All the people who said the Juwan Howard going down was no bid deal, can see the difference in our offense. We don't get anything offensively at the PF spot. JHo was a nice third option on offense and his overall shooting, passing and knowledge of the system made our offense a whole lot smoother. He didn't committ turnovers like Spoon and he has offense that no other PF on our team possesses. Padgett is in a funk right now, because unlike JHo he has to rely on the outside jumper. JHo rarely has bad nights because he is a nice passer or he can score in the post. He stretches the defense with his outside jumper. He is also bigger and more imposing than our other PF's. He was a doing a good job rebounding as well. Spoon dosn't command any attention whatsoever offensively which makes it harder for Mac and Yao to be as effective. Spoon will be nice coming off the bench. There is a reson Juwan was a starter. He is an important piece of the puzzle.
big impact on Yao. Yao been doubled-T after JH went down and now we purely reply on outside plus DEKE/YAO defense
I think they will be fine without Howard - although I can't speak on his "clubhouse leadership" that being said - if you people think the Rockets need Howard then I would suggest that Howard need to make sure he brings this:
Opposing teams don't have to worry about the PF position anymore without him, and he was playing good defense for the first time in his career. Some people won't believe that but you can't have a top three defensive team without good defense from every position, especially if they're starting and in the front court. Behind the scenes I think Juwon went through some soul searching while he was on the DNPCD list for a good part of the season. He probably thought he deserved to be a big part of the offense and he didn't need to give up that part of his game or play defense so JVG wouldn't play him. Then he understood what the team needed from him to win and accepted that scoring was not one of those things. The Rockets only needed some defense, rebounding, pick setting and for him to defer to Yao on offense taking some leftover shots, which was usually open jumpers from a pick and pop from T-Mac or putbacks. In the end talent is talent, he's the Rockets best option at power forward and like macfan said, he's an important piece of the puzzle.
JH can make that mid-range jumper that comes with the double team on Yao, that opens up a lot of options on offense.
i say we need him. He can hit the midrange J. He rebounds for us. He gives us another lowpost presence. Weatherspoon can hit the J (lol after his shaky start of 2 consecutive airballs) and he can rebound but he's just way too undersized. When he helps on defense while yao covers the pick and roll, the opposing center just shoots right over the top. And right now, he hardly ever gets the benefits of the calls. I have seen alot of calls go against him. And he kind of stagnates the offense too not because he holds it for too long but he just can't pass or create the way Juan can sometimes.
Of course we need him. The Rockets can win regular season games without Juwan, but he'll need to be there in the playoffs for the team to have any shot.
Depends on what Juwan you're talking about....the one who makes his shots and rebounds or the one who doesn't.
