Improvements mean nothing if players still brush by you like a tissue in the wind. Bud's D sucks no matter how much his supporters try to spin it and the fact that his streaky shooting tends to typically become hot against teams that don't put any sort of even average defender on him. Bud will never be starter material until he gains a scoring mentality (hit that wide open shot consistently) and enough NBA experience to compensate for his seeming lack of any sort of lateral movement. I expect Budinger's role to drop down to 9-10th man at the end of this season, which is much lower than my initial expectation of him his rookie year; another Brent Barry.
He really just isn't that good. Sucks, but he is what he is. As Rockets fans we tend to overvalue most if not all of our players when they are actually either not that good or not that valued around the league. Such is life when you have a team with no superstar.
This is just not true, he has a 12.7 per against him last year, which is better than adequate. He gets blown by about as much as any other perimter player, the no hand checking rules make it impossible to stay in front of someone. Witness Lowry on Parker the other night, Lowry is one of our better defenders but Parker was going by him like he was wet tissue paper because Kyle can't use his hands to slow him down... DD
Hey DD, just because statistics show he's an alright defender does not mean he is one!! I think people will be surprised this season when he starts how much better we will look without Battier in the starting lineup.
This is the problem when people cling to their favorites and look for every excuse to make them seem better than they are. Opposing PG's do not regularly look like All-Stars against Lowry. Scrubby PG's tend to perform like scrubs against Lowry and All-Stars (like Parker) are called all-stars because they have the ability to consistently go off on ANY team or defender/defensive scheme. Budinger consistently gets burned by any wings that he tries to guard. With all your watching of Rockets game, I find it odd that you do not see that we regularly give up career games to players at Budinger's position. Hell, he let Ariza and DORELL WRIGHT go off on him with ease. Look you love Budinger and we all get that a this point in time and just like with every scrub you seem to fall head over heels in love for, he will most likely be traded once one of our more promising and athletic wings take over his place.
When people brought up advanced statistics last year about how Lowry was better for the team than Brooks, you brushed it off and called the numbers "lies". Now, you have been clinging on to this one stat because it makes your pet player look good. It really is hilarious. The reality is, statistics never, ever lie. They are merely numbers afterall. It is the people who are intellectually incapable of interpreting them that makes them look bad. Case in point: Budinger is so bad as a defender that the Rockets always keeps him on their opponent's worst offensive player. Some players who do not even average a PER above 10, or even belong in the league. Telling me that Budinger held his opponents to a 12.7 PER means absolutely nothing, if it takes a concerted team effort to slow down his man and 12.7 is still above their norm.
I personally prefer to stick to the eye test myself. With Brooks and Lowry, the eye test said that Lowry was playing much better on-the-ball defense on his man, and even if it led him to draw more fouls, it was fantastic to watch because he would up his game when it came time to go against the big dogs like Paul and Deron Williams. Brooks would get up for Paul also, but Deron would physically abuse Brooks as if he was some sort of chew toy in the post. The fact that the statistics also supported the eye test in calling Brooks a horrible, atrocious defender is a secondary piece of evidence, not something you make conclusions off of but useful nonetheless. In Budinger's case, he has the same matador syndrome that Brooks has. He just doesn't try. How often did I see backdoor cuts from Bud's man go completely uninhibited. Or worse yet, when Bud's man had the ball how many times would he go baseline with no resistance. Our defense as a team sucked last year. It was godawful. You don't need stats to tell you that. Yes part of the reason was the lack of an inside shot-blocking option, but you know what? Having three piss poor defenders starting in Scola, Budinger, and Martin didn't help either. Hayes was a plus when it came to handling his own guy, but we couldn't ask him to clean up for the mistakes and sometimes all-out apathy of others. Battier was pretty bad at defense last year too, and the reason we improved after the ASB was mostly due to losing Brooks but also due to losing the zero offense minimal defense he provided us. For that I'll give Budinger credit: he is clearly an above-average offensive option at SF. But come on, stop pretending like he's even a marginal defender or anything more than a stopgap starter for us there.
Budinger is an above average player on offense given one single condition and unfortunately, it is the same one Brooks had; he has to make his shot. The problem with Budinger, is either he is insanely passive or a complete pansy on the court. The only time he consistently takes it to the rack is against weak teams. Against teams with decent D, he goes into straight shooting mode typically and it is up to his "streak" of how much we curse at him. Now maybe he turns it around and recovers his shooting touch against good teams consistently. Maybe he finally gets it on D or at least tries harder. Maybe one day we will get another star. Until then, Budinger is a scrub.
Budinger is tough to evaluate. Not a scrub. Not an all star. He's just a player. Plays better defense than most give him credit for, but is prone to horrible defense at times. Not as good as an offensive player than most give him credit for. He is good in transition and his half court game is dependent on his shot falling. His offense is elite at times.
Dude needs to be more aggressive on both ends. He has the skills, unlike Hill or Thabeet. Bud just needs to put it together, and I think he can with more confidence. Where as Hill and Thabeet have nothing to put together, just length.
HALF the team is Budinger's age or within a year COURTNEY LEE is the 3RD OLDEST Rockets player. (As of today before Dalembert signs) Everyone is right at their PEAK - NO CHANCE of development. Why do McHale and the coaches even TRY to work on skills and training? Just send the players on out there because the players "are what they are".
