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With just days to go to the NBA trading deadline...

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by xiki, Feb 18, 2007.

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bjshot Member

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jopatmc said:

What people need to realize is that when you play the top tier teams like Dallas, they take the ball out of McGrady's hands. He can't even initiate or set up the offense because they have two defenders on him at all times, even when he does not have the ball. In those scenarios, jump shots and long range jump shots is exactly what they are wanting the other 4 guys to take. And especially when they can get low percentage shooters like Rafer to take them. Because those top tier teams are athletic enough that they will still be able to jump out and bother the 3 point shooters even though they are essentially playing 3 defenders on 4 players. And what that translates to is a 35% distance shooter like Rafer, shooting even below that, down in the 20s. Not only that, but the defense gets more long rebounds because they are shaded out towards McGrady, so they can pick up those long boards and run it up. That's what the top tier teams are going to do to us.

That is why I am in favor of a pick and roll point guard that can run the offense, pass the ball, and finish at the rim. That is why I want to see VSpan developed. Rafer runs away from contact. He throws up tear drop shots, before the contact and then when he does get down on the inside he will throw up the shot while running backwards away from the basket. Rafer seeks to avoid contact altogether, and if he can't avoid it, he seeks to minimize it. Those are all just simply terrible ways to finish. The way to finish is to create the contact, not shy away from it. You anticipate the hit, you take the hit, and you get the shot off, concentrating on trying to make it after the hit. Some of them go down. Some of them don't go down but you get 2 free throws out of it. Still, others go down and you get the And 1. And a few don't go down and you don't get the foul call. But the more aggressive a penetrator is, the more contact situations they are in, and the more calls are made. And then the defense becomes tentative and the penetrator/finisher gets the momentum on their side to finish cleanly without contact as the defense seeks to avoid the foul call. Then the defense sends weak side help. And then a true point guard can find his man for the easy short jumper or the layup/dunk as their defenders leave to help out on the point guard. That is basketball basics, Basketball 101.

Even in HS, the coach will tell you if you are a bad shooter or if your shot is off, you take it to the rack. You set up the 3 point shot with scoring in the paint. When teams know you ain't gonna take it to the hole, they know they can play you for the long range bomb, and then all they have to do is throw your rhythm off. They don't have to block the shot. All they have to do is force you to take it quicker, or slightly off balance, or hurry the release, or simply create a distraction with a hand in the face, etc. etc. etc. and they can knock down the percentage on that shot several points.

This is why a lot of fans here want to see VSpan. If you have played this game, you know the teams that win and win big are teams that get the highest percentage of looks inside the paint area. Teams that run around the 3 point stripe, and throw the ball around the stripe 3 or 4 times, then launch bombs...........don't win the big one.

This is why Rafer will look better when Yao comes back. We will have an interior presence. But this is why VSpan needs to be developing right now. We can run up our record playing the bottom 70% of the league. We're a better team and our defense is so superior that even with pi.. poor offense, we can still walk off from 70% of the teams in this league. But we cannot beat the top teams in this league without Yao and relying on Rafer to shoot the long ball or relying on Luther chasing the ball up the court while TMac is double covered. Luther cannot handle. He literally chases the basketball from one end of the court to the other in what a lot of people perceive as his "dribble". It's like watching a greased pig catching contest.

Our point guard needs to be able to break down the defense, especially in a 4 on 3 situation, GET TO THE RACK AND FINISH OR DISH, not float up "teardrops". We call Rafer's shot a "teardrop", cuz we are all crying after it clangs out. He's not even shooting 40% inside of the 3 point line, and the vast majority of his 2 point shots are from 5 feet in. That's crazy bad. There's no other way to describe it.

VSpan can't shoot from distance. Everybody knows it. VSpan knows it. It's no secret. It is not his game. Here's the difference. VSpan WON'T shoot from distance if the coaching staff doesn't force him to. He will play to his strength. If VSpan plays the point, he won't be launching out there when TMac is doubled. He will be breaking down the defense using his playmaking skills and getting a true shooter a great look, or finishing at the rim. VSpan is a finisher. And he's a foul magnet. He draws almost 3 times the amount of fouls that Rafer draws because of his aggressive attack style, which is what McGrady was screaming for against Dallas.

You want to get in the bonus? You want to push teams back on their heals defensively? You want to see a free throw parade in our team's favor every quarter and put the defense in a nonaggressive posture? You want to compete with the top teams and win? You gotta get aggressive, take the ball to the rack and finish. If they are going to put 40% of their defense towards stopping one man and deny him the ball, then you gotta force it to the rim, not stand around the stripe and launch contested, rushed shots from inferior shooters.
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GREAT ANALYSIS. Develop V-Span now. He is vetaran. He can do it. Hewill be the new Sam C. With his 15-20 min and others healthy, Rockets will win WC for sure.

#141 bjshot, Feb 20, 2007

mac_got_this Member

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^^^Agreed. Besides do you really want all your guards to play the same way. Won't that make the offense predictable?

#142 mac_got_this, Feb 20, 2007
saleem Member

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mac_got_this said:

I'm reading the ESPN insdier (before the All-star) game and it says that the Hawks coach is displeased with the way Speedy Claxton is distributing the ball in Atlanta and that he is looking to move the veteran guard.

Maybe we should give Atlanta a call?
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I haven't seen Speedy play for quite a while since he got hurt but I used to like the way he broke down defenses with his penetration. I wasn't impressed with his ball distribution and his lack of 3 point shooting is another drawback.
I think he is good enough to be a backup PG but I'm not sure if he can help us much.
I would appreciate more input from other posters who have seen him play recently.

#143 saleem, Feb 20, 2007
jump shooter Member

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saleem said:

I haven't seen Speedy play for quite a while since he got hurt but I used to like the way he broke down defenses with his penetration. I wasn't impressed with his ball distribution and his lack of 3 point shooting is another drawback.
I think he is good enough to be a backup PG but I'm not sure if he can help us much.
I would appreciate more input from other posters who have seen him play recently.
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Speedy played really well with the Spurs during one of their championship runs. He was a big part of some of the Spurs playoff wins. I would be all for making some sort of trade for Claxton.

#144 jump shooter, Feb 20, 2007
Deuce Context & Nuance

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The Hawks are trying to trade Speedy+scrubs for Luke Ridnour. That's not going to happen.

We dont have anything the Hawks would want. All we could offer is to just take Speedy off their payroll. They are under the cap. They have no incentive for that.

#145 Deuce, Feb 20, 2007
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Deuce said:

The Hawks are trying to trade Speedy+scrubs for Luke Ridnour. That's not going to happen.

We dont have anything the Hawks would want. All we could offer is to just take Speedy off their payroll. They are under the cap. They have no incentive for that.
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Speedy has been terrible this year. I'd rather take a flyer on Tyronn Lue.

#146 baller4life315, Feb 20, 2007
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Speedy Claxton and Tyronn Lue are just as bad as Rafer. PASS

#147 TTRocket, Feb 20, 2007

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TTRocket said:

Speedy Claxton and Tyronn Lue are just as bad as Rafer. PASS
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T-Lue is a very underrated and solid player that nobody even knows about. He does so many things well and would be able to do everything we would be asking of him: run the offense at times, protect the ball/make smart decisions, play solid defense and shoot the ball well. He's a career 39% 3-pt shooter and shot 46% from 3-pt range last year. That's better than what Luther is shooting right now. He's not my first choice for the backup point we're seeking but he would certainly make us better.

#148 baller4life315, Feb 20, 2007
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baller4life315 said:

T-Lue is a very underrated and solid player that nobody even knows about. He does so many things well and would be able to do everything we would be asking of him: run the offense at times, protect the ball/make smart decisions, play solid defense and shoot the ball well. He's a career 39% 3-pt shooter and shot 46% from 3-pt range last year. That's better than what Luther is shooting right now. He's not my first choice for the backup point we're seeking but he would certainly make us better.
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I haven't been keeping up with Lue, but he was horrible on Tmac's 21-61 Magic team and he was TERRIBLE when he played with the Rockets as well. He was shipped out almost as soon as he got here.

#149 TTRocket, Feb 20, 2007
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Deuce said:

The Hawks are trying to trade Speedy+scrubs for Luke Ridnour. That's not going to happen.

We dont have anything the Hawks would want. All we could offer is to just take Speedy off their payroll. They are under the cap. They have no incentive for that.
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They are trying to get Luke Ridnour. If they traded Speedy to us to get him off their payroll, that would not help them in getting their target player. They would have a total void at PG.

#150 Mordo, Feb 20, 2007
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I'll just repeat what many others have said. I hope we trade Bonzi. He has been totally unimpressive to this point, and Snyder is a better fit IMO. Trade him and get something from his 1yr rental - lord knows it probably would be worth more to us than watching him airball shots and get injured every four games.

I have no idea what we could get for him, but he's better traded than hanging around, messing up the rotation.

#151 rhadamanthus, Feb 20, 2007
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http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...6~2175~429~575&teams=4~4~4~4~4~17~17~17~10~10 chew on this one

#152 LoLo1, Feb 20, 2007
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LoLo1 said:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/featur...6~2175~429~575&teams=4~4~4~4~4~17~17~17~10~10 chew on this one
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No thanks.

#153 Rocketman95, Feb 20, 2007

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http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2763~2866~901~2381&teams=4~4~4~10

#154 hooroo, Feb 20, 2007
Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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hooroo said:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2763~2866~901~2381&teams=4~4~4~10
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In a heartbeat.

#155 Rocketman95, Feb 20, 2007
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Rocketman95 said:

In a heartbeat.
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I have no idea why the Bulls would give up Gordon that easily though.

#156 SuperYanthrax, Feb 20, 2007
Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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SuperYanthrax said:

I have no idea why the Bulls would give up Gordon that easily though.
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Me either. There's no way they would.

#157 Rocketman95, Feb 20, 2007
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TTRocket said:

I haven't been keeping up with Lue, but he was horrible on Tmac's 21-61 Magic team and he was TERRIBLE when he played with the Rockets as well. He was shipped out almost as soon as he got here.
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I can't argue that he wasn't bad as a Rocket his first time around. All I will say is that was a completely different and inferior team to what we have now and it's possible T-Lue didn't get a fair chance. This was when our starters consisted of Charlie Ward, Jim Jackson and Mo Taylor outside of the big two and we were pitiful until Sura came around and gave the team a new identity and made things start clicking. Before Sura, we were bad and not getting any consistent production from PG, SF or PF so JVG was understably tinkering with lineups and rotations.

#158 baller4life315, Feb 20, 2007

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I say we explore this:

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2779~825&teams=10~3

#159 Rocketman95, Feb 20, 2007
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http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=2447~901~2806~2433&teams=28~28~10~10 this young point guard has a lot of potential. he,s had a few double digit assist games this year and has good range.

#160 LoLo1, Feb 20, 2007

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