Juwan has over achieved. He has played adequately in Dec. I appreciate his effort. We have his contract for one or 2 more years after this season?? That's right til 2009.
I can't tell you how many times I have looked at a player and thought to myself, "What that guy really needs is a good fireplace."
I also don't know why there's all this hate for J. Howard all these seasons. Yeah, he is not a franchise player (never has been) and did not deserve the $100+ million contract, but he has been a class act, and hard worker his entire career. He has his flaws, but he usually steps up when necessary. StupidMoniker, I believe you are the biggest Howard hater out there...correct me if I am wrong, but weren't you the one that said the Rockets would never improve until they dumped him? (you went on and on about how the Bullets/Wiz got better- even though it was 5 yrs. after getting rid of him; Dallas and Denver as well- even though trading him had nothing to do with it b/c those teams were already on the up and up). I apologize if I wrongly accused you.
Juwan has had his good games lately, but if anything, this just shows that he can be packaged (maybe) and shipped out so we can get a player that better fits this team. Sorry, but there it is. I went to a game and during a timeout they had a video of Luther interviewing Hayes, and the question posed to Chuck was, "Which player is the coach's pet?" Chuck was laughing and didn't want to say, but he did respond, "Juwan Howard." And even JVG had to tell Juwan that he won't see minutes this year except in a pinch. Well, now we're in a pinch. Juwan's a class act (except when he clotheslined that guy in the playoffs a few years ago, but we all make mistakes), but his contract hurts our flexibility. Still, if he can help us in the small-ball department while Yao is out, I guess he's here, and no more "Nets have interest in Juwan" type threads.
It's all about energy. Hayes showed JHo what was missing in him and glad he quickly learned. Go Rockets.
JHo is a term of affection, not disrespectful! I for one am glad he was mature about his "demotion" at the beginning of the season and fought his way back into the starting lineup. When Chuck went down Juwan totally picked up his game and filled the void, exceeding expections that all of us had. Kudos to JHo! I am telling you people if we can just get the whole team playing consistant, and completely healed, we are going to be tough to stop! Go Rox!
"JHo is a true professional and runs like a gazelle ! " I think he took getting benched seriously and starting to produce like we all expected. I hope this keeps up for the rest of the year and more.
He has been playing better of late.......and we need him with Yao out....at least he can score the ball. DD
What matter is the net production by position. It is not "hatred" for a particular person- Power Forward is a weakness for rockets. Too much focus on someone's stats is silly without considering what the opposing teams players are doing. Here is the link from 82 games.com. Watch the net production by position at the bottom. http://www.82games.com/0607/0607HOU5.HTM We have to step up the SF and SG position net production to cover up for the PF and PG spots. Atleast at SF and SG we have personnel that can step it up. Battier has to be giving mor on the offensive side of things.
Howard is a good guy who is working hard. That and the veteran knowledge he has is what JVG likes. Pet or no pet, he was not part of the rotation when the season started. But now he is starting and handling the job OK. If he keeps up the rebounding and scoring, he is going to help a lot while Yao is out. No question about it. The question is, will he keep it up? I was so sure this season was over when Yao went down. I though Battier will step up and he has but that is not going to be enough. If Howard and Wells can step up with TMac in OK form, then maybe there is a slim chance the team will not be out of the playoff hunt when Yao returns. Now this is only 1 game so the jury is still out. If they win out the homestand, then they got something brewing.
His +/- stats are still negative, but he's playing a lot better than he was last year. Credit to him, I used to hate him profusely.
He steals ... I am glad he picks up where he left. Sorry couldn't help but Juwan is a professional and there is no question about that. I cheer for his success with the Rockets.
There is a lot to be said for veteran leadership. Its the little things that add up to make something big. For example. In the game against the spurs, in the middle of the third quarter Chuck Hayes had 4 fouls and Yao had 2. There was a close call in lane and the refs blew the whistle. Chuck Hayes was complaining that it wasn't him. They ended up calling it against Yao. Jawan Howard ran up to hayes and slapped him around. He took Hayse hand and raised it up. I'm assuming he said something to the effect of, "you got to protect our big man. If they are gonna call a foul, you raise your hand and take if for Yao." Sure enough, later in the fourth period, same type of close call foul that could have gone to either JHO or Yao, and JHO imediately raised his hand up saying that he committed the foul. Shaine Battier who was close but not close enough to foul also raised his hand, both trying to protect Yao. That comes with experience and being a team guy. On this realatively young team...We need that kind of leadership.
Another thing that could be said, was when he was having trouble shooting his 10-15 foot jump shot at the beginning of the year, he was out on the court before games when nobody else was out there and was practicing putting a little more arc on his shot. That was where his improvement has been lately. That's my observation from being at a few games earlier this month. Now if Hayes would practice his wide open layups maybe he could hit more than 50% of them. As for his salary he's making about 7M per. Not out of line for a PF in this league that gets regular minutes. So no he's not way over paid like some of you know nothings suggest. Is JHO a star.... NO, but he does give you consistent minutes and always acts like a veteran pro on the court.
I am definitely one that would trade Juwan for an upgrade. It is not how many points/rebounds etc Juwan scores, it is how many the Opposing PF puts up- and the cold facts are hard to ignore. We dominate the center position by about 11 Points- the PF leaves a hole of about 6. If there is one hole to fill this would be it. We were basically winning because of the dominant performance at center and to an extent at the SG/SF position. If we just broke even at the PF spot- or were 2 points negative, that would be a +4 improvement. Veteran ship is wonderful when the contracts are in the 1 million dollar range. Juwan and Sura occupy 10 Million +, the question to ask is what could we have done with that? I would think- a lot.
