I really think Boki will open eyes wide shut or something. It's hard to describe, but there is something really special in him that I sense...
Sure it will be Yao Ming. Remember he could have come to NBA with the No. 1 overall last year. Now he got one more year to prepare, there is no way he won't be an impact player. Remember someone (Bill Wharton?) said any team should start Yao right away if it drafts him. I believe it will definitely be the case with Rockets.
If Rice gets hurt, Boki will be Rookie of the Year. Otherwise he will bide his time on the bench while Glenn Rice gets most of the playing time. Ming should get some playing time this year. I'm not sure how quickly he can adjust to the NBA style of play. It may take a few seasons.
Yao is ready to play. Only months, not several seasons for him to adjust. He will adjust while serving as the starting center for us.
The best chance is J Williams. Butler has some chance but since he plays for Pat Riley, he needs to adjust to their defense system first. Anyone who thinks Ming can be ROY has seriously too high expectation. He won't get significant PT before he can play better defense and adjust to NBA quickness. And Rudy will surely bring him along slowly.
Top 5 finish 1. Ming 14pts 11boards 3blks (I wish) 2.Butler 17pts 6boards 3.Wagner 15pts 5assist 1stl 4.Williams 16pts 7assist 5. Gooden 14pts 9boards
as much as id like to see one of our players win the ROY, i dont think either of them have much of a chance. when i began reading this post i had the notion that Rudy prefers to bring players along slowly, which will cut down Yao, and Boki's numbers considerably. However, after reading a few of the things said, like how Les will be counting on Yao to fill seats at the Compaq Center, this made me think that maybe, just once out of gut feeling or simpley because the player has the talent, Rudy will start the player for that reason. I would not be surprised at all to see Boki getting only 10-15 minutes a game well into the season because that's Rudy, the slower the better to him. We all want to see them play as much and as soon as possible, and believe they are pretty much ready to make an impact, but unfortunately Rudy doesn't think that way. It all brings back memories of Eddie last year, we all thought if he had the playing time he had a great chance to be ROY, but unfortunately he didn't get it until it was too late. Even with the talent our rookies have, I don't believe either will win ROY just because Rudy is that determined to stick with his beliefs that rookies should be brought along slow. We did start Steve right away, but we also gave up a ton to get him and had nobody even relatively close to him to take the spot. Not that Cato is better than Yao, but Rudy will simply take it slow and start Cato (I hope I'm wrong about this) for a while until the right time. Personally I think Rudy is too easy on these guys, he just lets them sit and learn forever, instead of tossing them into the works and making them work that much harder. The bottom line: Yao has a good chance to be ROY, I'd say most likely though he will be 3rd or 4th in the voting, even though he will probaly put up 10-12 pts., 8-10 boards, 1.5-2.5 blocks, and probably 3-4 assists. Those are great rookie numbers, but with what he is going against (Jay Williams, Caron butler, pretty much those guys) he will have to put up, I would say, at least 5-7 more points to make a strong run for the ROY. We know Jay Williams will probably get his points, but I wouldn't be surprised if Butler didn't have that great of rookie year (even though im betting against this) simply because he will be playing under Riley. Riley is all defense, and Butler isn't. I think Butler will get his PT, but if he doesn't play SOME defense out there Riley will bash him. Boki probably won't get much time unless (prays) Rice gets injured again or he makes an awesome impact before the season. Pugs
id' have to go with Jay Williams also. He'll be the man in Chicago, at least for next year. Yao might surprise some people if he plays well immediately but i'd put my money on Williams still.
Do people reallly think that J Williams will averaged 20-25 points a game? There is no way he can average those numbers his rookie year, he didn't average those numbers in college, and they expect him to come to the NBA and average more points, no way. However, Jay and Butler probably have the best chances for ROY
I like Boki also, but don't you guys remember Mirsad Turkcan?? He was supposed to be an athletic sharpshooter with the perfect attitude who loved the Rockets, the media guys thought he waswonderful, etc etc. I have to see it to believe it when it comes to Nachbar, and there's no way he makes the all rookie 1st team. Even if he's good, exactly how many shots will ge get?? There's francis and mobley, then you've got some shots for Griffin, KT, MoT, and Ming, so he's gonna get maybe 8-9 shots a game if he's good. I'd say the ceiling on his scoring avg. is about 12, which won't be 1st team material.
You have a good point, but are missing a piece of the overall picture. We had one of the worse offensive teams in the league last year... 22 out of 29? Its obvious things will have to change because letting francis and mobley jack it up from the outside isn't going to get us anywhere except in the Lebron James sweepstakes next year.
Probably Jay W. However, Gooden, playing for JWest will have a shot.... think of LA w/out Shaq and that'll tell you the style that West'll try to put on the court. Nice talent there, too. Butler'll do fine in Miami. Guy to look for having a strong rook year is Jeffries.
Stevie started his first year and won co-roy so there is precedence for a rookie getting a lot of pt. Let's not forget that Griffin was only 19 last year and Steve was 22 I believe. So I think age and maturity has a lot to do with it. Ming is 19 or 20 and Nachbar is 22. And based on the fact that we are pretty weak at both positions I believe they will have just as good a chance as anyone at starting. I have a feeling that Yao will have to take the spot from Cato though. If I remember correctly Cato actually came on a little bit in the second half. But Cato still sucks until he proves otherwise. Even if Rice does a major come back season to start out I just wouldn't trust that he stays healthy. So I think one way or another Nachbar will have a chance to start. And if he does get that chance I think he won't relinquish the spot. Just my 2 cents.
You are wrong. Steve Francis averaged 17 ppg in college and his average his 1st year was 18 ppg. Francis was also on a much more talented Rockets team. Jay Williams is going to a pretty bad team where he will have to step up and be the man. The college game is shorter than the NBA game, thus you cannot compare averages from one to another. Jason Williams averaged 21.4 ppg. He could definitly replicate that on the Bulls.
I am not even sure you would want Yao to get the type of points needed to be ROY. IMO the best scenario is that Yao is eased into the system and the other players (Francis, Mobley, Griffin) numbers will stay the same if not improve. Then with Nachbar, Taylor, and Rice added... it will be scary. Yao having a big scoring year would suggest trouble... it would mean Francis was hurt. Or, there would be grumbling among Francis and Mobley.
An important distinction needs to be pointed out when talking about how much playing time Yao will get on the Rockets. The question is not whether he is ready to play in the NBA. The question is whether his efforts will help the team more than those of Kelvin Cato and Jason Collier. The answer to that question is unequivocally yes.
