I hate to say it, but I think the Rockets would have made it into the playoffs if they hadn't traded Kenny. I know its more of a trade for the future, but with 15 and 10 each night out of Kenny from the 4 spot, we wouldn't be talking about how or PF position is the worst on this team. Plus, we would have had a chance to see Boki play some more when Glen went out this year. It would have been interesting to see what he could have done.
Who would have sat? KT? EG? MoT and his O off the bench? What about systems? KT benefits from the Iverson focus while Rox falter due to their (lack of) system. KT is in a good situation for him. Good for him. It is not a parallel situation to Rox.
I like Kenny. He is in a good place now in the EAST where the power forwards there are not as rugged as in the West. Quite frankly I expected Kenny's play to be better in the East. Kenny's performance last night was not to surprising given the fact that the Celtics suck and chuck up more shots than anyone. Talk about a rebound fest!
It's true he's in a good situation and individual games can be explained by Eastern match-ups. But still, his play put him in that good situation. Kenny has improved. Brown is starting to use him in a manner than keeps him near the rim. He is averaging 13 rebounds in this 10 game streak. He is shooting 58% over two months. Those numbers can't be explained away by just saying he's in a good situation. Look how many SF and PFs Philly has getting minutes: Van Horn, Coleman, Hill, McKie, Skinner, Williams and Buckner. I know they have nagging injuries, but Kenny has had a thumb injury with us on the great block of Grant Hill's tomahawk slam attempt, a 5-day stint on IR for thigh bruise, a broken nose, and ankle sprain that missed 2 games. He just keeps grabbing him minutes back, and in that type of 76er depth. No matter how you slice it, Brown and the Philly papers and TNT are saying he is becoming their 2nd best player. That's because Philly fans and Brown give rebounding and defense much more credit that we seem to here in Houston. Key to what Kenny does. Notice how he is always on his toes, even when coming down court. He is one of the quickest players off his feet I've seen in awhile.
You could say that except for the fact that he was playing great as a Rocket too. As for your question, obviously Griffin would sit. His rebounding that Taylor doesn't provide could be provided by Thomas. His only unique skill, shotblocking, he doesn't even provide anymore. I think it is obvious we'd be in the playoffs had we kept him. But, we weren't making that trade to help us this year anyway -- at least, I hope we weren't.
I agree. It has been mentioned before that if the Rockets wanted to look short term and to get into the playoffs this year they could have traded Griffin for Rashard Lewis and kept Kenny. But the Rockets are building for the LONG TERM and feel that Griffin is a building block at the 4 spot and that they can find a 3 themselves (perhaps Nachbar). Missing the playoffs this year with the unit they have now is the gamble they are making to have a championship level team in a few years. As much as this team is banking on Yao Ming and Francis' development, Griffin's development is just about as big!
It is no sure thing that had we not pulled that trade we would be in the playoffs. While KT has definetly improved the 6ers and would be a valuable PF for us--without pulling this trade Tmo and Hawkins would have had to gobble up a lot more 3 and back-up 2 minutes, especially when Rice was down. What we would gain by having KT at the 4 (if done at the expense of Griff's not MoT minutes) we might just as well lose in the extra minutes Tmo and Hawkins would have had to play over that stretch. Now if Griffin and not KT was traded while we added a contributing 3/2, yes for sure we would be in the playoffs. (The Lewis deal looks great now, though Posey+ like a extra 8-15 range pick wouldn't look too bad right now either)
He's a lot better than Griffin or Mo, that's for sure. Remember, Kenny won the starting job when he was here.
Has anyone considered that without Posey, Rice would have to play a whole lotta minutes. out the window goes what little semblance of perimeter defense we have.
KT would NOT be doing this with the Rockets. He's in the East, where a half decent PF (which KT is) can do some damage. KT will get a bigger contract than he really should this summer. Congrats to the sucker who overpays for him.
Yeah, like Shareef is getting 10 rpg like he did in the West, or the mighty Kenyon Martin with his 6 boards. Kurt Thomas isn't even rebounding on par with Kenny in the East. The East might not have great hall-of-fame PFs, but only O'Neal and Wallace are rebounding like Kenny, right now. Kenny's no star, but even the stars in the East aren't doing some of the things he's doing, much less the plethora of "half decent PFs" in the East that you seem to be comparing him to. You make it sound like he is just a 10/8. It's looks like he is making a bigger statement. I defy anyone to find someone in East (other than O'Neal) who had an 11-game stretch this year putting up 14 pts and 13. And his 58% shooting over 2 months like this happens all the time. Kenny is playing the 3 as much as the 4. His rebounding is becoming as similar to Marion as well as improving at a PF. Kenny could mop up the SFs in the West, if Eddie just could have demanded the attention of a PF. It doesn't matter what you think of his offense, the guy was our best defender by far, and we were winning on defense.
I cannot agree. Kenny is not that good, not that impactful. The Rox' guards determine the fate of each game. Really. Think about that.
More surprising then KT's play since he left, to me, is Mo Taylor's play. Two seasons ago Mo was a solid scorer, a horrible rebounder, a decent post defender and a passer. This year, he is none of those things, although he scores proficiently as everytime he gets the ball he is 100% focused on scoring. I give heypartner some credit in possibly noticing some talents in KT that others didn't (heypee was always backing KT strong in the day). However, I still argue that KT's play with the Sixers isn't the same as it is here. The system here is so selfish that KT's game became just that...very selfish. As much as I see the stats Kt is putting up and think, pretty good, I still can't get that remeberance of KT's selfish attitude. In retrospect, it is definitely a product of the system, but that is the system that is here, and until that changes, KT's game here wouldn't have changed. The fact that the two PF's we kept are soo bad, and, increasingly selfish themselves, makes it seem even worse.
