Nike, you have no clue who John Hollister is. Check out his web page and read his book and then come back and tell me about how much more you know than he does, ok? I understand what I'm saying people don't like, but I've seen *where* he gets his stats. Saying John Hollister is stupid seems to ignore the question of how he got his job in the first place. Offhand, he seems a little more handy with stats than most of us. Dave
Better go back to your tapes then because KT was the small forward when he and Eddie were in the game together.
Completely stupid post. Eddie is not productive when he is not in the post. He should get more looks down low and not on the arc where the friggin guards belong. As for defense, he is the best shotblocker we have. Rudy neds to understand that he is not the next Lamar Odom or KG but rather Tim Duncan. Never diss my favorite player.
Since he's your favorite player we should give you a break . Eddie scored 75% of his points from the outside. He is horrible in the post.
A.) His name is John Hollinger B.) Please do not turn this into a battle of credentials. I'm an armchair fan. He's a sport editor. I'm not saying I'm more brilliant than he is. I am saying that I watched more Rockets basketball than Hollinger did this past years. He keeps up with 29 teams, more or less equally, and I keep up with the Rockets first, 28 teams 2nd. If we were talking about Lawrence Funderburke's impact on the Kings, I'd defer to Hollinger. We're talking Eddie Griffin on the Rockets. Hollinger may be great with stats. But, there's a reason why those stats aren't widely used-they're fickle. They're not widely accepted. Watching the games tells me that the point of attack defense last year (ie Steve Francis and Moochie Norris) were far more suspect than Griffin and Mobley, and the majority of Rockets fans would probably agree- for sure about Norris. Earlier, You quoted Hollinger as saying: "Griffin alternated between power forward and small forward." That statement alone causes me (and crash, and probably others) to question his authority on the game of Eddie Griffin. Griffin didn't play SF. This was made up by MANY national publications, probably because they looked up at boxscores and saw Eddie having games where he hoisted up six 3 pointers. Therefore, he must be a SF, right? This has been a recurring board topic over the year, and we've had Rudy, CD, and Eddie Griffin quotes proclaiming him to be a PF. Had they followed predominantly the Rockets, they would've seen Eddie NEVER (yes GATER, never ) in the game at the 3, usually in the game as a 4, and occassionally in the game as 5. The sabremetrics argument doesn't answer this. This thread has not been an argument about stats. If you really want to get into a stats argument, we can talk about why his system rates Jon Barry ahead of Cuttino Mobley, or Stromile Swift ahead of Antoine Walker. If you want to take Hollinger's word as some sort of gospel, you are welcome to do so. But he's a national writer that doesn't (and can't) follow the Rockets, or Eddie Griffin, nearly as closely as many of the people on this board do. He is wrong about saying Griffin split time SF, and therefore his credibility in my book as it pertains to Griffin's game is very low. Is it too late to mention that his info is out of date considering Griffin added 17 lbs. this summer.
Yes! I love how quickly you "people" turn on Griffin. I posted the whole summer on how potenial didn't equate to production. You people hated on my main man Kenny "Mad Dawg" Thomas. Now your hating on Griffin, I love it. But on the real, what is Griffin expected to do when the gaurds dribble the shot clock away and throw the ball at him with seconds on the clock. Count how many time Giffin sets a pick and Francis ignores him on the roll. Tell you the truth I don't think Francis can make that pass. Real point guards can make that pass. The point graurd is the most important position on the floor, if the offense sputters look at him. P.
geez... this is exactly why I'm just a member of clutch city and rarely post... the people on here don't really know basketball, they always think they know more than Rudy T and CD. you must be the same people that were saying Toronto should let TMac go... he won't amount to anything!
No kidding. Or to use another brilliant quote from TheReasonSF3, "Amen. Atleast someone around here knows something." TheReasonSF3, let me get this straight -- did you say Eddie can't dribble? Because most of us didn't hear you the first time. In the Steve-bashing threads, maybe we should start replying "Steve can't pass" ad nauseum. And maybe we need to start an "Eddie Haters: Shut Up" thread. Just curious -- which is more important, a 4's dribbling ability or a 1's passing ability? Also wondering -- what's more productive, ripping on a guy who's not the appointed leader of our team, and who's just having a temporary slump, but is nevertheless still talented with a lot of upside; or criticizing the team leader who has repeatedly demonstrated a pathological inability to get the rest of the team involved. (Just to be clear, I'm not looking for answers to those clearly rhetorical questions).
Eddie's shot blocking has improved. His shot making has not, but that's not totally unexpected. I remember last year people cursed Rudy for having EG shoot 3's instead of posting up. In the past Eddie has never really had a post up game, and thus his rookie year wasn't the time to force him into one. This year however EG is trying new things, more drives, getting in a little closer to the basket etc. It's new for him. He added a little bit of weight, and is now trying some new things. I don't think he will really be smoothe that much on the offensive end of the floor until late this year or after another summer of working at it. That being said, the Indiana game was horrible, and Griffin didn't really put much effort or play with much spirit that game. But neither did any of the other Rockets except Steve and Cato. Hopefully EG will play inspired basketball from this point forward and will improve rapidly.
Eddie doesn't have a post up game. He also can't dribble. That is why he will never be a great offensive player.
I gotta it let Cato handle the rock, he is the only one who has given an half decent entry pass to the low post. Francis and Cuttino are awsome scorers but until they can 50 a night they need to let some other help them.
It's worth someone mentioning Eddie's performance and statline from tonight. The Rockets lost, but it certainly wasn't his fault. He showed he can post... and shoot (at least today). He's improved each of the last 3 games. Still too early to see if this can be consistent, but he's keeping hope alive.
HE's not the savior that we had hoped he would be, but this is his only 2nd year, and he's still very young. He would be a Junior in college this year. His body is still young and needs to mature before he can go down low to bang with the likes of Webber, Wallace, Duncan, Garnett.... so on. He's got potential to be a great player. He can block shots, rebound, and with work all of the other phases of his game will improve as well. Stop HATING EG. Its only the 4th game.
Other than TRSF3 I don't think anyone has said that Eddie sucks or that he will not eventially reach his potential.
Griff showed up against the sonics. 23 points wasnt an accident. He just needs to develop a lil more inside game. He can draw pf's outside and it'll open up the lane for our slashers but if he can also post up and beat em on the inside, he'll be even more dangerous. He finally showed us what he is capable of and hopefully he can keep the good performances comin cuz i really wanna keep him in the game and bring mo off the bench. I know ya'll agree w/ me here.
soquie15 i think right now it would be best to bring him off the bench. He has had experiance playing against starters, now lets give good minutes but against second string players and he will get even more confidnce.
i understand where your coming from peleincubus. Its kind of a 2 way street w/ mo and griff. They are both young rising stars. The problem is that we have 2 potential all-stars playing the same position and the question is who should get the most minutes. I think when mo comes back we should keep him on the bench until he proves that he's all the way back from injury. If he outplays griffin, which is a possibility, then im all for startin mo and lettin griff beat up the otha teams bench. I think griff has more upside, but mo is probably better at this point.
