The question asked is below...but more important is what he said up top about Head! ------ John Hollinger: (3:03 PM ET ) Greetings everyone. Before we get started, a shout out to all the assistant coaches who selected the Rookie and Sophomore teams... uh, you guy do watch the games, right? C'mon guys, you've seen Delonte West and Josh Childress play, and if you're doing your jobs right you should know they're playing much, much better than T.J. Ford or Ben Gordon. And the Rookie team .... sheesh. Nate Robinson was bad enough, but Luther Head???? Have you guys actually seen him, or did you just figure he was doing OK since he'd played a lot of minutes? OK, I'm done with my rant now. On to the chat ... ----------- Clay (Houston, TX): Hey John. I have a few questions. Do you see my Rockets making a serious run at the playoffs now that our superstars are back? Do you see them making any trades? Also, is this Hayes kid for real? He looks pretty good to me. Averaging 8 boards in 21 minutes is nice. John Hollinger: (3:09 PM ET ) The Rockets would have to win two out of three the rest of the way to get back to .500, which would put them in the running for the 8 seed. If T-Mac and Yao stay healthy the rest of the way, it's possible, but I still don't like their odds. Hayes has done a nice job in limited minutes. Everybody knew he could play D from his time at Kentucky, but concerns about his size and scoring kept him from being drafted. So far, he's scored enough garbage baskets to earn his keep.
OK, Hollinger is officially a crack smoker. If he thinks a few "garbage baskets" are what have earned Chuck Hayes playing time, he definitely has located a few vocal chords in his rectal cavity. I don't think I could ever believe a word this guy writes/speaks after this.
Hollinger is a stat-head, plain and simple -- and head (and most rooks) comes out egregiously lousy according to his formulae (PER...etc.) - so it's not hard to guess why he'd say that. Doesn't make him right, of course.
If that were the case, then he'd be drooling all over Hayes. His PER is the third-best on the team. It's easy to dismiss someone as a stat-head, and little more, but JH's pet stats on Hayes are through the roof. There were concerns about Hayes' size and scoring coming out of Kentucky, people knew he could rebound, but little else. Now that he's shown that he can nail garbage baskets (that is, offensive putbacks and the like), he's shown he's in the league to stay. Everyone knew he could rebound in the NBA, but he had to prove that he could DO SOMETHING with those boards in the NBA, and not be another Michael Ruffin. His ability to rebound got him in the NBA. His ability to move beyond that will keep him in the NBA. Hollinger didn't mention the rebounding because it was (and will be) a given. I'm having a hard time finding fault in Hollinger's reply.
So am I, and I don't think I did. Just like Hayes stats are through the roof - Head's are in the toilet. However, Hollinger's numbers don't take into account (to my knowledge) a game tying 3 in the closing seconds - which will stick out in mind of a Rockets fan, but place heavy emphasis on Roland Rating - which most fans won't know about. I'm just trying to explain the disconnect is all. I haven't formed much of an opinion on Head one way or the other yet myself.
Yeah I know Head is our boy here, but what kind of drugs did they do before they picked him in to the rookie game. I am not going to protest it, but am still a little bit puzzled.
Probably the "hey, there's a crappy rookie game that nobody cares about, so we might as well pick a guy from the hometown team to generate a modicum of interest and hopefully avoid an embarrasing empty arena" drug. Who cares about the rookie game? I don't even remember seeing them. I think I watched one with LeBron once. I think that's it.
They picked 10 rookies to be on the team. Who got snubbed? Hollinger conveniently didn't mention any deserving rookies who were left off.
Has this guy watched Luther play? This guy is a moron. Not everything can be summed up in stats. You have to watch these guys play too. And .... when you watch luther head, a few things stand out: 1. He a good defender with quick feet. He still has a lot of improving to do, he makes mistakes, but he has the talent to hang with most all guards in the NBA defensively. 2. He might be the quickest player to come out of the draft last year. His burst of spead is remarkable, and when he figures out what to do with it, he's going to be dangerous. 3. He's got a nice shot. It's been streaky, but he's also a rookie, and he's been asked to do a lot. 4. He can rebound. For a guard his size, he will be a good rebounder in this league. He elivates almost as high as Stevie Franchise. Simply a remarkable athlete, who is showing that we made a great 1st round pick this year. Screw Hollinger ... does he watch basketball?
exactly. My point in starting this wasn't that I think Head is the most incredible player out there...but why is it such a stupid choice? Who is the more logical choice? Who has played better?
No airline ticket. And with Luther hitting some game winning 3's he is creeping up the ladder of bench people attaining notoriety with us fans. He has a ways to go to catch Padgett, and he will never catch Boki with his punking of Karla unless he does something similar to protect Yao or Tmac & takes out a Rockets nemesis like Fortson or that Spurs dirty punk@$$ Bowen. Baxter is larger and it would be more effective if he would take one of these type guys into the 2nd row under the basket.
