Since were all thinking about next season I want to know how people on this board come to the decision on what players they want. I'm on various bball boards a lot and I notice most people just use stats to make their decision. That's fine, we're not professional scouts and most of us don't have the time to watch a million games on league pass everyday. But I don't trust stats and I don't like using them. And numbers rarely tell the whole story. I will use them to bolster my views though, but ignore them when they don't so I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite. When I look for new rockets players I look at teams I see play often. I live in LA so that means lots of teams in the pacific division. I'm from new york and my friend has a slingbox, so I often see knicks games too (unfortunately). That means I favor former lakers and clippers over players I've never seen before. People want Morris Peterson and his stats look nice, but I've never see him so I don't. I don't think you can know a player unless you've seen him play. I look for little things. Usually a player's strongest trait is what I use to label him. To me, Artest is just a defender, Troy Murphy is just a rebounder, and Brad Miller is just a midrange shooter. How people score points is more important than how many, especially since we have Tmac and Yao here. Fit is more important than individual talent, but seeing our dearth of skill has changed my stance on that somewhat. Talent is nice, but right now I just want role players that'll fix our weaknesses: outside shooting, defensive rebounding, speed, and dribble penetration. I also look strongly for bball IQ. Frahm played for like five minutes last night, but he screwed up defensively on one inbounds play in which the mavs didn't even take advantage, but it completely turned me against him. I don't tolerate mistakes, not even the small ones. Hey, it's unfair but poise is a needed quality too. Lots of people are talking Bonzi and Harpring and I don't want either one of them. I really don't know why people think they'll fit in. But if these guys have some quality that people see and want I want to know what it is. I've seen both play and I think they'd make terrible rockets. Strongest traits: Bonzi is an athletic hustle guard, Harpring can...ummmm...finish layups. So tell me, what makes your scouting mind tick?
Down here in the land of GARM, it's simple. "I think he's a better scorer than X, so we need to replace X with him." Occasionally some minds will venture as far as rebounding, but usually that's about it.
Hahahaha. Very true. I guess you could look at the stats, or you could look at the strengths/weaknesses of each player and which one would be more effective in this offense. Honestly, I even find myself looking for new players when the losing starts up (in mass, of course, not after 3 or 4 losses), I admit it. However, I'm not one of those people who when someone is in a small slump, want to trade their ass. I'm looking for better fits on this team (players or coach or otherwise) but I'm OK with it since we don't have one of our stars. I'm pretty sure it's going to be impossible to win the big one if we don't upgrade our supporting cast in general, though.
