If Los wasn't always hurt, he would be a good player and an important part, as it is, he's the 3rd string here. ------------------ Founder and President of the Houston Homers Club(HHC) - Are you a homer? Join now! The Rockets will be NBA champions. Believe.
I could never figure why he was 3rd string to begin with. I thought he'd get more of Bull's and Walt's minutes. I'd have played him ahead over Cato sometimes. I vividly remember thinking "Anyone could play better D than Cato's playing tonight". <pre><font face="courier"> FGM-A FG% 75-110 .682 </font></pre> 68.2% from the floor. All dunks, ally-oops, putbacks, tips
Because you can't trust the first or second string to a player that may only play 40-50 games a year unless there is a huge drop-off in talent behind him, he's never gotten more than 24 minutes a game or played more than 56 games in a season. He's too injury prone to be consistently in the rotation. When he plays he plays well and hustles, but he can't play often. ------------------ Founder and President of the Houston Homers Club(HHC) - Are you a homer? Join now! The Rockets will be NBA champions. Believe. [This message has been edited by Puedlfor (edited April 26, 2001).]
What injuries did Los have? The only injuries I remember him having were fake ones ala Langhi's early season IR injuries. I'm not sure injuries can explain it all. I think the Rocket's didn't see him in their future plans, so they decided to try and develop the player they were stuck with longterm (Cato). ------------------
Those fake injuries that players often get so they can be stashed on the IR(like tendonitis) - Carlos actually gets those. He got pink eye this year. Pink eye. ------------------ Founder and President of the Houston Homers Club(HHC) - Are you a homer? Join now! The Rockets will be NBA champions. Believe.
Puedlfor, you say he's not in the rotation because he's injury prone and that he's injury prone because of fake injuries like pink eye? Why does he get "fake" injuries so often?
You misunderstand my point. The injuries that teams use to stash player on the injured list, the ones they fake for that player - Carlos actually gets those, those aren't faked. Its been that way for his entire career. ------------------ Founder and President of the Houston Homers Club(HHC) - Are you a homer? Join now! The Rockets will be NBA champions. Believe.
Why put a player into the line-up and incorporate him into the game plan when you can't count on him very often? Unless there is a big dropoff in talent behind Carlos, and there isn't, it makes more since to play him only spot minutes. ------------------ Founder and President of the Houston Homers Club(HHC) - Are you a homer? Join now! The Rockets will be NBA champions. Believe.
jamcracker, I believe you can watch a team and describe their on-court chemistry. I do not believe we can describe off court chemistry with any amount of certainty like DaDakota is implying. DaDakota, Another speculative guess could be that he is a poor mentor for Cato, from the perspective of Cato's boss. I read a quote by Cato that he gets encouragement from Carlos. Carlos talks to him and tries to keep his spirits up. Well if so......he is doing a poor job. "Cato, don't worry about what coaches and cc.net fans say, just be happy with yourself. You don't have to live up to their expectations." LOL! If he is planting dissenting words in Cato's malleable mind, then he is showing more interest in individual goals than team goals. I could definitely see Carlos encouraging Cato to be more concerned with his own happiness than his job performance. Another guess is that maybe his salary numbers for Carlos are actually reported wrong, and he is scheduled to make $3.4m next year afterall....as worked out in another thread. At $3.4m, I'd renounce him, too. "Work Ethic" ??? There's a difference between saying someone shows no signs of working hard on their deficiencies and saying he has a bad work ethic. Working hard on your deficiencies is usually something you have to do on your spare time. Also, sometimes if you didn't practice the fundamentals as a kid, you get locked into a skill level you can never break out of. Working hard at work with the team as directed by the coach is a good work ethic, but that is not necessarily the same as working on your deficiencies. My point has always been that I cannot understand how an NBA guard could be such a poor dribbler like Shandon, just like I cannot understand how an athletic 7'er like Cato continues to fall for headfakes and has poor positioning. To me, there is only two explanations: (1) either he never in his life worked hard on dribbling as much as the other NBA guards did, or (2) he does work hard on it, but he is incapable of improving. I consider #1 to be the more positive answer, because that means he still has hope. Anyhow, I believe we can look at a team's performance and say with certainty that they have good chemistry or not. I believe we can look at an individual player's performance and say with certainty that they have good fundamentals or not. I believe we can say with certainty that poor fundamentals is directly caused by lack of propoer practice or lack of NBA-level talent. I do not believe we can say with certainty that Carlos is useless in practice. [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited April 26, 2001).]
For those of you who campared Hakeem and his lack of effort in practice etc...that is PRECISELY why Rudy did not play him early in the year. Once Hakeem decided to come to play EVERY day he got back into playing more minutes. I will be the first to say that Hakeem has not put full effort into the regular season these past 2 or 3 years. Anyway, I stand by my source. DaDakota ------------------ If you like RTS games, check out this one. www.frontierwars.com coming soon to a PC near you.
thanks for the tidbit DaDakota. The 'misunderstanding' never made too much sense... unless the misunderstanding let to a different level of output by Dream, and consequently less time from Rudy. ------------------ women love me, fish fear me.
Jamcracker, I have heard absolutley nothing about Walt, my guess is that he was just playing lousy and Rudy sent him to the bench. I think Los hustled last year, and then got a little down on his lack of PT this year, I certainly can't blame him. It was just not a good fit. DaDakota ------------------ If you like RTS games, check out this one. www.frontierwars.com coming soon to a PC near you.
DaDakota, As far as I can tell, you invented this "Los didn't practice business". You've given me no reason to believe otherwise. Sounds pretty good to me though. Outside of injuries, I can't figure any other reason why Los wouldn't be asked back. "Los didn't practice" is just a guess. It does sound like the best guess to me. But you say: "The reason that Los did not ..." "I am being serious, and this is what I heard. This is why Rudy has not been playing Los very much this year, even though he has been pretty darn productive in games." Three different posters have asked for your source: RM95, me, and RunninRaven. You've provided no answer. If you'd admitted you were guessing, you'd deserve props for being the first guy with the best guess. But now, it seems like you're making things up and presenting them as fact. Are you just guessing? Or do you actually have a source on this?
I've got a source that agrees with DaDakota and his source. BGM: Magic 8 ball, is Los dogging it in practice? 8-Ball: It is decidely so. This 8-ball is pretty smart too, I asked if I would win a million dollars in the lottery and it replied "You may rely on it"... ------------------ Sign up for season 2 of the CC.net NBA Sim League!
I do have a source and as a courtesy to him I will not give his name. I am just passing on the info. As I was not actually AT practice, I can only tell you what I heard. If you choose to believe me or not, I really don't care. Now as for the Magic 8 ball, it NEVER lies...LOL DaDakota [This message has been edited by DaDakota (edited April 27, 2001).]
"For those of you who campared Hakeem and his lack of effort in practice etc...that is PRECISELY why Rudy did not play him early in the year. Once Hakeem decided to come to play EVERY day he got back into playing more minutes." Are you just making all this stuff up?
Did Walt not practice either? Is that why Walt left the starting lineup in December? Anytime someone isn't getting playing time - there's only one possible explanation - he didn't practice?!? Walt is out of the starting lineup and this is why: Rockets is that he simply does not practice very hard. Rudy is trying to get players that are motivated in practice as well as in games, and Los just dogs it in practice.No question in games, he hustles like mad, but in practice...BOW..WOW..WOW.. I have this on VERY good authority. Walt NEVER practiced. THAT's why he left the starting lineup.
Right on DaDakota. I've never seen you post any "inside information" before, so its great to learn you have a source. I'll be looking forward for more scoops!
