In Snyder's first two years, he was on fairly young teams. I think on this roster, guys like Yao, Howard, McGrady, and Battier should have a calming influence on him. Haven't seen him play much, but a quick glance at his stats last year make him look promising. Good assist-rate, turnovers were down, decent scoring efficiency for a guy who didn't get to the free throw line much. He didn't get many steals, though, and his rebounding was underwhelming for a SG of his size/athleticism.
I'm not so sure Snyder can be labeled the "toughness" of the team. It's more like "the one everyone loves to hate." We can call him the toughness once he starts acting like it instead of a taunter that gets beat up all the time. Sort of like the small kid that says "NA na NA na naaa you cant catch meeee!" Sura is toughness...like the big, older brother who watches out for his other bro(s) (see Josh Howard). That wasn't my point though. What I wanted to say is that the Chronicle has Snyder listed at 6'3! Is this true or is the Chronicle just showing how much they don't care about basketball again. here's the link: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4048728.html
good post. the rockets need a head case to play for the rockets. hell, we won a championship with mad max on our team, and thats whats missing on our team. we need a player with a couple of loose screw in their head. the bulls had rodman, and detroit laimbeer.
Despite that little chronicle profile Snyder is still listed at 6'6 in Feigan's article. He's also listed at 6'6 on his NBA profile. http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kirk_snyder/index.html
m_cable, just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this post, and I wish had no life so we could get this kinda stuff daily. Thanks.
Question: If Mike James feels like a "cheap prostitute" because he got traded for 2 second rounders to HOU and then for Rafer Alston to Toronto, given that Kirk Snyder got traded for a possible exchange of 2nd round picks, should Snyder feel like a "prison b****" who just got traded for a cigarette?
Great original post. I had totally forgotten that the smaller TE had come from the Derek Anderson trade. So basically we traded Anderson for Snyder and a 2nd round swap. If you look at it that way I think it's a pretty good trade.
You've got the tapes of insignificant Rockets games from two years ago?!!!!? Wow. You deserve your name. Thanks for the analysis. Great job! Whew!
This is a nice summary. It was nice to utilize the trade exception. We've wasted them at times in the past.
Awesome work Rocks4ever. I'm encouraged by your analysis. Seems like it reinforces a lot of the scouting I've seen on Snyder (i.e. being a good slasher, having defensive potential etc.), and minimizes his "boneheaded" reputation. If his rep is largely based on his off-the-court antics instead of making a ton of mistakes in games, then maybe he can mesh with JVG who can handle off-kilter personalities as long as they can perform and play smart (i.e. Spreewell). Of course it's important not to go too much overboard on Snyder just yet. You certainly caught one of his better games, and consistency is definitely something he needs to develop and improve upon. Great work man.
thanks m-cable...I've enjoyed your posts in the past, and your compliment feels like a good baptism into this board (even though I've been a reader for 6 years now). I think Snyder is a great fit, although not the "third" scorer Deuce, jopatmc, and most of the board feels we need to be legit title contenders. Ideally, Snyder would be a second-unit guy who could spell T-Mac and our more veteran starting two, and then perhaps grow into the starter's role. The thing that makes me confident in Snyder is that he's long enough to defend the bigger 2's (Kobe, Stack, etc.) and quick enough to defend small forwards thus alleviating T-Mac's defensive burden although I think Battier can do this as well. This is the least the Rockets and JVG should expect from our starting 2 since Wesley (and our team) was routinely victimized by bigger 2's. I also expect that RyBo's minutes will significantly decrease with the acquistions of Battier and Snyder. Both of these players are two-way players, and, as much as I love RyBo's effort, he's too much of an offensive liability to get any real PT. We've become a more versatile team than last year and even the previous year in which we won 50+ games albeit still not as deep as the Dallas's and San Antonio's. If Snyder does go into training camp as our only true 2, I'm hoping JVG throws him into the frying pan during preseason just to see what he's capable of and has enough patience through the season to let him make mistakes. Although I'm tempering my expectations for the team and Snyder (especially after last year's supposed "great" offseason signings and ensuing debacle) I really think Snyder has the goods to be a good starter for us.
I see. By your explanation and what Battier himself has just now reiterated in the interview, about being pitted against the 'best perimeter player', he'd be faced against Kobe, Manu, Dirk etc. Which is still just speculation and Battier's own 'super duper' attitude.. 'Till JVG writes down the official lineup and publicizes it. So, the question now is, if this does materialize, what would you consider 'hanging with his guy' and 'holding his own' when defending these three? Would the opposition fair about the same if say... they were guarded by a less than attentive T-mac, kept/saved from his best efforts till the 4th quarter if that were the case?
I'm trying to make sense of the '06-'07 backcourt, ASSUMING THE RUMORS HAVE VALIDITY that JLIII and VSpan are Rockets bound. That Bobby Sura is able to play, and contribute. And the possibility/probability Bsattier will log some time at the 2. Who stays, who plays. Who plays where, and for how many minutes? Who goes (and where, for whom? ok, that's someone else's Thread). Can someone sort this out?
Ditto. Well done m_cable. I will like to believe that Snyder will start for us. That is the only point I disagree with here. It is going to come down to consideration for Tmac's health. I am sure this has been covered before now - that Mac's has hinted that he does not really like playing the off guard position (source unavaible for now). The last thing we want is Mac chasing 2-guards around with the condition of his back and fatigue factor. If Shane can handle the guards he will play the 2-guard foor but I am not sure how prospective that idea is. The dark horse to start at 2-guard will be Gonibili........errrr....Vspan, if he signs. My call = Mac starts as the small forward for this team (and plays majority of his minutes there). Of course there are times he could play point forward with Snyder at 2 and Shane at 3.
Great read. Even though I didn't agree 100% with every single observation, I thoroughly enjoyed the format, writing, and tone. Don't change the format. Listen to your gut. That type of "answering your own questions" is exactly how these types of FAQ columns should read. If you want, you can even get more tongue-in-cheek, using a kind of Socratic-dialogue strawman to have some fun with. ps.... MacBeth was one of my all-time favorite posters. I miss the guy. And I think he would enjoy reading your FAQ, and I think he would approve. [Wipes teardrop from cheek.]
the only thing is blocks don't seem to be a large part of his game (.3 blocks a game playing 19 MPG). so that performance doesn't seem reflective of what one can expect on a daily basis. also, from a little research, Snyder played quite a bit of point in Nevada and even stated in an interview that if he could check 1's that he would prefer to play the point as he really liked handling the ball (i.e. Steve Francis?).
OK, I originally posted this in the big thread, but it got hijacked by some rookie asking if we should trade T-Mac for AI and since this is probably a better place for it, here it is (with apologies to those who read it in the big thread). ___________ So, being two hours behind everyone else, I was sitting around late last night watching a rerun of the Vegas League between NOK and somebody. Out there running around the court was our man Kirk. Here's what I saw... Strange at the freethrow line: He steps up to the line and then takes a step back so that he's about a foot behind the line when he shoots. The whole process sort of reminded me of the way NFL kickers get set. Anyway, he made all but one... and on the one he missed, he beat everyone down the lane and crammed it home. Easily his most spectacular play of the stretch I watched. I saw him lose his man on a pick. I saw him come out of nowhere to pick off a pass, streak down court, and get fouled on the shot. "Fouled" kind of undertstates it. He got knocked into the stands, came up limping, but shook it off and made his free throws. I saw him pass an open shot to feed the post for an easier two. It was a nice little bounce pass right around a defender and perfectly delivered. I saw him run the floor well. I saw him stand around a bit on offense. In his defense, the point guard he was playing with liked to go deep on the left wing and Kirk had to provide some balance for transition D. I saw him blow by his man on the left wing, juke another defender, take it to the hole strong, and get blocked from behind at the rim. I saw him drive from the right wing to the middle of the lane and put up an off-balance shot that clanged into the arms of his teammate for an easy jumper. It looked like he was fouled. I saw him protesting to the Ref after the above play. I saw him win a tip with a much taller opponent. I did not see him take a jumper, and the only chance he really had was when he passed in to the post. I guess he had other "chances," but they were not good shots, though some in the game would have taken them. After seeing all this, I think JVG can make him into a more than decent defensive player, especially with Yao behind him, Battier playing his man tight and Tmac working the passing lanes. I think he might surprise some folks with his passing ability... he's not going to be Magic, but he does seem to have the ability to make the right pass well and if he makes 2-3 of those nice entry passes each game, we'll all be happy. He's not afraid to take it to the rack. He's seems tough enough. He can jump. He appears to be judicious in his shot attempts. I don't think he's going to be a "playmaker" for himself or the rest of the team, but I do think he can play off of the other guys. If he accepts his role and dedicates himself to that role, he could play it very well.
