Damien Pierce of Rockets.com when answering questions from the fans about the roster, has suggested that Howard, Hayes, Yao & Mutombo are about all we need and I interpret that we can't look forward to any improvement. I hope I am wrong about this because although Hayes is a great role player he isn't a Power Forward. Mutombo even last season did a lot of sitting on the bench and looked as though his legs would give out at any moment. Howard- enough has been said. So it looks like,once again Yao Ming will be called upon to do too many things. I am one who considers that Battier will be insufficient in the Power Forward Role and will have great difficulty defending the big time Power Forwards driving to the basket with Yao Ming infront of them. What ever happened to our determination to provide assistance under the basket?
Once again, I'm going to dispel the myth that Juwan Howard can "score." KnickerBlogger.net is a moneyball site that offers ordered rankings on a variety of stats. 181 players in the league played enough minutes to qualify for its rankings in 2006. Juwan was #99 in points per-minute and #150 in TS%. Subpar point production on downright horrible efficiency. What a scorer. Looking at 82games.com, it seems that Juwan's jumpshot is good. However, even a good jumpshot isn't as efficient as a shot in the paint, or drawing fouls and getting to the FT line. Jumpshots are inherently low percentage. Juwan was HORRIBLE, and even if the team doesn't have great PFs, it would do well just to take him off the floor. Battier loses the counterpart PER comparison by a lot less than Juwan did. He also has a huge positive effect on team performance (+/-), unlike Juwan whose +/- numbers are crap. And have you looked at anything besides simplistic per-game stats for Hayes? If his performance given more minutes is anywhere close in efficiency to his performance in the 2006 season, then Hayes is a very good player. The way I see it, the only smart use for Juwan is as a 3rd stringer at the PF position, filling in the small amount of minutes when Hayes is resting or in foul trouble, and Battier is playing his natural SF position.
I wouldn't say scoring is not what the team needs from its PF. Any way a player contributes positively to the team is a good thing. Especially on this team, which is offensively challenged. What the team needs are good players, something which Juwan obviously is not.
The only time Juwan should see the floor is when Yao is taking a breather. Yao and Juwan on the floor together is too much slow footedness. Yao and Juwan together are TERRIBLE. He should only get minutes backing up Yao.
You would expect JHo to be a "subpar scorer" since he isn't even close to the first option on this team. But the good jump shot is what is going to keep teams honest by keeping their PF near Howard at the top of the key instead of sagging off on Yao. If JHo continues to stick that 18 footer, we will be in good shape. A very large part of the reason that Hayes doesn't get more minutes is his size. He is so small at the PF position that he fouls too much to get 25 or more minutes. Nope. JHo is perfect as the PF that keeps the defense honest by nailing the 18' jumper from the top of the key. You can look at last year's stats all you want, but those stats are nearly meaningless considering they are from a season in which our two main players missed 60 games between them.
I strongly disagree. This team needs scoring from our PF because it is so offensively challenged. If we had a reliable 3rd scorer at SG or PG, fine. Since we don't, our PF must be able to hit jumpshots and punish teams that collapse on our two stars. JH is so rickety he can't do anything good right now. His jumper if off and on; mostly off.
ah moon, did you forget who started at PF on the 2nd championship run? Carl Hererra > Juwan Gene Petersen called Carl 'AMIGO', what names does Juwan have? ...JUWAN!
excellent post. we can't get rid of juwan for a major reason: he helps keep the other Western Conference Power Forwards stats up: think about it. If you are Dirk or KG or Elton Brand, and you want to raise your scoring avg up by 5 points or make Sportscenter Highlights, you are giddy for that HOU on your schedule.
Horry still played the majority of his minutes at the 3 spot in '95 with Herrera and Brown taking up the majority of minutes at 4. Besides, I am not the one who has selective amnesia about players involved in the '95 playoff run. Anyone who claims that Herrera was better than Juwan at any point in his career is a poor judge of basketball talent. How does the nickname a player has impact the game?
Carl Herrera was key to defeating the strong line up of the 1994 NY Knicks. He's a champion, which you cant label Juwan with.. "DREAM" "MAGIC" "AIR" "BIG TICKET" "ANSWER" "JESUS SHUTTLESWORTH" "I AM" "MAILMAN" "GLYDE" "MAD MAX" "THE PEARL" "JET" "FRANCHISE"
That is simply a weak weak weak argument for 1,000 reasons. Juwan Howard also has never played on team that had an MVP candidate. Virtually every championship team in the last decate or more except the Pistons had the league MVP or a top MVP candidate. Juwan never had that luxery ...Carl Herrera did. Seriously? Look, by the simple fact you added "Mailman" in your list automatically discredits everything you say.
By your logic, Steve Kerr is a VASTLY superior individual talent to John Stockton, Elgin Baylor, Allen Iverson, or Charles Barkley. Honestly, are you really so delusional as to think that Herrera was "key" to defeating the Knicks? IIRC, the keys were, in this order, Dream, Maxwell, Dream, Thorpe, Dream, Cassell, and Dream. And what has any of these nicknames done in and of themselves? Heck, four of the nickname holders on your list never even won a championship and as such aren't even as good as Carl Herrera.
Go back and watch a few of the middle game in the series in which he played remarkably well. Also go back and watch the regular season games vs. the Knicks in which Carl went off in December 1993 (6-7 for 13 points -many on hook shots and 15 boards against NYK's formidable front line) For whatever reason the Knicks simply had a hard time dealing with Herrera in particular, it was strange. I was bummed out that Rudy didn't play him more. I had a lot of trouble with Rudy's subs that series, way too short a bench, way too conservative . He needed more Cassell, more Elie & more Herrera. IMO it nearly cost us the series.
Sam, is it just me or did you actually agree with tinman. First Yetti and now this. I guess the world really is coming to an end.
I don't mind agreeing with tinman, it's jsut that when he wears that coca-cola shirt and the acid-washed 501 roll-ups and his Reebok Hi-tops I get a bit embarrassed to be seen with him in public.
Dude, we won. How do you argue with success? For all you know, more Cassell, Elie and Herrara could have COST us the series for some currently unknown reasons. It is a pointless and inarguable point since ...we won. The degree by which you win isn't important. All that matters is W's and L's.
I remember that game and the way Hererra played in it. However, saying that Herrera was the "key" to us beating the Knicks downgrades the contributions of the TRUE keys to that series who were Dream, Mad Max, OT, and Sam I Am. I would accept it if tinman said that Hererra was A key in the middle game in the series, but he claimed that Hererra "was key" to beating the Knicks, which I just don't buy.
Oh I agree that it is all water under the bridge now, and I am not arguing it, but at the time I felt we were a much better team than the Knicks than the razor-thin margin of the series showed. I was disappointed how we let the Knicks dictate the pace and tempo into their ugly, grind-it-out style which gave us a bad rap as an incompetent offensive team in the eyes of the national audience. Hell even on this message board certain fans will try to remind you how lousy the 1994 team was on offense and re-invent history to suit that view; not the case, they scored 101 ppg and were in the top 10 scoring in the league.
