feelings actually are that Maddox was the best available backup point. I don't think the Rox are too concerned about the 2nd round pick this year, despite Doc's post about the #38 making the team. I think Tito's there to compete with Tierre, maybe Oscar for their spots. But I don't think it's any sweat off the Rockets' backs if he doesn't make it. We don't have that much roster space now.
Tman, in response to your post about the only people excited or optimistic being in Houston...I have one thing to say to that. I feel like out of 28 teams, 27 would have taken Ming #1. They were talking crap cause they simply couldnt have him, I dont think all those deals being offered to Houston were for that Steve Francis "clone". I believe many including the Bulls would have taken Yao number 1! Dont gauge the success of our draft based on the teams evaluation. If we look back and allow history to be our guide, I dont CD, Rudy, or Les would allow their decision making to be based on business only. The reason I believe this is because they passed on a young man in 98 cause they believed it would be in the best interest of the team, of course they undoubtly regret that des. but they made it based on what they felt was best for OUR team. I believe tonight they did just that!
First off, let me say I have always been against Ming #1, but I worked myself up to get excited about him. Then I see the video's that got everyone else so excited and he did not look that good to me considering that was his highlights. I will support Ming as long as he is here, but I completely disagree with the choice in a basketball sense. In business and publicity I completely agree, we just gained a potential billion fans and that is all the choice was about, this is a business and they are in it to make money. We already have rings so now Les can just trully enjoy winning the lottery. His pockets got real deep tonite, at some point it may become about basketball again. Nachbar, not a horrible choice, but in my opinion we should have really taken Woods Like I said from a basketball standpoint, our franchise would have been much better now and in the future if we walked out with Odom, Amare, Woods, Rush and Maddox. Look at the N.J. trade last year(I know J. Kidd had alot to with it) with all the good role players they got. We already got our stars and could have gotten our role players and maybee another star or 2.
as unready as ming (for the nba) has us all perceive, we need to remember that we are in the western conference--you want to get anywhere you better have a serviceable center. sure having those 5 guys for our number 1 and change would have been better, but would you rather have Griffin or richard jefferson and the other two guys? out of those 5 guys you mentioned, the only one i dont' like is woods. tracy mcgrady this potential that--swingmen are a dime a dozen. a 7'6" center that actually has offensive skills aren't. sorry but this was more than just a way to make money. sure, we'll have more fans and sell more merchandise but what if we actually do get somewhere and can be a contender in the league? then we would have MORE tv exposure and more merchandise sales. money will and always be there, but the idea of playing in the playoffs down the road and selling even more merchandise is better.
Sted, I disagree on both fronts. If you want substitude Nachbar for Woods and I still walk away much happier. As of right now Jefferrson has shown more than Griffin in my opinion. Griffin settles for the outside shot and makes no attempt to go inside. Jefferrson always drives to the basket and his shot is improving. As for the playoffs leading to more merchandise I completely disagree. Playoffs will get you a bunch of fair-weather fans that do not even come close to the fans we just gained regardless if we ever make the playoffs. There are well over a billion people over there(not even including all the asian-american fans we just gained) and they only have 3 choices and Ming is the thing. Think about it, Les just gained much more wealth regardless what his team does. This was strictly business.
T-man: Griff settled for outside shots b/c the Rockets set the plays like that. I go to UT but I manage to catch a few games when i'm back home. it seems like rudy ALWAYS want to run that iso where cat or francis drives in and kicks it back out to Griff who's standing behind the 3 point arc. it's not his choice to stand there, it's how the play is designed. jefferson is a good player. he'll be an above avg player. i'm not denying that. but what's different b/t jefferson and griffin is that jefferson gets free range b/c byron scott can't coach worth a lick. griffin on the other hand, is sometimes being misused (stand at the 3 point arc on the iso play). well about the business thing, i'll agree with you that Les might have gain REVENUE (not wealth) by taking ming but most of the revenue from tv exposure goes to the NBA anyways. and you can't hide the fact that they might have over a billion people, but not all 1 billion are basketball fans.
I think this was a pretty good draft for the Rockets. I'm still trying to figure out why they picked Maddox. With Steve and Moochie theres no room for him on the roster plus I like Tierre Brown. I think they should've rolled the dice on a backup SG.
Sted I will agree and disagree, while they do run those iso plays and leave him standing there, he never tries to drive regardless if he is open or gets them off their feet, he just settles. About the china thing, while i will agree they are not all basketball fans, that is not saying much. Say there are 3 million people in Houston and 40% like basketball and 25% like the Rockets, Now apply those same figures to over a billion people in china( I know that percentages may be high but you get the point)that is alot of fans. You say revenue, I say wealth, same da#n thing. Your bank account swells regardless of what you want to call it.
The Rockets were--as they have said many times--bringing Griffin along slowly. Griffin wasn't strong enough to post up. So the Rockets ran plays to exploit what the kid could do consistently. As the season wore on, Griffin would not just shoot from long range, but also pump fake and dribble in to close the distance. In the final few games, he even got post up opportunities. The kid was 19. Griffin has said that this offseason he will work on his handles and strength. Give him time.
Jeff, I am a big Griffin fan. He is prolly my favorite rock right now. I am just not being blind in the situation, saying he is way better than jefferrson. I was happy when we drafted Jefferrson last year and even happier when we traded for Griffin. I think he will come along nicely. Just trying to say that somtimes it is better to take quality role players(like N.J. last year) when you already have your core and possibly with those 5, 1 or 2 could have blossomed into a superstar and knocked 1 of the players we think is a star to a role player. This was the perfect year to do it and we were in the perfect situation to do it. Just trying to say he acts alot like Horry right now(by the way horry is my favorite player since 94) and being to laid back. If Horry would have ever given a damn about being great, he could have been, he settled for being prolly the greatest role player to ever play the game. Just don't want Grif to go that route since that is not what we need right now.
I liked the draft. It seemed as if I was one of the few people at D&B that actually cheered when we selected Nachbar. I know Woods is a good athlete but he didn't seem to have that explosiveness that his comparison, McGrady has. Mattox seems like an odd pick to me. I guess since I don't know too much about him. I would rather have Grizzard since we could run him at the 2 and the 3. I like size but maybe the injury Grizzard had set him back in some people's eyes. Dunno how Mattox's shot compares to Grizzards, even though his isn't too much to talk about.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Originally posted by T-man Like I said from a basketball standpoint, our franchise would have been much better now and in the future if we walked out with Odom, Amare, Woods, Rush and Maddox. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you really expect we would have been able to get all those players if we traded #1 to the Clips? -The whole Clipper rumor was never totally understood, it went from us hearing that it was Odom and their picks, to some people saying it was Magette + picks, who i feel we don't really need all that much. Anyways if we did get Odom he'd just turn out to be basketballs version of Darryl Strawberry. -The Clippers might have probably want to snatch up J-Will, and that would have created a whole domino effect. The circumstances would have been totally different, and those draftees you speak of might not have been there by the time we picked. So basically, what the point of dwelling on the past? "Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards.” So let's concentrate on the Future.... ROY - Yao Ming MVP - Stevie "Franchise" Most Imporoved - MoT
