I was surfing the NBA teams this a.m. looking at all the 17- to 19-man rosters. There will be a lot of blood on the floor within a few weeks. (What is the day for final cuts?) Who are the Rockets going to cut, and is there anybody out there who will be cut and who would be a superior replacement for the "15th man" on the Rockets?
About the only thing the 15th man is good for is giving the starters a good test during practices. I don't think we would get any steals from someone else's toss outs.
I think the Rockets are happy with the roster they have (with or without Jackson) so they won't be scouring the waiver wire after the rest of the teams make their cuts. As for the Rockets cuts, I think they will be obvious: Tierre Brown, Kelley, Nwonkwo, possibly Torres or Jones, but if it came down to one of them, I think they would "strain their lower back". j
J, I think the Bulls will definitely cut Jake Voskuhl (6-11, 250 lbs) and perhaps Dalibor Bagarac (7-1, 280 lbs). I'd rather have either one of those big men "rehabbing" on our IR than Ike Nkwanko, Kelly or Jones. Last year I was in San Antonio, where they televised a lot of Bulls games, and I was fairly impressed with Bagarac's play. Since the Bulls are stuffed with centers, they may release him. Nothing against Ike, he plays hard. Jones is good but no longer is necessary with the emergence of Torres. I'd rather stash another big man.
I like Torres and Nwanko. Torres could play some backup shooting guard in place of Shandon Anderson. He's shown that he can shoot the trey, and his general offensive game seems to be better than Shandon's last year, although I doubt Torres is up to par with Shandon in terms of defense. Plus, Torres has great size for a shooting guard, and is pretty athletic - I think he is a keeper. I believe Jones is already under contract Nwanko hustles his ass off, and seems to have a decent stroke also. In any case, he will be reserve big man in case Collier, Cato, and/or Jackson get injured - I dont think it would hurt to have a spare big man that will work his ass off. Reminds me of a bigger Carlos Rogers.
Note: This post is assuming we get Jackson, if we don't, then I'm all for finding one more solid big man, if possible. While I would normally agree another big man couldn't hurt us, with the new rules this season I think we are better off staying small. We can play small ball better than in other team IMO. Jones is a great shooter, and I see us playing a three guard line up with a small forward and power forward quite a bit. I'd much rather have a proven commodity (good back up PG/SG) in Jones than a slow center from Chicago. Though I must admit I am not really familiar with any of the Bulls centers other than Miller. Maybe GetinBranded or whatever his name is could tell us what he thinks of the different Bulls centers. I agree that Ike just isn't going to cut it at this point. I love his attitude, but I think a year in the development league or Europe would be better for him. (Same goes for Langhi) B
B: Voskuhl was a 4-year center at Connecticut and is a Houston high school grad. His game was predicated on quickness. His deficiency was lack of weight (245 lbs). However, he did add weight and strength during limited tour of duty at Chicago. Bagarac is huge and pretty agile. Although both have promise, they are getting shoved aside by Curry, Chandler and Miller.
enbehay, Well, if you are correct in your assessment, maybe either one would be a good fit for our running game. I wish I had payed attention more to the Bulls when I lived in Chicago last year, but I got NBA League Pass and mainly just watched the Rockets. Thanks for the info! Some issues I should just keep quiet if I don't have all the facts, but then again, I guess this is how I learn. B
Saleem, you're probably right, but I can hope. The chances are they will trade Bagarac to a center-starved team like the Knicks. B, as badly as the Bulls played last year, I'm not surprised you looked elsewhere. However, my reply was not meant as criticism. I only wanted to point out why I hold out hope of stashing another big man, especially since we don't have Jackson in the fold yet and because our current big men seem to be injury prone.
