Get your stupid ass back to detroit. THe new GM is clueless as to who to go after?? Wow, you are a genius. almost 99% of the sports writers will say morey did a fantastic job. Not you. Get out of here. You idiot.
I seriously doubt we'll trade James right now. Maybe at the trade deadline if things aren't working out. But we need offense, and James provides that punch off the bench.
Alright, I will be the first one to admit that I have always been critical of Stevie Fran's poor decision making, being a pre-Madonna by trying to win every game on each trip down the floor by forcing ridicules shots (albeit, sometimes making some of those shots that sends any Rocket fan jumping out of their seat, fist to mouth, ooo-ing, yelling "DID YOU SEE THAT?!?"), and being on the shallow end of the pool when it comes to basketball IQ. I was uneasy with the thought of the Rocs giving up much to bring back someone I always considered one injury away from being a permanent member of the Pan-American (no offense, I have a lot of friends I ball with in the Pan-Am, and they’re nothing to sneeze at). But I think about his ability and age and hold out hope that the journey these past three years and the injuries that Steve has fought through will be taken in by Steve and he will use that knowledge, WISDOM, and HUMBLENESS to help our beloved Rockets become that relentless underdog that every team in the league truly fears. We have a making of a team that shows promise like no other team I’ve witnessed the Rocs field, and I state that being one of the die hard “Dream” fans. I haven’t felt this giddy since the ’86 -‘87 Rocs: 1986-1987 Houston Rockets Player Stats Name PPG HAKEEM OLAJUWON 23.40 RALPH SAMPSON 15.63 RODNEY MCCRAY 14.44 ROBERT REID 13.72 LEWIS LLOYD 12.38 JIM PETERSEN 11.27 MITCHELL WIGGINS 11.09 STEVE HARRIS 8.28 ALLEN LEAVELL 7.77 DIRK MINNIEFIELD 7.65 CEDRIC MAXWELL 7.22 BUCK JOHNSON 3.80 DAVE FEITL 3.69 RICHARD ANDERSON 2.82 CONNER HENRY 1.33 And they weren’t a 1/4 as deep, with twice the scrubs. I felt the same in ’94 -’95 when our Rocs brought in Clyde. And no, I’m not saying Steve is Clyde, but what I am saying is back then it felt right. I was uneasy when I heard the Rocs wanted Steve but once I heard Steve signed, it just felt right. I feel something special with all of these moves, so I say welcome back Steve, you have a clean slate with me. KNWLDG Aka DJ PM Grind
I'm certain Brooks wasn't who they had in mind. We picked Brooks despite already having a glut of guards (although much less talented) and despite already trading for Mike James. Like they've been saying all along, he was simply the BPA and not someone they expect(ed) to contribute right away. James is a lesser version of Francis at near triple the price. I think it would be wise to move him, though I have high doubts that it would occur. It would just be very classless to trade him given the whole history of James and the Rockets. I think, if anybody, Rafer remains the odd-man out...
They were not going to draft any of the bigs that people were speculating about earlier on this board. They were going for Brooks if he was availabe at 26. This is what Morey told robgue and I that the rockets brass were very high on brooks after speaking to several pac-10 coaches and they didnt feel getting a big (pf/c) player that late in the draft they could get someone who would step in right away and contribute at least something) brooks will contribute even in his limited minutes at least. I just cant see Splitter (who wasnt going to come over this year), Davis, McRoberts and even Landry for that matter playing any sort of meaningful minutes on the rockets this year.
Ahh sorry, poorly worded on my part. When I said "Brooks wasn't who they had in mind," I meant towards the Morey quote that Carl Herrera posted regarding our moves had we known that we would get Francis. I firmly believe we still would have drafted Brooks had we known we would land Francis, since he was the best player available and seems like he could be a big contributor down the line (hopefully even sooner). Basically, my last post was saying that we would have drafted Brooks, but I don't think we would have traded for James.
Does anyone find it strange that Yao Ming hasn't publicly commented yet? (Morey, I think, did say that Yao was involved in the recruiting process along with TMac.)
Great point, so trading James/Brooks is really risky even if Francis plays well this year - he can demand a price the Rockets can't afford for the next years
You can trade *one* of Snyder, or Head, but not both. They are young, cheap and relatively talented. I think Francis could play with a chip on his shoulder and be really effective, but there is no way I would count on that. Same with Wells. There is another dimension of building and maintaining a team with a salary cap and it sure looks like Morey knows which buttons to push.
i think it was more like, " we thought it was a long shot he would be available and so we had to make moves assuming he wasn't." while not completely different from what you recall, he doesn't directly say he wouldn't have done the same moves.
The PFs mentioned above are not back to the basket guys and are more perimeter oriented making Battier a good match up for them - better than using Hayes or traditional PFs. Chicago, Golden State, Dallas are among other teams that often plays without post up PFs. Using Battier to spread out the court on offense, will make it difficult for these teams to play zone-like defenses that made it so difficult to get the ball to Yao. (IMO, if we won game 7, we would have lost to GSW in the next round) The rebounding abilities of Francis and Wells might be able to compensate for this -the way Golden State had Baron Davis going for defensive rebounds in the playoffs.
Not me. Number 1, he is in China. Number 2, he is about to get married. Number 3, he is in the midst of defending himself against a Chinese gov't and/or media onslaught that is questioning his loyalty to the CNT. I am sure he is happy to know that Francis is back but I am sure that is far from the top thing on his mind right now.
You must not have read the entire discussion that I was responding to with my comment. I was not talking about whether Battier could defend those guys. In fact, those are the few PFs that he could defend for the same reasons you just mentioned. The guy I was responding to was using those players as examples of non-traditional PFs in his argument for why Battier should be our PF. The guys he mentioned are unusual because of their extreme athleticism (Marion, Kirilenko and Gay) or because they are true PFs (Horry). Gay hasn't even played PF and I doubt he would be able to at this point in his career because he is too rail thin and too inexperienced. He may be able to play PF further into his career once he gets bigger and gains experience, in which case he would be classified in the Marion/Kirilenko mold due to his raw athleticism. Additonally, Kirilenko plays SF now (his natural postion) since Boozer is healthy while Okur plays center. Marion is still a SF by nature but is able to play PF because is he is extremely athletic and a phenomenal rebounder and shot blocker. He is also a steal machine. Battier is not a great leaper or rebounder nor does he get a lot of steals. He is a decent shot blocker but nowhere near that of Marion. I was making the point that Battier shouldn't play PF becasue he can't effectively defend the other team's PF. Sure, he can do it for short stretches but it is not the optimal situation for him or for the team. We did it last season because we had few other options. The fact is that Battier lacks the athleticism and is too undersized (height and weight) to defend most other PFs. And, again, he is not a good rebounder. When we tried to play him at PF last season, not only was he getting into fould troube early, but we were also unable to use him to cover the opposition's best perimeter threat which is his strength. That is why we stopped doing it almost as quickly as we started it. If Battier gets into foul trouble early trying to defend PFs, he doesn't play and his offensive value (efficient 3pt shooting and stretching the defense) is also gone. The bottom line is that using Battier as our day-to-day starting PF is not the most beneficial way to use him. This has been proven in the past and is the reason that the Rockets ultimately didn't play him their last year, even on a team that was the weakest in the entire league at PF. Playing him at PF next season is a bad idea that will decrease his effectiveness and, in turn, hurt team performance.
Battier just simply can't guard people on the block, regardless of whether or not they are PFs. He is a premier perimeter defender. The only team that I can envision us playing him for stretches there is Phoenix and Dallas against Dirk.
Battier is not strong enough to guard people in the paint and he's not quick enough to guard people on the perimeter. He's most effective when he can step in front of a defender and fall down.
Wow... since when are sports writers 99% correct? Like I said, marketing-wise, the signing creates a new buzz in Houston and a new sense of hope for the new season that you obviously are dying to hang on to. So now you have Lucas, Mike James, Raefer Alston, and Aaron Brooks who all do the same thing pretty much. Francis is the big-name so he gets the leg up on all of those names. We'll see what happens, but there are still to many ifs about the move.
