All of you who think that glen rice is our SF next year are delusional. The guy is 35 and is coming off a season-long injury. He hasn't shown anything the last coupla years anyway. He'll be what Sleepy Floyd was in 1992. I think CD must get fired and the Rockets shoud have a real personnel person take care of their roster and let Rudy concentrate on coaching. The CD/Rudy combo sucks big time at personnel decisions. Judge for yourself: 1. First round picks last 4 years: Rodrick Rhodes, Bryce Drew, Mirsad Turkan, Jason Collier. Show me another team that has wasted 4 first rounders on such crap. 2. Highest paid Rocket thios year: Glen Rice, washed out, injury prone, overpaid egomaniac. Second-highest paid player: Mo Taylor, no defence, no rebounds weed-junkie that looks fat.
Why with all the bashing of the front office? They pulled in Francis and Griffin in here, with amazing trades. We definitely ripped off the Grizzlies and the Nets in the trades we did. And try not to insult Maurice Taylor unless you see how he performs next year. He could be improved.
Any reason why you left off Kenny Thomas and Michael Dickerson? Any reason why you left off 2nd-rounder Cuttino Mobley?
When you think that this team could have had Rashard Lewis, Desmond Mason, and Eduaro Najera instead of Bryce Drew, Jason Collier, and Dan Langhi, it seems that the Rockets' front office is composed of morons. The acquisitions of Francis, Mobley, Griffin and Thomas make up for those blunders a bit, however.
I dont think you just trash the front office after maybe one or two questionable draft picks. They have a history of making excellent picks (Horry, Cassell, Cat, Dickerson, etc) and CD has been a genius of robbing other teams (he robbed Portland with the Pippen trade, though now that doesn't matter; he pulled the Francis deal; he embarrased New Jersey with the Griffin trade and trading Anderson for Rice was a smart move because Anderson has shown nothing in New York). It is very cowardly to kick injured players when they are down, and I'm sure Rice and Taylor will come back strong next year. For Christs' sake, they're injured!
every team makes mistakes in the draft. check out all the past drafts and see how many no name players were taken infront of all-stars. you'll say to yourself "what were they thinking?!?" a thousand times. it's not just us.
A. Show me 5 people in the last 3 months who say Glen Rice is our sure-fire SF going into next year. B. How convenient to leave off the trades for Francis and Griffin Let's take a real look at how our draft picks have ended up. Rodrick Rhodes-given, busted. What number pick was he? Mirsad Turkcan-traded before even playing a game for a future #1, that was subsequently traded for Terence Morris, who has shown plans to be a part of the Rockets rotation. Bryce Drew-traded for 2 2nds or 1 1st, and has left the Bulls unable to trade their #1 pick before the draft. #18 pick overall Michael Dickerson-key piece in acquiring Francis. Jason Collier-NOT a lotto pick. Was acquired with a future pick that helped land Eddie Griffin. plus Cuttino. They picked Cat after Rashard was picked, and he's the better player. C. Rice an egomaniac? He has been anything but that as a Rocket. Nice to take cheap shot at "washed out". Wanna go take a look at Rice's games played? He played 75 games last year with plantar fascitis, and has not had historical injury troubles. Again, cheap shot for an injured year. D. Mo Taylor was the starting PF on a 45 win team. Our team rebounding was just fine when Mo was here. He "looks" fat? So does Shaq. By all accounts, the guy was in the best shape of his career before a fluke injury PLAYING BASKETBALL. Nice job of kicking them while they're down.
Things that make me believe Rice is done 1. He hasn't shot the ball at more than 45% since he played for the Hornets, and has had a general decline in all shooting categories (ft %, 3pt %,ft attepmts) since age 30. 2. As previously stated in above posts, he will just about be turning 36 as the playoffs rap up next year. 3. If Glen Rice is playing the post, does that mean Eddie Griffin is going to be sitting at the 3 pt line waiting for the kick out. Say it isn't so... what a waste of talent. 4. He will be slowest starting SF in the league. 5. What's he playing for? He got his ring, Houston won't even be challenging for one next year. The quicker SF's in the league will chew him up after their D slows our no ball movement offense to a crawl and they get fast break after fast break. Once Houston can play good consistant defense, their offense will open up and it will take pressure off the half court game. I gather most here think he'll be good for 10-15 ppg depending on who you talk to. BFD! Houston needs passing, and defense. Glen Rice has NEVER AVERAGED 3 apg. Let me say that again so it's more clear. In 12 seasons Glen Rice has NEVER AVERAGED 3 apg. A starting lineup of Cat and Rice will be ugly. Glen will never fit on this team b/c he and cat play the same rolls. No defense, though Glen had the skills to play D, but he would rather shoot it out with you. That's why Phil Jackson had no use for him. Rudy thinks that Glen will be popping wide open jumpers when Steve and Cat penetrate. Ball movement will NOT improve with Glen Rice in the game. Without ball movement, teams will smother Steve again next year.
How many other teams passed on those players too??? Just for the record... A few players taken AHEAD of Robert Horry in 1992: Christian Laettner Jim Jackson LaPhonso Ellis Walt Williams Todd Day Clarence Weatherspoon Adam Keefe A few players taken AHEAD of Sam Cassell in 1993: Shawn Bradley Isaiah Rider Calbert Cheaney Bobby Hurley Vin Baker Rodney Rogers Lindsey Hunter George Lynch Terry Dehere Scott Haskin Doug Edwards Rex Walters Greg Graham Luther Wright Acie Earl Iowa Scott Burrell Connecticut James Robinson Alabama Chris Mills Arizona Ervin Johnson A few players taken AHEAD of Othella Harrington in 1996: Lorenzen Wright Samaki Walker Erick Dampier Todd Fuller Vitaly Potapenko John Wallace Walter McCarty Zydrunas Ilgauskas Dontae Jones Roy Rogers Efthimis Rentzias Martin Muursepp Brian Evans Priest Lauderdale Travis Knight A few players taken AHEAD of Cuttino Mobley in 1998 (after our 1st round picks): First round: Pat Garrity Roshown McLeod Ricky Davis Brian Skinner Tyronn Lue Felipe Lopez Sam Jacobson Vladimir Stepania Corey Benjamin Second round: Ansu Sesay Jelani McCoy Shammond Williams Bruno Sundov Jerome James Casey Shaw DeMarco Johnson Rafer Alston Korleone Young A few players taken AHEAD of Kenny Thomas in 1999 (note - we got Steve Francis from Vancouver, so he doesn't count): Jonathan Bender Trajan Langdon Alek Radojevic Corey Maggette William Avery Frederic Weis Cal Bowdler Quincy Lewis Dion Glover Jeff Foster Nevermind that we got a second round pick for Rhodes, got Clyde Drexler for Otis Thorpe, got Francis for Othella Harrington and Michael Dickerson, got draft picks for Bryce Drew and for Mirsad Turksan (1st round) and made the trade to acquire Griffin. Have the Rockets made boneheaded draft day decisions? Absolutely. Are they any more or any less than anyone else? Not at all. We just happen to remember our draft days and not pay attention to others, but no one is immune to bad picks. The fact that we have managed to acquire as much talent as we have via the draft (either through draft, trading or acquiring picks for trades) is pretty amazing.
The Rockets have made their fair share of idiotic moves, but they've made just as many, if not more positive moves in the last few years. -Kenny Thomas -Mobley -Stevie -MoTaylor -Eddie -Dickerson....he did play well when he was here I will agree that I don't understand the whole Rice deal....why the HELL did we pick him up.....I don't know??? If we didn't spend that money, would we have lost it due to some rule dealing with the Salary Cap? I just don't understand the reasoning behind bringing Glen Rice.....with the CONTRACT that he has?
I'm glad rice is here cause when he comes off the books. . . . We will get the final peice of whatever we building In his final season his tradability will be AWESOME!! I think we look for 3 things this off season and Center A Small Forward for the future and DEFENSE DAMMIT!!! Rocket River
You guys are crazy. CD and Rudy T have done a terrible job of putting this team together. We have almost the worst talent in the NBA. Lets look at our team and where each player should be playing on a real NBA team: True NBA Starter on this team: Steve Francis Good NBA starter on this team: Mo Taylor Projects with some promise: Eddie Griffin Great Bench Players: Cuttino Mobley Kenny Thomas CBA Players with fat contracts: Moochie Norris Kelvin Cato Old and useless: Glen Rice Walt Williams Kevin Willis NBDL Players: Oscar Torres Terrance Morris Should not play basketball: Jason Collier Dan Langhi Out of the 14 players listed we have 9 that are completely useless with no upside. Even Atlanta, Cleveland, NY, Memphis, Golden State have more talent than we do. The only teams that I think has worst talent is Denver and Chicago, and that is because they traded away half their team. Why do you think teams were killing us when Steve was out? Rudy is a great coach and if he had the talent that Minnesota or Indiana had he would be competing for a championship every year but right now he is doing it with no talent at all. Thats why last year was amazing. I don't know how he got 45 wins out of that team. In anycase they will make some more bonehead moves this year to gut the team because they need to.
The Rockets have done okay during the draft. If you want to bash a team, check out the Knicks. Their last good pick was Patrick Ewing with nothing else in between. All teams make mistakes come draft day. No reason to fire anyone. We have a good nucleus of players that had injuries this year....it happens. We are one/two players away from contending for a championship. Remember we are rebuilding.
Now that is just plain silly. He has been outplaying many "stars" at SG. How many bench 2-guards put up 21, 4, and 3?
Actually, if you just have to bash the front office, bash them for the FA signings and re-signings they've made in last few years. They've actually done a pretty good job in the draft. Proof: The nucleus (for this season): Steve, Cat, KT, Eddie, Mooch? How were 4 of those players acquired? (And yes, Steve can be included because the Rocks acquired his draft rights and they are the only orginization he's ever played for)
Not many because they don't get 40 mins/game. Cat is a good guy, but he's getting his numbers because he's getting the minutes. The problem is he's too small for a big guard and plays no defence. I would rather have a 15, 3, 2 guy who can play defence...
The office has had their hits and misses just like every other team. My problem with this team is the rational behind some of the acqusitions. 1. After the Pippen,Barkley, dream short era and Pippen was traded for hot garbage, the Rockets promised to get away from the low post game. At the time and still today i don't understand the drafting of kenny thomas even though he's showing signs of becoming a decent nba player, it just didn't fit .The Francis deal was a good move though. 2.After Barkley is injured and Thomas finally gets a chance to play as a rookie, he plays ok, Barkley retires and many thought it would be Thomas job to lose, but they sign and give the starting spot to a soft 4 in Taylor. How can you claim to be so high on a player then go out and sign a player and don't even give him a chance to compete? 3.The management claims this was suppose to be one of the most important summers in the franchise. Early on they were suppose to be in the Webber sweepstakes, but as we found out it was lip service. Now we are committed to keeping our own free agent including the Dream which we know was lip service by the low ball offer. Now we're turning the team over and are going to try to get younger and more atheletic, yet we trade for a player delivered in a cast and 35 yrs old. Next we're happy with our 4 situation, but draft another projected 4. My biggest problem with Cd and management has been the lack of vision. They know that with the luxury tax you have to give yourself flexibilty with the money. So what we have Hakeem on the books for 2 yrs or Kenny Thomas has to start at the 4 which he did anyway and we had to live with Williams,Morris or Langhi at the 3 which we did anyway. The problems or concerns dealing with this team could have been washed away or at least rectified with flexibilty. Take a look at the types of players that are coming free in this yr or next that we have no shot at because we're paying a backup pg 4mil per, a 35yr old 3 man who's been in decline 9 mil, and perhaps the softest 4 man in the league last yr 7 mil per before we even shore up our franchise player. Unless they pull a sign and trade to rid themselves of these big salaried medicre players or Griffin turns into the player they think or we think he is then no matter how you look at it, this team is going to be mediocre and that's the worse thing that a team can be.
Keyman eventually shaq is going to retire...he is getting bored plus he's 30 and isn't known for his weight control or staying in shape in the offseason. All of that takes a toll on a player. We're only a player or two away from winning again. You are way too negative.
