Seriously, 200 replies and 5 stars and 18,000 views for Singletary and Strawberry, neither who've ever played for the Rockets? Is this thread good enough for me to read through and see something of any significance..... .? ...... well, perhaps...
Welcome to the Offseason Shroopy. Where any possible tidbit of information/rumor/news is analysed to pieces. There is some crap to wade through, but I think it just reflects the true passion of Rockets fans. Embrace it.
I wouldn't go that far cause he did get us Ron but it was probably done for salary cap reseasons. Still would have liked to see him play for the team.
Right, it does speak good about the passion for anything Rockets & I'm definitely embracing it. The Steve Novak trade got as many replies and views. Its more how first saw this and thought minor roster cut 50 replies at most. Then I went away & came back and this thing was still going strong. With Daryl Morey making the moves though, its makes every move more interesting. Cuz he's continually sniffing out things we're not seeing, and his recent track record builds anticipation that his acquisitions will pan out On Strawberry, size and defense at the point guard position are good attributes. He'd be the what Brent Barry isn't. As mentioned itd be between him and Mike Harris. Harris is supposed to be working on playing the 3 more and guarding 3's and 2's, but we have that in Artest now. And Harris has a partially guaranteed contract. I'd like to have a prospect like Strawberry on the team to develop, but it'd take extra roster trimming like trading Head or something.
For what it's worth, Strawberry is 23 and Mike Harris 25. I'd rather have a prospect like Mike Harris to develop - he works harder than anyone, is an excellent rebounder, takes smart shots and has a high basketball IQ. The only question mark over him is whether he's a 3 or a 4. Tweener forwards work out more often that tweener guards. Strawberry's college career showed he has nothing to offer on offense. Mike Harris' college career shows that he can contribute on both ends.
If it's between harris or DJ, i'll take harris everyday of the week. he's a very good defensive player. if not better then dj. he takes smart and effecient shots and is a good finisher. he also gets alot of rebounds for he's size.
I think most people here would agree that Harris is a better player than Strawberry. Just look at their college careers. But on the Rockets it's a bit more difficult than that, because the 3/4 spot just became our deepest on the team with the addition of Artest. In my mind if Strawberry can surprise us somewhat in his overall skill set and demonstrate that he is a serviceable (read: not disastrous) ball-handler at the point, then in my mind he fills a need as the 15th player better than Harris. No matter who we keep the odds of them even sniffing the court are long at best. A whole lot of injuries would have to occur, but I guess with this team it's not completely out of the question.
I guess it all depends on what you think about Francis. If you think he's our 'human victory cigar' this season, then sure, we're very shallow at the point. If he has anything at all to offer, then PG depth isn't the problem, it's a quality starter that we're missing. We already have 3 PG's on the roster in Alston, Francis and Brook, and with Barry able to play the position and even Head capable of filling in for spot minutes, I think we're a long way from seeing Strawberry making it! Harris might be hard pressed to make the squad too, but I'd wager he sits above Strawberry in the pecking order. We only have 3 guys on the roster who can play the 3 - TMac, Artest and Battier. With TMac slated as our starting '2', then suddenly we're looking pretty thin at that spot should an injury occur. Harris provides depth at the 3 and 4 spots. I guess we'll see how it all pans out!
Harris is never a 3, he is force to be a 3 because he is so much smaller then the other 4s in the league. With his size disadvantage, i cant see how he play in the post, if the opposites puts a 4 on him, and looking by the numbers, harris cant spot shoot. Which meant, he be too small to play the 4, and do not have the skill level to play at the 3. On the D, he can only play when the opposite plays small, or a 3 that plays at the post. Going by the summer league numbers, his defense is not that great. As i say in previous post, Strawberry do provide something that the other 3 PGs do not have, size and defense. And he seems to be able to defend 2s as well.
If the Rockets just want a big body to play defense at PG I think Artest has that covered. Head can also chip in there.
I cant argue with that. we do need a bigish type defensive minded PG. i've seen head try to play defense and it's ugly. we can allways rely on artest to cover some of the PG's of the league, but even he cant stay infront of the likes of parker or nash. but i doubt even strawberry can to.
Brent Barry also plays the 3. That's 4 players IN OUR ROTATION who play that position, let alone players just on the roster. At the 4, the Rockets have Luis Scola, (possibly) Carl Landry and Chuck Hayes, with Joey Dorsey able to play the 4/5 and Ron Artest able to play the 3/4. I'm not even counting Shane Battier, who might see some minutes at the 4 in a small lineup on rare occasions. I think the Rockets are set at the forward positions. I like Mike Harris, but unless he clearly outplays Strawberry in training camp, it would appear that Strawberry would fill a bigger need for the team than Harris. Remember, it is obvious that Morey finds D.J. Strawberry to be a somewhat interesting prospect. Otherwise, he would have just sent Singletary to Phoenix for nothing using the Minimum Player Salary Exception or just waived Singletary altogether before his salary became partially guaranteed. There is something that the Rockets like about Strawberry, most notably his defense and size as a possible PG. Bottom line: A tall PG who is a defensive stopper is much more rare than an undersized tweener forward. The fact that Mike Harris scored a lot more than Strawberry in college is inconsequential, since neither will be called upon to score much on this team. In my opinion, Harris will have to clearly outclass Strawberry in order to make the team over D.J.
Agreed, Strawberry plays a much bigger role in shorting up a weak area, which is; Back-up point-guard play. Does Steve get healthy and motivated?, Does Brooks develop into NBA material? or Strawberry just plain out hustles them? Harris on the other hand has been impressive in his short stints, But he is undersized and the team is filled in his position and doubt he ever sees any game time. Remember folks small-ball was part of that 22 game winning streak with Hayes and Scola playing center at times, I'm sure Adelman will show us some of that this year while Yao's getting rest. We have Hayes, Scola, Artest, Battier, Tracy, Barry that play multiple positions and we still (hopefully) have Deke, Dorsey and Landry. We've even seen Steve and Rafer on the floor together at times, with Steve playing the 2. My point is that the Rockets have plenty of players fighting for minutes at Harris's position, especially if Landry is resigned. PG on the other hand is a little more up in the air.
I wouldnt give Strawberry a spot over Harris either. Also in their brief PRO careers Harris has contributed more to his team than Strawberry. Harris just delivers, I don't think he's played 1 inefficient game yet as a Rocket. It generally takes good point guard skills to be a reliable point in the NBA. There's points guards that all they do is bring the ball up the court and try to offer something else. For some reason not that many defensive specialists at the PG spot come to mind. I don't know if Strawberry has the handles, passing and shooting to be a reliable point. He said he wanted to be a Bruce Bowen/Raja Bell type player, but those guys can hit the 3 point shot. Something Strawberry definitely needs to work on.
Not that Strawberry should be above Harris, it's just that Strawberry fits a bigger need. To be honest Harris is way too redundant on this team already loaded with undersized bigs.
Well, I'll disagree I'll wear underpants on my head to the first Rockets game of the season if Strawberry makes the team. Disclaimer: author will not be at Rockets first game and therefore offer is void.
You can say that a fan's opinion should be taken with a grain of salt, but I read some Suns fans in reaction to the trade, and they really complimented him, especially his defense. One Suns fan even said he could be on an all-defense team in his future. I don't know what Strawberry's future is with the team, but if he really can play good defense on PGs, then he could be a really nice asset off the bench, given how loaded the West is with talented PGs on offense.
If you take what Strawberry, Brooks and Francis showed us last season, then there is no argument that Strawberry was the worst of the 3. He played most of his minutes at the SG spot - and played as many at PG as he did at SF. In the minutes he played at the point, the Suns managed 78.6 ppg. Defensively they were better - but he was still well and truly outproduced by his opponent. I honestly don't see how Strawberry 'fills a need' if he's going to be the 4th best PG on the team. The fact that he's a defensive hound is redundant since he can barely hold the ball when playing the PG spot, and is a sure bet to stifle the offense with his complete inability to hit a shot (see Phx). It's fairly obvious that he's been brought in as a 'free training camp PG' - we can use him for the next month and then cut him at no cost to the cap. And don't play the 'he might improve as a PG' argument - that argument works at least as well for Brooks, who is already leaps and bounds ahead of Strawberry, and has a shot! If you think he'll make it, take a sig bet with me. I'm not saying Harris will make it, just that Strawberry won't (and that Harris is more likely - but personally I'd take Leunen...)
personally i would prefer strawberry over harris. they will both be 3rd-4th stringers, so it won't be about contribution. -so we have to look at it from a talent standpoint, 1 is a combo guard while the other is an undersized pf. -from what i've read strawberry is a hustle guy and hardworker too, so you can't use that in harris' favor. -defensive pgs are harder to come by, whereas we already have better versions of mike harris in hayes, landry and dorsey. my concern is that strawberry will be disgruntled because he won't get playing time, afterall that was the reason he asked to be traded in phoenix in the first place. you guys are rooting for harris because you know what you are getting, while strawberry is unproven.
