Why did we trade our 9th pick (Joel Pryzbilla who's starting for the Bucks) in the '00 draft for the 15th (Jason Collier, who ain't even playing) + a future 1st rounder? Did the Rockets come up with that brilliant idea to draft Collier or was it the Bucks? There were 8 players after the 15th pick that are way more talented and making more impact on their team than Collier. These players being... 16. Hidayet Turkoglu 17. Desmond Mason 18. Quentin Richarson 19. Jamaal Magloire 20. Speedy Claxton 21. Morris Peterson 22. Donnell Harvey 23. Deshawn Stevenson The could've should've list.
If the trade wasn't done, we wouldn't have Eddie Griffin. As well as that Rudy T is a sucker for seven-footers who can nail a jump shot with good range. Unfortunately thats not the type of game the Rockets are playing anymore. Take solace in the fact that we have Eddie Griffin, and we may have a good pick this year, but i definitely have to agree... would've, should've could've.
Rudy jizzed in his pants about the thought of a 7 ft center with a half decent jump shot. He was probably the 30th best player or so in the draft, but I'm sure good ole Rudy had him at #1. Rudy needs to wake up and realize that shooters aren't the type of guys you draft early. They are the guys you sign as FA's, like a Steve Kerr or something. There aren't too many franchise players who are shooters only.
16. Hidayet Turkoglu Agreed, though he was considered a huge reach at that pick. You guys probably would've been all over the Rockets for that pick. 17. Desmond Mason Don't need an SG, or a 6'5 SF. And he hasn't shown much more than dunking so far. 18. Quentin Richarson Again, don't need an SG. And playing 6'5 guys at SF doesn't work in this league. 19. Jamaal Magloire To this point he's been better, but it's not a fair comparison yet because Collier hasn't been healthy for a long stretch. When he was healthy, he played well. Will Collier be injury prone his whole career? I don't think so, but if you do, Magloire would've been a better pick, yes. 20. Speedy Claxton Don't need a PG at all. 21. Morris Peterson Don't need an SG, or a 6'6 SF. 22. Donnell Harvey 23. Deshawn Stevenson What have these two done at all, besides rape? Collier hasn't done that much yet, and though I think he will in the future, I also see the concerns of people who worry about him. However, thinking the Rockets should've taken a shooting guard at the same time we had both Shandon and Cat is ridiculous. We had, and still have, a great starting backcourt and good backups in Mooch and Oscar. (then Mooch and Cat) Why would you even consider drafting an SG in those circumstances? Or, if you're thinking about drafting an SF, when's the last time a good team had a 6'5 starting small forward?
I get a feeling that Collier's "injuries" are ones that he could play through. It's just that we always seem to have 12 guys on the team who are better than him. It's funny how "injury" prone Langhi and Collier are, when they have barely played in the NBA. Collier is probably 95% healthy, and just hasn't shown anything at all, during practice. But, as long as Collier is under a guaranteed contract, he will have the #2 or #3 IL spot.
Rudy did excellent in that draft by being able to get another 1st round pick out of it. When all of the players that he wanted were gone when we selected he did an excellent job by trading down and securing another pick in a better draft the following year. Most of the players you mentioned are guards so they were defenately out of the question. Maglorie and Turkoglu are surprise players that nobody would have expected to take with a high pick. The bottom line is if everyone expects Rudy to pull a Cassell and Mobley out of his a$$ every year then your expectations are set way too high. I don't know of another team that has gotten as much as the Rockets have out of their late 1st and 2nd round picks.
The problem with the Collier selection was *always* that we could have had him in the 2nd round, in all probability. A lot of people didn't even expect him to make a roster... and we chose him barely out of the lottery? I wanted Mo Pete at the time. If nothing else, he's a great sub and could have played SF. hell, we play with 3 guard line-ups enough as it is. If Rudy wanted Collier that badly, he should have taken the best player available and traded later.
Collier can be a servicable backup center. He has a good pnr game. He sets really nice screens and has that 15ft jumper. I wish we would use him more. With Eddie and KT in at the 3,4 we won't need rebounding as much and athletisim as much. I say throw him into the fire and see if he can produce. He was productive as a rookie last year in a handful of games.
Agreed. I thought the deal was set-up basically so that Milwaukee picked for us. That being the case, picking Collier in itself did not get us an extra first round pick this past summer. We could have had anyone and that first round pick as well. I would certainly have preferred Magloire, or as you mention, anybody else that we could have later trade for Collier and a second round pick in the future (which could have been done), leaving us with Collier, a first rounder and a second rounder. Anyways, its in the past. It is better to look towards the future
if that trade was not made, we would not have griffin this year. simple as that. and i would rather have griffin than any of those players.
I wish that Rudy had gone for Magliore, Mo pete or Turkoglu, although I admit that nobody could have ever predicted how good Turkoglu would be. However, I think Mobley would have interpreted Mo Pete as a threat to his playing time and we wouldn't have been able to keep him here. Magliore did b**** slap Mihm around during workouts and the Rockets definitely could have used his toughness. The trade that I think really sucked was getting Langhi for Najera and the 2001 2nd rounder. Najera has become a Malik Rose/hustle type player (always a good thing) and the 2001 2nd round probably could have netted us a decent player (due to the depth of the draft).
rudy paid some gypsy woman to him tell his future. she told him he must have 3 draft picks in the 2001 draft in order to have inner peace later in his life. being the deeply superstitious (sp?)man that he is, he grabbed the first thing he saw to fulfill his reading..
As I recall, Etan Thomas went #12 in that draft. He was probably the guy Rudy wanted, and once he was off the table, we had to take whoever was left that fit our needs. Basically, all the signals coming from Rockets management that year were that the whole draft sucked, and anyone with a decent shot at being a good NBA player would probably be gone by #9, and the only reason I can come up with why Rudy traded down to #15 -- as opposed to trading out of the first round altogether -- was that he thought maybe he could still get Thomas at #15. But that's just conjecture.
Yeah, I remember something along those lines being mentioned. But I think a delicate balance needs to be maintained between drafting for need as opposed to picking the best available player. And I think that Rudy trampled all over that balance by taking Collier. Sure, if we need a center as opposed to a sg, I can see him being taken 4-5 picks higher than pure talent would dicate. But 15-25? That's absurd.
I still think that Jason Collier can be a solid C in this league, but his injuries must be real -- I'd expect to see him at least backing up Cato, or getting the occasional minute or two, but he's never in the game. Every time I've seen him, I've been happy with his play. He provides a big body who can set good, solid picks, and hit jumpers with nice accuracy. He's not a rebounding menace, but he tries hard, and has a large presence when blocking out.
It doesn't matter we still could have done the trade and got any of those players mentioned and still have griffin, simple as that. Umm as I recall we could've used a back up PG, SG, or 6'5 6'6 SF. Lets see Speedy Claxton backing up Francis instead of Moochie (Who is now way overpaid). Deshawn Stevenson (Jazz' Franchise Player), Q.Richardson backing up Mobley instead of S.Anderson. Morris Peterson, Desmond Mason backing up or even starting ahead of Walt Williams/S.Anderson. We get an awful record, trade our 9th end up with the 15th pick in the draft, pick Collier at 15 and then find out there were 8 talented players right after that pick that we could've drafted is mind blowing.
Remember- We did another trade that year. We took Eduardo Najera with our 2d round pick, then shipped him to Dallas for Langhi and an extra 2d rounder. Living up here near Dallas, I've seen enough of Najera to know we made a big mistake. He is a hustler who never quits on the floor. I can slightly understand the Collier trade for an extra 1st rounder, but not giving up on Najera.
Collier is Travis Knight, except he has logged more minutes. As far as the draft...excellent point Jared! Rudy looks pretty Gypsyish right now : ) That draft was relatively weak, ya, it would have been nice if we drafted an athlete, but collier has shown the ability to shoot the rock for a big man. Had we not traded...this year would be different. the next few weeks should be telling on his future. if he does not get playing time, look for him to moved as part of a some package. it is time to start playing everyone you expect to be here next year!
Oh no, one of our mid-first round picks in a weak draft isn't contributing. We are definitely screwed now for the long haul. The Rookie of the Year in that draft was Mike freaking Miller. What the heck do people want? Perfection from every single draft choice? What can we complain about next?
