[ESPN] Stein: Offseason review: Rating the West from Mavs to Griz

The Spurs had a better offseason than us by signing Elson and Jackie Butler? I know they needed a backup center after Mohammed and Nesterovic left, but they still have Duncan, Oberto and Horry who can each play center. After all, Duncan often slid to center whenever Rasho or Nazr started stinking it up.

The Rockets got Battier, who may not be an all-star, but he's a lot better than either Elson or Butler.

If the offseason rankings were based on needs, how can they say that Battier isn't a better acquisition? The Rockets sucked last year because of horrible shooting and lack of depth. Even without signing either of the big guys the Spurs did this summer, they would still be in good shape. After all, besides Shaq and Yao and maybe Amare, who else do you need your centers to guard nowadays? All you really need from your center position is rebounds and blocks, which Duncan, Horry, and Oberto do.

 

Have the Rockets truely addressed their four most glaring needs this offseason.

1. PG/Backup PG. And please V Span isnt addressing it (NOR JLIII)...not yet by anyones imagination

2. A True PF. Sorry, Battier may be the glue, may be the hustle. But he is not the answer at PF and Howard has never been.

3. A third Scoring option. Maybe at the SG position.

4. Bench Bigs. Are we really willing to go into a full season with Rybo, Mutombo, Novak, Hayes as our primary bigs off the bench?


The Rox may be better if TMAC and Yao and Battier all have injury free seasons. Thats a guarantee, but did they really address any of their problems.

 

what bothers me is that he has the warriors at # and all he cites is that they lost derek fisher and got nelly as a coach. i didnt know nelly could single-handedly be greater than the personelle moves than all the other west teams (save the top 4)

 

Well in his defense Don Nelson made the Mavs franchise do a complete 180 in team success. I think people forget how bad they used to be.

 

true but he had a lot of help from new ownership in cuban and of course dirk

 

What is notable is that he ranked the Grizzlies last.

 

Interesting interview of Nelson coming out recently. He wants to small-ball with his roster, moving Murphy to the 5 and Thugleavy to the 4. Take that, you haters who said Thugleavy can't play the 4.

 

Never had an opinion before about Dunleavy Jr. playing the 4, but from looking at his hotzone shooting chart from last year, maybe it's a good idea to keep him around the bucket, because he's ice cold from all over the floor.

 

Where are you getting this list from? Who said these were the top 4 most glaring needs?

After last season, this would be my list for glaring needs:

1. Solid role players that are not injury prone.

2. Shooters, shooters shooters.

3. 3rd scoring option.

4. SG that has some athleticism to keep up with teams like the Mavs.

Regarding your list:
1. PG. There is not a chance we'll get a better PG in terms to Assist/turnover ratio. Not a chance. Yes, Rafer needs to shoot better. It would be great to upgrade Rafer but easier said than done.

2. A true PF. This you invented. JVG has said he wants a PF that can space the floor by hitting outside shots. Think about it, if you get a PF that can't shoot, then defenders will ALWAYS double off the PF to doubleteam Yao. Imagine Cato at PF. Nobody would ever need to guard Cato.

3. 3rd scoring option. Absolutely.

4. Bench bigs. In 1995, what bench bigs did we have? Pete Chillcut? Chucky Brown? Look, we have Yao and like Dream in '95, we'll ride on Yao's shoulders to the end. If Yao can't handle the workload, no bench bigs will make a difference in our championship asperations anyway. It's either Yao or it won't happen.

The biggest single factor to us winning a championship is Yao and TMac having career type seasons.

The second bigest factor is filling in the team with guys that can hit open shots. If we can simply address those two factors, addressing any other weaknesses will be icing on the cake. Nice to have but not mandetory.

 

i hope you are kidding

sam "i am" cassell
mario "junkyard dawg" elie (started halfway thru spurs series but on bench b4)

if you are not kidding then you need to put this in your sig so you don't forget

 

sorry didn't read fully, now i know you meant big men, oops

 

bench bigs to me mean key contributors i guess, sorry about the shot thrown at you

 

I was responding to this quote by Dreamshake:

He only listed 3s, 4s and 5s. So I interpreted that to mean big men.

 

Chant after me. O wah Tay Foo Liam. Say it quickly. Oldest chant in the book for a) summer camp and b) people who don't bother reading the messages in the thread.

 

i don't like to think in terms of possition. instead, think of production. for example, would a team in need of 3pt shooting turn down dirk because he is not a SG?

going into the offseason i thought the rockets needed:

1. perimeter defense.

2. shooting.

3. athleticism.

4. overall talent / depth.

we got:

1. shane, snyder, vspan. vspan is inproven but still known for his defense.

2. shane (upgrade over stro), vspan, novak.

3. snyder. could still use more help here

4. shane over stro, snyder over wesley, vspan, lucas, novak, maybe sura.

we could still use another athletic swingman, and another talented player (not role player). however, i feel that overall a good job was done.

 

He had to earn Cuban's confidence and you think Dirk would be this damn good if Don didn't take a chance on him?

Nelson is a huge positive on offense, he can take a talented team on offense, and make them #1 or #2 not thier sorely top 15. Offensivlely, the Warriors are going to be an even tougher battle.

I don't think they had a better off-season then us, but they certainly had a great one, just by signing Don Nelson. He's incredibly good at playing players where they feel comfortable playing and utilizing them.

Defensively, his zone in Dallas shouldn't even be considered a zone, it was horrendus, but talent-wise, drafting-wise, and offensively-minded wise, he's a genious.

 

I thought they needed this:

1. Taller swingman that can be a legit scoring option

2. Athleticism and Youth

3. Versatility

4. Depth


I think we filled in 4 perfectly, #3 sort of, #2 we didnt do at all, and #1 we did sort of, in it's smallest way.

 

thank you, however i interpreted it differently
we all interpret things differently, you too

 

"#2 we didn't do at all".

What old stiffs did we pick up? Synder, Battier, lucas?

I actually agree with your list, but I think number 1 should be
1. Taller swingman with an outside shoot.
He doesn't need to have the ability to create his own shot, just needs to be able to hit an open one.