The Root of Frustration: Brooks, Budinger and Hill

Chase needs to pay with a chip on his shoulder. I hope TWIll gives him a run for his playing time. A little competitive fire should be good for these guys.

If Chase gets aggressive, the sky is the limit from him. But it seems he wants to play half finesse and half power. he needs to take it hard everytime.

 

The major frustration with Brooks, Hill, and Budinger is that they do not and/or cannot handle the physical NBA games. The also play defense at a low level. In addition, Jordan Hill's hands have to be worse hands you've seen of any top 10 NBA draft choice. He also appears to be very appeased to sit on the bench. I truly believe he's a 4 and hopeful our savior (Dream) can work with him and Thabeet and turn them into something useful.

 

Give it up on Hill....He's just a Mikki Moore clone..and not a good one

 

i actually think Mikki Moore is better. but Hill has more "potential" ...for whatever that's worth.

 

I agree with Carl Herrera's analysis in the OP (except for the unnecessary potshot at DD). If Budinger and/or Hill and Brooks had performed better this season, our negotiating position at the trade deadline would have been infinitely better. It's not Morey's fault that these guys regressed this season.

 

I'm not blaming Yao or even Tracy. Tracy got hurt just as well as Yao. He just didn't present himself well. I don't think rehab would help Tracy. Some people don't heal as well as others. For all of Tracy's whining, the average Rocket's fan has whined 10 times as much about him. Dissatifaction in the team results does not mean I blame a player. **** happens.

 

lol @ Bud the Dinger.

never heard that before.

 

My thoughts exactly.

I must admit, it's going to be hard to remain optimistic while watching these two go through their growing pains, but in terms of potential, the sky is the limit.

If these two guys can develop, they will be absolutely lethal. I know it's risky, having these two guys out there, but at this point, we don't have much to lose.
You have to take big risks to get big rewards, hopefully this will turn out for the best.

 

Very much agree with this. Good discussion.

The most valuable trade pieces are young players that can both help a contending team now and also have upside. This requires internal development. Brooks' regression, Hill's total and complete lack of progress, and Bud's slump that he seems to be emerging from really hurt Morey's case that these guys were good pieces.

If any of our bench players actually improved from last year to this year, it's a different story at the deadline.

Injuries also make a difference. Brooks' injury obviously hurt him but i think it also effected our other bench players. I think that Bud, for one, benefited from coming off the bench with Lowry last year. Lowry excels at pushing the ball, and is more interested in distributing and getting Bud to spots. An injured brooks struggling with his own offense couldn't concern himself with helping others while grinding on his own game, and I think the bench as a whole suffered.

Very dissapointed in Jordan. I thought after working with CD all summer, we'd see something. He has demonstrated that he can hit a little hook, which is certainly CD's work, but he is just such a space cadet out there. This goes back to the discussion about whether playing hard is a skill...Hill doesn't seem to have it every night, gets lost, floats, etc...If he demonstrated that he could consistently get 10 and 7 in 20 minutes a game (not unreasonable), If Brooks maintained his level of play or even regressed just a little less, and if Bud was hitting his 3s and scoring 12 or 14 per, we have a radically different record and a much more productive deadline. Sadly, no such luck.

 

It's not the players fault, it's the coaches and management's fault for not establishing priorities (such as Defense) and a collection of players that complement each other.

There is no reason whatsoever for Hasheem Thabeet not to see extended playing time, along with T-Will, PPat, Bud, Lee, Lowry and even Hill. Miller should never see the court and Hayes should only come in situational cases.

We seem to have picked up a direction being rebuilding so why not stick to what rebuilding teams do which is playing young talent and focusing on the draft-trades would be great but we've established that Morey is an incompetent nerd when it comes down to it.

 

I'm pretty sure these players do complement each other quite well, I mean you have strong scoring on the wing, your 4 can spread the floor pretty well and Yao cleans up whatever gets past the perimeter guys on the defensive end.

I'm also pretty sure that Adelman prioritizes defense because if he didn't then he wouldn't have led the 07 Rockets to the best defensive season in Rockets history.

Oh wait, the main piece to both those puzzles is injured? Derrrp, clearly management's fault.

 

The PAC 10 guys didn't do well for us this year.

 

No, he's not. My understanding is that he's "taking a break" "on hiatus" "meditating in Nepal" or "surfing in Circle C." Take your pick.

 

last i checked, our team paid a deserving scola this past summer.

your team, on the other hand, didn't want to pay amar'e his market value and lost him to the knicks.

 

Am I the only one that can see DD's post? 3 people asking if he's banned or saying they haven't seen him in a while after he posted...

 

The Rockets' payroll is somewhere around the luxury tax level, but have a lottery team.

If Morey had good players like the winning franchises such as Gasol, Kobe, Duncan, DHoward, there is no doubt that he would pay $$$$$ without even thinking about luxury tax.

As the team is built, it's a bunch of average to above average roleplayers with 1 injured former all-star getting $$$$$. It's not worth the cap space to field a borderline lottery team for 5 years, assuming Brooks got 5 years.

Rockets may be better off by not having ok players take up that cap space for the next 5 years and going after free agents like Chicago, Miami and New York.

 

Chase did nothing to make Shane leave. Take your colored glasses off.