I like Harpring. He adds toughness, rebounding and can score in a variety of ways. I know JVG would love the guy.
Ditto...and the guy is ONLY 30 years old.....give him a 3 or 4 year deal..... I can't believe people care what he gets paid, he is AN UPGRADE...and that is all that matters. DD
Slow? He is not slow, and he is tough and can hit the open shot.....a perfect complimentary player to Yao and Tmac. You know, the guys that our the core of our team, and the one's we need to surround with complimentary players? DD
as tough as he is: -let me know when he can knock down 3s (something we still need on this team) -let me know when his assist/TO ratio is better than 1 (not crucial? I don't care if you avg 1 assist a game. if you can't get a ratio better than 1 and your a G/F, there's some issues we need to talk about) -let me know when he can consistently play an 82 game season. I'm not even asking for 82. give me 75 games (something he's only done 3 out of 8 years and the last being 2 years ago) -let me know when his four year decline in point production stops -let me know when Sura comes back, because when/if Bob does, he's the same player Harpring is, if not better. until then, I'll wait for Crazy James.
This is what John Hollinger said about him in his 2005 Pro Basketball Forecast: Also, Dan Rosenbaum ranked him as the worst defensive SF in the league according to his Adjusted +/- Defensive Ratings in August 2005.
Which doesn't take into account his season ending injury the season before (recovery/rehab) and the player acquisitions that affected his role on the team and playing time.
Not sure why player acquisitions should make a difference. He cliams that his ratings adjust for the teammates a player plays with, and also the opponents he faces. Beyond that, the ratings are based on per-possession data so playing time shouldn't have an impact. His injury factors in, but the his ratings actually takes into account 3 seasons worth of data (2003, 2004, and 2005). As he says: "Matt Harpring has been very consistent – in a bad way." Perhaps it was just an unlucky three years for Matt. For what it's worth, his unadjusted Defensive +/- was a Net 1.5 points per 100 possessions worse while he was on the court versus off the court in 2006.
No. The player that this Rocket team needs is a SF/SG who can take the tougher defensive assignment from TMac and who is faster than 2 of 3 of TMac, Bogans and Luther Head from FT line to FT line. The Clipps and Jazz have nearly the same cap situations. Assuming Mike James was not an option, I'd throw a full MLE at Radmanovic before Harpring.
I'd definitely do it for the 4.2 TE. He brings a toughness and a high confidence and knowledge that is dificult to explain. He'd bring a fresh attitude to our team we hadn't had since Sura was healthy. It's not all about shooting threes and talking smack about how great you are. His health is faily good playing 81, 78, 31, 78, and 71 games the last five years. He would be perfect off the bench to spell TMac for 10-12 minutes a night. TMac's back is what it is and Harping's high energy style would be a great asset off the bench. Plus, as someone stated earlier, he might be looking more to win now at this stage of his career and competeing for a championship, which obviously Utah isn't able to offer him.
re: 82games stats, are figures used regardless of the different positions played by an individual? tmac's role is still undefined. we know the team is better when he is there to create but this past season he spent it camped out on the perimeter. rafer and head can't get to the basket so they were forced to jack up threes even though their shot was off. harpring has this ability maybe it'll also help reduce the wear and tear on tmac's back? radmanovic pretty much turned down a 6yr extension for an over the mle deal and demanded a trade. he's not coming to houston for the mle or an amount close to it.
Harpring isn't fast, I'll give you that. But, Radmonovic isn't exactly a bolt of lightning either. Can't see him getting up and down faster than TMac. Unless you are talking defensively after he fires the shot from 28 feet. Sign Mike an fuggedaboudit.
What figures are you referring to? Some take into account the position a player was playing at. But the team stats while a particular player is on the court aren't broken down according to the position he was playing. Well, they do break down top 5-man units, but that list isn't comprehensive. The Adjusted Defensing Ratings I cited does not make a distinction of where on the court the player was playing.
This article mentions Matt Harpring among other possible free agents.... http://www.***************/article_17617.shtml
Mike James is a tad bit--just a tad bit--better than David Wesley IMO. I mean, aside from proving that he can be a scoring threat if given the opportunity and can actually shoot AND penetrate, he's almost a mirror image of Wesley. And to compare James to the likes of Flip, Butler, Dermarr, and DeShawn?? James has no chance against: -a MORE undersized shooting guard -a poor man's Raja Bell without the range -a player that's been unfortunately slowed down by a major accident -a player that can't shoot to save his life Kudos to you Mr. David Smith.
I'd agree with all of that except the part about Flip being more undersized. He's apparently 6'4. That shocked me when somebody pointed it out the other day too.
