I actually believe we have all such players here in this team. Chucky Hayes is your Etan Thomas. I'd rather play Bonzi / Novak and have them as our 3rd scorers. And the slasher could be Snyder and Spounolis. We cant just keep changing the cast every time JVG has a mood swing. We've already done that for him, we've changer our ENTIRE roster for him. Now he has it. We're not going to be able to trade for 10 Battiers, cause thats the only thing that'll ever make him happy. We have talent, and dont even really need a trade in my opinion. He just needs to trust all his assets.
i see your point about stopping the roster turnover. however, this team is not ready to win a championship. there are still certain area's that we have big holes in. 1. 3rd scorer (could be a 6th man) - we allways start off well and then the bench gives back the lead. we need a 3rd scorer to keep the points on the board when either yao or tmac is out. 2. perimeter defense - rafer and luther let every guard get in the paint. this results in defensive breakdowns each time. 3. another defensive bigman - yao and hayes are great. deke is great, however think of next season when deke isn't here. when yao or hayes come out we will be relying on juwon and padgett? this is where a trade for a guy like etan makes a world of difference. if the rockets get those 3 things, they will be a serious contender. right now (and probably if we keep the roster as is) we will be a dark-horse contender if we can ever get out of the first round.
I haven't taken a position on Bonzi because I'm not in the mix. I don't know if Bonzi is healthy enough NOW. But if some of you guys are saying Bonzi is ready based on his 2 game performance, I totally DISAGREE. In my opinion, while Bonzi did a few good things in those games, he was very very very out of shape, leading to team defensive breakdowns and turnovers because of being slow. The Spurs games did show imo, that Pop outcoached JVG, but the players also majorly deviated from the gameplan. The Bulls game really wasn't that bad. The Bulls just really took advantage of their team quickness, and Ben Gordan went crazy. Without Hayes, the Rockets are slow up front...Yao has improved greatly, but there's no way he's quick enough for support help on players like Gordon.
Smooth, remember how upset we all were when we traded Gay and Swift for Battier? This is because we expected Gay to be our 3rd scorer. This was only forgiven when we signed Wells as a cheap free agent, thinking, Battier + Well > Gay and Swift......the point being, if Wells is not going to play and be the 3rd scorer, then y trade away Gay and Swift both only for another defender in Battier? IMHO I see scoring sitting on our bench. About the big man issue, i just dont see it as a huge concern. Even championship teams have small weaknesses. Who was the Spurs starting center in their last championship? In fact, who was the Lakers PFs in their championships? (besides Horry).......I think we're fine w/ Hayes and Juwon in the short term win now mode, we can always upgrade w/ free agens or draft a youn PF, no biggie. But this is not going to hold us back... About the PG issue, Rafer can't be playing 40 mins a game. No Way. Either put Head and TMAC in the backcourt more, or play spounolis a lil more, i gurantee our PG play will get better. The whole point of my starting this thread was what you're arguying, that we are not a championship team as of right now. Which I think we could be, if we played all of our own assets!
