IMO, MoTay was the unsung hero of this team last year. You guys are blinded by his contract, which is very bad, but it isn't nearly as horrible as some make it out to be. He knocked down the midrange jumper on a very consistent basis last year! I think that fills a void that this team needs to have filled. Having T-Mac this year won't make that role quite as critical, but the one-two punch of Howard-Taylor on this board is HIGHLY underrated. Especially when you consider that Spoon might be able to contribue some hustle as the third stringer!
I don't think so. Ward is JVG's man, so he's going to get his minutes no matter what. He's going to get around 28 minutes IMO, which leaves 20 at PG. Assuming T-mac and JJ play 40 minutes each, that leaves 16 minutes at the 2/3. We have these players eligible for those 16 minutes: Pike, Boki, AG, Gaines, and Padgett at times. So there are 20 minutes at PG and 16 minutes at the 2/3. I'm very saefly assuming Boki will eat up those 8 minutes. Even if he repeats last year's performance, Boki is going to get his 10 minutes and that's a worst case scenario (i.e., he sucks). That leaves 20 minutes at PG, and 8 minutes at SG. A total of 28 minutes. He is just barely going to be satisfied with that. Now in case something happens, there's alwasy Griffin to take the 2/3 minutes, and Gaines to take the 1/2 minutes. We would simply up Ward's minutes to 35, and split the 13 minutes between Gaines and JJ. Even if we want some coverage in this scenario, it's much more efficient to re-sign Wilks for the "in case **** happens" situations, and use Lue as an asset in trades. Lots of teams are looking for PG's right now, so I think we would be better off trading him than keeping him. Unless ofcourse we deal Pike and Griffin, which would open up some more minutes at the 2/3 for Sura, and Lue could play a bit more. I'd rather have him playing PG than Sura, he's a much better shooter.
One dimensional low post scorers are *not* common. We don't need Mo Taylor to be Karl Malone. He is a nice offensive boost of the bench on a team that needs scoring punch. He works well with Yao and provides a nice spark. Yes, he's overpaid, but with Brian freaking Cardinal approaching his salary, I am not even sure of that anymore.
Sane,Ward will get his minutes but he will struggle against quicker and bigger guards. That will cause us major problems. Lue is at least quick enough against smaller PG's and is a pretty good shooter and passer even though he isn't starter material.
one thing I'm afraid is, with lue not exercising his option earlier this year, could he had some verbal agreement with the rox management that he will not be dealt? -- I can't really think of any other reason that lue does not test the FA market otherwise. and if that is so, with the history of rox management, I don't see them breaking any verbal agreements at all and trade lue away. any thoughts on this?
I don't think moving Lue is our priority ryt now. What's important is how can we move the salaries of Pike, A. Griffin or Spoon...
Lue is as career 39% 3 point shooter and is the quickest of our PGs. He also shot 38% from 3 land on a crappy team last year. I absolutely don't want to trade him unless it was for a player to be out starting 1 like AD. Assuming the current PG situation, Lue will get more minutes at PG than any other player this year IMO. Charlie Ward is also a very solid career 3 point shooter, but the guy will be 34 shortly and has only averaged 22 MPG over his career. I expect 15, at a max, 20 MPG, from Ward, he may also be on the IR some games to keep him fresh for the playoffs. Guessing, I'd say like 25 MPG from Lue, 17 MPG from Ward and like 9 MPG from Sura, on average, in the 1 spot (assuming a few games missed by one or the other--especially Ward). How we use Sura will impact a lot of the minutes for Ward and Lue, but I expect the vast majority minutes at back-up 2 and only occasionally we go big with Sura at the 1. As for Padget. I am sure it is for the vet min. Good signing, I see it most as insurance for if Boki's 3 shooting goes south (he showed improvement to an adequate 36.5% last year so I hope this trend continues). Assuming the Mutumbo deal goes forward (taking away back-up C minutes from MoT or JH), I don't see any meaningul minutes for Spoon at the 4 barring injury. Same deal for Padget. Really no room for 4 minutes behind JH and MOT and possibly Spoon, plus JJ, Boki and Tmac will take all the 3 minutes barring injury or complete regression by Boki. But injuries could happen, as could Boki being overwhelmed as the primary back-up 3, so it is nice to have another guy youth think can fill in and do some positive things (nail 3s from the wings and take a hustle approach to everthing else) if needed.
Regression? He needs to progress to become a decent player, a regression and the Rockets don't pick up his option. Right now, the underrated Padgett is the better option than the overrated Nachbar.
He's the Matt Bullard of the current Rockets. Great spot up shooter, tall, not a great defender, but a hustle player. And, a veteran. I think the Rockets did the right thing here. It's a role that needs to be filled for this team.
from the other thread i hear 5 years 48 million. but i would be totally shocked if it was anything less than a 7 year deal. he sure can shoot afterall.
Now, dconover, how on Earth did Ward make your list? Is it because he's a Jew-hater? In your book, would being a Jew-hater overcome the fact that he's black ? dconover has been been pushing his racist views on this bbs for a long time, however, calling Pisskowski a "tough defensive player" is the most absurd thing he's come up with so far...
I have not read a post by dcomover, so I won't touch Kayman's theme, but I don't see how smart and good shooting can be used in the same sentence as Bob Sura. Sura plays a lot like a hybrid of Francis/Cat Mobley but isn't as good a shooter. I hope like with Cat Mobley he listens to JVG and plays to his strength--then he can be a good back-up for us. Nor can I see how hard nosed, smart, and tough defensive can be used to describe Boki. That sounds more like Adrian Griffin. I am hoping Boki can provide a scoring punch off the bench though.
We got a new Matt bullard.... woah ehh heh heh... I'm not too annoyed at this signing. I think if he concentrates on his 3 point shooting and outside shots he'll definitely help stretch the defense out when we let mcgrady take over the game.
