ktvoss, you clearly don't think Stoudamire would be an upgrade over Sura. We get that. I think most people would disagree with you, but you have a right to your opinion. That said, why even bother continuing with this thread if no one's going to make you change your mind? You've clearly latched onto the idea that Sura = Good, Damon = Bad, and if anyone disagrees you're not going to pay any attention to it. So why are we even discussing this? You've made your point. Now move on.
The only thing wrong with Sura is that his injuries are scary as hell. After the first three games of the Dallas series, you could tell that he wasn't the same player. He couldn't bring the ball up, he couldn't defend and he couldn't score. He scored 12 points in 4 games! I'm not saying that Sura lost the series for us, but you can't have your starting PG put up a doughnut for 4 straight games in the playoffs. And with his age and injury history, we just can't rely on him as our starter. This team is on the verge of something special. We've got the best frontcourt in the league. We've got a defensive wizard of a head coach, two shotblockers at the 4 and 5, and a potential shutdown perimeter defender. We just cannot afford to have question marks in the backcourt if we are hoping to contend.
ktvoss - Welcome to the Board. I may be an even bigger Sura fan than you are. The guy was just tore up by the time we got to game three with Dallas. I was dissapointed and even angry that JVG didn't start MJ for his D and his perimeter success, especially in Game 7, when getting off to a good start was easily in the top three of your gametime priorities. I think those on the Board who say Sura can't defend and can't shoot have very little b-ball IQ. Sura will be the last of our "expendable" guard traded because JVG understands the pro game better than these naysayers. Sura's NBA rep is as a "defensive stopper" at the 2 !! And as far as his offense, without even looking, I can tell you that when he was healthy, Sura scored more than 15 ppg more often than any other Rocket. He also was more likely to penetrate than anyone else on the team, except T-Mac, and that was a close call. T-Mac was the heart of this team last year but Bobby Sura was the soul. You just don't trade that away. I say we give the guy the shot in training camp and preseason to see if anyone (including DS) can outplay him at the point.... Those of you casting doubt on Bobby will be truly surprised if he comes back healthy. And if he gets hurt, then we put in MJ or the rookie until CD makes another trade to bring the next mid-season Rocket revelation. Bobby Sura is better for THIS Rockets team than DS will or could ever be!!
I can buy that. McGrady played with Damon for 1 season and that season mcgrady hardly played before he was traded to Port and was supposed to be the savior. What did he do? Pretty much nothing and they tried to get rid of him but it was too late because of the max money he was getting.
Sura has his gifts and qualities no doubt, but he also has GLARING weaknesses. He's too slow to guard both the 1 and the 2. He can't pass to Yao in the paint. He dribbles into the paint with no idea of what he's going to do next. He doesn't finish well in the paint. He's not a point guard for sure. I do like many things about him though. His toughness, rebounding, and determination. But if DS became available or any other good point guard...later Sura. We already have toughness in Deke, T-mac. We have rebounding in Yao, Deke, and Swift. And all the Rox have determination. What we do need is a good point guard to take the pressure off T-mac.
I want Sura on this team too, but we just can't rely on him as a starter because it's too likely his back or knee will flare up. I respect him as much as anyone on the team, but there is a saying: The mind is willing, the body is weak. His body will likely be weak come playoff time next season.
I was just pointing out a good player that might become available next year. I know Swift is new to our team and there is a lot of love for him but EB>SS. We can debate who is better on our team but not who is better.
it should be so obvious that sura should be a bench guy. on two playoff games even van gundy admitted that the team lost the 1st and 3rd quarters, which were started with sura and that they won the 2nd and 4th quarters when james started the quarter. i know some of that was cuz of the injury, but i dont see him coming back much healthier. a year older with the pains of old injuries.
I'll take someone who is competitive over someone who is skilled. That is why the NewYork Knicks got as far as they did in 94 and 99. I think it is a trait JVG values. Sura plays with a lot of pride and in a death match he'd be the guy I'd want to play for me. We lost to Dallas because we lost our poise. Our heads weren't right: Dikembe guaranteeing victory and barely playing in the game; T-mac calling out his teammates in the media and saying something like they didn't want it in the 4th quarter of the games we lost. We beat them 3 times prior to game 6, so we can't say we were incapable of beating them in game 7. I really believe Keith Van Horn was a factor in why we lost. I believe that if he didn't get injured we would have won. Probably the biggest reason though was our game plan for Jason Terry. We didn't respect him enough.
Thank You. I get the feeling alot of people just want the bigger name player. Well someone that gets caught with a pound of dope, and says "things like that happen" is an idiot. Damon is nothing but trouble. Everybody is mentioning Bobs injuries and how they will reoccur. Well what about Damon's trouble with the law. You never know when that guy is going to jail, and it could be right before an important game. He is part of the reason the trailblazers have a bad image. The last thing I want is for him to bring trouble to the Rockets team. We have great chemistry right now, and I dont want him to screw it up. I really dont care if Bobby comes off the bench, but if we are getting a new PG lets get a REAL PG. Damon is not a real PG. Size matters in the NBA and his quickness is not going to make up for it. He had all the talent in the world on the Blazers and couldnt do anything with it.. He is a HUGE liability on the defensive end and he is in inefficient scorer. Can you really see Damon leading us anyfarther in the playoffs than we were last year? If he is our starting PG I am getting ready for a first round knockout. We need to go out there and find someone respectable that can bring it on both ends.
What, do you think we're a lock for the WCF, regardless of who we pick up? I think we are going to have a 4-5 seed come playoff time, which means we will probably be playing a good team like last year.
All we need is a distributor??????? WTF You know there is a such thing called defense. Supposedly its really important in the NBA. I think we should worry about defense. I cant remember any championship team that didnt play good defense. We have the two time scoring champion to score points. Its not like DS is a great distributor. In my book he shoots first and looks to pass second. Ask Blazer fans how great of a distributor he is, they laugh.. Its obvious most people want him because Mcgrady blurted out his name. But its obvious to me that the negatives outweigh the positives..
