I'm taking a wait and see approach. After not being able to sniff the court last season I'm skeptical but you never know, especially with the injury to Yao and Deke (not that he'd be back anyway) and our lack of depth at the Center spot. I'd say best case for this year he's 10th or 11th player on the chart and good against teams where we need an extra 6 fouls on their bigs. Lack of BBIQ and offensive skills will keep him from much more than that I'm afraid. Prove me wrong Dorsey!!!
Summer League All-Star Team: PG: John Lucas SG: Dan Langhi SF: Steve Novak PF: Malick Badiane C: Joey Dorsey I don't know why people get worked up over summer league...it's fun, but by no means does it translate to any success in the regular season.
Here's the troubling stat for me: Chuck Hayes: 6' 5.5" w/o shoes 6' 6.75" w/ shoes 6'10" wingspan Joey Dorsey: 6' 6.25" w/o shoes 6' 7.25" w/ shoes 7'1.75" wingspan Trevor Ariza: 6' 7" w/o shoes 6' 8.25" w/ shoes 7' 2" wingspan Shane Battier: 6' 8.25" w/o shoes 6' 9.5" w/ shoes 6' 10.5" wingspan Luis Scola: 6'9" w/ shoes (never measured in a pre-draft camp) All possible centers on our team this year are on track to be the fourth-tallest player in our starting lineup!
Hmm I'll tackle these points one by one 1. Dorsey has never been an offensive player I believe his career PPG at memphis was around 6-7 points per game, many of those came off of dunks and put backs. That Memphis team relied on others to score and you can do that in the college game, not necessarily in the nba. Dorsey has improved in some areas but you do not go from having no offensive game to having an NBA level offensive game in one season. If you think about it many of these nba players have been playing basketball for years and working on their offensive game I wouldnt be surprised at all if Joey worked very little on offense at Memphis. I am not sure what you expected of him when it came to offense. His free throw shooting has improved though, quite a bit he changed his entire shooting motion so he is putting in the hard work that is needed to improve his game. I dont think Joey will ever be more than a 8-10ppg scorer in the NBA and thats on the generous side. 2. He has been running the floor but a lot of times he is the guy getting the rebound is furthest away from the basket. Whenever the guards got the rebound he would run down, but at least in the first 3 games you can run the floor all day and night but if the guards do not pass you the ball then its pointless, also running the floor to establish low post position wouldnt work for him either since he has little to no offensive game. There were times when he did run the floor and could have gotten a pass for a layup/dunk but the pass was never made the PGs on the rockets summer league team hardly look up for the quick score. A lot of this could have been because whenever Joey was in the game the team would run more half court sets on purpose using him as the screener/rub man in the high post. When gaines/watkins/benson was in the team would abandon the half courts more so they were more of a transition team. This was not because of Joey's lack of wanting to run the floor but because he actually knew the offense better than the other centers (he was with the team for a year) and it was good experience for him and the rookies to run a half court offense. 3. the teams we played do NOT have smaller guys I do not know where you get that from. Joey has been overmatched on defense every single game he is 6'9 and is still out rebounding these guys like crazy. the Warriors team had Davidson start he is 6'10 and Randolph who is closer to 7 feet now. Joey outweighs them both but both are athletic guys who are tall. The mavs team had Aboya and Nivin's both of whom are about the same size as Dorsey around 6'9, 6'10 the wolves team had a guy that was about 7 foot 300 pounds that was just throwing joey around underneath but he still got all those rebounds. Joey hardly got any "juwan" rebounds a lot of his rebounds were in traffic where he was going up against 2 guys but he we would still come away with the ball. He got the most rebounds by far on the team not because the other guys decided to let him have boards but mainly because the other guys were not decent rebounders and were getting killed themselves by bigger people. The main rotation players for the rockets in the front court were all around 6'7 to 6'9. Joey was having to clean up for their lack of rebounding as well. I am not trying to put you down but I have no clue where you are getting this idea that Dorsey was not working hard for his rebounds or that he was stealing rebounds from teammates..maybe 1-2 per game at most since that usually occurs but the most part he was being man down there either going up against bigger guys or multiple guys on the defensive glass. Daryl Morey even said that the team's rebounding and paint presence disappears when Dorsey goes to the bench...There is a reason why the other centers on the team hardly play because while they are taller than joey they dont play defense bigger than him.
This is why the most immediate need is a center. Morey has said that He will get the team's center via trade. There are 3 more months till the start of the training camp so there is still time to get that prestigious center,
I don't think I questioned his effort ever. I just get the definite impression from the games that the team is differing to him in the paint to get boards. Obviously you don't get 14 rebounds a game because they just fall to you, and I'm not doubting his strength and rebounding efforts. I just think a huge difference between the summer league and NBA is people are there working on specific things, not trying to win first. Dorsey, defensively, is clearly focused on rebounding. It does not seem that many other players on the team, especially ones on the floor with Dorsey, have this focus. I think that is part of why Morey said this about the paint presence going away. Morey has talked before about how he doesnt think just defensive or offensive rebounds are good stats because you are very often getting a rebound from a teammate not necessarily the other team so he measures other things. I would think that is especially true here when the competition from teammates is diminished. I do think it is great that he can get rebounds over bigger guys, but at his height and position he would have to or he'd be useless. We knew this already about him. My point is, this isn't a step forward in rebounding for him. He did this last year, and coaches agreed he wasn't ready to contribute. Nobody is arguing he isn't a good rebounder. I'm just saying I dont think 13 in the summer league when your basically the only good rebounder on your team means you are going to do anywhere near that in the NBA. He might. I hope he does. I'm just not taking the summer league as much of an indicator or sign of improvement.
Are the Rockets in the market for a center to complement Dorsey, or replace him? A guy like Gortat would be doing the same things as Dorsey, while Andersen would even be able to play alongside Dorsey (their games compliment one another's so well). Obviously the Rockets are looking for more length at the 5, but what else?
Rebounds in any league that high are still rebounds. Minus alot of fouls. Granted he gives you the occasional bad foul, but I dont think he will be in the game in the late fourth quarter anyways with his free throw issues. I think he would be a better offensively skilled Hayes with more rebounds less steals and more blocks but overall less a defensive presence of Hayes. However we may be able to guard more people than Hayes because he is taller, longer, stronger, more physical, and more athletic. That is what we will need if we dont have a 7 footer to go against the bigger Centers. Also if Hayes misses 5 layups a game I am sure people will want to see Dorsey in the game with a chance to dunk the ball instead.
I said this last year. Dorsey has a NBA body. He is a man among boys in the summer league. The question is if he can be productive when everyone is as big and strong as him.
When Dorsey was drafted, the "experts" were calling Doresy a Ben Wallace clone. IF thats was the case then the rockets knew what they were getting, so I dunno why they keep trying to make him get better on offense when wallance never was at it. Ben when he was in his prime and didn't tank after he got his payday, averaged like 30 -35 mins. Anybody averageing those kind of mins can average 6- 10 points a game. So if the Rockets think Dorsey can produce while playing only 10 15 mins a game then, they are mistaken. Dorsey excels at two things. Rebounding and blocks.
