How can I put this graciously? We (JAG, Gater, et al) Told You So. Next WTYS topic: Moochie Norris. At least Matt Maloney played within his limits.
Man, I knew dumping Bullard for Rice was a mistake. Bull shoots the 3 as well as Rice or better, stays healthy, and costs like 1/3 of what Rice does. Oh well.
Will, you can look back and add me to that list. I've been watching Glen decline for the past few yrs and was totally against the trade. I thought we'd be better off with no cap space being taken up than investing in a player like Rice. People were upset when Les had 2nd and 3rd opinions about Rice's health, but he did the right thing and i was hoping he would have killed the deal. The Knicks knew they were overpaying for Anderson, but they knew Anderson would be happy backing up the 2/3 spots and would be healthy most of the time. It was bad then and it bad now. Jackson sure looks good now that we see what we're getting from Cato and Rice.
Bullard is shooting 25% on his 3's this year. Rice is shooting 28%. Bullard is shooting 25% on his FG's this year. Rice is shooting 38.9%. Of course this is all before tonight's game in which Bull is 4-4 on FG's and 3-3 on 3's at the moment...
Premier teams get a return on the players at the top of their salary chart. The Rockets get no bang for their buck at the top of their salary structure. RT and CD CHOSE to spend big bucks on marginal talent that even the most clueless fan would have avoided. 1) Anyone with a pulse who watched Glen Rice the last two years new he'd slipped big time. Yet we'll pay him $27MM over 3 yrs. 2) What fan would have committed $42MM to Cato based on one good EXHIBITION game, after demonstrating NOTHING in any regular season game? 3) Matt Maloney was a slow-footed, stand up jump shooter with a slow release that only was effective if he had 3-5 seconds to release a wide open jumper on a kickout pass from the low block. (So we sign him to 7 years... at over $2MM per year). 4) Moochie Norris has only slightly better skills than Damon Jones and a host of other previous CBA pickups at backup PG like Emmanuel Davis, Eldridge Recasner and other NBA minimum-wage players. He penetrates well and hustles, but lays bricks from the outside and can't guard any PG taller than Calvin Murphy. (So RT/CD commit nearly $4MM/year for the next 5 years?!) After the Maloney and Cato contract blunders, we needed to be prudent this offseason with our limited cap room. Too late, CD and RT blew it on Rice and Moochie. When Duncan's a free agent in a couple of years we'll have over $23MM/year tied up in the four stiffs listed above. I'm completely pissed that we've got over $20MM/year committed to the above stiffs for 3 or more years, and that as a result of very avoidable personnel stupidity we'll miss out on any impact FA activity for years. Oh well, it was nice being a Rocket fan and season ticket holder during the early-to-mid 90's....
I'm just curious: Are slumps infectious? Just trying to figure out why the whole team is shooting so poorly. If it's because of Rice's slump...
I think Bullard could have reward us with a real 3 points shooter specialist and not some over price and wear out Rice.
As much as I feel Wizard should have been our starter and not have gone for Glen in the first place, I feel he will approach his game like Robert Horry now that he is run down in his age. Hopefully he is saving himself for (still praying) the playoffs
