It's killing me that we lost Kenny Thomas. He's averaging 15 points and 10 rebounds for Philadephia in a physical Eastern Conference. Truthfully, he's better than any power forward we've had since Charles Barkley and Otis Thorpe. Remind me again why we thought Eddie Griffin was the man? I didn't understand the rationale then and I don't now.
Kenny was never going to resign. Least not for the money we were gonna offer him. We traded him so we could at least get something for him, and we did in Posey for the rest of last season. I really liked Kenny too, but he wasn't gonna come back.
Because, if you ever watched a Rockets game from last year, there was a reason they called Kenny Thomas a black hole on offense. Also, his defense was suspect (ok, just plain bad), and judging from some comments he made after the trade, I dont think hes the kind of guy who got laong with the team as well as some others did. ALso, "Physical Eastern Conference"? I dont mean to be hatin on yah, but man what conference are you watching? Its the East, all big men with some skills (which Kenny does possess) will have better numbers in the East than the West. And to finish, Eddie had size, speed, skill and youth. Noone in their right mind would have put Kenny Thomas at a higher value than Eddie Griffin.
Rockets #1, Are you kidding me? Kenny Thomas was dying to come back to Houston! He earned a MLE slot for his weight loss and hustle, and I'd certainly pay him what Maurice Taylor is making...wouldn't you? -P1st, S2nd
I agree...the kid was just young and most definitely STUPID. It's too bad, I thought he was gonna be great for us. Oh well, we're fine now.
Hottballah, Philadelphia figured it out, and all we got was a 38% FG shooter who was scared to go inside (i.e. Eddie Griffin). We took it up the arse on that trade. It was POSEY who didn't want to play for what we paid him. -P1st, Snd
Hey I'm not arguin with ya, but Kenny was by no means dying to come back. Like hotballa said, it seemed like he didn't really get along that well with everyone. The money the Sixers gave him is what he was aiming for, we couldn't do that. 48 over 6 (Mo's contract) would be very fair for Kenny, but we already have Mo signed, soo...
I'm glad the Rockets didn't get suckered into OVERpaying Posey too because we have enough big contracts. Eddie woulda been great had he not gone mental. The Rockets were doing the right thing by holding onto a guy with so much potential in Griffin. He was good before he got here; I don't think our coaches under Rudy knew how to develop guys at all.
Rockets-#1, Kenny WAS ABSOLUTLEY dying to come back to Houston. He was very upset that he didn't get an extension before the end of the 2001-2002 season. I don't mean to slam you my man, but you are way off on this issue. -P1st, Snd
Hey, does anybody remember Kenny ever consistently making jump shots? Yeah, me neither. It's also slightly suspect how his rbg average went up dramatically as soon as he moved to the eastern conference and started cleaning up AI's leftovers. Kenny didn't have 3 point range like Jim Jackson, and he didn't have a good midrange jump shot like MoT. He obviously didn't have the blocking capabilities or body of a Kelvin Cato. Kenny would never have been a good fit next to Yao Ming. I wish we could have gotten more for him, but we got a tryout at a player who didn't quite seem to fit either. I always thought that Kenny was working hard to improve his game, and I'm happy for him that he got the big contract - but he is best off playing in the Leastern conference.
Kenny was a black hole and undersized PF. Possy played better than K.T. last year. Rockets just wouldn't have resigned him for 8 mil a year. Personal stats means nothing, Philadelphia is struggle to even make playoff in East Conference with K.T. and AI, that says a lot.
It was only after KT was moved to Phily he played well. He didn't play well here and he didn't have enough minutes to play. So it was the right decision to trade him. Had we known that EG would be gone, signed KT with MLE, and played him enough minute to let him get to current level, it would have been a terrific deal. BUT, who could foresee that? Had we kept him, there was always a chance that some other teams offered him more than what we wanted. And there is no garantee that he would have played as well in out system.
Even then, it was clear to me that Kenny was simply caught up in a numbers game . Though he was (and still is) out performing Mo T and Griffen (remember him?), the cards were already dealt.... The Rockets made a big, but understandable salary/personnel mistake.
It seemed like Kenny Thomas, while not the level a malcontent Griffin was, wasn't too far behind. Good player, but I don't think we 'lost' anything. It seemed rather inevitable.
Kenny Thomas' offensive game does not mesh well with Yao's. He needed the ball and take 3 or 4 dribbles to get his shot off. He was never a consistent jump shooter, and not a spot up shooter with the touch as good as Mo Taylor. Well, could he play the Mo Taylor spot of instant offense off the bench? Possibly. Can he hustle and get rebounds better than Taylor? Definitely. Overall, I for one am happy with Mo Taylor and the role he has on the team. I feel Taylor is a legitamite scoring threat that could be putting up some big numbers on other teams. At that time, I would rather have Taylor and EG than KT. I still feel Taylor is a better player for this team than KT would be. And I hope EG will do alright for himself.
No, screw freaken Uncle Les. It didn't matter, with the possibility of the lux tax creeping on his massive profits, Les wasn't going to pay Kenny MLE money like he wasn't going to pay Posey. But on the bright side we were able to replace them with Pike, Adrian Griffin, and Spoon (ro get rid of Mooch's contract) and lose about 4 draft picks over the next few years to line Les's pockets with a few million more bucks--whoopee.
