APBRmetrics

[Chronz1]

[kevC]

[Truthiness]

So now that the Rockets have about 9 Guards after signing Francis, how are they all going to get playing time and develop? Hopefully they will make a trade.



It was a good pickup in terms of value for the Rockets but it will stunt the young players growth.

[Mountain]

Morey is acquiring talent but what the design is and how good it will be are interesting questions. Fundamentally do they contend or fail on his vision of fit or is it in Adelman we trust to make it work? Do guards who heavily look for their own shot help break defensive attention on McGrady and Yao and make them more efficient? Or will the ball stick in the guards hands too much and at the wrong times? How many shots does Scola get? Is he a fairly prominent option or just a role player there?

[Mountain]

I have wondered if some GMs might view draft choice, if it isnt an obvious call to their needs, as not just pure talent but talent / projected second contract ratio.

Brooks expected to play well but Morey may also think that being short will hurt his future free agent value with other GMs some, more than it is hurts his actual performance. Height hurt Hayes' free market value and Rockets are happy to retain his production at a lower price.

(Maybe Joe Dumars originally thought, in part, in addition to hoping for big performance that under a modest development curve he might be able to re-sign Darko for a modest contract- near level that Memphis did- because he'd still be too young to get big bucks but combo of factors caused him to abandon him. Carmelo was a virtual certainty to be a max player.)

I'll also throw out "a spur reaction" speculation about Houston not taking Splitter. Could the draft have been tied with the Scola deal- Spurs' repayment for consideration shown by Rockets not taking Splitter? It may not have involved this but it seems like a possibility.

[Ben]

Brooks on USA select team:

http://blogs.chron.com/franblinebury/2007/08/baptism_by_fire_brooks_stands.html