Hey there, I wonder if you guys could tell me what happened with DA. I was just reading the Feigan this morning and he mentioned the Rockets' futility against South-Western teams. I was surprised about NO sweeping us so far, but I looked at the box scores: game one no TMac and close game; game two no Yao or Alston and a close game; game three no TMac and close game. We've nothing to fear from NO. However, looking back at that first game, I noted Anderson had a fairly good game and then looking over his time with the Rockets playing significant minutes, his numbers suggest that he played fairly well for them. I hadn't seen him play much before he came to the Rockets, and I'm in NYC so I didn't get to see him much at all this year, but health aside, all his scouting reports sounded excellent. Amonst his qualities, everyone said that when healthy had played very good defense, so I figured JVG would love him. What happened? The Chronicle reports were so scetchy, JVG (of course) sketchier. Thoughts? Thanks, Michael
I don't know what happened. All I know is he did alright at first. No worse than say an Alston at the time. Then he got hurt, bustin his ass for the team (I think dove for a ball or something). While getting back from injury, just never got back on the court. He and Jeff had a meeting, and both parties agreed the best move was to trade him. He would have a chance to go to a team in better shape than the Rockets at the time. I can't remember why it benefits the Rockets really. I guess moving him gives them more flexiblity in the moves they can make down the line. My 2 cents, I liked him, and thought he could be a good fit here, but what do I know...JVG decides all that :\ Man, I respect JVG, but dang...the players either love him or hate him, no middle ground there.
He did have a few games where he was productive but his shooting % was horrible. When it looked like he was turning the corner he got hurt. He was out for an extended time and by the time he was ready to come back the player landscape had changed a bit and JVG and DA had a meeting and decided it was better for them to part ways.
DA is slow on defensive end; not a good defender any more. On top of that, our whole back court got burned by quick quards from opposing teams way too often. On offense, he looked his own shots too much and with low percentage. I guess those are two reasons that he fell out of JVG's favor.
There was a stretch during that early season road winning streak, in which he got hurt at portland I think, where both Yao and Tracy were in the line up and he was still shooting quite a bit.
