Hey, don't get me wrong, but I'd love to be proven wrong and see this guy light it up. But I know the way Rudy and CO talk about incoming players and 9 times out of 10 they are nothing. I don't have tremendous faith in Rudy's ability to pick players anymore...I use to think with Elie, Horry, and Cassel he was a genius (especially Horry over Minor), and Griffin certainly looks to be worth the risk (relax about the sp). But man, he's had some horrendous picks and free agent ac2quisitions the past few years. Franis and Yao were no brainers, but outside of that, I think the Rockets made some bone-headed moves, particularly concerning Rashard Lewis. We're just going to have to wait a month and see. I seriously doubt Nachbar will get PT this year without injury to Rice or KT simply because he's competing against two successful NBA players who have been starters, and he's never played an NBA game. I don't put that much stock into shooters, simply because the don't pan out in the NBA, which requires a lot more physical endurance and ability then elsewhere. I think Yao will do ok, and Boki is likely to be shooting for an opportunity next year if he shows he can play the NBA game and Houston decided KT is expandable or Rice is worth trading for a back-up sg.
I didn't say anyone won't be in the hunt. I was just giving a scenario that I thought was more likely than what NewYorker was pointing out. Torres faded horribly towards the end of last season. He also only shot 39% from the field in the world championships on his country's team...and this is with him playing against competition that is worse than the NBA. He occasionally showed flashes of brilliance last season, but I think more often than not he showed a tendency to force things well past his abilities. I would be surprised if he makes the active roster to open the season, and I would be very surprised if he made it over Nachbar. MicKeal I don't know anything about. I hear he is a good defensive player, which we need, but I have also heard he is a long shot to make the team. You say that you think it would be more valuable to have McKeal, Torres and Tito active? And then to have Tierre Brown as the 3rd PG? That's 4 active players that probably don't deserve much playing time. I don't see that happening. In my opinion what probably happens is Tito ends up being the backup SG, Tierre the 3rd string PG, and the IR will consist of Oscar Torres, McKeal (assuming he is good, but maybe that Stanford center too if Collier totally blows), and Jason Collier.
Boki can play 2 guard some and he can fill an "Air Bullard" role too. With the motion offense lots of players are going to be running in and out. Boki should be part of that rotation...
You forgot Cuttino Mobley and Kenny Thomas, who you say will keep Nachbar from getting minutes at SF. So the picks you listed that are good are Elie, Horry, Cassell, Griffin and Ming. I added Cuttino Mobley and Kenny Thomas to the mix. That's 7 good picks listed. You listed Rashard Lewis as a player that they screwed up with. You neglected to point out that many teams screwed up with him, so it is not as if the Rockets were alone in totally blowing that pick. I have plenty of confidence in the Rockets brass when it comes to drafting players. Concerning the players, don't worry dude...I am plenty relaxed. Just trying to help you look a little more respectable in your posts.
NewYorker, rather than quote a whole post(especially at the end of your own post), may I suggest just address the person by name at the beginning. It's much easier to read and continues the flow of the thread. Now, on with my own post. Me neither. I doubt a 6'8" slasher/shooter is as one-dimentional as the 3-point shooting Bull was. I didn't think anyone would take the article as a comparison of every player mentioned. Sorry, I went back and edited that part out just for you. Again, I'm not talking about either of the draft places, skills or what scouts/teams think of them. My point from the start is that training camp hype is exactly that....HYPE. Nachbar's major pub so far has come from a day where they were running drills. Great, he can practice well. So could alot of guys before him. Langhi was just an example of training camp hype. Here are a couple more clips from previous CC.net training camp articles hyping Langhi. Austin Training Camp Day 1 Who also impressed me? Dan Langhi. Langhi displayed a silky smooth stroke from the outside and didn’t appear to lack confidence. On one play Steve Francis defended him straight up and Langhi took it at him before dishing off. Both looked dead set on beating the other. Austin Training Camp Day 2 I hate to say the highlights of yesterday (Taylor, Langhi) were the highlights of today, but it was indeed the case. Langhi simply has a terrific shooting stroke -- saw him nail another 20-footer with a defender in his face and the guy is not afraid to shoot the ball. Austin Training Camp Day 3 Rudy also said Jason Collier and Dan Langhi both have done very well: "They both look like rotation type players," said Rudy. It seems you guys think I'm saying Boki is like Langhi or that he'll be another Langhi....I AM NOT. I think he'll do fine and hope at the least he can step in and be out backup SG/SF. What I am saying is that they hype between the two coming into the preseason games is similar and that we shouldn't assume "Boki is a god" because of one good training camp practice where they primarily ran shooting drills.
IMO, Lewis wasn't a screw up as much as he was just too young to help anybody for 2-3 years and teams wanted more immediate help. And when he finally did develop look what happened - demands a big contract. I think the Rockets were wary of that happening to them and that's actually smart. I think they knew once he was developed they had a chance at getting him then, which they somewhat did. That was smart...
newyorker- every team passed on rashard atleast once. hindsight is 20/20 and at the time we had no use for him. get over it. secondly i never compared boki to shaq as a player, of course that's crazy, but using your logic than shaq was a dud coming into the nba. he wasn't, but if you can label nachbar like that i guess it works for every rookie in nba history.
You can add Cat and KT to that mix, but I still think Boki is more like Langhi then Cat. Rudy T seems to always get into this situation where he romanticizes a certain player and thinks they will be a superstar. He did it with Bryce Drew, he did it with Kato, and I am saw the same thing with Boki. I mean, everyone knows Yao is a risk, but it's a risk you have to take. Anyway, it doesn't matter, I don't think Boki is that important to this team, and if he is a bust so what....Glen Rice and KT are a great combo at small forward offering a bruiser and a shooter to mess with opposing teams. Just do me a favor and give me credit when this Boki guy turns into a bust...because I've noticed on this board when you call it correctly everyone just gets quiet once they realize you're right. As for your help, thanks but no thanks.
I've noticed that Rudy likes to talk up his players to the press, and avoids bashing his players at all costs. This is part of why players like to play with him. You can call it romanticizing if you want, I call it strategy. How about this...I'll give you credit IF Nachbar is a bust. Don't go about assuming you have everything figured out and that you know he will not work out...it makes you sound like a jerk, and I imagine that is why you get so many negative responses in threads like these. Relax dude.
LOL Raven if you're gonna call someone out on not spelling names right, it's poor form if you don't do the same. It's Terence Morris, one R not two
Wow, that sounds like a prediction to me. I thought you said we shouldn't predict anything about a player based on potential. Is your prediction based on his NBA game performance?
heh heh, thanks, Jaybird. Normally I do stay away from the spelling corrections, but for whatever reason spelling EG's last name with an 'e' rather than an 'i' has been a very common one on this message board, and one that has been pointed out by other posters many times. But your point is well taken, and since my grammar and spelling are far from perfect, I will neglect from correcting other posters in these areas in the future.
Where a player is drafted and scouting reports certainly add a certain amount of credibility to the hype. For all of Langhi's practice hype he was never seen to be good enough to even crack the 1st round in a week draft. Sure there was a lot of wishful thinking when talking about Langhi. Boki was was considered better than Langhi long before the he was drafted and his draft position certainly lends credibility to his pre draft and training camp work outs unlike Langhi. You can't deny that Boki received quite a bit of pub before training camp. There is much more to this than just training camp pup. By your rules there are apparently no rookies that should be discussed as possible ROY candidates since they are all just training camp hype right now. I don't ever recall Langhi hitting 23 of 24 from behind the arc in pre draft workouts or hitting 14 in a row in training camp. Boki has a significantly better chance of succeeding in the league than Langhi did. There is no excuse for you not to be able to see that. BTW you decided to use a Langhi / Bullard comparison to validate your Boki / Langhi comparison so don’t edit your post on my account. I think you should leave it up for all to see.
this is very important. while langhi may have equalled nachbar's training camp production obviously there's something different about them for boki to be a top 15 prospect to everybody and langhi second round fodder. new yorker what's your beef with boki anyways? it's cool if your opinion is that he will be a dud but i'd like to know where that comes from if all we've seen and heard has been very positive.
He must have done something to warrant being drafted number 15 in what is widely regarded as a deep draft. Could it have been his play in the same pro league that produced Dirk Nowitzki and Pau Gasol? Maybe it was his pre-draft workouts. I'm sure all of the scouts, Rudy T and CD just really liked his personality. But for your benefit I have made a short list of some of the people drafted within the 13 to 16 spot range just to see if finding a NBA quality player is really such a long shot: 2001 13. Richard Jefferson 2000 16. Hidayet Turkoglu 1999 15. Ron Artest 1998 13. Keon Clark 14. Michael Dickerson 1997 13. Dereck Anderson 14. Mo Taylor 1996 13. Kobe Bryant 14. Peja Stojakovic 15. Steve Nash 16. Tony Delk There is some good names in that list don’t you think? There will probably be more people added to that list from 2001 – 1999 in time. What I really find ironic is that the two players that Boki is most often compared to are Pedja and Turkoglu and both are on the list. Coincidence?
Ah Easy, Rudy T NEVER puts a rookie over a vetern. And this Boki guy has to jump two vets in Rice and Thomas. Ain't going to happen unless one of those two get injured.
So 11 out of 24 players? I don't know if Artest and Dickerson would count as good players or weak starters. And i'm not really impressed with Delk (are you saying you'd be happy if Boki became a delk?) So anyway, using this as a guide there's less then a 50% chance that Boki will end up in this group. That's not that great.
I don't know about that. The post season coming off the NBA lockout I do recall the rookie in Cuttino Mobley getting the opportunity to make the game winning shot against the Lakers, in the first game of the first round, even though Scottie Pippen, Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon were on the floor.
OK, you are predicting Boki's bench-warming based on Rudy's (not Boki's) past "game performance." So Boki is a dud BECAUSE Rudy doesn't like to start rookies? Pretty tight logic!
