IF? I like Feigen's writing alot, but that's just out of left field that smacks of more 'everything's fine'. I like what the Rockets have started doing, but they're not done. If the Rockets think they're fine at power forward by simply signing Hayes, they are abso-frickin-lutely nutso.
Nash's first two years: 96-97 MPG 3.8 APG 0.3 PPG 1.3 97-98 MPG 12.8 APG 1.8 PPG 5.5 V-Span: 06-07 MPG 8.8 APG 0.9 PPG 2.7 Nash was not the burner he is now at the beginning of his career.
Starting five?: PG James SG Wells SF TMac PF Battier C Yao Also - Feigan throws water on the Artest trade rumors: Rod, If the Rockets got Artest, they would become a solid Western Conference contender, unless and unitl he blows up and takes half a season with him. The Pacers were a 60-win team when he was going well, trash since. There was a time the Rockets were willing to risk Vernon Maxwell, but grew tired of him holding them for ransom. I have been told by people I trust that the Rockets have not spoken to the Kings at all about him. Talented as he is, that's not a surprise. Jonathan
Feigan said he bases his opinion on conversations with managment... My guess is managment fed him a story about that. They don't want to reveal their thinking too early and probably don't want other teams to perceive them as "desperately looking for a PF" and try to take advantage of that. Managment has been active this offseason, and I doubt they are quite satisfied. Battier at the 4 is a part-time solution at best. Chuck Hayes is liable to foul out in 20 minutes. There is plenty to do. They may not get a star (given none is really available), but they'll probably do something.
Dead on. Feigen is the mouthpeice of the Rockets. He'll tow the company line and put out any fires that may be revealing what the team is actually thinking. Nothing he reports is worth reading. I'm sure they've discussed Artest and even more sure they're not delusional enough to consider heading into next year with Battier and Hayes as their power forwards.
One way to tell how 'guardable' a guy is, is his minutes per foul attempt. The main reason the guy's fouled is because his defender couldn't keep up. Here are some minutes per foul attempt last year for some of the more 'unguardable' point guards, plus Alston, James and Ginobili. 17.1 Alston 10.9 Nash 10.0 Deron Williams 8.7 Mike James (his best year in Toronto) 7.1 Tony Parker 6.6 Chris Paul 6.5 Spanoulis 5.8 Chauncey Billups (8.3 his first year) 5.5 Ginobili (8.4 his first year) 3.6 Wade (6.8 his first year) Potential guys, it's potential. JVG was incapable of turning potential into points. Adelman is. I would assume one reason Spanoulis is leaving the Rockets hanging while in Greece is to discourage them from trading him (no one's going to trade for him if he isn't committed to returning to the U.S.), but I would also hope the Rockets are wise enough to recognize talent when they have it, and keep it while the trade value is low.
Some interesting answers to questions: http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/06/of_bonzi_shane_and_whats_next.html
Will you and other people please get off that? It must be the drugs or something. Probably 1,000 players have had similar stats to Nash's first two years and almost all of them amounted to absolutely nothing in the NBA. There is only one Steve Nash and the odds of V-Span being comparable to him are nil. Those of you who cite Nash's rookie numbers to pump up V-Span need to detox. You can't turn wood into gold.
1. "Rockets have not talked to Kings about Artest" probably translates to "They have thought about it and discussed internally, but have not commenced formal negotiations." 2. "Not in a panic mode after trading Juwan" translates to "Fellow GMs, please do not call us offering your overpaid/underskilled/team cancer PFs in the believe that we are desperate to fill that spot."
nice translation. 1. the report of them asking about artest was to see what the kings would want in return. the price was low, and so the rockets probably put things on hold until the draft. is there an artest trade? no. can there be one in the future? yes. 2. you got it right on the nose. the rockets are by no means desperate for a PF. hayes can take up 24 minutes there. the team still has tradable assets (billy, snyder, lucas, #26, head, rafer, shane) which they can use to find a PF good enough to play the other 24 minutes.
That pretty much sums up what I just read. You might also paraphrase it as, "We suck, but let's try the same thing next year and see what happens again."
I'm not going to even suggest Spanoulis would ever be a 2 time MVP. However from watching him in Europe and international play, no one reminds me more of Steve Nash than Spanoulis. I honestly have no clue in the world why he wasn't played more by coach Van Gundy. But there is absolutely no doubt in my mind whatsoever that he is already a better player than Kirk Snyder, John Lucas, and Luther Head. I also feel that if he would have just gotten more playing time early on, that by the end of the year he would have been already as a rookie better than Rafer Alston a veteran pg. All I am saying is that barring the name Steve Nash from even being an issue on the subject, Spanoulis is talented indeed. He's got more upside than Mike James IMO easily. I've seen him make plays that I don't even think McGrady could make.
Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'll give you a clue on why he didn't play more last season: He stunk. Also keep in mind the NBA isn't Europe and if V-Span doesn't learn to shoot the ball decently, his upside is very low. He must get a lot better or he won't amount to anything in the NBA. Next season I hope we see this potential you speak of.
A3P0, surely you can be a little more analytical than that. To say he stunk and leave it at that would imply that he did nothing good and that is just a flat out lie. VSpan is already a better defender than Rafer could ever hope to be and better than he has ever been. VSpan appears to be able to get to the basket and finish better than Rafer right now. We saw early last season that VSpan is capable of making some great passes and really doing some good things as a point guard. Unfortunately the two items that clearly killed VSpan with JVG was his lack of an outside shot and the turnovers. You know its true. Lets face it...Spanoulis was never going to have a great outside shot last season but he might have been able to get his turnovers under control. Now lets see if he has progress on his outside shot during the off season. But more importantly lets see if Adelman figure out how to use his talents driving to the basket and creating shots for his teammates.
"Stunk" summarizes it very well IMO and doesn't mean he did zero good the entire season, though that's what happened in several of his games. V-Span's defense didn't seem all that great to me and saying it's better than Rafer's doesn't mean much because his TOs and shooting killed his game. To me, V-Span's passing is very intriguing and I want him to get some court time so we can see more of it. He sees things most player's don't see but must become more aware of what passes work and what won't. If he's still on the team, I'm curious to see how much he improves and how Adelman's tries to use him.
