I voted "C" as well because he's somewhat undersized to be a SG. Had he been 6' 5" or taller, there'd been no way he would have slipped to 24. In terms of skillz, he's rock solid however and that is a big plus. This should mean that Wesley or Barry is gone.
NIKE - Luther Head wasn't even the best PG on his own college team. He's a tweener SG/PG that the Rockets are going to use at both positions. He's a mid-second round pick who used some athleticism and the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp combine to vault to 24. Head benefitted greatly by Dee Brown injuring his ankle and withdrawing from the camp. Had we played our cards right, we could have had Head in the second round. (Just like the Nuggets traded down). Further, Head played SG on CPDC Team 5 opposite Travis Diener at PG. There's a very easy tendency to overemphasize Head's combine numbers. I'll name a player you're familiar with that didn't even get drafted but lead the Pre-Draft Camp in scoring...Allan Anderson. Head had good combine numbers and got drafted at 24. Anderson (in spite of being the leading scorer in the games) doesn't have good combine numbers and goes undrafted. Defensively, there is little difference between Anderson and Head. (Although I'd personally favor Anderson at SG). IMVHO, we bought into some combine numbers to take a mid-second rounder at 24. As far as Lindsey's comments about reserving judgement on the pick until after free agency...we've put our eggs into one basket. If we don't markedly upgrade SG and PF, we are going to war with a 2" taller (albeit younger) version of David Wesley who doubles as a spot up shooting PG. I'd love to "eat crow" but I just don't see the 38.5" vertical and the 41% from the college arc translating into an automatic NBA game. It's the luck of the draw, but IMHO the talent level after Garcia at 23 had a marked drop-off. If we were going to gamble in an area where player flaws are obvious, we should have gambled on tall and quick as opposed to just quick.
I completely agree. Head is only a 2" taller version of Wesley. Who knows if he is actually good enough to stick in the league like Wesley did. I think they want to use him at SG like Wesley - good ball handler, good shooter, good defender. A bit of a reach. In hind sight looks like there are plenty of good players still undrafted that could do the same as him so the Rockets should have drafted a bigger guy, Simien, Blatche or Taft. If he works out and can work his way into 15 minute as a backup SG then he is not a bust.
While I am not enamored with this pick, I do believe it is a good pick and will be a Cassell/Horry type pick for us in the future where we hate the pick now, but could love it later.
B+ If If Head can D up like advertised. If Head can push the tempo, because he doesn't need to be a fancy passer in our offense, just a smart passer. If Head can play unselfish and hit open looks D If If Head doesn't stay in front and help defend penetration on D If Head does not have the quickness and handles to push the ball at PG If Head does not hit open looks. Luther Head compares with Ben Gordon (Chicago) If he shoots well and plays good defense he will be a very good pick because he will replace Wesley and we get much younger and athletic at that position. So if we have improved that position that is step one in our building program. Next we need to improve at the PF and then at the SG Steady improvement, pieces that fit around Yao and TMac, more quickness/speed, more athleticism and youth are the MO for our building process. I like the idea of getting veteran PF- If Wayne Simeon becomes a very good rookie- Oh well, but I think a PF at 24 is more of a reach as far as meeting the criteria I placed on our building program.
for what its worth... Chad Ford gave us an "A" - again, I must say I called this pick and I like this pick - we have enough undersized power forwards on this squad .. and all our guards are over 30
I fully expect Simien to overtake Haslem's starting job down the road and people on this board question JVG and CD's ability to evaluate talent. Sure there will be those saying that Shaq makes everyone around him better. If somehow Wayne Simien can stay injury free for next season, he will be a steal of the draft.
NIKE, solid anaylsis. I agree. I think the selection at this point warrants a solid B. I think it's decent value at #24. GATER, I dont think Head would have lasted into mid second round. It seems Detroit was interested in him as well. I can understand why some people might not be high on Head, but really, who did you want at #24 that was still on the board at that point? I know you are a Garcia fan but he was gone at that point. And somehow even if he wasnt I get the feeling the Rockets still woulld have chosen Head. Anyway, who would you have gotten at #24? Or would you have traded down? As for Alan Anderson, he went undrafted. We should sign him to our summer league team.
I really can't put it any better than NIKEstrad did. But to add to it, look at who was drafted after Head. Other than Simien (glad we didn't take him) who else was worth the pick at 24. No one else you could say could give you an immediate contribution. With Spanoulis and Badiane already on the horizon, I think with Head the Rox will accomplish their goal of going younger and more athletic for the future. Yao and T-Mac are going to have plenty of running buddies soon. A- for doing the absolute best they could with what they had.
I voted C. I was really disappointed last night, but have warmed up to the C grade. I still think they should have taken Simien, since he more directly fills a need and in my opinion was the BPA. Head may be a contributor and of course I hope he is all the Rockets hoped for, but I still see two main issues: The Rockets PFs are an aging player coming off a season-ending injury and a heart problem; Ryan Bowen; Clarence Weatherspoon; and Vin Baker. Heck, if anything, the Rockets PF situation is weaker than last year's. The Rockets guards are all under 6-4. And they just added a 6-2 SG that they hope to convert into a PG. He may be athletic, but realistically he is a back-up at both guard spots. We didn't address rebounding, low-post defense, or weakside help defense. This all puts a lot of pressure on free agency to solve all of the above.
Simien was every bit as good as Collison in college if not better he just played on a team that was not as good. At this point though I really don't care how good Simien was or will be, I would have been happy if we picked him but now I hope he sucks. I was hoping we wouldn't pick Head. But now he is a Rocket. I have to look at it objectively and I believe he was the best guard upgrade on the board when we picked. We have old guards now, so we drafted the best guard we could. A solid PF would have been great but I think the chances of Head being a solid contributer on our team or any team for that matter are far greater than the chances of Simien or Taft being solid PF's in the league. One thing about JVG is that he is always working on our defense. Crafty old guards are going to get beat on the perimeter no matter how crafty they are. A crafty old post player has a much better chance of playing good defense on a young post player and if that same post player decides to move away from the basket because he can beat our old guy on the perimeter, good, we took him out of his game. I grade B which is really a joke because there is no player we could pick at 24 that would allow us to grade A.
CD was on the radio this morning and from the sound of it, they are going to address those deficiencies via free agent market. He said to paraphrase - "We are in a very good situation right now where a lot of players are interested in the Rockets. I've had several phone calls and we are in a position where we can chose from the best option available instead of just selecting for the sake of it. The only limit for us right now would be the salary cap." Stromile Swift anybody?
C'mon now GATER, you know that's a ridiculous argument. Why did Chicago draft Ben Gordon last year? He wasn't even the best player on his team. There's no shame in being the 2nd best PG on a team when the "other" PG was drafted 3rd overall, and first among 3 PGs taken in the top 5. I will say Head did vault himself into the first round with his pre-draft. But he was a high 2nd rounder to begin with. Don't underplay his athleticism- being rated a better athlete than Paul, Felton, and Williams at the PG slot is nothing to sneeze at. I can agree that probably benefited Head. I don't know about "greatly". It's pure conjecture to say whether Head would have slipped or not. There were allegedly pre-draft concerns on whether Head would be at 24 to begin with. I don't think this was a Jason Collier-esque reach. There was a complete lack of movement all around, so trading down this year was a whole lot easier said than done. CD talked about Anderson predraft on 790. Said he wasn't a good enough shooter. I wasn't a big Anderson guy to begin with. If you think the combine numbers were over emphasized...he was still the primary perimeter defensive player on his team, and led the 2nd best team in the nation in scoring. I think that has been underemphasized. Head is a much better all around athlete and a better outside shooter. I would also say Head has much better intangibles...when I watched Anderson, he tended to sometimes have a disappearing effect (not unlike Terence Morris, and a couple other undrafted guys, Kennedy Winston and Azuibuke) I guess this is a wait and see. We may have something already cooking. Fact is, we have a trio of trade exceptions (though one dies soon), and will have the full MLE and LLE at our disposal on an attractive team, with a free agent class that will receive a bumper crop due to the luxury tax exemption. If JVG and co. are satisfied enough they can land Marshall, SAR, or Swift with the MLE, and Houston, Finley, or whoever for the LLE, this pick makes a lot of sense. Wesley was never as athletic as Head is. He's 2'' taller than Wesley, or the same size as Ben Gordon, or 1'' shorter than Mobley. Half full or half empty? Do you not see that Head is exactly what JVG loves in a PG- relatively mistake free, good defender, excellent spot up shooter in a package with superb athleticism. In the Dallas series, we were exposed due to lack of size and athleticism on the perimeter. It seems JVG thinks the size of Wesley wasn't as big an issue as the athleticism. Given our regular season finish, he may be right. It also should at least be pointed out, it won't be a huge positional switch for Head if he's playing the bigger 2s- with the Illini 3 guard lineup, he would be matched up against college 3s on many occasions. Fair enough and I can agree. But Head is a sound player coming from a good system in which he produced well. As others have noted, he has shown range to NBA 3s. I wanted Garcia as well, but I think our draft movement was tied this year (perhaps because we have player moves earmarked). Big vs. small was a risk reward thing. At 24, we weren't going to find a competent big man without exceptional risk attached.
C The Rockets didn't drop the ball, but they didn't exactly work wonders either. Head should be fine, but I don't see him starting games. I'm also wary of another converted PG attempt. On the flipside, he should help as a hustle player/defender and shooter. For me to give them more than a C, the Rockets would have needed to have pulled off a deal to grab an impact player. I know they tried, but it's the ends that count. Anyone that voted 'A' needs to stop and think if anyone else in the country would agree. Try and find any sports sites that even rate our draft as a B. Evan
I'm reasonably satisfied with the selection of Luther. I'm a bit disappointed, however, that the Rockets didn't acquire a second round pick. Maybe they tried but no one was willing to give one up, I don't know. But, with a lot of possible 1st round guys falling well into the second round, I think we could have picked up someone pretty decent there if we could have acquired a second rounder. Now, the next order of business is to get Luther to change his damn name! Too much potential for sex jokes and/or lame sports page headlines. If anyone needs a nickname that sticks, it's a guy named Head.
How did Anderson's ball handling and athleticism numbers rank out? I don't know, just asking. If you look at the squad from last year, the reason the Jim Jackson trade worked was because it basically exchanged a stagnant scorer for a ballhandling, quick, athletic semi-scorer. Anderson striked me as a Jim Jackson clone. That's probably why Anderson slipped out of the draft all together. Today's NBA is emphasizing speed, athleticism, ball handling, etc. more and more. Ben Gordon, Dwayne Wade, Gilbert Arenas...last year I would have thought all were too undersized to have as good a season as each did. That's not to say it wouldn't be nice to have someone in the backcourt at least a few inches taller than me. But they have to first and foremost be highly athletic and a great ballhandler for this team.
I heard that........Barnes is killing it in recruiting! They may actually draw a little more interest to their games here in Austin. Hook'em Horns If we get a PF in FA, the selection of Head will be a good one.
I give it a B. It was brutally obvious that we needed younger legs in the backcourt in game 7 vs. Dallas. I think addressing the backcourt need in the draft was the smart route to take. Now we gotta land us a PF via free agency or trade and this team'll be shaping up!
