Personally, I think Baxter and Luther should get more minutes. They, with Dion Glover, were a big part of the 5-0 record of the Minnesota Summer League team. Likewise, Baxter and Luther performed well in the preseason. Yes, they were largely playing against "subs & scrubs", especially in the summer league, but I still feel they acquitted themselves admirably. Further, as seldom as I've seen Luther on the floor in this young season, I think he does pretty well, especially for a rookie. It seems to me that the mistakes he makes, are more errors of aggression than anything else... and it's my bigoted opinion that this team could do with more aggressive play. It also doesn't hurt that he came from a winning collegiate program, so he's at least somewhat familiar with championship play, albeit in the NCAA. As for Baxter... I've seen even less of him than I have of Luther, but to my recollection, he seems to have a knack for bulling his way into the paint, snagging the offensive rebound and going immediately into the second chance basket... which he makes more often than misses, if I'm not mistaken. That might be his one trick... but a single trick the Rockets sure could use. I figure with this being early in the season, and the Rockets having a losing record, they have very little to lose with giving these two some (more) playing time. I suppose JVG has his reasons for not using them more -- and those reasons might even make sense if I were privvy to them -- but I have to wonder what he'd have to lose (apart from one more game) by giving them a shot. If nothing else, they'd get some more game time experience, and the announcers would have more awkward lines during broadcasts. (Thanks, Luther!) Thoughts?
I totally agree! Our key acquisitions blow. What is skip to my poo supposed to bring to the table? Play Head or even Smoochie. And now I see why they only paid Swift the minimum, what an enigma! He is too weak and can't finish unless its a dunk. They should have signed a pure shooters. Gundy should take allot of blame also. If you can't call plays to take advantage of the Yao mismatches then you suck a**.
Of course, play Luther more. Forget Baxter because he's barely an NBA level player and has little or no upside. It's too bad we didn't re-sign Padgett.
i agree with playing head more but i dont know about baxter, jho and ss arent doing that bad...i think glover would help us out too if he could play the 3, his scoring would help
I agree. If we are going to lose, we should at least get all of our players some playing time to prep for later in the season, and who knows, they may actually be very good. The only thing I'm not sure about is why you said, "it's my bigoted opinion". Very strange.
I'm a strange person, so there you go. It stems from a friend of mine who had the habit of telling me, "Well, we know your opinion's biased..." all the time. That in turn started my habit of referring to my opinion as "bigoted". One of those "you had to be there" kind of things.
I thought Dion Glover was injured. I agree about Baxter though.. Hell.. I wouldn't mind some Sprewell about now with the way the Rox have played in a few games.
Actually, If Baxter is going to hustle, put him in there. Howard and Swift are not doing a great job of hustling, and Yao is simply to big and his reactions too slow. We need more players who provide energy. Sura makes a HUGE difference for this team.....we need someone to be our heart. DD
Do we really know this though even though he has never gotten a chance? What difference would Padgett have made.
Head is good, but too much is bad, especially in the wrong position. He shoots the ball too much, he can hit threes great, but he cant finish on his drives at all. Love the D too. Think he is best off as a SG.
I wouldn't mind if Lonnie Baxter were given the 12 or so minutes a night at backup center that Mutombo usually gets. At this stage in the season, we really don't need Mutombo to be in the rotation. Just save him up for the postseason. Baxter would give us a little more muscle on the front line and a 2nd post up threat, since Howard is more of a jumpshooter and Swift is more of a slasher. Also, with the Rockets offense being so scarce this season, we need Baxter’s offense more than Deke’s defense. Luther Head, I would like to see Van Gundy give him a try at starting shooting guard, in place of Derek Anderson. It's kind of strange, but of the 4 new Rockets acquisitions (Swift, Head, RA, DA), the rookie is the one that has looked most comfortable. I guess it's because he's never played on any other NBA teams before, so he doesn't need to be deprogrammed like the others. The more I see Anderson play, the more I think his ideal role on this team should be coming off the bench. One aspect of Head’s game that I hope he improves is his middle distance game. Right now, he’s limited to taking a 3-pointer or taking it all the way to the baset and either getting blocked or fouled. If he could just develop that 15-18 foot jumper, he would very difficult to defend. I wish Calvin Murphy were still here to show him the benefits of the ‘stop and pop’.
Luther is 6'3" with a near 40 inch vertical. He needs to start elevating when he attacks the basket. He's just using his jumping ability to get lateral hang time, but he's not getting high enough off the ground leading to 2-3 of his shots being blocked in the last 2 games. I'd like to see him explode up more.
If Baxter could block shots, rebound and give us the boost that Deke does when Yao isn't up to snuff, I'd be all for it. Problem is, I doubt Baxter could defend anyone without fouling them nearly every time down the floor. I think his presence at C would automatically make the C for the other team the #1 option on offense. On offense, I don't think Baxter has much to offer. I'm almost ready to roll with starting Luther at SG. DA is just not effective as a starter. But answer me this: If you put Luther in at starting SG, who is the backup PG? Luther may not ready for 30 mpg between both positions yet. His versatility is great and I want him to play PG as much as possible to fill the big void currently being left by Rafer. If Sura actually comes back and is effective, I'd put Luther in at starting SG in a "New York" minute. When Luther works his way up the pecking order, he'll shoot more mid-range jumpers. Right now, it looks like he's limited to wide open 3s or taking it to the basket. Maybe later on plays will be put in to free him up from mid-range.
lonny baxter is still on this team? i could'nt tell with the amount of minutes van gundy has given him. (none)
Aside from our terrible shooting, our main problem thus far has been rebounding. Unfortunately, we have not played our 2nd best rebounder, which happens to be Baxter. If not for infusing new energy into a sluggish team, give Lonnie some playing time so teams aren't getting 2nd and 3rd chances to score on us. My one concern with all of the off-season moves (which were great by the way) was that we never addressed our obvious rebounding deficiency. Neither Swift or Howard are good rebounders. 10 minutes for Baxter can't really hurt our team at this point. But not at Center. He's only 6'8"
The reason I would opt to play Baxter over Deke is because we have really struggled against these young, athletic, small ball teams that have big men with range and quickness. At this stage in the season, I really don't see much point in playing Mutombo against these teams. He just hurts our team speed too much when he's out on the floor. I'd rather see a younger, quicker player out there that is more of an offensive threat. Come playoff time, when we're up against a team like the Spurs, the Rockets could absolutely use Mutombo's experience and size. But against a team like Boston or New Orleans or Orlando, I think Baxter is more capable of keeping up with the pace of the game that those teams play at.
