[ESPN Chad Ford] Rockets still have major holes to fill

The Rockets once had Matt Maloney start for 82 games. That team managed to go to the Western Conference Finals. That's not to say the core go-to guys for this team is at the level of the 96-97 go-to guys, but Ward and Lue are good shooters. Ward and Lue have put up some very good shooting percentages from beyond the arc the last few years. Ward in particular has played in a system that he is basically a catch and shoot guy. The guy's not Steve Francis, but Team USA showed you need roleplayers. I subscribe to a ratio of 4:1 or 3:1 in terms of roleplayers to go-to guys. How can anyone think that Ward and Lue will be worse defensively than Francis and Mark Jackson? Steve could block shots, but he missed defensive assignments all the time. I remember when Bibby and Bobby Jackson just annihilated the Rockets for 56 points in the pre-Superbowl game. Folks tossing Ward into the trash heap like he is another Mark Jackson should look at his statistics. Unless his ankle snaps like Pike's did, Ward should put up more of those numbers from beyond the arc this year.

 

Hear, hear.

 

Why is every article that says anything negative about the Rockets shot down like this? He says we have problems at C, SF, and PG, well we do. Mutombo has been injury prone lately and he isn't getting any younger, after Jim Jackson there is Padgett and the unknown in Nachbar, at PG there are 2 (3 if you count Sura) BELOW average players.

 

some people handle criticisms differently from others....when you have holes, there's nothing wrong with admitting the facts. Instead of attacking ford in an immature way, how bout debate whether his criticisms are valid or accurate. I agree with him about holes in pg and backup center, but apparently ford also think the tandem of jimmy j and nachbar still pose as a weakness at the small forward. I hope ford also realizes shifting tmac to 3 is not outta question. Yeah we might not have much of marquee players outside of yao/tmac, but which team does? As long as our role players do their job and stay healthy, i like our chances crackin da 1st round playoff.

 

I agree with Ford to a certain extent. I think we should really bring in a good bench player to backup the 3. Remember, there's no guaruntee Boki will ever be a decent NBA player. A guy I have in mind is Jumaine Jones. He's currently playing for the Lakers, but he doesn't look to be playing much; he'll be behind Kobe, Odom, Walton, Rush, George, and Butler on the depth chart.

I think Jones would be a nice energy guy off the bench. He hits the boards hard, hustles on D, and can hit the occaisional open shot. A poor man's Posey.

 

So your saying, all Championships are built on a little bit of garbage...

 

I agree. Jones would be a real good pick up if the Rox could acquire him. Looking at our current roster, I would love the team to trade either Taylor or Spoon for a decent swingman to sure up those positions better. I like Boki and hope he makes a good leap this year but, if he doesn't, it would nice to have someone else that could help out there as well as back up TMac.

 

Chad has a point. I will feel more comfortable if we have someone like scot pollard on our bench.

 

Well, as the '94 championship team proved, one team's trash is another team's treasure. It is all about finding guys that fit a role and mesh well with the star or stars.

 

Does anyone think Chad Ford had anything good to say about Detroit this time last season?

I rest my case.

 

Well considering the kind of minutes he's getting in Indiana, we can probably land him for Deke's expiring contract if things don't work out.

 

As a quasi-Boston fan, I agree with you 100%. We know they don't have the time for him so you have to assume he'll "test out" free agency when his contracts up. He'd be a good MLE portion type guy.

 

People from Atlanta shouldn't be razzing anyone about their basketball teams.

I think Ford's fatal flaw is here: "But you don't make a blockbuster trade like this unless you're gunning for a championship, and the Rockets still have some glaring weaknesses."

This isn't true. A major blockbuster where you trade for a young superstar, when your other star is also young -- even younger in fact -- can easily be justified without a championship run. As has been mentioned a million times here, the Rockets have a decade to try for a championship with these two; they can tolerate holes this year.

 

Chad Ford brings up some good points. I don't take what he says as dissing the ROX. They are just observations.

Case in Point:

If Yao went down last year... we could play Cato there for 35 minutes a game. We don't have that option with Mutumbo.

If JJ went down last year... we could slide Cat over to the 3 and he could do a good job defensively against most 3s in the league. Stevie would move to the 2 and Mark Jackson (as slow and old as he was) could hold down the point in regards to running the show. This year... if JJ goes down, we will have to play Boki (unproven) or Padgett (can't defend the 3 spot) at the three. Or we can slide TMAC over and start Sura at the 2.

His point is that we don't have quality reserves in those two spots. At center, I agree. If Yao goes down, we are in big trouble. At the 3 spot... I disagree with him. Playing Boki or sliding TMac over and starting Sura are all good options.

I do think that we are much deeper than last years team. Especially at the Point and PF spot. Our second unit of Lue, Sura, Boki/Padgett, and MoTaylor is high energy. Throw Mutombo in that mix and I would say that we are a strong 10 deep on this team. Something that we have not been in a long time.

 

And it is not like any more than 8 or 9 will actually get playing time in JVGs rotation, especially in the playoffs.

 

he is from Alabama and he is more a Nets fan (although they are on his bad side too right now) - of course the only pro games he has been to are Rockets games from when he used to live here (I think he is still bitter about the SF3 trade)

 

10 minutes is over 20% of each game. That is more then enough time for many crucial plays to take place that affect the game outcome.

 

I would disagree with the first statement. Granted, if Yao is out for an extended single stretch (10+ games), things will be tough, but I don't think we'd be happy with Yao going down no matter who his backup was.

For small stretches, Mutumbo could still handle big minutes. Here's two example of consecutive games which he logged heavy minutes.
November 29: 38 mins, 13 pts, 12 rebs, 5 blks
December 1: 39 mins, 7 pts, 18 rebs
---
Jan 2: 43 mins, 15 pts, 16 rebs, 6 blks
Jan 4: 42 mins, 4 pts, 5 rebs, 10 blks (no typo)

I think if we needed 5 game stretches of Mutumbo playing 35 mins a game, he could handle it without much problem.

Take a look at your JJ scenario. You were planning on relying on sliding Cat to the 3 and Francis to the 2, and therefore Mark Jackson to the 1 in the event that Francis, Cat, OR JJ get injured. That's with a 33 year old at the 3, and a PG with injuries in the past running the gambit of ear problems to plantar fascitis.

Now we have a 23ish year old center who has played every game of his career to date, an 8-time former all-star backing him up, and the depth at power forward to slide up any number of guys in a pinch, and we're really more worried about former DPOTY Dikembe Mutumbo as our backup option to Yao going down vs. Mark Jackson being the backup option to Francis, Cuttino, or JJ going down? Wow.

 

Glaring hole at the center position. Hmm Sacramento has Greg Ostertag, Dallas has Evan Eschmeyer, Calvin Booth, Shawn Bradley. San Antonio has Kevin Willis. LA Lakers have who? Memphis has Jake Tsaklidis. Minnesota has Gary Trent. Who has a better backup center that plugs the middle better than Dikembe Mutombo? Keep in mind he was in the top 3 in blocks per 48 minutes last year while playing 23-24 minutes a game. It really shows who plays basketball in real life on here. And it also shows who just watches from the couch and listens to what someone else says. lol