In Defense of Stromile Swift

he's a scrub...underachiever

 

Swift's BIGGEST problem is that he goes for the SPECTACULAR sports center MONSTER play every time he touches the ball rather than just focus on making a shot or good pass for another teamate. He pump fakes 5 times before going up for a simple layup. Just go up with it and try to make the easy play rather than try to make spectacular ones.

I don't think I have seen anyone miss more dunks in an ENTIRE season than I've seen Stro miss in 17 games.

I do think it is too early to give up on him b/c he is still very young and adjusting to a new system.

 

Swift should start hands down, he plays very well with Yao. Develop that chemistry now cause both guys are young and talented. Howard and Yao equals the slowest frontline in basketball.

 

I don't know why we don't post Swift up more. He seems to be very good down there.

As for his defense, I'm sure that JVG's defense is fairly complicated and some players might take longer to pick it up, especially when they're new to everyone else on the team.

 

There are times where I think his post game is nice, and others where I think he's forcing it and it looks out of control.

I would think they don't ask him to post up much unless he's the center in the game. Otherwise, he's to feed off of T-Mac and Yao. Not sure on that though.

 

Exactly Jeff is aware the Stro is our best four the problem is he is also a good back five with better quickness than both Yao and Mutombo,that's why he is not starting. The problem I have is I thinnk his stats could be better if he plays his game. He is not a post up player operates better off the dribble and when in the post needs to face defender to be effective, when he and Howard are in the line up they struggle because they post Swift and expect Howard to rebound, if they did this the other way around it would be a lot more effective, because JHoward is pretty foul prone himself and is not as good a rebounder as Swift

 

Few things are more misleading than 30MPG, 40MPG, 48MPG, and all the other fantasy-like statistics. Very rarely do they offer good information. Players get their minutes for a reason. In his first few years, Yao couldn't handle big minutes and was routinely exhausted and worthless at the end of games. Fans here blissfully ignored that and wrote endless amounts of threads to declare 40MPG would turn Yao into Shaq. It's silly.

Please don't bother defending Stromile, btw. He's an embarrassment that has zero professional pride. Maybe he'll turn a corner at some point, but right now, I'm all for him being glued to the bench. Stats aren't shedding light on his tendency to get completely lost on defense, his reluctance to ever cross the court or rotate at more than a casual jog, his less-than-half-hearted attempts to rebound or box out, and all the other ways he chooses not to put in any effort or focus.

Considering his staggering number of turnovers per offensive touch (alas, not a stat available), I don't want to see him touching the ball. How many times does he have to lose the ball during a simple post move before it's noticed around here? How many blown shots/dunks that are right at the rim? Where in his entire career has he ever shown that he might put it together?

The only redeeming thing about him is that he's signed to a livable contract. I'm hopeful that his mother slaps him across the face this Christmas, because he could be an outstanding player if he had the slightest bit of interest in being one.

Evan

 

Considering Stro isnt very smart and that JVG went to an Ivy league school.....its probably going to take a little time for SS to get used to the system. He will (actually showing signs now) eventually figure it out, and start playing more consistant IMHO.

I WOULD NOT give up on him yet...maybe even the whole year. Let him PLAY!!!

 

Stro's 1on1 defense is much weaker than I expected, which should not be attributed to chemistry factor. He has a long way to go.

 

My dissapointment is just that his upside really isn't much higher. I never expected superstar 20/10 like some, but thought he should at least be able to improve a fair amount without a Pau Gasol taking minutes from him.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with your thread concerning Swift and have been perturbed at members from this site dissing him as much as they have. The guy has great talent and a good coach and any real informed student of this game will recognize this in a minute. I don`t just think it, I know this kid has All Star abilites!All of this about missing assignments, looking lost, low IQ, is ample evidence of more of JVG`s failure as a coach for this team. Note how he has mismanaged a player like Swift`s ability, instead of unleashing his skills, JVG forced him to play in a boring, broken, pathetically ineffective offensive scheme that resulted in 8 out of 9 loses. In fact, the glaring weaknesses of JVG started for me in his failing to help Swift to find his role and mesh with the team. What was once a slight mist in regards to JVG`s failings has now become for me a heavy fog! Again, it all started with Swift! If JVG has this brilliant basketball mind, why hasn`t he tried to help Swift more than he has?!? A really good coach has to go beyond X`s and O`s. I think Rudy T had that ability. JVG does not!! Yet, JVG needs to change his sickeningly arrogant and stubborn ways to make that a part of who he is and work on himself the way he demands it from his players. Just playing this poor little boy role and sheepishly taking blame is not enough and I see through it!

Furthermore, while I do think Howard is a class guy and I do like him, his game has been way,way, off and not only has he consistently missed shots he should make, he is the one that has missed assignments, has looked lost, and has demonstrated a low Hoops IQ. What has JVG done???...kept him as a starter and in games when his lack of production was killing us, meanwhile, keeping Swift on the bench or giving to Swift no instruction and direction other than those silly frowns, stupid glares, and that ridiculously frantic pointing...Swift deserves better. Come to think of it, so do the Rockets, so do we! I will always be a Rockets fan, but JVG has a long ways to go before I will be on his bandwagon, again. However, and as I stated in an earlier post, I will be more than happy to eat crow if JVG turns this team around and gets the Rockets back in the hunt with a winning record, which is where they not only should be, but should have never been anything less than that!!!

 

The biggest problem with Swift is not a lack of effort. It's that he tries to do too much. He's always overaggressive, trying to force turnovers, and he takes a lot of gambles instead of just making the simple play. This leads to a lot of fouls, turnovers, and missed defensive assignments. There are times when his overaggressiveness will pay off, but most of the time he'll overcommit and give up an easy basket or a rebound.

A good example is yesterday night's game when he forced Ricky Davis out of bounds and was fortunate not to be called for foul. Most players under that situation would have trapped Davis on the sideline, but retreated once it was clear they would not be able to force the turnover. Swift, on the other hand, goes overboard and forces Davis out of bounds. He's got kind of a one track mind, where once he's decided what he's going to do, there's nothing that's going to change his mind. He's very similar to Steve Francis that way. Unlike Francis though, I do think he can eventually play under Van Gundy, because I don't think his ego is nearly as big.

 

Swift is boneheaded. He always buy opponents' pump fakes. How often do you see him go airbone just to send opponents to FT line? Too many. JVG should tell him not to do that! Stay with your man and don't bite every bait! Also, Swift is so raw on offensive end and he should be considered as a project at best. we had too high an expectation of him, that is it.

 

fire JVG

 

2 good games in a row for Stro....I like to see that. Hopefully he is on the road to "consistancy". I would love to see him do 14/9 every game.

 

Too much stro hate on this board. I noticed over the years that theres always one rockets player that gets "bandwagon hate". There's certain players that are untouchable to talk bad about and if you do, you'll be called an idiot. No matter what your opinion is. Then there is the one player that gets the bandwagon hate. Steve Francis was one of those guys and now its Stromile Swift.

What are people expecting from him? He's averaging his career numbers he got in memphis. Right around 9/5 in roughly 20 minutes, we got what was advertised so what do you want him to put up in 20 minutes off the bench? Now i would understand if he was starting and still puttng up those numbers but you can't deny he doesn't go out there and try his hardest in limited minutes. Until he gets starter minutes, folks shouldn't judge him so hard because he's doing the same production this season as his past seasons.

But what do I know? If the "intellegent game analyzers" on this board say he is a bad player,waste of money,ect. then he obviously sucks according to the basketball masters on here.

 

I'm not going to judge anyone's play too critically since we are not anywhere close to full strength...I want to see how Swift can do with a healthy squad...I still think this is a dangerous team when at full health, but these past few games surely have to be a confidence-booster for Stromile...I really like what I'm seeing from him of late, I just hope he keeps it up...

 

Geez... this forum would be a much better place if some people would be even half as critical about themselves as they are about others.