Von's projected to be a starter. Here's the starting lineup. Guess that answers the question about his Twitter account being real. PG NBA free agent/Papaloukas SG Wafer/Halperin SF Childress/Vasilopoulos PF Klieza/Vujcic/Mavrokefalidis C Bourousis/Glyniadakis/Schortsanitis
No offense DD but you have no idea what actually happened in the locker room as other have already pointed out, Von might be the team's biggest cancer for all we know. If DM lets him go that only means Von is not worth the minimum, and that's that. I hope you you just remember that DM is the guy who got us undervalued gems such as Scola, Brooks and Landry, so if he lets Von go nothing there must a pretty good reason for it. And let's face its not like this is the first time you said not signing a low-IQ athletic ball hog was a big mistake. You said letting Green go was a BIG MISTAKE last season, and you also said not signing him was another BIG MISTAKE when Dallas took him up. Where is Green now?
Glad he cashed in. Good luck. If the Rockets thought he was that important he would be here. I also believe he should have kept his mouth shut. You would think someone who has struggled to stick in this league would have appreciated the opportunity the Rockets gave him. IMO he tasted some mild success and it went to his head a little. DONT CHALLENGE THE COACH, the TEAM was trying to win a series. Just shut up take your seat at the end of the bench and wait till you get called back to go into the game. And so we are told there may have been a few more times he had issues with coach. If they can cover up all that happened with Ron they surely can cover it up with Von. I liked his potential, the scoring punch he brought us off the bench, his tenacity and fire. I didn't care for his defensive liabilities or his sometimes blackhole mentality. But I just think it was Von that sealed his own fate here. JT in the long run will be better, or lets hope so
If not one NBA team takes a sniff at Von then that's a huge sign the Rockets aren't making a mistake. Come on, not one team, not even one team? That's pretty damning if you ask me, especially in a league that is notorious for tolerating morons, locker room cancers, and social rejects.
LOL. People are also forgetting the huge tantrum he threw when the team didn't offer Eddie Griffin a contract after his rehab. With your damning track record DD, one would think you would learn to stop getting hung up so quickly on these girls. There's a whole sea out there but you for some reason tend to think that every one you let go will be the last of her kind. I liked Von a lot. You could possibly make the case that we don't win 53 games without him. He fit in real well with what we were trying to do. I thought he would be a pretty big difference maker in the playoffs. (I was clearly wrong on that.) And I think a lot of the criticisms against him are a bit unfair. He's a hog, yes, but that was his role on the team. But I'm trying to figure out how exactly there is so much hullabaloo (to the tune of multiple 10+ page threads) over the departure of a player of such little consequence. I think this might actually be my first post on the topic. Von Wafer is what he is. He's an athletic shooter with slashing ability, decent size, horrendous defense, poor ball handling, even worse passing, and clearly a hot head. None of these vices alone are what make the case for releasing him. But taken in combination with the abundance in players of his skillset, I'm not sure I really understand what the fuss is here. This isn't even taking into consideration the fact that management is usually a bit more privy to the happenings in the lockerroom than is the fan base. It should probably raise some eyebrows that he wasn't offered anything respectable from any other clubs. The blow-up in LA was very disappointing. Is that sufficient to justify discarding a guy? Probably not, but the fact that he isn't really all that unique is. Honestly, Von Wafer leaving hasn't even registered as a blip on my radar.
we would have if we could. but his asking price was way too high. we cant do a sign and trade with a european club can we?
If no other team is even interested enough to spend half of their own MLE on him, why would they pay the Rockets for the right to pay him?
If another team wants Von Wafer, wouldn't they just use their MLE to sign him without losing any assets? If the Rockets are offering more money than another team would sign him for, why would they want trade an asset for him? I can see them sending us a bad player to increase cap flexibility, like the Spurs did with Jackie Butler. It would just hurt the Rocket's flexibility.
There can be more than one big mistake. In this case I was speaking of letting Von go being Morey's big mistake, and I would like to have Green back to, he is better than James White, Brent Barry, or Brian Cook at this point. The Rockets have always needed young talented players to push the veterans. My thoughts on Griffin were that the Rockets should have done a better job once they drafted him, by helping him mature. Still, Griffin was a troubled soul, may he RIP. As for Von, I like his abilities and think he was a very nice complimentary player to have on the team. A player that gives contrast to the rest of the team with his fire and emotion, and highly skilled at scoring the ball by being aggressive. I always think a team is stronger when it has multiple types of players, with varying skill sets.....I think Von will be missed, as just sticking another system player will not replace his enthusiasm, grit, aggressiveness and competive fire. All those things will be missed. I am happy for him though, and if this Olympiokos deal is real, he can come back to the NBA a better player in a year or two, and then we can overpay him. DD
I don't care that he is gone. He was ok, but I really disliked the way he acted during the playoffs, and I think it will make zero difference to the longer-term success of the Rockets whether he plays for us or not.
Really? Did you really just say that? Drexler? T-Mac? They're way more athletic than Von Wafer...IMO.
exactly. short term memory I guess. You can be athletic but if it's not there between the ears, then really how valuable is it? Von has issues and made it difficult for the organization. That is why he isn't coming back. Daryl and the rest of the Rockets don't need to give us a reason. It's obvious there are things that made life with Von challenging.
DD, I know you are in love with Von Wafer. He is a decent player that has an explosive offensive game and that is always attracting as a fan. He is only 24. You keep saying this is Morey's biggest mistake, but knowing our GM you think he'd try to keep Von around. He drafted 2 SG's, he not only drafted them, but he paid millions of dollars for the rights to those picks. If Morey truly liked Von, he would have kept him around. You don't let young talent like that get away just for the sake of letting him get away. We could have just drafted one SG, we could of kept Von at a reasonable 1.8 to 2.2M contract, but Daryl let him go. Like it has been re-stated over and over again, the Rockets keep everything behind close doors. It is very rare that the media get locker room issues about this team out in the open. I know everyone criticizes the one time Von lost his head in the playoffs. I forgave him for that incident and I'm sure Coach and Daryl forgave him as well. Perhaps though this was going on too often with Von behind close doors that the Rockets simply did not see this guy maturing emotionally.
I hear ya Pig, I like Morey, a lot, but I don't find him infallible. Overall he has been great, but one thing I dislike is his attempting to get something out of veteran's that the organization thinks has more tread left on the tires, because so far, other than Deke, none have panned out. I would rather we take some risk on younger players with upside instead of Mike James, Brent Barry and Steve Francis. DD
