Since this seem to be in high discussion in a lot of places, I thought it might be useful to consolidate here. So far, it appears that 10 players will definitely get playing time in the rotation. And 10 is a healthy amount for the regular season.... Yao, T-mac, Alston, Bonzi, Battier, Howard, Head, Hayes are clearly the main guys or just very needed. Beyond those 8, Deke and Synder seem the most likely to round out the rotation as Center and off guard figure to need the most back-up So that leaves us with Novak and Padgett fighting to be the 11th and the other the 12th guy in the rotation. Figure the rest as garbarge time....V-Span, JL3, and whatever scrub makes the team. I think Ryan Bowen is out.
jvg said he wanted a "shooter" out there with Tmac....Novak will get more minutes than Howard...unless howard beats out hayes...this team is so loaded,but Novaks shooting is needed and he plays pf and sf...But we have Tmac,battier,wells,snyder who can all play small forward but not power forward. I bet Novak gets the backup pf spot behind battier. alston/head wells tmac/snyder battier/novak yao/hayes howard can be the veteran who stands there patting guys on the butt during timeouts
I think Bowen and Padgett are gone. VSpan will be fine, I think with time he will make a very good NBA player. I'm dissappointed in JLIII, he looked so good in the summer leagues. I know it's the summer leagues but he seemed much improved. How many players can we keep on the roster?
I think we've had about 6-8 threads already EXACTLY like this. It's really nice to have repeat threads like this. It's much better than: 1. Lets cut Juwan Howard and eat his $8 million contract. 2. Lets fire JVG and hire Jon Barry as our head coach. 3. Mike James would have made us a contender last season. blah blah blah. Life is good.
Yes, I think you are right. Tracy McGrady Yao Ming Shane Battier Bonzi Wells Rafer Alston Luther Head Chuck Hayes Juwan Howard Kirk Snyder I think those guys will be in "heavy rotation." Dikembe Mutombo Vassillis Spanoulis Steve Novak These guys will round out the bunch, all three very useful. V-Span and Novak will obviously get a lot of garbage time to get adjusted to the NBA. That looks like a pretty outstanding roster.
is there a reason why spanoulis would be playing ahead of lucas bc from what i seen vspan will not touch the court..dont understand why so many ppl are expecting so much.. everybody should know that the rockets are not looking for potential players there looking for right now producers and vspan isnt there..john lucas is playing good and with energy and isnt playing scared..it seems like when vspan touches the ball he takes good amount off the clock...thats not going to fly with van gundy puttin up 18 sec up in practice..dont except any thing big from him..hes in a good situation for his career so he has plenty of upside..dont get me wrong i'm rooting for him but just being realstic about the situation
To start the season, I think the top 8 will be: Tracy Yao Battier Bonzi Rafer Snyder Luther JH Novak, Hayes and Deke will get regular time. V-Span and JL3 will get garbage time only. I'll give Padgett the 14th roster position and leave #15 open. As the season wears on, we can hope Novak and Hayes are good enough to push Deke and JH down the totem pole. If our defense is good enough, we should be able to get more blowout wins, rest our rotational players and get our development players good floor time.
That's good in how it takes Howard out the rotation. Except they would have no size and very little muscle at the 4. Why not have Mutombo keep doing his thing and have Hayes back up the 4? I do see where you're going though. If JVG covets that shooter so much then Novak is surely that option to consider and somebody else will have to get bumped out.
V-span has more potential upside as a third pg then JLIII. Where as JLII most likely can serve regular pg duties, V-span if he gets his sea legs could great problems for other teams in certain situations. As for Howard - he will remain a big part of the rotation so long as he can continue to hit that 15 foot jumper. Although he may not be that needed with the higher offensive output of the rest of the team. Novak is still an unproven product. He can shoot - but that's only great in end of game situations if he can't do the other basketball stuff....namely defend. I think he isn't going to see time right away but who knows how he will develop. These guys are rookies on a vetern team - at best they may find minute roles in very specific situations - but that's something they will have to earn.
This is how I see the minutes being distributed Alston (30) / Head (?) TMac (30) / Snyder (?) Battier (35) / Bonzi (30) *they will find minutes for Bonzi as a SG / SF Howard (20) / Hayes (?) / Novak (?) Yao (35) / Deke (?) You know the main guys are going to play 30+ minutes per game. Yao / TMac / Battier / Alston / Bonzi (30+) Howard / Snyder / Head (20+) I dont know how people think Hayes or Novak will get big minutes I think it all depends on matchup. *hopefully Novak can become a decent rebounder which will earn him more minutes. J
JVg said the rotation will be 9 deep at most. 1. yao 2. tmac 3. shane 4. bonzi 5. rafer 6. snyder 7. head 8. hayes 9. jho rounding out the bench will be: 10, novak 11. billy 12. deke i predict that by the end of the year novak will overtake jho's minutes.
I don't know if minutes are going to be a big thing. With this team I expect match-ups and attempting to create certain mismatches on any given night will have more to do with minutes for the bench. This line-up may be flexible enough to do it....
originally my opinion was, novak would contribute as much as pike, but i've changed my mind. i reckon he'll play as much as barry did. rafer bonzi head tmac snyder battier novak padgett yao jho this main core is versatile enough to play without a true backup point but it would be ideal to find one (be it lucas, billy, or through trade) so head and tmac can play in their best positions.
That's what I think. JVG will go into each game with a different 8 or 9 man rotation that will change depending on who we are playing.
Not if its not necessary for us to win. If we can win with Tmac playing 30 minutes, I'd wanna save his back till playoff time. Sure his stats might have a dropoff, but I'm sure he'd rather win a championship than a MVP award. and I agree w/ Smoothie's rotation post, and I'm hoping Novak can take away Jho's minutes sooner rather than later.
I am sure t-mac's back will be a concern for the rest of his career. but i doubt novak will be a big time contributor this year....minor role player at best.
I personaly think the starting unit should be this... PG: Rafer Alston SG: Kirk Snyder SF: Tracy McGrady PF: Shane Battier C: Yao Ming 6th Man: Bonzi Wells Why I don't think Wells should start? Because of the way The Rockets are capable of running this season. With Kirk Snyder being athletic and capable of finishing strong, he would be perfect. Plus, with Bonzi coming off the bench with some other bench guys, he can bring vetran leader ship and be a goto man when Yao or T-Mac is not on the court.
