Yao Ming is one of the top centers in basketball, but he did have his flaws. Yao doesn't jump very well and has bad hands. It was a difficult task getting him the ball when fronted, lobbing the ball was almost impossible and a low bounce pass usually resulted in a turnover. Our guards were limited when passing him the ball, especially driving the lane. Andersen appears to be more athletic and will be a better receiver of those passes, something that fits RA's offense much better.
David Anderson sounds like a good fit to a running and gunning style offense -- solid mid range jumper and can run the floor well. I'm a little concerned with his rebounding number and his defense, but I will hold my judgement until I see him play.
Nice catch rockbox. I agree with this the most... seems more like Aldridge in terms of having a really good jumpshot. I don't see too many Brad Miller similarities, while Bargnani is a reasonable, but not the best, comparison imo. Currently, Aldridge's main post move is his turnaround fadeaway jumper, which seems like Andersen's strength in the post as well. Andersen looks like he hits the euro 3 with a higher percentage than Aldridge hits the NBA 3. Overall, I'm very happy about the signing just because we needed a really tall guy who is fit enough to run the floor, perhaps diverting attention from Brooks and Scola (and now Ariza I guess). He doesn't seem like a great offensive rebounder, but if he does that it's a bonus for the team. His post jumper and 3 point shot is the most valuable to this current team's strategy. I think just being immersed in this 'pitbull' Rocket team's atmosphere will encourage him to hustle and grab defensive rebounds at a good rate; he already has the height. I think the pick and pop is going to be his best friend, and Aaron Brooks will continue to be a stud in the paint (if he stays with the team). Winning follows Andersen which is the most exciting thing for me.
he seems to fit our offense well which i like, he's got size, but probably soft. we have hayes, landry, and scola, so i went it will itself out. he's 29, a good age to come in and play with the group we have now. the shooting will help, especially if scola gets more shots in the paint. like not giving up any assets except a 2nd round pick. overall, a GREAT pickup.
maybe it's just me, but i prefer to have Andersen at this cost than Gortat at MLE. Blessing in disguise that Dallas outbid us? Or maybe this is why Morey's offer was somewhat less than other teams were offering, because we had Andersen as an alternative.
Cmon man, are you telling me you didn;t see many possessions where he would make stupid decisions with the ball. There were plenty of times where I could remember, he just puts his head down, and tries to do too much with the ball. I admire him for attacking the basket, but when it starts to hurt your team, enough is enough. Many times he didn't pass the ball back into Yao for a repost, or even look to pass it into him in the first place. Even if he did, there were many times where he wasn't patient enough to let Yao get his position, and he would try to drive it in to traffic, looking like a chicken with his head cut off and force up a shot. His stats were okay, but stats don't tell you about bball IQ, except for turnovers. Luckily, we limited how much he created for us, he's much better at finishing plays. However, theres no stat for decision making, not getting the ball to your best player, not playing defense, etc. His me-first attitude isn't exactly something to be thrilled about either... He's good at what he does...scoring. I'll give you that. But all I'm saying is he isn't a very smart player on the court. And yes his shot is very streaky. Some days he'll hit 4 3's, other days he'll miss much more than he makes. For a bench player, thats fine, but he is not a starting point guard in this league, thats for sure. If we get him for cheap, fine, lets keep him and let him develop. But the fact that he turned down 3.5 million per year is just shocking to me...the guy was a nobody before January. You mention one bad series...he got shut down by Vujacic!! lol. If you get shut down by a guy who can't play defense, unathletic and is overaggressive, you shouldn't be starting on a NBA team, let alone be a rotation player. He's too damn predictable on offense. He'll pump fake, take a bunch of hard dribbles with his head down, and won't stop til either you steal it from him, or he gets a shot off. Otherwise, he'll settle for a contested 3, even though he's only 6'4.
I gave him credit for being a good finisher...however, when the defense collapses on you and you still decide to shoot over 2 people instead of atleast LOOKING for the open man, thats when you look stupid on the court and hurt your team.
PG remains a problem. Brooks can run and get his own shot off, but he is not a natural passer. I was disappointed that he failed to dish the ball in the paint after penetrating and his pick and pop execution is average at best. He also didn't use his bounce pass effectively. Combined scoring and passing will be a problem for him. I expect some improvement from him as a PG. Just because we are looking more likely to play in an open court setting,doesn't mean we going to transit quickly into a fast break team. Lowry is a better passer,he will throw down some lobs to Landry,and perhaps to Andersen too. Lowry will have to execute the pick and pop with them and the pick and roll with Luis. He needs more experience and time to become a better PG. It's good that,he doesn't take Rafer like shots,but his outside shooting needs a lot of improvement. Not having enough scorers,will cause problems for them too.
Lee, I can certainly see your point here about the need to rebuild. But committing to a total rebuilding would not make good business sense. After all, they still have to put butts in the seats at the TC. Just how many folks will turn out for a 20 or 30 win team? Look at the Clippers - a team that is in eternal rebuilding mode or look at the NY Knicks and you'll have to agree that as bad as things look right now, they could be much much worse. The danger with rebuilding is that you may find yourself in a position where you never stop. As moves go, this was about the best Morey could do: the guy is cheap, has some skills (at least offensively) that fit the RA system and brings some size. Considering that we had nothing at the 5 before this deal, Morey has done about the best that he could given the dearth of available big men. Would I have preferred that he had gotten say Okufur? HELL Yeah but that was simply not practical. Look, it is what it is and folks here should begin to accept the reality of the situation: no playoffs next year and a trip to NBA lotto while they decide how to proceed sans Yao & TGlass. Morey is now faced with having to change the entire premise on which this team was constructed (Yao+TGlass being the core of a champioship team) and that cannot be done overnight especially in the West. He's been able to find some pretty good complementary players but he will have to now find 2 maybe 3 star players who can transform this team into a true contender and that remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen just how Uncle Les will react once the losing starts and the TC empties out. To truly rebuild, Morey will also have to know what style of play his team will use and to do that he'll need to know who will be coaching this team. For now it's Adelman but given the track record of the owner, that's not likely to be the case in the future as Les has shown that the head coach will always take the fall for his and his organization's mistakes. So in say 2 years, Morey could be faced with replacing Yao & finding yet another head coach. It's not like we haven't seen this before as it's been going on around here for the last dozen years. I guess that the more things change around here, the more they stay the same.
So I was just thinking. Is Anderson Scola insurance?? I know Scola is great player and my current favorite Rocket. But given that.. we really need another star, it looks like we will get trying to get that person via trade, and Scola will be looking for a substantial raise next year, is Morey hoping that Anderson comes in plays well and allows us to package Scola in some deal for a star player?
Quite possible. Rosas mentioned that the Rockets saw him as a player who could backup Yao and slide over to play the 4 alongside him.
if anything I think it would me that Landry is a bit expendable. I think more teams around the league may value Landry more on his reasonable contract and his youth over scola once Yao is back for the 2010/11 season. Scola is still very effective with yao and more importantly in adelman's system knows where to move and when/where to make the pass I think if Anderson is looked to be a backup 4 and 5 when Yao is back then Landry may be the one on his wait out to help fill another hole on the roster.
i am absolutely STOKED about getting Anderson. I've seen him play for a long while now, ever since he was a 'no-name' playing for Frankston in Australia. The man can flat out shoot and has great bball IQ and will be great under the Adelman offense because of his ability to space the floor. I don't think he is as established as Scola in the low block, but he can definately hold his own. GO ANDERSON! Do it for your fellow melbournian!
That has nothing to do with what I am saying. Given whatever happen with other players we were looking at that did not sign, how Yao's injury, and the official news on the salary cap for this year and next year, it is not crazy to think that Anderson is Scola insurance and Morey is hoping that if he plays well, we could be free to trade Scola in a deal for a star.
