Good stuff man, thanks for the info... I am a big fan of Chase. He is a heck of an athlete, love his shot. A second round STEAL... I think... I hope!
I find it funny that there is another Arizona basketball fan here that happened to want Chase (somehow, without any picks) too. It would be another icing on the cake if Chase makes this team and can contribute this fall. Btw, I'm gonna rep you because you're a Cats/Chase fan like me!
At least my take I believe the Rockets like is overall aggressive offensivegame (getting to the hoop etc) he isnt a bad shooter but his mechanics are "fundamental" much like Von Wafer's but it still goes in. I think with the shoot drills and tips that Coach Respert was giving him Friday it seems the Rockets are working on that portion. I dunno Rod is nice guy but he is the shortest 6'10/6'11 guy out I have seen. Made little to no impact rebounding/playing D. Offensively he did real poor. I think he is better off sticking to blogging, he has a colorful personality so he probably will stick somewhere.
Thanks, YoYo-- good stuff like this is what we're lookin' for in here! From what I've seen on my laptop screen, Budinger looks like a second-round steal, maybe the steal of the draft. Of course, it's summer league, I keep reminding myself. I still think he needs to tune his hustle motor up a bit on the defensive end. But the boy looks so skilled in every phase of offense, he's made the team, and he's looking to crack the rotation. I like Leeunen as a four to space the floor. Conroy has looked like a competent PG. I suppose they, and White and Taylor, have shots at the roster that depend on Morey's upcoming moves. Dorsey looks much better than I'd feared he'd look. If he and Chuck are all we wind up with at the C position, we might be all right; if we're playing hard-nosed D, and get every possible steal, rebound, and 50-50 ball, we might run opponents off the court. So many times last year we looked better, and made our runs, when Yao (and, of course, Mac) sat-- that gives me hope for our speed line-up's chances.
If Wafer gets greedy and goes somewhere else, Jermaine Taylor can easily take his spot. JT is taller and has a much better frame with similar quickness and athleticism. But like Wafer, his shot is going to need to improve. Unless he can concentrate better defensively he won't have a niche on this team if in fact Wafer decides to stay. Chase on the other hand, has a potential niche because of his shooting ability, athletic ability in the open court and his overall passing/feel for the game. His defense will exposed against the starting athletes, but against the regular off-the-bench type athletes, he will be fine. He is NOT bad laterally. Its his reaction time and positioning that gets him in trouble sometimes, along with his average length. But after watching three years of college + rare high school tapes, he has the ability to slide over the second time once he gets beaten and cut off his man or get close enough to him to contest the shot. Draftexpress said the same thing about him:
Not even close bud ! Von is about the same height, within an inch and is WAY better of an athlete than Taylor. Honestly, I don't see anything in Taylor at all, and would be surprised if he develops into anything, he just doesn't seem to get it, and has to have the ball in his hands...which ain't happening. Agreed. DD
If the coaches don't reinvent the wheel with Taylor,I'm fine with it. Sounds like they are trying to refine things from what you are saying. Too bad for Benson.
Okay, I'll agree that Wafer is better than Taylor... but hes not a WAY better athlete.. Taylor tested out as one of the best athletes in the draft.
Taylor DOES have a better frame than him though, just by eyeballing him relative to Wafer. Plus, he already carries more relative muscle than Wafer too. He has a similar body frame to Ron Artest (but that's about the only similar characteristic right now). But one thing Wafer and Taylor both share is a score first/shoot second mentality. That can be a good thing or really bad thing depending on the environment or team.
Thank you for the info much appreciated. I agree with you on White i expected more, Do you see him sticking? Once again very insightful, solid thread
Let me add that we should all take these SL performances with a grain of salt. Ok, well maybe a little more. Remember, our very own John Lucas III was an actual MVP of that same Vegas Summer League a few years back and now hes not even in the NBA. I just don't want people to over hype our young guys and then when they struggle in the real NBA game, go too hard on them.
How can you be so quick to judge his potential? I doubt any of us watched a bunch of UCF games last year, so most of us are getting our impressions from two summer league games where he just came off a hamstring injury. Were you this quick to write off Landry after his atrocious debut?
Coming from a die hard OSU fan, Lucas III never had a realistic chance to stick in the NBA. He is/was too small and frail for his size and plus he was never really a true PG so he didn't last long, although he did have a short stint with us. So to be fair, these guys like Taylor/Budinger have much more realistic chance of making our team because of their skill/size package, and plus this team currently is devoid of any young athletic talent at the wing spot off the bench or otherwise (asides from Ariza, but he is hardly an offensive juggernaut either)
Awesome, thanks! Most surprised (and disappointed) to hear about James White after so many were thinking he could replace Von. Love hearing about Budinger, but I think he was the most highly touted of everyone already given his prospect status a few years ago
...if Dejaun Blair's knees hold up, he might be THE second round steal, but if Chase can develop into a solid role player, I think the Rockets will look like geniuses. I'm pretty excited about his promise - even more so than some of our other recent picks(like Donte Greene).
David Thorpe, a scout for espn happened to address shooting form for young players and about fixing/improving it. http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-42-64/Day-Three-Summer-League-Roundup.html JT has had pretty solid shooting percentages in college (even from 3), so maybe he's an example of a guy who can improve his shooting if you tweak/fix his form.
- Taylor is the better athlete. - Funny you say Taylor doesn't seem to get IT..... are you implying that Wafer does? LOL. - What exactly does Wafer do when he doesn't have the ball in his hands? Absolutely nothing.
different athletes now, better athletes than high school and Pac-10, but similar to what I mentioned in my OP that Chase always closed out strong on contesting shots. I really like what I saw in him his defense was a very nice bonus thanks for the comments...I dont know I was disappointed with him, he looked very relaxed/apathetic on the court. I dont know if he felt he was going through the motions or felt it was kind of an insult for him to play summer league? Doesnt really look good either way if you ask me. Especially when you have guys like Anthony Randolph playing when they didnt have too and they were playing hard too. Obviously the Rockets brass saw more than these past 3 games to like him so I am still going to rely on their past scouting reports/evidence than base his future on 3 SL games. Blair dropped a lot of weight and I dont know how much of a deal his knees are if he didnt miss any games and practices in college, but seeing Blair on the spurs made me upset to my stomach. When he was out there any rebound seemed like it was his, especially offensively. His post game will need some more work though because of the dropped weight the doesnt push people around as easy anymore (he still pushes them around though) but Blair will be a good piece off the bench for the spurs.
and a continued apology to YoYo for further derailing.... http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=157442&page=3&pp=20 that thread should answer most questions....dont be discouraged by the length of the thread...the meat of it is within 5 or 6 pages from where the link starts you at....the rest of it is standard Feedback derailment.
