im surprised that the rockets are even ranked number 10 on this list. besides kenny thomas and eddie griffin, our bench sucks. im sorry yall but the truth hurts. oops i forgot about moochie norris.
Our bench sucks? This would be my ranking: 1. Kings 2. Blazers 3. Pacers 4. Rockets The first two are almost interchangeable, as are the second two. We're the only team in the league that is moving two starters to the bench - and those starters have improved since last season! Center - you either have the most anticipated big man in years come off of the bench, or you have a solid 5 whose game looks like it's better than last year. You even have Eddie, who had 5 blocks the last game he started at center. Oh, and even Collie looked like a force last night. PF - Either Eddie or MoT will be coming off of the bench here. Nuff said. SF - Either KT or Rice will come off of the bench, followed by an improving Morris SG - Our only weak link, but Oscar Torres is looking good again this preseason. PG - Mooch is a top 5 backup PG. Btw, in case you missed it, our third and fourth string PGs led us to victory in the last two games. To sum up, these are all bench players who started some games last season: Cato, MoT, Rice, and Moochie.
NVE ?? Please. He sucks to the earth. He is the one reason( another one is Bradley) that Rockets will be better than Mavs..
Clippers actually have quite a few injuries last I saw. Plus, looks like they may have some bad chemistry.
IMHO, a healthy Glen Rice and a productive Terence Morris is Top 5. About a month ago, some poster had stated dissatisfaction with the events surrounding the All Star game. How about 2 legends (say Bird and Magic or Dr. J and Barkley or Fat Lever and Calvin) coach and pick teams for two 10 minute quarters of a high energy game? The qualifying factor (other than the obvious of not being on the IR) is that a player can not be in the top 5 on his team in total minutes.
The Spurs have a solid bench, but I think ours is better. I think our bench is better then Detroit and Washington's to. Juan said it best about the Lakers, and the Nets don't even HAVE a bench, what the hell!? And where are the Mavs they're the deepest team in the league! This is crazy. My Top 5 benches would be: Dallas Kings (mainly experience) Blazers Rockets Spurs With honorable mention to the Pacers, Hornets, and maybe the Wizards.
For the Rockets you forgot to throw in Tierre Brown (who is playing very well), Oscar Torres, and maybe Mickeal if they keep him or Collier who is also playing well.
LA does play good defense, including the bench players. Good defense does not a good bench make, however. The Lakers are a good team and play as a unit and are tough to beat. That isn't all there is to it in being a deep team though. Sacramento is a deep team. When they played without Webber, their record suffered little, if at all. The Lakers can't afford a similar loss.
I agree, Juan...as always. In the regular season, you measure a bench by their ability to spell starters who miss those inevitable 5-10 games...or more. In the playoffs, you can get away with 7 players. That's where LA doesn't feel the bad effects of no bench. Sacremento and Dallas have the regular season and playoff benches, and the Rockets have a good regular season bench.... they just couldn't spell Francis and MoT and Rice at the same time with a rookie Griffin and Mobley nursing two bad ankles, and no Yao Ming. Now we can win with an occassional migraine or a tired Yao. oh, and like rimbaud said...that Wizard's description is plain weird.
I agree with whoever said the Clippers should be on that list. Assuming they're injury-free at some point, they'll probably start : Elton Brand Lamar Odom Michael Olowokandi Andre Miller Quentin Richardson That leaves a bench made up of some of these guys: Corey Maggette Eric Piatkowski Keyon Dooling Bryant Stith Chris Wilcox Melvin Ely Marko Jaric Tremaine Fowlkes Cherokee Parks Maggette could win 6th Man this year is he stays healthy. He's an awesome defender. If Wilcox, Ely and Jaric contribute at all, these guys are a cinch to make the playoffs.
Forgot Wang. Yeah, if they can get and stay healthy they could make some noise and nobody will want them in the playoffs. I expect the biggest threat to them is Sterling's chemistry that'll have the team in re-build mode after next year.
