No Stone Unturned: I Found A Center For The Rockets

Ok, let's admit it the Rockets need another center for the roster in the worst way. Not just anyone to play center, mind you, but someone big and mean. A bruser to play in the middle with legitimate center height.

I decided the other day to help the Rockets look. I looked all over the place. Remaining NBA free agents? Uhm, no. Players for whom the Rockets could trade? Not many of those, either. Brad Miller might be nice, but is a long shot at best. Jahidi White is a bruser and a monster in the middle, but has almost as many weaknesses as strengths, what with his lack of height, heafty contract, and tendancy to foul out... ...in the first period.

The next place I looked was CBA types. When the Jailblazers sigh Priest Lauderdale, well I think that says it all for local non-NBA talent.

Overseas? Plenty of history there... Guys like Dean Garrett, players who couldn't make it in the NBA right off go over there for a while and come back able to play. Unfortunately, the guy who gets mentioned most often is Nate Huffman. He seems to be an O.K. player, but I would have a hard time picking him out of a lineup of the likes of Vladmir Stepnia, and other soft, outside shooting 7' small forwards.

But, I continued to look. Detroit signed Victor Alexander. An OK player from back in the day, but nothing special. Then I saw it: the best fit avalable...

<CENTER><FONT face=arial size=+2><B>Rashard Griffith</B></FONT></CENTER>

<CENTER><IMG src="http://www.euroleague.net/fotos/noticias/jornada1/gra_97_12.jpg" alt="Get A Browser That Supports Images, You Loser!"></CENTER>

Griffith was a stud back in his college days. He was an early entry candidate, and after being drafted in the second round went off to play in Europe. As far as vitals, he was born in '74 so he's still really young, he's 6'11" and big and bulky. The best analogy I could come up with is Eric Dampier, in terms of his body, his all around game, as well as his defencies.

Getting Eric Dampier for this team would suck. He has a monster contract, and spends too much time on the IR. Getting a Dampier clone, however, would be pretty cool, considering you wouldn't have to pay that Catoesque contract, and you'd have to give up nothing to get him.

For a little better insight into Griffith, here is is profile from Telebasket:

Definately some questions. The statements about attitude and intensity, particularly remind me of someone else. But, once again, given the total cost of a Griffin project, compared to the cost of going another route for a big man, those questions are very easy to swallow.

Griffin also played this year in the Euroleague. His team, Kinder Bolognia, which included former NBA draftees Marco Jaric and Emanuel Ginobili won the championship.

Here's a link to a page with his stats.

And here's a link to a chat transcript from during the finals

While it clearly seems that there are some road blocks and question marks involved in bringing Rashard Griffith back to the NBA, It appears that he is about the closest thing to a 'true center' that one might think about getting from Europe. If he is in reality willing and able, and is aminable to comming to the Rockets for a short term deal, even if it is a little expensive, I think he's about the best thing avalable.

My 2 pennies.

 

dammit, double post

 

Ok, Griffith's rights are, in fact, still in the hands of the Bucks. His desired salary, which I saw in multiple places is 1 year guaranteed $1M. Not really that bad, considered we guaranteed 500k to 2 sandwiches 6 months after he was arrested for Crack. Of course, that doesn't take into account the trouble it would take to aquire his rights, as well as the fact that the Rockets probably wouldn't even think about it without a workout, which they couldn't get because they don't have his rights...

The only other guy who seems intreguing to me, who would be much more of an 'invite to camp with no guarantee and see if he can suprise' is Jerome James. He's a big monster of a center @ 7'1", 300lbs with a bit of athleticism for a guy that big. He didn't play ball in high school (because they didn't have a team) but was drafted in the second round by the Kings. At the time, he was considered a player with alot of rough edges, but alot of potential, a good attitude, some intellegence, and a good work ethic.

A couple of years ago, he blew out his knee playing for the Kings. During the rehab period, his work ethic came into question a bit and he was released by the Kings. He spent last year bouncing around Europe, but wants to come back to the NBA this year.

Once again, this is a third-string type project candidate. His humongous size, however, would seem to be by itself a valuable comodity. If he does have a good attitude he might be a nice little project/3-stringer for cheap.