Barry's out for 2 games anyway. IMO Von Wafer's headed back to the end of the bench. 1 good game out of 6 appearances so far and he doesn't help the team in any other way if his shot isn't falling.
I think it was more of a I dont want to trade anyone else and honestly one game doesnt change my mind about that either. If we were to make room for Deke or whatever reasons Head would still be my first choice to go. Unless Head can prove to do this all the time my mind is made up.
There's no point on hating the haters because Luther deserved the hate prior to today. Tonight he obviously showed he's IMPROVED, not only with certain moves, but also his decision making. I don't think this is a one time thing. I'm not saying he's going to score 20 plus consistently, but i see him being more of a consistent threat and most importantly, making a lot less boneheaded decisions. However, it still bothers me to see him drive, get cut off, and have to fling a bad pass to a shooter. He actually improved that also since normally he'd throw the ball away. Now he's at least finding the guy, but the pass is still too high/off target..
I agree. I dont know why Wafer was out there. He's got nothing when his shot isn't falling...I'd rather have Luther
he's always been a good perimeter shooter.. and though he did help us get this win.. it wasn't exactly an exceptional performance.. to where you could say.. "he really has improved".. his drive to the basket is still erratic, completely out of control.. his dribbling and decision making are still as terrible as they've always been.. his 4 assists were pretty much incidental.. on two occassions he overlooked an open deep positioned Yao because he apparently didn't feel confident in providing the feed.. on the first.. he chose to swing it around... on the second he chose to go for the contested 3.. and one of his passes was to a trailing Artest at the thigh when he had an open line to the basket himself.. was almost a turnover.. and another to Landry's feet as his defender came to help.. but we won.. so we'll take it.. but let's not ahead of ourselves.. as far as Luther's so-called "improvement" goes..
QFT All of a sudden everyone "always liked Luther Head, and never understood the hate". GTFO!!! Those same people will be first in line to throw him off the cliff once he sells out a game with 3 TO's in the final 2 minutes. He had a good game, I can acknowledge that.... and he was used correctly. Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Once he doesn't have PG duties he can at least be mildly effective.
I didn't see that manh mistakes, but I taped the game so i'll prob watch it again and check. Eother way, I said he improved, not that he became a star or perfect, so its not a stretch at all. Simply making fewer mistakes than usual is an improvement for him. He seemed more decisive with the drive. The layup where he hesitated on the drive and layed it up one handed without bringing the ball back down, he usually would have brought it back down, therefore slowing down and would have been blocked. He showed good awareness by noticing he had to get it up quicker than usual to avoid the defender. The fast break where he put up a short bank shot and got the foul, normally he wouldn't even be able to get a good shot when fouled. This time he created space and kept his focus. They may be simple or small improvements, but they're still improvements and can only help him and the team going forward.
Ditto to that guy above me. I don't think anyone here doubts his ability to contribute in the regular season. My fear is that him playing well now will cajole the coaches into thinking he'll be that kind of player in the first round and then shoot 1-14. It's like Charlie Brown with Lucy and the football.
If you doubt luther head you should know that hes a good regular season player and he proved that in his rookie season and made a statement the year after w/ 2 3pg at 44%. that was mainly cuz yao and tmac drawed double teams and hes left open. in the playoffs theres not that many double teams and luther cnat make his own shot so he wont do good then. our team is deep and luther can get 20pts. not all the time, but obviously sometimes.
The problem with Luther is that he is under sized as a 2, so the Rockets tried to make him a PG. Unfortunately, Luther doesn't have IT as a point guard, and he didn't have any experience as a PG during his time at Illinois, Williams & Brown were the PG there. Luther is a good shooter, a great athlete, and he has a quick 1st step with his dribble penetration (no surprise there ), but he doesn't finish well around the basket, nor does he have the court awareness during his penetration. So, Head is good in certain situations, but not so good in some other match ups.
I actually think he finishes pretty well, it's just that sometimes he goes for a layup when he should SLAM it home, like he did on Ronny Turiaf way back when. His backdoor cuts are usually effective and he generally makes the layup. He just needs to be consistent, and I don't think anyone on this board would have a problem with him. He rarely shows any consistency and because of it, his game dies away.
If Luther doesn't lose his confidence which causes him to lose his jumpshot then he is a really good player. Saying all that people won't be satified until he scores 10 or more points in one playoff game at least.
We all know that Luther isn't going to perform well at the 1. Even though he's an undersized 2 guard, at the 2 he's playing his natural role, and tonight he excelled at it. I don't see Luther going off for 20+ nightly, but I'm willing to watch and wait to see how Luther responds w/ starting minutes at the 2. Perhaps it was a matchup issue w/ San Antonio tonight...perhaps this is the start of something new and improved from Luther. I'm not going to hate on the man for doing well, and I hope he can continue to contribute to the team's success.
Get off his sac, one game doesn't mean crap. Do it in the playoffs and then talk to me. As I've said before, I'm happy he earned his check tonight
