I agree with most of your post...especially this last sentence. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in diguise), that "one more in the offing" might be Rice at the Feb. trade deadline. NBA teams have a lot more optimism in the summer. A 15 to 20 win team at the trade deadline may consider scrapping the season and totally rebuilding in the summer of 2004. This makes Rice's expiring contract like gold to those teams caught in the position. IMHO, if the Rockets as a team respond well to JVG there is no reason an 8th seed is not reasonable with Pike but w/o JPo.
Can I ask why it's so necessary to have a 3pt shooter?.. okay it's great houston has another scorer on the team.. but damn what's the obsession with the rockets always needing some kind of '3pt threat'.. is it because top management thinks that they won a couple of championships with the help of three pt shooters, they'll always need them??.. i mean theres a whole list of guys houston have tried.. rice, pike, b. price, maxwell, k. smith, nachbar (even though he hasn't shot it lately.. he was touted as one).. and others plus the lack of pressure on EG to not shoot the three all the time.. hopefully JVG can add other spectrums to the teams game..
Posey and Pike are not even near the same type of player and comparisons are way out there. Pike bulsters our shot making ability in short runs. Meaning, he cannot stay on the floor enough to make us a consistent threat from deep. He will hit some shots and help us win a few, but he is exactly as some described: a Matt Bullard touch at the 2. like bull: he plays no defense, can only rely on picks, screens and inside out to hit his shot and has not drive to the basket...... class act yes, nice bench bolster yes... a SF never....a defensive liability yes..... but, Houston we have a pulse!!!!!!!!
Glad to have Pike coming to HTown. Excellent shooter. I do not see him playing SF. He is a SG and will back up Cat. I know it will not happen, but what if we signed Pike on Saturday, and then matched the contract for JP next week. We would be way over the cap, but we could do it because we own his rights.
here is the bottomline: We were three out last year for the final playoff spot. Pike, like Bullard, can be relied on the win 2-4 games because of his shot making ability. Pike on the team last year, we might bein th eplayoffs....BUT.........he is still a small addition, not the savior for team shooting......we still need a starting 3 who can score.... Pike does not replace Posey....Chronicle is way off base...
Excellent pick up. I was hoping he was waiting to sign with the Rockets. At a much better price then overpaid Posey.
Pike should be able to make teams pay for doubling and triple teaming Yao. However, defensively he's definitely a downgrade from Posey. I also agree with one of the posters that said he's a 2 and not 3. Who's going to play 3 this year?
Because: 1) The NBA now has a legal zone. 2) Yao is an excellent passer out of double teams. 3) Francis's PG style is 1on1 and it's easier to double (or triple) team him without good (dare I say excellent in Pike's case) spot up shooters. 4) Because under JVG, players will be managing the shot clock better and not regularly jack up shots as the clock runs out. This makes a spot up shooter valuable as you have to honor him weak side thus spreading the opponents D. 5) All of the top tier WC teams have good 3 pt and spot up shooters (Peja, Bowen, Dirk, Fox, Horry, etc). Need more?
I don't like the 3MM per year price tag, but that is offset by the 3 year term. In the next 3 years, we should know what kind of team we have: playoff fodder or championship caliber. If Boki is a starter, then let Pike go or re-sign for less as a true role player on a champ team.
Ladies and Gentlemen, My masterpiece: http://bbs.clutchcity.net/php3/showthread.php?s=&threadid=54315 You guys should really check out the few threads that I've started. You will find: No threads with idiotic trade proposals. One thread suggesting an offseason signee (pike). Several threads saying that Rudy T needs to go. One thread guaranteeing all along that Van Gundy would be our coach, amid all the speculation that it would be Brown, Dunleavy, etc. Love me or hate me (and I know alot of you do), I am in the small percentage of posters on this board who don't flood it with idiotic crap, and actually knows what I'm talking about. Hey, lock this one up too, DoD.
Hey, DoD, since you can search, why don't you bring up all of the Pike threads that have been started on this board and if possible, other trades and signings threads where he was brought up? Particularly ones that happened before March 2003.
Rocketfat, Don't sprain your arm patting yourself on the back. Credibility is earned and then given, not taken by force of will or volume of words. if you were right, and you were, leave it at that. You'll get farther in life.
He never even said the Rockets "WILL" get Pike, he just said they should. Hey, I thought the Rockets should have drafted Yao Ming, bow down!
pretty good response, I just hope it works out as well as you say.. and i'm assuming pike will be starting?, be interesting when he goes against some of the star SF's in the league.. if he's not a starter, then the rockets better be getting some kind of presence at SF because Rice ain't going to cut it..
We are freakin screwed!!! Everyteam in the west gets BIGGER!!!! while they get better, and the rockets just keep getting small. As if our defense wasn't weak enough, now we have a 6'6 sf who would get killed... if we wanted spot up shooters why don't we bring air bull back at least he is 6'10....
WoW...I must be a god by his definition.. I wanted the Rockets to draft Sampson AND Hakeem(Akeem) before they were drafted.. Everyone bow down and worship me... Rhu....read this carefully... HE IS NOT A SF!!!! he is a backup for Mobley...geeze
It is not really necessary to have a 3pt shooter, but it helps take some of pressure off of Yao when he is being double teamed. With Yao's ability to pass the ball, a shooter period will punish opposing teams who attempt to defend us this way.
I know he is a shooting gaurd.. but judging by what we have on our team... He will be forced into playing the 3.. also alot of people have posted that he is replacing posey.. so i infered taht they wanted him to play the 3. Either way we still don't have a 3...
Hey Chicken Little, Pike plays mostly SG so he is bigger than the avg., he plays sometimes at the 3 but it is not too bad considering people play 3 guard line-up from time to time and you can play the zone too if needed. Pike is better than Bull, IMO. He shoots better, he moves his feet quicker and plays better defense even if he is shorter.
