I think I'd rather have Snyder or even Spanoulis out of position at backup 2 guard over Head. I think with Wells coming back Head is totally on the trading block now. Of course I might be wrong.
http://www.myfoxhouston.com/myfox/p...n=4&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=6.1.1 Rockets forward Bonzi Wells has decided to remain with the Rockets and will play for Houston during the 2007 -2008 season. Wells agent, Bill Duffy, tells FOX 26 sports Wells has notified the Rockets that he will opt in as oppose of opting out of the second year of his contract. "Bonzi has sent in the necessary paperwork and he is opting in and he will play for the Rockets this coming season." Before last season, Wells signed a one year contract with the rockets plus a player option for the second year. The second year is worth about 2.8 million "Basically last year was an incomplete year for Bonzi. He feels very strongly about Rick Adelman. He feels the Rockets are a championship caliber team especially with the addition of Mike James."
thats good to hear he could be an assest this year as opposed to a non factor like he was last year. adelman has gotten the best out of bonzi before maybe he will do it again bonzi is truly playing for a contract this year. alston/james/vspan/lucas 3rd tmac/bonzi/head battier/snyder/novak hayes?/???? yao/deke?/tsak? a lot of the 2/3 players can be swapped around. but i expect another deal to be made to either move lucas,head or snyder, possibly vspan to get another PF and also the MLE on a big....that being said i dont think the rumored head/bonzi for cook deal will go through, cook does not provide the type of PF that is needed next to yao and i said in an earlier post i dont think bonzi decided to stay only to get traded
How can he make $2.8 million? That's not possible under the CBA. He made $2,115,000 last year. Maximum raise he could get is 8%, therefore his salary should be exactly $2,284,200. So it's actually about $500,000 cheaper than they are reporting.
As a Rockets fan you have to be happy about this news. I know a lot of you have been down on Bonzi. I cant blame anyone for that. But we need bench depth in the worst way. We can't compete with the Spurs, Suns, or Mavericks without it. We need BASKETBALL players that can come off the bench and contribute, not role players, not specialists. When McGrady goes down for his mandatory 15-25 games we will be grateful to have Bonzi. When Stackhouse starts posting up Head for easy baskets and Bonzi comes in to sub, we will be grateful. Assuming it works out. With Adelman I know it will.
And he was fat. I remember reading somewhere Kelvin Cato mentioning he'd been hitting the exercise bike hard in pre-season since JVG required players to be under a certain body fat% if they wanted to get on the floor.
this is great news bonzi, tmac and battier can split up the SG/SF minutes among them this however decreases the role of snyder.....to bad..i really liked the guy
SWEET! i am getting excited about next year! i was so disappointed how things panned out with him last year. i think he can add some much needed toughness. i also like to hear that he is excited about james coming back.
I'm fine with more of Bonzi... I just hope there isn't literally "more of Bonzi" again when he shows up to camp. Otherwise, we might have to again require Bonzi to sit on the opposite side of the team bus from Yao to make sure the thing doesn't tip over.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4915299.html Wells opts for return to Rockets over free agency By JONATHAN FEIGEN Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle This time instead of running out of free agent options, Bonzi Wells did not need them. Wells, on a mission to do what he did not last season, has opted to forgo another try at free agency he had planned to instead return to the Rockets next season, his agent Bill Duffy said Saturday. Wells had until Monday to reach a decision but Duffy said the paperwork had been completed and sent on Saturday to opt in to his current contract, worth $2.8 million. Bonzi was adamant he wanted to return to Houston, Duffy said. "I believe he will have his best year. He's healthy. He's committed to being in the best shape of his career. He's on a mission. Wells could have become a free agent and signed with the Rockets again, but Duffy said that the Rockets need to use their mid-level exception to fill other roster spots led to Wells decision to return to the Rockets with the contract he signed in October. "I made him understand they wanted him back but they had other concerns and wanted to maintain their flexibility with their mid-level exception," Duffy said. "He's excited to play for a coach (Rick Adelman) he has recent success with. He loves the city, loves the team. He felt it was a championship-caliber play team. He was extremely frustrated to not be part of the playoff run because he felt he could have contributed." After missing most of training camp and the preseason with a variety of physical ailments and personal absences, Wells did not get a spot in the rotation until Dec. 12. He still struggled to stay healthy, twice going out with back injuries. After his best performance of the season Feb. 26, he went out briefly with a foot condition, and then was placed on the inactive list for most of the remainder of the season. He returned to the court for two games late in the season, but left the team April 9 in Seattle with five games left. He averaged 7.8 points and 4.3 rebounds in 28 games, making 41.1 percent of his shots and 14.3 percent of his 3-pointers. "Between this and the Mike James (acquisition), good things are happening there," said Duffy, who also represents James, Yao Ming and free-agent forward Chuck Hayes. "Bonzi is healthy and Mike is ready to roll. They're going to be interesting right now."
Well, during that Spurs/Kings series in 2006 it was mentioned that Bonzi started the year in Memphis at 270 pounds. He then dropped down to 240 pounds by the playoffs, which was said to be his "ideal playing weight." Now I think it was 790 that reported he came to camp last year at 268 pounds and that he got down to 250 before he was activated by the Rockets. It was also mentioned that according to Wells the last 10 pounds could only come off with playing time by him getting in game shape. Jeff Van Gundy then talked about Wells would not be ready to play until he worked off that last 10 pounds on a stationary bike, which apparently he never was able to do. Now of course in 2006 in Sacramento Adelman apparently let him get down from 270 to 250, then work off the last 10 pounds by playing him, which then led to him playing at his ideal playing weight at 240 and abusing the Spurs guards in the post. Looking at it this way, it really is wrong to just say he was fat. Bonzi was fat and came in out of shape, but at the same time the coach didn't let him get into game shape. This to me is basically a lazy player and an old school coach butting heads. With a player like Wells and a coach like Van Gundy, one side has to give. Adelman on the other hand is more likely to give. So expect the same thing Wells always does. He will come in 30 pounds over his playing weight, at about 270, then trim down to about 250, but then Adelman will bite playing him for a few weeks out of shape, then get him in game shape. For another example, in Memphis Hubie Brown let him play this same game, whereas when Wells tried it with Fratello he went straight to the dog house. So it really is much more about the coach bending to Bonzi rather than him being just completely fat. Some coaches put up with his act, some do not. Last year was a coach that would not, this year is a coach that will.
great news. alston/james t-mac/wells/head battier/snyder/novak hayes/? yao/mutombo/tsak? i think john lucas should be gone and v-span is so far uncertain. we need a pf, obviously, but i think we're pretty set in the other positions. bench depth is much improved from last year with the addition of a hopefully game ready bonzi and good bench scoring from mike james. if we can get a starting caliber pf, hayes off the bench would only help out depth-wise. hopefully novak is better utilized/developed this year.
That's a little scary. Duffy has a rep for getting teams to overpay for his stable of mostly mediocre talent.
