Now that the season is almost over. I tried to see how good a pick was Luther Head at #24. I was happy to find that he was a very solid pick at #24 and that I couldn't find another rookie that was having a better year than him picked after him. Just wanted to see what other Rocket experts thought and who would have been a better choice at #24 because I can't find one.
He's OK. A solid pick. He also has the benefit of playing on a depleted Rockets. So comparing him to most other rookies is still premature.
Your right to say that he is playing well but looking at his size and the position he is playing. He looks like another Chuck Hayes type. In the long run do you think Gomes would have been a better pick than Head? I agree that Simien would have been my choice even till today.
I think Head had a productive rookie season, far more so than the average 24th pick. He needs to shoot better. I think the other parts of his game are pretty good. Wish he could grow two inches, but ... he looks like he's going to be a solid role player. He's certainly an athletic freak.
Screw the guys picked after him. He's better than more than half of the guys picked before of him. That alone makes him a good pick.
Yes he has done pretty well this year as a rookie. Better than a good number of people picked before and basically all after him.
I disagree that he is a SOLID pick. FG% 39.4 3PT % 35.2 Ft% 69.5 A/T 2.6:1.5 Houston, being on the 29th in both FG%, 3PT% in the league. Head is one factor of it. I do not consider any pick shooting below 40% is SOLID. Soonish we will bring in a MIT STAT guy, he will not make pick such kind of player.
Exactly there are not that many rookies this year who have been more productive than him. I think the rockets organization did a good job on picking up Head.
he's could develop into a cutino mobley player. its only his 1st year. u guys remember that cutino was our PG during that infamous Pippen year.
Luther is a decent player. To be honest with you, I have been disappointed with him. Considering how much minutes he played, his stats suck.
Here's the draft: 1 Mil Andrew Bogut 3 Uta Deron Williams 4 NO Chris Paul 5 Cha Raymond Felton 6 Por Martell Webster 7 Tor Charlie Villanueva 8 NY Channing Frye 9 GS Ike Diogu 10 LAL Andrew Bynum 11 Orl Fran Vazquez 12 LAC Yaroslav Korolev 13 Cha Sean May 14 Min Rashad McCants 15 NJ Antoine Wright 16 Tor Joey Graham 17 Ind Danny Granger 18 Bos Gerald Green 19 Mem Hakim Warrick 20 Den Julius Hodge 21 NY Nate Robinson 22 Por Jarrett Jack 23 Sac Francisco Garcia 24 Hou Luther Head 25 Sea Johan Petro 26 Det Jason Maxiell 27 Den Linas Kleiza 28 SA Ian Mahinmi 29 Mia Wayne Simien 30 NY David Lee Second Round 31 Atl Salim Stoudamire 32 LAC Daniel Ewing 33 NO Brandon Bass 34 Uta C.J. Miles 35 Uta Ricky Sanchez 36 Mil Ersan Ilyasova 37 LAL Ronny Turiaf 38 Orl Travis Diener 39 LAL Von Wafer 40 GS Monta Ellis 41 Tor Roko Ukic 42 GS Chris Taft 43 NJ Mile Ilic 44 Cle Martynas Andriuskevicius 45 Phi Louis Williams 46 Ind Erazem Lorbek 47 Min Bracey Wright 48 Sea Mickael Gelabale 49 Was Andray Blatche 50 Bos Ryan Gomes 51 Uta Robert Whaley 52 Den Alex Hervelle 53 Bos Orien Greene 54 Pho Dijon Thompson 55 Mem Lawrence Roberts State'05 56 Det Amir Johnson 57 Orl Marcin Gortat 58 Tor Uros Slokar 59 Atl Cenk Akyol 60 Det Alex Acker I'd say it was a pretty solid pick.
He could even been a good starter for many of those years. Probably not quite All-Star caliber, but solid nonetheless.
Head should work hard on his shooting and dribbling in this off-season. He needs to improve a lot to demonstrate he is qualified to be a player for 30 minutes playing time. But for a 24th pick he is good. List of 24th picks of past 10 drafts: 2005: Luther Head 2004: Delonte West 2003: Brian Cook 2002: Nenad Kristic 2001: Raul Lopez 2000: Dalibor Bagaric 1999: Andrei Kirilenko 1998: Felipe Lopez 1997: Rodrick Rhodes(picked by Rockets) 1996: Derek Fisher
he was better than i expected, but he does need to improve his outside shooting and free throw %....he should also work on his ball handling skills as well...he'll probably end up being a very solid back-up for many years to come
Perhaps after going so long without a draft pick, I've been blinded with unfounded love for the rookie, but I've loved what Luther's been able to do this year. Admittedly, his stats are poor, he makes bad decisions on offense frequently and can't guard people taller than him, but he's been far better than anyone could have hoped; heck, at the start of the season we didn't expect him to play at all for two years, and now we expect him to be the best shooter on a veteran-laden team? You have to think that Luther will improve his game to be a capable fill-in starter/sixth man gunner in the future, and for a 24th pick, that's really not too bad. Just through the season you can see that he's adapted his offensive game considerably to finish better around the basket; in the earliest part of the year he was still attacking the basket head on, and getting his shot rejected, or getting bumped and being unable to finish. Now you see him using the basket to shield himself with his reverse baseline layups, and he's developed the floater off the pick and roll. His shooting has tailed off as he's been forced to create his own shot, and as his legs have failed him. He's been seemingly more efficient as a catch-and-shoot rhythm player rather than pulling up or shooting from a static position; and those two types of shots are the ones he's shooting most nowadays as the defense sags off to deny the entry pass, or when he's forced to be the main playmaker on offense. On defense, the two main things limiting him are his inexperience and playing out of position. He wasn't drafted to be a defensive stopper, and yet we consistently expect him to man up on the star shooting guards of the league. I would say that his defense is about on par with Alston's right now, and while that's bad for a 30 year old, it's passable for a rookie on dead legs. One of the reasons we drafted Head was because of his work ethic, and the way he was able to develop significantly through college. Give him some time to use this work ethic before kicking him to the curb. People will doubt him because of his physical limitations, and though they might put a glass ceiling on his ability to develop, it doesn't mean he can't develop at all. There's no reason to draft a kid based on potential and not be patient with him when it takes a bit of time for him to grow into it. Luther is suffering from a situation similar to Yao; everyone expected nothing from him in his first year (he was backing up Jason Collier, for heaven's sake!), and when he was able to play ahead of schedule, people were wondering why he wasn't better. I'm not ready to give up on Luther yet. Do I think he's starter material for next year? No. But I do think he'll carve out a niche as a strong bench player and adequate emergency starter over the next three years.
