....Eating rice, steak, and tortillas today,...I thought about our beloved small forward named rice, and I come to the conclusion that rice sucks!!!...and I'm talking bout the person with shoes not the yummy stuff in my bellie.... I know that rice has been one the better 3 pt. shooters of all time baby....I know rice seemed to fit our team so well, and rice this and rice that, rice-o-ronni, blah, blah, blah.... But listen....this ain't a hate rice thread....this is a look at Rice's numbers so far and look at the performance....The sassy-one named Freak showed comparitive numbers sometime back of him and Shandon at equivalent junctions and lo and beho Shandon showed a better performance!?!....I can't understand it, Rice was so suppose to be in the right system...but I think in the right system at the wrong time... Is Rice past his prime? Is he a Dale who's done? When do you know you can't do it? I think you are done when you are done. I say hakeem was done 2 years ago because he was done if you compare him to his former shell, but I digress... Excuses, excuses..... I predict we will hear more excuses from fans upon fans upon fans, especially Rice and perhaps the media.....as far as excuses, save it! I heard all 671 of them and like my late Uncle Buddy use to say "they all just don't cut Turkey". Now what? Now we take this opportunity to take a good look at the candidates: TMO, Walt, perhaps even Langhi, Griffin, or Torres... lets analyze,...well the coach should and see who is doing the do...The player who does the do the best gets the crucial start. Simple.
you can't be too patient, even on a low flame it will eventually stick to the pot once all the water has boiled away and burn and will be terribly difficult to clean
I'll give Rices around all star break to find his stroke. Other than that his all around game has been a pleasant suprise. Hell the guy plays just as good defense as anybody at his position. He does so many things that go unseen by the stat heads. I think rudy knows this too. For instance, you may find it hard to believe, but opponents still respect his offensive shot and rarely leave him. This opens up things for the rest of the guys, and particularly the guards, the damn shots have just not fallen. I mean what the hell is a guy to do? I say give it time, Rices experience and wherewithall are felt and utilized by his teamates out on the court. You know, maybe you should not, just yet, cast off mans greatest virtue, because I believe we're be about to witness some of the greatest nylon ripping shooting displays known to man. pray with me brother!
You call it excuses, I call it giving the guy more then a month to get his act together. Like I said in another thread, in 1 month Rice would show signs of coming around and he is. There's nothing to gain benching the guy after he scored 17 points the last game, and about 9 points in a row. What is there to gain with being impatient and wanting a reason for the guy's struggle, and then when you get one you call it excuses? It's still November, we have 5 months left in the season. We're not even 1 month INTO the season! You say this isn't an anti-Rice thread while at the same time you say the guy sucks. Give the guy time.
I will have less patience with Rice, now that we need more production from the SF position with Steve out. If he doesn't get it together in the next 5 games or so, it's time to start Walt. Walt has outplayed him to this point already, and probably should be starting now. But, if Rice doesn't step up now, he probably never will.
I was very adamantly opposed to signing Rice. I wanted the Rocks to let Shandon walk. Imagine what we could have done with Rice's $8m/yr over the next 3 years......LaFrentz...Rashard....Harpring... I will give credit were credit's due. Glen Rice posted up Maggette and scored over him 3 straight plays...then the Clips brought in Odom. I would love to see Rice get hot, but I just don't he's got the legs anymore. I did wonder though....since he's a liability in transition D, why isn't he taking his 3's from the corner? The distance is shorter.
You can look at it optimistically too. Mobley was flamin hot from 3-pt range at the beggining of the season, he soon missed a whole lot of them and is mediocre again. Maybe we should be thankful he's been awful. Maybe THIS is when he succumbs to the law of statistics and starts catching fire? I predict that while Steve is out, Rice will shoot at 50%, while shooting from 3pt range at 35% and probably better. It's suddenly hit me that Cato, Rice and Norris have to come out of this offensive funk sometime, and I beleive at least 2 out of 3 of them will come out of it tonight.
I luv ya GATER, but you can't be saying "3 years." It is 1 year and 3 months. Francis has been optioned for a 4th year. Even if he doesn't sign a max extension by Oct 30th, 2002, he will count 300% against the cap as a free agent (>$10m), by the first day of signing free agents in Summer 2003. We would have had until the trading deadline in 2003 to use the money saved by renouncing Hakeem and Shandon and taking only Marc Jackson back by outbidding GS. Maybe we still have a little with Francis at max under your scenario and after renouncing ALL of our exceptions, but not enough to get Lewis or LaFrentz.
