Well said, I think people want to dump him just because he isn't more than acceptable...and that is the point
This is just great....Juwan Howard being compared to Al Harrington. Do you watch NBA games? Anyways....looks like Harrington averages almost 19/7/3 with a steal a game. Please compare Juwan Howard to scrubs and leave it at that.
It isn't like we traded to get JHow ...he came with TMac. We dumped Cato and got JHow. Personally, I think that's an improvement. Oh, and we got TMac. The good outweights the bad. If TMac and Yao play to their potential (I'll use YOUR wording), then we can win DESPITE Howard. If TMac and Yao don't play to their potential, Juwan Howard is a non-issue since we'll be lottery bound anyway. But since you find him "unacceptable" I presume that means you are boycotting the Rockets until he is traded or retired. So don't let the door hit you on the way out.
What? Now you're totally making up straw man arguments. I want you to compare him to his peers (other starting PF's in the NBA who play a lot of minutes). He comes in in the bottom 10% of every relevant measure, and not only that, I think he's the worst one. I know it gives you great solace that he has higher raw ppg than Ryan Bowen or Earl Boykins; me I don't find that particularly relevant. Al Harrington I agree is overrated and soon to be overpaid, but you totally whiffed on his capablities and shaved a whole digit off his averages. He didn't score 9 ppg, He nearly scored 19 ppg this year, at a higher efficiency level than Juwan. He scored 7 more points, every single night and only played 4 more minutes than Howard. Now, I'm not going to sit back and say Harrington is awesome. At best, he is the player Howard once was; which is far better than the player he is now. So if the best you got is a fictional Harrington (minus 10 points a night) - maybe I shoudl add that to my list of excuses. Chuck Hayes is a better deal, and he's not even good. Again, you fail to comprehend how truly bad Howard is and how much worse the Rockets are when he is on the court as the evidence indicates. This has been true for two years now, regardless of whether or not you choose to see it. You think he's acceptable, fine, but I'll be frank, if that's based on his numbers from the last two seasons, then that's just wrong. Please, Krosfyah, you don't need to sink to this. It's because I'm a Rockets fan I don't want Howard around dragging our team down; you seem to have the opposite reaction. As for the fact that JUwan's lousiness might eventually not matter - I agree, but that's no excuse for keeping him around.
Most of those guys are stars or borderline stars, the rest above average players. I challenge you to explain how Juwan is better than any one of those guys. No it doesn't. Those were just guys off the top of my head, without even bothering to spend more than a minute looking at the numbers. Yeah, stupid per-game numbers are the way to go. Gooden did that in 4.2 mpg less than Howard, and on much better efficiency. His TS% of 0.552 puts him in in amost the top third of the league, while Howard's lousy TS% is in the bottom 20%. Gooden's rebounding percentage is terrific and probably top 10, while Howard's puts him in the bottom 10 among big men. Oh please. Boozer is a good player, and has been since he entered the league. T-Mac was injured for half the year, does that make him not clearly better than Juwan? 82games.com says Okur spent the majority of his time at PF. So? As I showed, the Heat had four 15+ PER players, and the Lakers had Glen Rice in their first championship year. The other two Lakers teams were clearly star driven, but one of their stars was prime Shaq, and absolute monster (a lot better than T-Mac or Yao right now). Those Laker teams seem to defy the trend, not define it. You need a good team to win the championship, and Juwan has been identified as a problem area that can be easily corrected (by benching him and letting Battier and Hayes play more). Have you even been reading my posts? You don't need a trade, just play Hayes more.
It just looks ugly. Amare vs. Hayes KG vs. Hayes Elton Brand vs. Hayes Niwitzki vs Hayes Tim Duncan vs Hayes But then again if you put Howard instead of Hayes there is not much of a difference.
i watched almost every one of them. did you see juwan stick it enough to force the defense to change or did they continue to dare him? i don't ever remember the defense being forced to call timeout and make an "adjustment" to juwan's hot shooting. more often than not, the rox would make a run behind juwan hitting 3 of 4, then he'd go on to miss the next 4 of 5. run over. btw, pool is one of my strengths, but i can't play with willie mosconi.
As for Juwan "sticking the jumper" Let's not get totally ahead of ourselves. Howard is average or above average at jumpshooting, but he is not Larry Bird. Juwan's "consistent" J hit with an eFG of 43% this year. For context, the top jumpshooting PF's like Garnett and Brand (who get a lot fewer open shots than Howard hit 47% of their jumpers. Dirk hits 49%. Rasheed Wallace had 48% on jumpers. Nenad Krstic also hits at 47%. Vladimir Radmanovic hit 56%. Brian cook nailed 53%, though I think 3ptrs factored significantly into the eFG numbers for the some of these players (not Garnett and Brand though). David West hit 47%. Raef LaFrentz, due to his 3 point shooting, hit 54% on jumpers. Al Harrington, the heir apparent to Howard's legacy of being grossly overpaid, hit 41% Drew Gooden, another comparable player, hit 42%. Francisco Elson had 43% Channing Frye hits 42%. Chris Bosh hits 44% of jumpers. Udonis Haslem, no marksman, hit 41%. Charlie Villanueva 42%. Chris Wilcox 41% Troy Murphy 40%. Brian Scalabrine 44% eFG on jumpers. Shawn Marion 43%. Bad jumpshooters like Chuck Hayes hit 37%. . Duncan wasn't very good last year at 36%, nor was Gasol, who checked in at 37%, as did Chris Webber and Marvin Williams. Abysmal jumpshooters like Dwight Howard hit only 27% So it's fair to say that Howard is average, or even above average in this department. he's not deadeye (despite getting lots of open looks) but he's no brick mason either. That of course is not where it ends. My question is : is his adequate to above average performance in this area worth the liabilities he is in other areas? By and large, all of the players I listed above can do other things, such as: score in other ways (hence their greater efficiency at doing so), play defense or rebound. Howard, meanwhile, simply cannot. The evidence suggests that his value in this area is almost completely outweighed by his incompetence in other areas; he's a bad rebounder and always has been; not a good man defender, not a good help defender, not good at creating turnovers, not a great passer, can't score inside, can't shoot from range, can't run a break - and it shows.
What are you suggesting? 1. We flat out release Juwan Howard and get nothing in return? 2. Or we keep Juwan Howard and we are guarenteed to not make the playoffs. Are those your two contributions to this thread? Lets hear it. What is your contribution other than being a crybaby about Juwan. All I know is this: TMac + Howard >>>>>>>> Francis + Cato So if TMac plays to his potential ...IMO, we can win with Howard. If that happens, then I'm happy with Juwan Howard because with him came TMac. Juwan Howard is untradable, dude. Just accept that and move on.
Either buy him out and release him or bench him, as long as long as he is not on the court, the Rockets are better off. That's my solution. Your solution apparently is to gamely accept his crappiness. Thankfully Morey is around and this time next year I doubt we'll be having this conversation if Les sides with him.
But then what would happen if Chuck Hayes, who some seem to believe is more starters material, took those shots. I think the key for starters is being somewhat well rounded, not if they do one thing well. Bench role players can be speciality role players (Hayes with reboudning and hustle, Novak with the 3 ball), but you want your starters through 6th or 7th man to be more than speciality players. Wait a second. I completely agree with you, except the last part. I think Battier should be our primary PF. I also agree it is largely dependent on Snyder playing well, because you want bring as much size/length as you can in guards if you go with the preffered mode of Battier and Tmac in forward spots. Basically I think Howard will only start and close if Tmac is forced to play the SG. But that doesn't mean Howard isn't valuable as an alternate PF to Battier to bigger, power, PFs (e.g., encountering Brand/Duncan), and that Howard isn't valuable as a back-up center. Yao and Deke can't cover all the C minutes, and Howard is our 3rd center and mybe 2nd center for the times we need O (instead of Deke). I don't want him starting or closing most of the time, but see him as a valueable rotation player. So am I a defender of JHo or not, I am not sure. But the same general principal is true for Alston, and maybe worse. We also don't know how Snyder will fit, two teams already threw him away for almost nada. As of now we have only 3 for sure quality starters (Yao, Battier and Tmac) and they will cover the C spot and either the PF and SF OR the SF and SG spot. Personally I feel shakier about Alston than Howard, but both are shaky if they are your starters, both are bottom 1/4 (maybe bottom 8th) starting players at their positions, and whether Synder, JL3, Head or VSpan make starting quality players are unknowns too. Finally, IMO it is much easier to upgrade your guard spots than it is at PF. I we are much more likely to go and end the season with Battier/Howard/Hayes in the mix at PF than what we have at the guard spots. It will be nice if we can afford to have Howard on the bench--he could be an above average bench player.
So what do you think the odds are that the Rockets are going to come around to your point of view and release Juwan Howard citing that doing so is a good idea.
Hayes would not take that jumper. He'd give the ball up to McGrady and get his ... down to the rim to rebound. That makes us a more efficient team. McGrady getting Juwan's shots and Hayes on the glass.
You'll brook no argument from me, DS; they are both serious problems and should be excised or at least relegated, IMO. This season? Low, JVG likes to play favorites, that's why Bowen still has a job in the NBA. Next season? It depends on how much rein Les gives Morey and can accept the ego blow of paying Howard to do nothing (rather than paying him to drag us down like he does now).
It won't EVER happen. Give it up. Juwan is still producing, and it seems like he will keep it up for the next couple of years. Even if it is not up to par with your "expectations" he will not be released. The only vets with big contracts that you see being released are the extremely old and washed up ones (Antonio Davis, Penny Hardaway, Vin Baker), or the ones that have career ending injuries (Alvin Williams). I'm not a fan of Juwan either, and would like to see a better alternative at PF. However, suggesting that they flat out release him is utterly ridiculous, Morey or not. Benching him is a more reasonable option, but Battier is not really a PF and Hayes is still raw, so it is not a good option. The Rockets are stuck with Juwan for the time being, and there really is no alternative.
Am I the only one who checkes this board every couple of hours to see if Juwan has been traded? That stupid LA rumor got my hopes up.
