you also were sweating spanoulis' nuts for decades, who was the last man at the SG position and the worst player on the team last year. Are you now saying Spanoulis should have been cut instead of Azubuike?
Not at all, as you know I like to keep players with potential good upside (V-Span included), and IMO he should have been on the 15 man roster last year. I can't remember who we kept over Jacosben and him, but I wanted him kept. DD
Honestly, we had Sura's contract or Scotty P's that we could have swallowed to keep Buike. Instead we kept Scott because he was familiar with JVG's system and Sura's contract to use as trade bait. Hence allowing Buike to go back down to the NBDL and average like 25 points a game and get picked up by GS. Don't get me wrong, part of his success out there is because of style, but he is a decent defensive player too, so JVG could have used him shooting on the perimeter. (he can create for himself, but I doubt JVG would have let him)
Thosre are exactly the two players I mentioned about keeping him as well. All though I understand they held out hope with Sura.... I just thought that the team needed athleticism to get better and to let him go when he could have been possibly developed was not a good move. The Rockets have not been doing as good a job as the Mavs and Spurs at having young (Unknown) guys develop and come in and join the rotation. The only notable exception would be Chuck Hayes..... I was hoping Mike Harris would be this year's developmental player....IMO he is better than Novak or Landry... DD
Padgett played PF. He was eventually replaced by Tsaklidis. We had no backup C's and F's last year aside from an injured Yao, an ancient Deke, and the Hayes Howard abomination (and the ubiquitous novak) Here is the rockets shooting guard depth chart from last season 1. McGrady 2. Head 3. Wells 4. Snyder 5. Spanoulis If you were 5 deep at shooting guard, and 2 deep at center and at PF (3 if you count novak)- do you keep a 6th shooting guard or a center/pf The roster is 15 men, not 16 men.
McGrady and Wells are also small forwards and Spanolis was a PG. They could have kept him the team could use athletic swing men. Oh well.....we can't keep em all but Azubuike is a nice player. DD
his game has really come around over the last 2 years. If i remember, the rockets really liked him but he was just a casualty of cutting. I never felt easy about letting him go because he is a great athlete and so young but ehhhh...it happens. Didn't tubby smith say one time that he "looks like tarzan, but plays like jane?"
did you watch any of the preseason games in which he played in when he was with the rockets? he had a terrible jumper, and couldn't convert when teams would leave him open on the wing. he easily looked like one of the worst players on the team at the time. plus, since he had a non guaranteed contract, it was a no brainer to cut him. under no circumstances could you have made a good case to keep him on the team last year.
I know right. He totally messed up Yao by turning him into a low post monster. Imagine if he was never our coach, Yao would be playing the high post to perfection! He would have became the Next Vlade Divac. Damn that JVG!
not only taht, but instead of giving the backup SG minutes to the 6th-string shooting guard like Azubuike, he handed them to grizzled veteran luther head.
Scott Padgett was probably the only realistic one who could have been cut last year in favor of Azubuike: 1. Yao 2. McGrady 3. Battier 4. Alston 5. Hayes 6. Howard 7. Head 8. Wells 9. Snyder 10. Mutombo 11. Novak 12. Spanoulis 13. Lucas III 14. Padgett 15. (Sura) I believe all those players had guaranteed contracts other other than Padgett. And the idea was we should have a PF who could space the floor with the 3-point shot. Novak was a huge question mark, it wasn't clear how much Battier would play at PF, and we were familiar with Padgett. Azubuike would have been nice to keep. He tore it up in summer league play. But we don't know how well he played in training camp, and he really didn't show much in the preseason games. And here's a crazy idea: maybe he actually improved since he was with the Rockets.
Exactly... this is just another case of perfect hind-sight. I don't remember a single positive word about KA when we had him. The kid averaged 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in the pre-season, and had a non-guaranteed contract. Kirk played well enough to be our starter at the beginning of the season, and had a guaranteed contract. Tough choice.
JVG hates rookies. They make mistakes. Mistakes turn into lost opportunities and points for the other team. Hence Losses. Which in turn leads to Jeff losing his job. Oh wait...he did lose his job. Guess Jeffy shoulda played those rookies a bit more.
