Question's wasnt for me. Bu yeah in that measure you would take the scorer. The scorer adds 1 point difference than Battier. Thats big enough in the NBA cuz if each position gets outscored by 1, you lose by 5. But then real life context cant be ignored. You could ask whats the league average difference in Kobe vs Defender , -25, -20, -15? If Battier is keeping himself within the average margin and helping stop others as well, thats saying Battier's holding his own. At least in BATTIER'S sake when you gauge the Battier criticism as being he's the worst offensive liability that keeps an additional 5 points from appearing on his own team's scoreboard. Thats not even trying to work in magic intangibles in it. If Battier's not letting the entire game get all out of hand compared his peers, why even give a crap about him.
Both guys still in the NBA, though. Novak needs to learn to rebound on defensive end, but does a better job at defending the opposing PF than the opposing PF does at defending him. The lack of rebounds from a PF will kill a team though. He is a good scorer, though...too bad the other team gets a lot of extra shots at the basket when he is in. Head needs to learn to grow 3 inches, how to finish inside, and defend. He had a bad year last year. I think these are guys to look at when projecting Budinger. All three had the knock of defense on them. Head for height and Novak for strength and brick feet. Budinger is not Novak in that he can move, but needs to work on lateral movement as he is playing a quicker position. Height is a plus for him. Budinger is the best rebounder of the 3. Budinger does not quite have the a/t ratio of head, but also isn't looked at as a PG. He has good assist numbers for a role playing SG/SF. Budinger shooting efficiency wasn't as prolific as either Head (close) or Novak (not really close) in college. Budinger does have an advantage over Head in that he can get shot off without getting blocked in the NBA. Novak can't score inside the arc while Budinger appears capable of coming of screens and moving without ball to get nice looks inside. Basically, I expect him to be the best scorer of the three inside the arc easily and the second best NBA shooter. Defensively, I expect Budinger to outplay Head and Novak as both of them had worse physical disadvantages. Head and Novak get on the court between 10-20 min a game. I expect Budinger will do the same as long as the ball keeps hitting the bottom of the net. He also has the higher ceiling as he may turn into a capable defender. His defense will dictate how much he plays.
Chase can be as good aas he wants to be.Will he be the 2nd coming? He has enough tools to be a good player and decent defender. 2yrs ago, sasha was givng manu the blues on defense. Sasha V competes on defense. That's what Chase is going to have to do is compete every possession,understand angles, and watch film to get the offensive player in less desired places on the floor. Hinrich for his size is a very good defender also because he's tough and competes. We will wait and see how chase comes along in the nba. One thing we have seen ikn limited time is he can shoot. The key is will he just be a specialist or will he be a guy that can be that rip hamilton type of screen shooter that makes the defender really work?
He will be for some people. DD is having 2nd comings (and 3rd comings, 4th comings) while watching Budinger for some time now.
Budinger did seem at home last night (even for preseason game 1) I do want to see what happens when he creates his own shot. It would seem that he would be effective jab stepping and pulling up at least.
You'd rather who? James White is like 28 and he won't be getting any better than what he is...which is a scrub.
I think the most important fact is how they really develop. Both Wafer and CBud have potential. What way they go and how hard they work is another matter. Consistency in terms of staying with one team does play a big role here. I really disliked Wafer's 'greed' for a big contract after one successful year.
Letting Wafer go was stupid imo, sure about the above, but what do you expect the guy was still young and over confident. Both would have made the perfect spark plug.
Novak sucked every year. Here are his rookie stats: 41% FG in 2006 summer league 36% FG in 2006-2007 regular seson. Luther Head 40.5% FG in 2005-06. Yeah, stroking it. It can hardly be called "stroking it in their rookie years", when they bricked 60% of the shots. Novak stood in one place, and never moved without the ball after 3 seasons. Novak had low BBIQ and bad FG% and couldn't jump or run. Chase Budinger moves great without the ball, good court vision, good passer for a swingman, good height for his position(not 6'3" like Head). He has a great vertical, and better lane agility than James Harden and other players drafted ahead of him.
I expect him to be a much better shooter than Von Wafer.He will also take higher percentage shots. I don't think he will finish as well as Von at the rim,but he should have a better year than him,offensively. Defensively,Budinger has a long way to go,which was also a Von Wafer weakness.
I think he can be a poor man's Josh Howard without the crafty ball skills and length. Otherwise Chase is a more explosive athlete vertically and both can be exploited on defense against elite SG's (see Tmac's matchups vs Howard -Tmac clearly always had a step on Howard too). You DON'T need elite/great foot quickness to be an capable defender. Its all about knowing your guy's tendencies, knowing the angles and anticipation. It would also help if he can learn to sink his hips a little bit more while in a defensive stance, it would help him in changing directions more fluidly
Head could score, shoot, and play within the system. Adelman praised him for his off-ball movement. Budinger does not differ greatly in terms of skillset. His handles aren't much better, he's certainly not a creator, and he's also a defensive liability. You blame Luther's poor defense on his size, but our starting SG at the time was David Wesley. Even at his advanced age and standing at 6'0" Wesley was great defender. Chuck Hayes is our best post defender at 6'6". Head would be a terrible defender no matter how tall he was. Budinger is actually worse at fundamental defense than Head. My best hope for Chase's potential would be for him to mimic Portland's usage of Fernandez last year: run around screens all day and avoid guarding any scorers. There's no doubt he can score a lot of points for us. How he progresses defensively will determine his place in the league. Even his most ardent fans know he's got a long way to go in that department.
What I expect is for Wafer to know his place. You can only use "age" as an excuse for so long before you become "stupid" like Ron Ron. There is a reason why NO TEAM IN THE NBA KEPT HIM. It wasn't just the Rockets, but he has been let go by EVERY team he has ever played for. That is why he is over there in Greece as opposed to playing in the real basketball league.
Luther Head had bad peripheral vision. Being undersized made it harder to shoot over a guy rushing to him. Chase's elevation and height allows him's a better look at the basket than Luther, with a defender closing in him. It's makes it harder to block his shot also. Chase has explosiveness that allows him to dunk on the fast break and finish stronger than Luther. Luther doesn't finish that strongly at all. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m_hY63vvGgI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m_hY63vvGgI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/fFR0ffKl0YU&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/fFR0ffKl0YU&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
It's preseason and we still haven't seen much but it's not hard to tell that Chase is better than Head, Novak and Von. He's a smarter player nice movement without the ball and he already has the best looking shot on the team. Hopefully he will keep getting better on his D.
Good rebounding work from Budinger against the Celtics. It looks like he knows how to use his height.
He is just a good basketball player who is wise beyond his years. Players like him, that are superior complimentary players look much better when playing with other talented players. Chase is just coming into his own...he is going to be really good. Let me put it another way, he is way better than Leeb ever hoped to be... DD
