No, we wished he'd played him for two months instead of guys like Mo, JJ and Strickland, etc. Boki always had more chemistry with Yao than JJ did. You could see it when he was on the floor those few minutes. Good entry passer and good spot up shooter. JJ was coach's pet for some reason and Boki wasn't.
Well, Boki can't play the 4 or 1, so leave out Mo and Strickland (never mind the fact that Strickland was signed after Boki left . JJ was an all around better player than Boki was. Its not even close IMO. The team had a net -14.8 +/- with Boki on the court, versus -2.8 with Jackson on the court. That tells me we were better with JJ in the game than Boki.
Instead of Strickland? He was gonna play the point? And ahead of Mo, meaning we should have played him at PF? Ahead of Jackson, who is playing very well in Phoenix? Boki is playing pretty good, on a terrible team. That's all. So is Tyrone Lue in Atlanta, but you don't hear Tyrone Lue fans here upset that he was traded away. Lots of guys can put up OK scoring numbers, given the shots.
Boki is hitting wide open 3-point shots in New Orleans. The same wide open shots he would have gotten here. So I don't really understand this whole "he's only playing well because he's on a garbage team". I think that applies more to players that need the ball in their hands, like Shareef Abdur Rahim or Antoine Walker rather than a shooter like Boki.
Boki got 206 of those "wide open shots" in his Houston career, why couldn't he hit more than 35% of them? He remains a mediocre rebounder who doesn't generate much of anything besides points and fouls. And Jon Barry and David Wesley are still giving us more production than Nachbar is giving the Hornets, so I'm not sure where we would have given him minutes.
I just don't understand how a team like the Spurs is always able to find playing time for players like Devin Brown, Udrih, Ginobilli, and Parker. Yet, it's been so difficult for the Rockets to find any playing time for their youngters. Would it really been that big of a sacrifice to let Boki go through his growing pains here?How many games would it have cost us?
Not only that, but Wesley can play the SG spot and bring th e ball up the court and gives McGrady a much easier time on defense. Putting Boki on the court, who still averages about 6 fouls/48 minutes, means either taking Tracy out (uhhh, not a good move) or moving him back to SG where neither he or JVG wants him to be becauase he is less effective. Let us not forget Jason Collier. He put on an offensive showcase when he left for a terrible team - I think he, like Lue, was well up over 10/game. I don't hear the Collier fan club banging their pots right now (or then).
We are 26-12 with Wesley, which is a .684 winning clip. Lets just assume we go 22-16 (being generous) while forcing the issue to develop Boki. We would presently be trying to hold off LA and Minny for an 8th seed. Not worth it to develop a one dimensional shooter. Its as if some of you think Boki is some great all around player who just needed a chance to develop his game to the extent that we would be better off than we are now.
To me, JJ for Wesley straight up would have been an even trade. Throwing in Boki really puzzled me. I think if CD really wanted to, he could have kept Boki and acquired Wesley. I just get the feeling that Boki was just a throw in the make the salaries match. I don’t think giving Boki around 12-15 minutes of consistent playing time would have had any significant impact on this team, positive or negative. I don’t think he will develop into a great all around player. It’s just nice to have a little depth. Your all assuming that Boki taking minutes away from Mcgrady would have been a bad thing. The guy is playing nearly 42 minutes. Come playing time, not having an actual backup small forward may come back to hurt us. Who knows, maybe if Mcgrady wasn't logging such heavy minutes, he would have enough energy to drive to the basket once and a while. I really don’t think it would have taken Boki +20 minutes of playing to develop. Just play him every game. It’s not like he was playing terrible this season while he was with the Rockets. He hit 48% of his 3-pointers.
And 23% of his 2-pointers. His overall shooting percentage was very poor, and not just for this year, but last year as well.
It took consistent playing time. Playing every single game. Not once every 5 games. Boki seems to be very much a rhythm player that needs to consistent playing time. If you've watched him play, he usually comes in scores 10 points in his first 10 minutes. So it's not like he NEEDS the 20 minutes to score 10 points.
It took consistent playing time, to the tune of 20 minutes per-game - which is what a team that had 4 wins when they got him and just 15 on the season can afford to give him. He did get 10 minutes a game for us, btw. He averaged 10 for 43 games last year and was lousy, which is far more under "rookie hating " van gundy than he got under "rookie friendly" Rudy, by the way.
My attempt was to point out the ridiculousness of using that small a sample size to measure effectiveness. Numbers are just too skewed, both good and bad, looking at only 40 something attempts. On the other hand, looking at his career numbers is a fair way to judge imo. I don't understand the outrage at not giving a role player more time. Even now he's a one diminsional guy. Do you really think that having a guy that can score/shoot 3s (and little else) off the bench is that big a deal? They're a fungible commodity. We've picked up several guys, basically for free, who can do the same thing and more, without having to break them in. It's not Boki's fault, but I don't think he was a JVG type player. And in the immortal words of Steve Francis, "people who don't fit his system get traded, like me." Boki wasn't going to ever get minutes on a Van Gundy team, and he wasn't going to have his option picked up, so we traded him. We're better off, the Hornets are better off, Air Boki is taking flight, so everyone's a winner.
I'm not outraged. I don't think it's THAT big of a deal. It's not like I'm pissed because I think we lost out on a superstar. I just don't think it would have been that big of a deal to experiment a little more and given Boki a little more playing time. Even if it would have cost us a few games. Losing a few regular season games is not that big of a deal.
