Always positive comments from you, VinceCarter... Baxter is a good pickup to help out JHo and Swift. Can he play the SF position?
1. Mike James, Bob Sura, Luther Head, Moochie Norris, Charlie Ward 2. Derek Anderson, Jon Barry, David Wesley 3. Tracy McGrady, Ryan Bowen 4. Stromile Swift, Juwan Howard, Lonnie Baxter 5. Yao Ming, Dikembe Mutombo, Vin Baker Folks, there's gonna be a trade. Players having surgery or not, there has to be some kind of trade going down soon. We can't have this sort of roster. Don't get me wrong...FANTASTIC depth. And a great off-season. I'm glad for Baxter, and I hope he does well for us and himself and catches on. He's our Weatherspoon at a fraction of that player's contract (which the Rox are still paying out). Remembering that the Rockets tried to trade Juwan Howard in the offseason, and looking at our glut of guards, with no "true" (or worthwhile) PG among them, I'd say CD's still working the phones.
I think it is more like this: 12 man roster with perfect health: 1. Sura, James, DA 2. Wesley, DA, Barry 3. McGrady, DA/Sura, Bowen 4. Swift, Howard, Baxter, Bowen 5. Yao, Mutombo, Swift (Ward is waived, Head, Norris and Baker are inactive) One (or both) of DA or Sura for sure will start. DA and/or Sura if healthy can share the back-up 3 minutes in addition to their guard minutes. If anyone gets injured Head is activated. Bowen, Baxter and Head basically get garbage minutes barring injury. Baxter and Head we hope can give us contributions down the line. If their is a trade I have to say Wesley and Howard are the chief suspects, but I feel no need to trade them just to trade them. There really is only a squeeze for minutes with a perfectly healthy roster, which is pretty unlikely for any length of time. I agree, except that we only need to waive 1 player to make our 15--probably Ward for cost reasons.
Great pick up. Did a hell of a job for us in summer leagues. I just cant help but feel like a trade is on the way rather than us cutting someone.
I think I have said this before but I have always wondered why Baxter didn't catch on with other teams, i've seen him play on a couple teams and he always looked very productive. Stuart
Amen. He's not some stud, but everytime I see the guy play, he seems like he's hustling and worthy of at least 2nd or 3rd string minutes. The only negative I saw from the guy during summer league play was that his endurance seemed to wane towards the end of the game. But with the minutes he'd be getting with the Rockets, I don't think that will come into play. Ok, so there may be 2 negatives - his defense was suspect at times, too.
Baxter certainly earned a contract with his summer league play. The way this team is put together, it makes much more sense to give a roster spot to a younger guy like Baxter than to someone like Spoon or Baker.
Excellent upgrade to our bench. I'm suprised we actually picked up a big man rather than another guard.
I would be happy if we got the kind of play from Baxter that we get from Bowen... strong, physical, give up the body play for the minutes he's in. From what I read in the summer reports, ancient Doctor, he'll be an asset, and he's going to be cheap.
Summer league D is not JVG/team help D. LB's D may be suspect, but I suspect it will look different in Rox sets.
I don't think there are too many players in the NBA that do as much with so little as Bowen. There are very few that hustle like he does. I think they're completely different benchwarmers that can bring different aspects of the game to the Rockets' advantage. Bowen is aggressive and annoying. Baxter gives you more banging in the paint.
