T-Mac looked talented and showed he is willing to pass and play under control. He made a couple of nice steals and defensive plays. Made foul shots, a three pointer, a patented drive and dunk that was so fast It literally looked like I had the Tivo on double speed. This was done against two of the better big defensive guards in the league, Wade and Jones. Howard looked as reputed. Made some shots and good offensive moves. I don't remember much on the glass or defense, but hopefully that is just one game. Though not part of that trade, Motumbo makes up for the defensive aspects of losing Cato. The surprises. Lue and Gaines as point and guard. Lue is definitely a valuable spark plug or part-time starter at point. Gaines showed great promise as a point guard, an Eric Snow type, considering he is a second year guy who played sparinlgy last year. Gaines has a knack for finding the open man and his shot looks proimising. Overall the verdict is in. We stole T-Mac for Francis. Almost sorry to say (apologies to Cuttino one of my all time favorite players) that when you take into account chemistry with Yao and JVG, we at least equaled and perhaps came out slightly ahead on the three for two role player swap.
I don't know if it was a steal, but it sure is a well-written post and a nice departure from the doom and gloom of 10/11. I like Reece Gaines too; he showed unusual poise and confidence last night. The only sore spot last night was the point guard in the booth, but it's still early.
I hear ya. It looks like almost all the players brought in by Van Gundy (Jeff) looked good to decent last night. I was pleasantly surprised by the play of all the players we got from Orlando; maybe a change of scenery and coaching really helped them out. Only guy that disappointed was Nachbar. In my opinion, he shouldn't have been playing like a low end scrub after all the time he had in Houston. If I recall from the most recent Olympic, Nachbar didn't make an impact back home either.
We got the core of a team that only won 21 games last season, so I don’t know about them getting shafted on the role players. Mobley is the best player for value outside of the two main pieces of the trade, and Cato still gave us some good minutes last season especially at back up center.
we won our 1st preseason game with our new team. That shows some progress and shows that the new players are catching on faster to JVG system. Didnt we lose our first 4 preseason games last season? I like our team.
Agreed. You will witness what some have been saying for the last few months. Cato, although a good defender. Wasn't worth the liability in his shooting ability (simple 10 footers). He has hands of stone, and was unable to help Yao out on the double-teams. Francis, although athletic as hell. Would never be able to unite this team into a cohesive unit no matter how much extra help we brought in. In fact, he's make other players worse that have enjoyed better seasons with other teams. And for the money we were paying him, it just didn't work. Mobley, although, I would have liked to keep him. You don't refuse a trade with one of the best (TMac) because they want your 2nd tier player. You do it! It's much easier to replace a 2nd tier SG than it is to replace a "Top Five" player. Howard will do what he's always done. Give a balanced offense and a body on defense. He's not great at defense but I think that JVG can improve his game. Most importantly, he will help Yao's game in that he'll be able to step out and hit the mid-range jumper. Yao will be our main defense in the paint. So, we can do without Howard being the "best defender" for now. Lue is a spark plug that is never rattled. He keeps his cool and has a "silent" assassin nature about him. He has play-off experience and will help us there. Nice pickup. Ward is a proven floor leader.
if nothing else, it shows that depth shouldn't be an issue - we won last night because we had a lot of players on the floor in garbage time, who WANT to make this team and are giving some effort.
Good point. JVG is demanding they play their roles! Give the effort. The stars will carry the team, but the role players must give all they have too! Team effort. Not just "sit back and watch the starts go ISO." None of that! It's all good!
I don't know if it is any faster. Miami had as much turnover as we did so there's no chemistry catch-up that played a role in this game.
I love the optimism after the very first game of the entire NBA season, for ANY teams. Granted, it seems as if the team looked pretty good and our main guys played well and there were even a couple of suprises off of the bench. I am really excited about the good reviews that Gaines has been getting from people both at the game and watching the game on television. Imagine if this guy turned out to be a decent player, this deal would be the greatest trade in franchise history. If Gaines could somehow contribue to this team, it would help solve a LOT of problems. We don't really have any natural backup two guards right now, especially with the early loss of Bob Sura. Even though it's just one game, I'm certainly hyped that the season has started back up. Now, I just can't wait for the China games that will be on ESPN later this week. I'm just glad that I'll be on fall break so I can get up early and then go back to sleep.
SirCharlesFan, What you will start noticing is a cleaner/competent style of play as the season goes on...you'll start to see that all five of our positions have players that can put it in the bucket. You'll notice that each player just has better command of the offense and defense assignments. And each player will be able to keep his turnovers DOWN! It's hard to put it into words. Because it's about the small details that add up.
I'm a huge Reece Gaines fan (was in fact touting him to challenge for ROY last year ), so I'm curious as to how he did. One poster mentioned that he looked like an Eric Snow type guard; my question: Eric Snow can't shoot/score but can pass like none other. In college, Gaines was primarily a scoring guard who played PG/SG combo guard (good shot, decent long range, decent handles, decent court vision). Would everyone else agree based on the preseason game that he looks like Eric Snow or is there a better comparison for him?
i'd have to say the word steal is an exaggeration. We replaced cato with deke and howard, that's a slight upgrade for us, except i doubt deke will return after next season. Needless to say we got a big upgrade at the 2 from cat to tmac. Where i have concern about is the point. I have to say both lue and ward are only half as good as steve, therefore, the pg will be our weakest link in our lineup, that i hope we can do a good job masking it with team d. After watching wade scored and penetrated at ease last night, and the fact that lue & ward didnt move the ball well enough, i do hope we'll improve in these areas come reg season.
I agree DavidS. Everyone seems to know their role in the offense, I can't wait to see a few more games to see how much more efficient our team will get. I was actually suprised at how well Lue and Ward played the passing lanes as well as T-mac. I thought steals might be down after losing guys like Steve and Cat but it looks like they might actually be up this year. Also, we're not missing a thing from Cato thanks to Deke, I think he actually makes a bigger defensive difference than Catomic.
Trade was flatout robbery! This is the trade that makes Anotine Walker's quote last year about the most lobsided trade in history actually make sense!
When we traded SF we lost rebounding, athleticism, and the ability for the pg to create his own shots. Ward and Lue will be at the very least comparable(if not better) than SF with regards to d and ball handling. Stevie was not that good at those facets of the game, though he did improve somewhat last year.
more importantly then t-mac just being a better player then steve is that he's such a better fit here with yao ming. he doesn't need to dribble so much to get his shot off so it doesn't disrupt anything in the offense. his height and athleticism combined is ridiculous.
I was watching him and Zimmerman play, since I think Ward and Lue are short termers (Lue will be a FA next season, and Ward is getting up there in years - when you factor in the football effects on his body.) Gaines played in garbage time with the camp invitees, and was a little tentative on his shooting (everyone out there were looking to pass first) - but he made a sweet dribble move with a no look pass in the lane to... Smalls ?!? (unfortunately, that guy passed up a 5 footer to kick it out again) Gaines also took a last second 2/3 on the line shoot as the shot clock expired. I it was a little off, but it looked like it would have been a good shot (if he had just sqared up... i.e. nothing too wild). He also took a couple of nice jumpers bottom line, his head was in the game and none of those guys in the 4th played like the chicken with their head's cut off frenzy you would expect to see from the camp invitees in the 4th quarter of a pre-season game
