Thanks Doc. Eddie was spectacular during the real NBA season. I fully expect what you see to go straight into the regular season. You almost sound like Rocket!!!, tonight. Once again thanks.
great recap, DoD!!!! i was honestly laughing out loud while reading your post. it's good to hear that griffin dominated like i knew he would. i can't wait for the season to start!! having watched alot of big 12 games over the years, i found myself hoping jonzen would make a team this offseason. i have mixed feelings about him being on our spl team. i know his chances of making the rockets are slim to none. but you never know. thanks again for the post -- keep 'em coming!!
Since DoD summarized the game pretty well...i'll just give my own experience there. Analysis We hit jackpot with Griffin. Everytime a player came in the paint, this guy challenges the shot. It is just beautiful how he erases the mistakes. Amare tried to dunk on Eddie a couple times, and Eddie just rejected his ass. On offense, Eddie finishes his moves with authority in the paint. The place erupted when Eddie absolutely abused the rim on one dunk. Eddie was chearly by far the best player on the court. I personally just wanted him out there because of the highlight factor. About Tito, today he really did well. You could really see his domiance when things all come together. He could penetrate at will, and dish it to the open man. He really excels at the drive and dish. However, that strategy only works if your open man hits his shot, and TMo still seems to need to work on that. Today TMo missed quite a few open shots. For Tierre, i am going to be on his bandwagon. The guy is simply a street baller which means he's gonna struggle in NBA. My friends and I asked for his headband after a timeout so we could at least have something cool, and he was like sure...but then a second later he shouted back it was his only one or his lucky one. Throughout the game, Tierre had some SICK crossovers and I was yelling out "AND 1 MIX TAPE VOLUME 6!!!!!" However, the most memorable part was during the closing seconds of the game, there was a breakway. I noticed Griffin trailing and was screaming "OFF THE BACKBOARD!!!!" Tierre then proceeded to do a finger roll. He then gave us a look that just implied "I need the points man". We were both laughing after that. For the other side, the only two people I really noticed and cared about watching was Casey and Amare. I got a chance to talk with Casey because we were buying our tickets at the same, and he is very approachable. Casey can really shoot it from long range if left open. He needs to work on his inside game though to become a more complete player. For Amare, he is one hell of a beast underneath, except he has to learn how to finish. Many times he would grab the rebound aggressively and wind up huge for a massive dunk only to clank the dunk. He will be highlight material when he learns how to finish. Final Thoughts Sitting behind rockets bench with Dr of Dunk, Big E, and Sonny was really cool. We could hear everything Rudy was commenting about. (A reminder: when Rudy is scouting a game, don't bother him) First time to a summer pro league game, and I know it won't be my last.
Fantastic post, Dod. Although, if Eddie Griffin ever does fulfill his potential, he'll probably be a more valuable player than Francis or Mobley. I really, really wonder how Francis would handle that. He seems to really enjoy being "the Man."
that's what i'm thinking right now. seriously, if eddie keeps upping his game, he could be better than francis and could lead our team. but i guess eddie's learned to be humble and take whatever he can.....for now anyway.
HAVEN AND sTED, PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THIS WET DREAM. There is not need for all this kind of talk and speculation. Please allow yourself so savor the continued development of a gem. I am not saying that your concerns are not valid but my god, I do not see the need to discuss this now.
I apologize accordingly. I'm not here to start controversies and what not, i'm just stating what was on my mind. i WOULD create a new thread about what i had posted, but that would just be misinterpreted and i would be misunderstood. of course there's no need to discuss it right now, but it's better than putting it like 'man dat boi griff....he's betta than francis so we should trade that mother f***a francis coz griff's gonna be da man!!! francis ain't nuthin but a gm wannabe and he can kiss my ass if he don't like his teammates' BS that's been rampant this summer.
Is there a box score for this game? Ive been staying up just to see how many boards eddie got. I need to get a life.
www.proexposure.com can give you the box score, it appears that Griff had 9 rebounds. Houston native Alton Ford had another good game.
I was just looking at Eddie's blocked shots total in the proexposure.com stats. There's no way in hell he only had 2 block shots. I mean he probably had 2 or 3 on Stoudamire alone. I'd guess he had about 4 or 5 blocks.
DoD or rf34,Did you see EG going up against Jake T in the paint ? If yes,then how did he fare against him?
To be honest, if he went up against Big Jake, I didn't notice it. I was trying to focus on the guards and the Griff and Amare matchup.
July 13, 2002 vs. Los Angeles Lakers Rockets 83 Lakers 91 How ugly can it get? Let me start out by saying that this is the first of these games that I've gone to where I just wanted to get the hell out because it got so boring at times. Fouls, fouls, and more fouls. More deadballs than I care to watch. Sloppy play that was just dull to watch. Blah. But I stayed... why? Because of you... yes, you the fan... What I do, I do for you... (Yes, I know I sound corny). Oh Undercover Brother Where Art Thou? That just seems like a great name for a movie, no? Unfortunately as jubilant and proud as I was talking about Eddie in the past 2 games, he didn't perform very well in this one. Foul trouble kept him out of much of the game. He picked up 2 or 3 quick fouls courtesy of Mark Madsen. Yes, that no-talent loser. Madsen presents a problem for Eddie that I remember Hakeem having in his young years. Madsen is to Eddie as Hanzlik/Schayes was to Hakeem. Hakeem had all the talent in the world, but players like Danny Schayes would frustrate the crap out of him through sheer aggressive defense and scrappy all-around play. Madsen did this in today's game. He immediately took the ball and drove in on the Rockets' (non-existent) defense looking for dunk after dunk. Eddie was out of position on 2 or 3 of the plays and tried to come in from either the weak side or tried to block the shot when there was no way possible for him to do so. He quickly was in foul trouble. The good side of the Griffin saga today was that Eddie was still hitting his shots from everywhere. He ended up with 13 points and only played around 20 minutes. I saw a sweet move that I hope gets added to Eddie's repertoire for the season. Eddie is on the baseline about 15 feet and facing away from the bucket with a defender on his back. With absolutely no hesitation whatsoever, he quickly turns around and fires the ball fading away (I hate to repeat myself, but : a la Hakeem). The result? Nothin' but net. It was a sweet play. I think Eddie's still going to get somewhat pushed around inside the paint. He was having all he could handle in the hyperactive Madsen. Had Eddie stayed out of foul trouble, I have no doubt he would've once again gone for about 25-30 pts easily. There was really no on out there that could guard him. Tito, make up your mind... Just when I was saying how much Tito had improved, Tito taketh as quickly as he giveth. Tito's one of those Moochie-type players that you just want to like, but damn, there's always something you find annoying about his play. With Mooch it's his dribbling. With Tito it's his strange decision-making and over-committing on his penetrations. Maddox several times made good drives to the basket in this game. Several of those drives resulted in baskets, but others ended in plays ending up looking like circus acts. He consistently drives into the paint drawing the attention of the defenders, which is good. But instead of either pulling up and taking the 15 footer or passing the ball to someone who has to be open since he's covered by 3 guys now, he tries to penetrate even further into the defense. In the words of Col. Crap, "arrrrgggghhh!". He has a nice tear-drop shot that he attempts often to complete his drives. I don't know what he ended up with in terms of turnovers, but my guess is about 5 or 6 at least. It was ugly at times. Maddox has a move that I saw him doing all game which I think could spell trouble for him if refs decide to consistently call it. He drives towards the basket with a defender on him and he stops abruptly and uses his off hand to push the defender off to create space. He got called for this once or twice, but he did it way more often than that. He also went back to his habit of fumbling the ball and traveling in the process. This definitely wasn't a good game for Tito. Tierre Brownout, I'm not sure what happened with Tierre today, but he didn't get as much playing time - probably about 20 mins. He didn't take very many shots, but the ones I saw him take he hit, so I guess I can't complain. He did have a few stupid turnovers, though. He had the once-a-game-Rocket-point guard-try-to-dribble-between-two-defenders-when-there's-no-room turnover workin' today. Pass the ball Tierre. The ball can barely fit between those guys, what makes you think you and the ball can go through there without you losing control of it? Frustrating... Jason "Doc, You Can Do What I Do and Get Paid" Collier, I don't get it. I watch this guy out there and... I just don't get it. Do we need the 6 fouls that badly? Here's a play I want you to picture. Jason Collier is at the top of the key and 2 Rockets players are in the paint. The 2 Rockets players jump out of the paint and take their defenders with them. Pause... picture it... picture it... let it sink in... ready... continue Yes, Jason, that is the paint, and that up there is the goal. Much like God parted the Red Sea for Moses and Moses told the Hebrews to take advantage, you, too, should take advantage. There will be no better opportunity for you to get a basket - you are UNDEFENDED. Pause... picture it... picture it... let it sink in... ready... continue Jason streaks to the goal. A pass comes into Jason on target, about 2 feet in front of the basket. No one is guarding him. He's 7' and about 250-260 lbs, so who cares if someone's guarding him... he should be able to bull his way 2 feet to the goal. But that's irrelevant as once again, NOBODY'S GUARDING HIM! Jason puts up this funky ass layup, half-dead duck of a shot that misses. It was about a 1 foot layup with no one really putting up much effort to block it. He blew the damn shot. That about set the tone for the game. I later saw Collier get boxed out by somebody that looked to be about 6'4" and then Collier fouls him in trying to get the rebound. Have you ever heard the sayings about rebounders that go "he just knows where the ball's going, he knows how to position himself and box the other guy out". Well, take that saying and reverse it. Collier has no clue where the ball is going, he doesn't know how to box out, and he's always out of position. Jason was non-existent except in the foul category. Ming and the Rockets are in trouble if Cato gets injured, that's all I have to say. Call me Ishmail... This guy is a fundamentally sound basketball player, but then that goes without saying since he's from overseas, right? Isn't that the trademark of all foreign players : fundamentally sound and can shoot jumpers? This guy is intriguing in that he may have enough talent to make the team as an 11th or 12th man, but I still don't see a spot for him unless we're getting rid of people in trades. I looked at him again on the court, and he seems about 6'7" or 6'8" tall and about 210 or so pounds. He's got some huge calves. He can shoot the jumper although his shot was off today (as was every other Rockets' short of Griffin). I saw him make 1 or 2 absolutely gorgeous outlet passes to open men on the fast break. I had forgotten what those look like. He's got the body to bang, but I think his quickness is suspect. His lateral movement is good, but I don't know if his quickness is enough to keep up with the NBA players that are his height. His array of shots are interesting... he's a Griffin-type. I saw him attempt 3 pointers, mid-range shots, and he even had a sweet little baby hook in the paint out at about 5-10 feet. Oscar, Oscar, Oscar... fight for your job man! I keep thinking about Doc Rocket's opinion that Oscar may not make the cut (that was his opinion, right? If not, I'll change this comment. ) Oscar had a horrible shooting performance today. If the SPL makes or breaks him for the season, unless the Rockets can't find anyone else, it's broken him to this point. If he doesn't stick around, I sure will miss him. He still has the Drexler-esque explosion to the basket, but his shots just haven't been falling during the SPL. TMo, the invisible man... Terence got to play some more minutes today possibly due to the foul trouble Griffin was in. I can't really say Terence excelled on the offensive end. He put up quite a few bricks from outside. His offense is still sporadic and inconsistent. His defense was ok this game. He guarded Madsen for a bit from what I recall and did get boxed out often, but then Madsen is an All-Star right? ... the other folks None of the other cast of characters really did much to speak of. Kyle Hill played and jacked up about 3 or 4 3's. Most of them were when we were in desperation mode and trying to catch up. He did have a monster jam later in the game that had everyone ooh'ing and aah'ing. Dane Fife and Fred Jonzen really didn't do much noteworthy. Ike Nwankwo came in for a bit, but the biggest play he was involved in was one in which he had one of his shots absolutely devoured by a defender on a block. Nasty block. There wasn't much I can say about this game that gives me hope. The Rockets looked sluggish out there and the Lakers were aggressive. The Rockets did come back to within 5 after trailing by double-digits most of the way, but it was too little too late and the Lakers sealed the victory in the end. The Rockets didn't deserve to win this game anyway. It was ugly play made even uglier by refs that wanted to call anything and everything.
If Madsen is pushing Eddie around, he is going to have problems when the season rolls around. Remember the first 2 games he was going against rookies. Eddie has talent, he needs to add bulk to be able to play inside without getting pushed around. I got the feeling towards the end of last season that Oscar was on his way out. Langhi was getting more playing time than Oscar was. Perhaps this Ishmail could take his spot on the roster. Based on your posts about Tito. I don't see him making the team. If Collier is cut and Eddie gets pushed around inside, we are in for another long season. Teams will eat us up inside, until Ming adjusts to the NBA game.
The sad thing is Mark Madsen isn't even close to what Danny Schayes was. I seriously think this team needs another year to gel and by the time the new unis and stadium comes around, so will the team.
