No,I don't think that will be good enough. I want to retain Chuck,and trade Battier and Luis at the trading deadline in February,but only for young players with some experience and genuine upside.
i'd cut cook and keep them both however, i'd cut dorsey in a heartbeat for a shot blocking center or at least some true size in the middle.
Before reading through all of the posts and arguments for keeping either, I'm stating my answer here. This is a tough one. Dorsey Pros Best rebounder on the team 800k guaranteed contract Dorsey Cons Doesn't put in a full and consistent effort every minute on the court Hasn't quite picked up our team's defense Has a history of providing zero offense Pops Pros More offensive potential, albeit only at the basket As aggressive on court as any player we have, this includes his high energy Very cool name (ok, not really a Pro in this regard, but still worth stating) Pops Cons Can't score unless he's touching the rim Conclusion Based off of the list above, it looks like we go with Pops hands-down. And if our team make-up wasn't a deciding factor at all, I'd say Pops is easily the choice and would be taken more times than not over Dorsey. However, decisions like these are not made in a void. We have three big problems on this team right now. We can't score, defend or rebound consistently. Defense will come from increased practices, developing our team defense as opposed to one on one defense. One of the most effective forms of defense, in my opinion, is to keep the offensive player from going where he wants to go. Make him uncomfortable. Team defense does this. So instead of having lots of lots of shots blocked into the stands, we'll likely see a lower opposing field goal percentage than the average team this season. But this will only happen if our players are capable of developing a solid team defensive mentality. No matter how you feel about McGrady's heart, I think most of us understand that he is the most capable player on our team of creating shots for both himself and others. No one else seems to be quite as natural at it and cannot be relied upon as a go-to scorer. Aaron, Trevvor, Chase and Jermaine may all get there, but they aren't there yet. So until we get McGrady back playing at full stength, our offense must come from a system rather than from individual talents. Our offensive system is to score in the full court as often as possible, avoiding the half court unless absolutely necessary. Which leads me to rebounding. No matter how good our defense is, if we cannot rebound the basketball then our defense becomes pointless. So rebounding is key to making our defense work for us. As well, the key element in running our offensive system in a full court is rebounding. Those rebounds spark the open court breaks. So the more defensive rebounds we get on one end, the more fast break opportunities we get at the other. So without having a solid rebounder in the game for us at least some of the time, our whole system will fall apart. What defense we manage to get from these guys will reap no rewards and the players will lose incentive to play it without rebounding. Our offense will stagnate in the half court. Louis Scola is good, but he's not good enough to carry us alone in the half-court. For this critical reason, Dorsey is the guy that you have to keep among the two. However, once rebounding is solved by keeping Dorsey, having another high energy big to come off the bench to spark both defense and offense whenever we get bogged down would be a great tool to have from our set. I'm not quite sure the Rockets will agree with me here so much that they retain Dorsey. 800k is a drop in the bucket compared to what we've spent to get new talent on our team this year. And Coach hasn't exactly played much with putting Dorsey out on the court to see if his rebounding is as key as I am saying it is. But the OP was asking among the two choices of Dorsey and Pops, which would I keep if I can only keep one. Dorsey is my answer, though Pops is the better player.
I'd go with Pops, Dorsey just doesn't seem to get it. I know he can rebound, but if you can't defend the rebound opportunities aren't going to be there.
I am pretty sure they want to keep a 3rd PG. With Barry gone, we don't have anyone to fall back to if one of our two PGs gets hurt. I agree with DD, if Cook is not traded to get an open spot, it will probably come down to Pops or Dorsey. I think Pops has more potential. Well, Dorsey has potential too. But if a guy hasn't figured out what he needs to learn (not master, just try to learn) by his second year, I doubt that he will ever figure out.
If you can't stay on the court for more than 10 minutes because of fouls, what good are you? Plus, Pops seems to be better at this point.
Dorsey will be back in rio grande. Its not like he's shown that he can play decent on this level. The jazz kept almond down in the d-league until his contract expired and he was a higher rated prospect with a high guaranteed contract than dorsey.
Pops has shown to be more versatile. He brings energy, looks comfortable around the rim, and he can block shots. Dorsey on the other hand seems to be one dimensional and fouls alot. I think Pops so far has proven to me he wants to be on this team more.
He hasn't quoted basketballreference.com yet, so I'm not too sure that's thablackknight. If he is, he's got a fixation on medieval names. Next name, WhoBangedGuinevere?
It is really hard to choose between the two. Both have something to contribute to the Rockets this season. I would give a very very slight edge to Pops but I will be fine with whomever the coaching staff will pick. I agree with DD that Conroy will probably be included in the lineup. He seems to have a knack for organizing the offense and has good pt. guard instincts and handle.
What does Dorsey have to contribute to this team? I can't think of anything he does better. Pops already proved himself to be an effective rebounder last season with the Raptors. His rebound rate was good enough to be league leading. He's a capable shot-blocker. He runs the floor very well. Probably a better free throw shooter and ball-handler too. Dorsey is a wider body, but I don't see that translating into better basketball skills.
