Saw Rudy T in the check out line at the HEB Garden Market @ 8:30 PM this evening. In fact, I was probably staring a bit as he kept glancing over at me nervously, but I digress... I don't have a digital camera, so I began brainstorming of how I was going to get proof. I'd begun thinking of ways to convince him to give me a blood or urine sample for DNA analysis, when I heard him taling with the sacker. While I didn't hear everything, I did hear enough to realize that they were talking about basketball. My first reaction was one of pitty. I mean, the guy must have to talk about basketball with every yahoo that he sees on the street. I imagine he can't pick up a burger at McDonalds, without being subjected to the knowledgable advice of some minnimum-wage making wanna-be expert. This lead me to decide to limit my interfeerence to eavsdroping and stalking. The following phrases were all I could retrieve: I heard the phrase "he's seven foot" in that unmistakeable croaking voice of his three or four times, as well as a single utterance of "he can play the four, not like we don't have enough of those already". Of course, this was the limits of what I heard. He could have been talking about a really tall utility infielder for his fantasy baseball team for all I know, but I felt compelled to share my experience. That's it.
Oh God..... please let this just be feigned optimism of Collier's future, and not what I fear it really means.... Curtis Borchardt. Now that I think of it though, he's probably referring to Nickoloz Tskitishvili, who goes at 6'11 and is a combo-forward. He's a hell of a lot more relevant, given Rudy's recent trip to see him play, and I'd hope they'd opt for someone like him over Borchardt.
I'm Rocket River .. . and I'm a rocket Stalker. . . Man . . .we must be the biggest collection of stalkers on the net *grin* Way to go dude Rocket River
I doubt if Rudy was talking about the next guy that they are going to pick.Why would he do that? I think he might have been referring to Collier who is 7 feet tall and can play at the 4. I wonder if they are planning to move him to the 4 after trading KT.
I was going to pose the question, how long until someone asks about his sack, but I see I'm too late. Oh well. Carry on!
IMO, he was talking about Nick the Tsick. When you say he can play the four you're usually talking about athletic SFs. It is less of a compliment, I believe, to note that a C can play the 4. And it is redundant to note that college PFs can play the 4. Dunleavy/Butler or Nick. I'd bet heypartner's moniker on Nick the Tsick being high on the Rockets' draft board.
Ottoman- Your excuses and explanation are valid, but my question is: why didnt you just sign a picture exemption form with rockHEAD or myself? I dont think I got that memo.
Believe it or not, he could be talking about Yao Ming. There's some chit-chat on other boards about people thinking Ming should play the 4. Then again, maybe Eddie grew an inch?
You're kidding, right? The guy can barely move fast enough to guard 5's muchless the Rasheed Wallace's of the world.
That's the first guy that came to mind when I read Otto's post. Although how many of your average basketball fans know Nickoloz even exists? Or perhaps, Rudy initiated the conversation about him... arrgg... I can't take this.
I know that,Dr of Dunk.But sometimes Rudy does do strange things,taking Collier with the 15th pick in itself was a shocker to me.
*gasp* *cough cough cough* Please, don't ever remind us of that again... not when we're holding a 15 this year. please await a post by cat describing a 4 game sequence that took place three years ago in which collier looked okay.
I still think Collier could turn out alright... there have been players who have seen tremendous growth between their second and third seasons (Austin Croshere, a player who Jason was compared to, for example). But, for all of the bashers out there, I'd just like to know how much better we realistically could've done. With Cuttino, Shandon, and Walt all expected to be in the fold for years to come (and the Rockets high on Shandon at the time), there was no pressing need for a 2/3. Francis, Cat, and Shandon were always on the floor at the end of the games, and at the end of that season Shandon had really come into his own. How are the Rockets supposed to have vision into the future to know that Shandon would suck the next year and have no aggression? Even for those who said we needed a "true" 3, most of the options at that point were undersized, like Desmond Mason, Deshawn Stevenson, etc. We needed a big man out of that draft, and out of all the realistic possibilities at pick 15, the only one who has turned out significantly better than Collier is Jamaal Magloire. Even if we kept pick 9 (which would keep us from getting EG), the big man options were Joel Pryzbilla and Etan Thomas, and neither of those has proven to be much more than Collier. You can bash Rudy all you want, but the reality is that that draft sucked, and we're extremely lucky to have fared the way we did, considering the first round pick in next year's draft got us Eddie Griffin. P.S. That ten game stretch two years ago is the only time in Collier's career that he's been 100% healthy, so it still carries some merit.
