Held out for "precautionary" reasons. Suspension starts in the regular season. I've learned you can't always trust pre-season box scores.
Gator, the way the Rockets were employing motion in their offense, was to have the guys cutting a lot, and also making one on one moves but doing it quickly and if it isn't working pass out of it and the next guy makes a move... and so on. So, there still is a lot of individual moves being made, which cuts down on assists in the stat box, but it took a lot of athletic ability and teamwork for the basket to be made. There were more posessions with a lot of passing, even Cutino was seen passing the ball in this offense. Sure they did not stick to it, but their conditioning is going to have to greatly improve. This is part of develeping the conditioning it takes to be that active on offense. That is a reason that Boki got limited playing time. The rest of the guys need more minutes to get ready for the season. You guys need to remember this guy just moved from another country, Rudy will probably bring him along slowly so as to help him adjust to this major change in his life.
interesting notes from the game: 1. starters played a lot. seemed like a regular season rototation for the most part. 2. seems like they would want to get the 15th pick in the draft in on more plays than just 4th quarter fodder. 3. Griffin has did not show much. we saw flashes with blocks and some shooting, but did not see much inside game. 4. Gooden is the real deal. very active. great fade away and drop step 5. Steve is in season form already 6. saw some motion, but still seemed like a lot of one on one in the second half 7. I hope this is not the same Morris as last preseason. his shot does look different though. very active. 8. KT is a great utility guy if he will accept the role. he can rebound and spin move like a mother. best first step in the league for a big man. man, I wish there was a way to keep him. still shoots too much IMHO though 9. Cato looks in much better shape early on and is very active. 10. despite score. dominated them 11. looked really aggressive defensively in the first half and on the offensive boards.
Not to toot my own horn, but in a mid-season thread last year entitled " If we can't get Ming, I want Gooden." I stated that Gooden was going to be a stud. He is...scoring is great, and he can do it, but the biggest thing you notice about him is his rebounding instincts. He is the best natural rebounder I have seen come out of college in years. AND he can score...imagine a guy with Oakley or nigh-on Rodman rebounding instincts who can also score and handle..that's Gooden. Will he rebound like Rodman? Uh..no. But he'll be damn good, and he'll do a lot of other things. I'd much rather have Yao, especially given our needs/strengths, but Gooden is gonna be great. Ok, so I tooted just a little...
What game were you watching? As has been stated before, EG wasnt on gooden all during the game. EG did a fair job on him when he was.
Griffin did fair on gooden. He was matched up against him enough to say that Eddie did okay, not great though. I saw Gooden drop fadeaways on him at least 4 times, of which 2 were hooking types. I also saw Gooden out rebound Griffin twice with put backs....so we know Griffin was matched against him at least 6-8 times and Gooden did well. remember the Grizzlies do not have much else going right now....so he was one of their only options. he will be a leader soon though, because battier and gasol seem passive...look for gooden to provide them some major insider prescence....he is more advanced than Eddie right now on the offensive end.
