You betcha! He's also an authority on Shawn Bradley. Being the 2nd leading rebounder to Dirk is like being the 2nd leading rebounder to Mo Taylor. Dirk didn't really try to rebound until Avery took over. He's better but not by much. As I posted before, if you go solely on numbers (as many here are doing with Walker), he looks OK BUT numbers don't tell the complete story on Walker you have to actually see what he does on the court to get the complete picture. Having seen him play up close and in person, I say we pass on him. Not so! Dallas traded him because his game screwed up the team. Specifically, the way he plays the game did not fit in with how the Mavericks wanted to play. It would be the same thing in Houston especially given the rather anal nature of our head coach. What is important to note here is that you and the others who like Walker are counting on him to change his attitude and approach to the game simply because JVG will be his coach. As you put it: This is where we differ because I consider that possibility to be most unlikely. At this point in his career, what you see with 'Toine, is pretty much what you get. He would have to undergo a radical alteration in his game and attitude just to fit in here and I just don't see it happening. It would be a waste of valuable time when the Walker "experiment" fails and they have already wasted years with the Adrian Griffins, Mo Taylors, Charlie Wards, etc.. Now even if he does make the attempt, he still is not the type of PF they need to be competitive with the Dirks, Garnetts, Amares & Duncans in the West. What we need is a version of Ben Wallace (athleteic, physical and fast) to man the 4, not a better version of Mo Taylor (which is how I view Walker).
I ditto your thoughts, Christopher. Watching his play w/ Boston and Atlanta, I can't stand someone who has to take 35 shots to make 10. That's going to disrupt our whole offense. Plus, where is he going to get his shots? T-Mac has to take his number of shots, Yao has to increase his attempts, so Walker has to be willing to compromise. Is that going to be possible? I would rather go after SAR, Swift, or Marshall.
Dallas's team is unique & I don't consider any player that struggles in their system to be a bad fit for other teams. In fact, I generally discount their time in Dallas. Take Howard for instance, he struggled in Dallas, but (once he learned our system) he appears to be working out well here. My 1st choice is SAR, but thanks to Jeff & NIKEstrad, I'm feeling better about AW. Especially, his passing skills.
The thing I like about Antoine Walker is that he does everything. He plays a well-rounded game of basketball. He would probably learn a lot about playing defense from Van Gundy. I'm tired of these one dimensional players. The guy can hoop it up.
After reading through 7 pages of this stuff I have come to two conclusions. 1. I do not want Swift on this team! 2. I want either Walker or SAR The Pick and roll options are unreal. Just think of it. Let them double Yao! Walker or SAR or Tmac will kill them. Let them double Walker or SAR, T mac or Yao will kill them. Let them double T-mac, Yao or Walker or SAR will kill them. I think it would be a major move in the west. My vote of course would be SAR. But I will take Walker over Swift ALL day long.
Like the old expression goes, you don't draft for need...you draft the best player available. Well, this is sorta like a draft. We have mutiple players to chose from (what a great position to be in!) that have expressed some interest in playing here. With the players on the table (and money is equal since it is the MLE), you take the best player available...it virtually doesn't matter about position. Here are a few names I've heard recently that WANT to play here and might even happen (if things worked out...which is a big if): Horry (lives in Houston) Damon Stoudimire (lives in Houston) Finley (wants to go to a contender) Walker (wants to go to a contender) Swift (wants to be a starter and contribute to a good team) SAR (wants to go to a contender) Who is the best player on this list? Walker or debately SAR. Those are your A-list players, if they sign for MLE or accept a S&T that dumps bad contracts. If those two don't work out, then you start going down the list. Swift or Simmons MAY not disrupt "chemisty" but won't not disrupt the other teams "game plan" either. You ALWAYS take the best player available.
I dont know where all this fascination of walker is coming from? He has been a loser/cancer everywhere he has been. sure boston did better w/ antoine after the trade, but he almost single-handedly blew the series against indiana. there is no doubt that walker is a talented player, but he has yet to prove he is a winner. if we are going to gamble on a guy, i much rather gamble on kwame brown. he is a better fit for us imho. the rockets do not need an undersized pf who cant block shots. if we cant sign a big time pf this year, i would like to see the rockets add some of the other missing pieces. the rockets should learn from past mistakes about signing trash players.
Plug yourself back into the playoffs w/ the Mavs. We lost 3 consecuative games when we had leads late in the 4th quarter and then went on a scoring drought. TMac was tired because they triple teamed him every time down the court and nobody else could hit an open shot. Plug in Walker. Do you think we'd have the same outcome? Rox are league leaders in defense. We have Yao and Deke...blocking shots isn't really a priority. However, the Rox offense sucked last year. We need more points. So you wanna take "potential" over a proven resource, huh? Maurice Taylor and Eddie Griffin had a lot of potential too.
plug in jho and the outcome would of been different? no? antoine walker is a bulk shooter. he is the type of player who needs to get his points before he feels involved. tmac was tired b/c he had to guard dirk, a pf. walker is not our answer at pf, atleast not in the west. walker cannot guard any of the super powerfowards in the west, he didnt even guard joneal in the indiana series. I just dont see him suddenly playing intelligently, taking less shots, playing tough D, and doing grunt work. we have to be patient with who we sign, this team is built for the long haul. since when did antoine walker hit a shot consistantly?
I'm convinced. Bring Walker on. Quit messing around. Start with the full exception. I saw part of a Celtics game in the playoff. Antoine came up big. No stage fright. That is what you need for the playoffs.
The ideal guy they need to get would combine Kwame's physical attributes with Otis Thorpe's heart and desire. Last time I looked, that doesn't describe 'Toine.
Name anyone in the league who has these attributes and we can 1) afford and 2) have any hope of getting. I think that if Walker can accept being the third offensive option and JVG thinks he can get 'Toine to play D, we take him and laugh all the way to the WCF.
Important in our final decision: Yao Which player will compliment Yao the most on offense and defense. Yao is a pretty good rebounder, pretty good defender, pretty good in the offense. Who will make other teams pay on the boards by looking at Yao too much? Who will keep Yao out of foul trouble by moving over, etc? Who will keep teams from doubling Yao? I say Walker because he has been around enough and played enough minutes to figure out the NBA. Stromile is good and talented, but doesn't have the NBA minutes to know how to make Yao's life easier. I'd go for Shareef in a heartbeat too, but I don't see his defense improving as much under JVG as Walker. Marshall has no value in two years.
we lost against the mavs because of 3 things. 1. JT shot lights out because he was left open so many times by slow PG play. sura was injured, but this is still his fault. we needed a quicker PG (head). 2. swingmen killed us. stack and finley abused wesley. we still need a bigger SG. 3. we had no 3rd scorer. Jho would have helped out a lot. the best scorer's available are walker and SAR. those should be out #1 choices. however SAr seems set to go to NJ since he is close friends with thier coach (they attended each others weddings, etc...) so we are left with walker, then swift, then marshall. if finley wants to come here i would change our gameplan and make him the first option. hopefully he and horry would split the MLE.
Exactly. That sort of player does not appear to attainable this year, so I move that they (Rox) work on the PG/SG/SF problems. Fix what you can this year and address this problem later. After all, you never know WHO might become available come the Trading Deadline... The key word here is IF. We happen to differ on that being a real possiblity. If the Rox do go get 'Toine, there'll be laughter all right - but it will be coming from our competition in the West. After a few of his 3 point "clinics", I doubt that many folks around here will be in a "laughing" mood.
For me, the second "if" was the more important. If JVG thinks that he can get 'Toine to play D, then we should pull the trigger. JVG was able to get maximum value out of everyone we threw at him last year and I trust that he would be one of the few coaches able to bring Walker around.
Uh, in a conversation amongst Walker, Abdur-Rahim, and Swift (who are the three names being bandied about most), only one of them has won a playoff game. Yes, a single game, not series. For that matter, Walker's been farther (Conference Finals) than anyone other than Deke and James on the roster. HillBoy- Dallas, with their gross number of power forwards, was an exceptional rebounding team in their year with Walker. Their near 2 rebounding margin would rank them 8th in the league this year (I don't plan on searching for 2003-2004 rebound differential numbers). Again, defensively, I won't disagree that Walker is probably not to far removed from Mo Taylor. He IS a significantly better rebounder, and he is a much better passer, and he is a more talented scorer. I'm not saying Walker will change simply because JVG is his coach. I believe we saw Walker change this year, so I'm not so uncomfortable with the idea he can do it again. With Atlanta, he was putting up over 5 3PAs a game. With Boston, he cut it down to under 3. He even bumped up his FG% to over 44% as Boston went 16-8 with him. The Walker in Boston at the end of this year was very different than the late 90's/early 00's Walker during his first stint. There's also a big difference between a guy being traded somewhere (especially on the terms Walker was) and being forced into Nellie's ill-fated gimmicky lineup and signing somewhere on his own accord. Toine "didn't fit" in Dallas for the same reason Jamison "didn't fit"; it was a moronic gimmick idea that everyone in his right mind saw not working out. If he's willing to sign with us and wants to sign with us, it's because he is willing to at least try to play the way Van Gundy wants him to play.
If Finley came here, I would be shocked and dismayed if he was anything other than the third option. There is no way that Finley should be above Yao, much less TMac, on the option list for the Rox.
