Why not go after Bonzi Wells?

[JordansBulls]

Word is that the Hornets do not want to resign him, if that is the case then why not pick him back up?

He could be that 6th man and that scoring punch off the bench that you guys need.

[Dinky Bits]

I'd love to have him back, as long as he's not expecting to get paid fairly.

I thought it was a horrible move, personnel-wise, to get rid of him last year. His toughness is exactly what we were lacking against Utah. Well...that, and our starting PG and Center. Depending on what happens with Landry, I'd be willing to give Bonzi a chunk of the MLE should Landry re-sign for cheap, or head overseas. It's not like we have anything better to do with it this offseason.

[JOHNNYN]

id love to have him back and have him do what he did last year for us, but unfortunately our roster is pretty damn packed. our roster is currently up to 17 players assuming dorsey and landry gets signed, deke returns and leunen will be shipped overseas or plays d-league.
also the best thing to do right now is to sign landry before we sign any other players.

[MaxRider]

his defense suck

[Rocketsterps]

Word is that the Hornets do not want to resign him, if that is the case then why not pick him back up?

He could be that 6th man and that scoring punch off the bench that you guys need.

^^^^^^ I agree that his defense sucks. In addition, his attitude is not anything to write home about. I'd much rather go after a young guy like Jarvis Crittenton.

[ShaY]

No thank you , if he won't get paid what he wants he won't give his best effort.
And he won't get paid what he wants here.

[tisbee]

JordansBulls,
Since you are not a Rockets fan,let me lay it out for you.
Put a steaming pile of dog excrement in a Rockets uniform and it would be a better player than Bonzi Wells.
All anyone needs to know about Bonzi is the Rockets traded him away when their only other backup at the SG/SF was a short combo gd. and a player they also immediately unloaded. The Rockets would rather have had nobody than Bonzi. The Hornets have nobody on their bench who can score against Byron Scotts' grandma and they're still happily waving bye-bye to him.
I hate to break the sad news to some Rockets fans,but the Rockets uniform does not have turn-back-the-clock-and rejuvenate-the-wearer powers. The jersey does not remove the fork from their backs.

IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKIN" PLAYOFF CHASE THE ROCKETS UNLOADED BONZI FOR A 35 YR OLD POINT GUARD!!! I don't know how much clearer it can get. The Rockets want nothing to do w/his petrified carcass.

[CJballa14]

yall really need to get the bonzi from 2 years ago out of your head. His defense wasnt the best this past season, but he was more consistent than bjackson and mike james were... I understand why we made the trade(brooks wasnt ready), but Bonzi was a nice 2/3 off the bench for us.

Adding bonzi would make us even more versatile with the addition of Barry already. Luther head would be expendable and he would help solidify our need for bigger 2/3's off the bench.

Alston/Jackson/Brooks
McGrady/Barry/Wells
Battier/Greene/Harris
Scola/Landry(hopefully)/Hayes
Yao/Deke/Dorsey

He would have to know his roll and not be upset playing off the bench. He should know it by now with the lack of offers hes recieved. Why not add him? He will get us 8 points and 5 rebounds in limited minutes....



The guy above me...remember the hornets had a better record and better season than us, and they traded FOR Bonzi... people in the league wanted his scoring off the bench. This off season just doesnt have enough money to pay players what they think they deserve(Landry, Wells, etc not having offers yet...)

[ShaY]

JordansBulls,
Since you are not a Rockets fan,let me lay it out for you.
Put a steaming pile of dog excrement in a Rockets uniform and it would be a better player than Bonzi Wells.
All anyone needs to know about Bonzi is the Rockets traded him away when their only other backup at the SG/SF was a short combo gd. and a player they also immediately unloaded. The Rockets would rather have had nobody than Bonzi. The Hornets have nobody on their bench who can score against Byron Scotts' grandma and they're still happily waving bye-bye to him.
I hate to break the sad news to some Rockets fans,but the Rockets uniform does not have turn-back-the-clock-and rejuvenate-the-wearer powers. The jersey does not remove the fork from their backs.

IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKIN" PLAYOFF CHASE THE ROCKETS UNLOADED BONZI FOR A 35 YR OLD POINT GUARD!!! I don't know how much clearer it can get. The Rockets want nothing to do w/his petrified carcass.

We didn't trade Bonzi for Jackson because Jackson is better , we did it to get rid of Mike James and his awful contract.
Bonzi is clearly a better player than Jackson , and even thpugh he has his flaws I would take him 10 times out of 10 over Jackson or Luther Head.
But I still don't want him back , esepcially because he will be underpaid and unhappy and is a little injury prone.

[Amel]

if we can get him for some change

yes, sign him...I'll rather have him on the bench than lets say Head and Brooks

and who knows, maybe the guy explodes next year, he has proved that he can play, on the other side, Head and Brooks reached their limit

[Transistor]

I'd love to have him back. Past Mac/Yao he was one of the few players you could just dump the ball into and get out of the way. We could certainly use that off the bench or when one of our stars are injured. He's tough inside and already used to our system...

[moofs]

JordansBulls,
Since you are not a Rockets fan,let me lay it out for you.
Put a steaming pile of dog excrement in a Rockets uniform and it would be a better player than Bonzi Wells.
All anyone needs to know about Bonzi is the Rockets traded him away when their only other backup at the SG/SF was a short combo gd. and a player they also immediately unloaded. The Rockets would rather have had nobody than Bonzi. The Hornets have nobody on their bench who can score against Byron Scotts' grandma and they're still happily waving bye-bye to him.
I hate to break the sad news to some Rockets fans,but the Rockets uniform does not have turn-back-the-clock-and rejuvenate-the-wearer powers. The jersey does not remove the fork from their backs.

IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKIN" PLAYOFF CHASE THE ROCKETS UNLOADED BONZI FOR A 35 YR OLD POINT GUARD!!! I don't know how much clearer it can get. The Rockets want nothing to do w/his petrified carcass.

We didn't trade Bonzi for Jackson because Jackson is better , we did it to get rid of Mike James and his awful contract.
Bonzi is clearly a better player than Jackson , and even thpugh he has his flaws I would take him 10 times out of 10 over Jackson or Luther Head.
But I still don't want him back , esepcially because he will be underpaid and unhappy and is a little injury prone.

You're both right on a lot of points. We could probably sign him back for less risk than we had with Francis, but don't really need to. At this point, he's looking at low-year, low-price deals from pretty well everyone unless he gets lucky. Shouldn't hurt much for us to sign him if the opportunity shows, depending on who Morey has targeted for the trade deadline, of course, but it also won't likely help us all that much. He's better than Head at any rate, assuming Head hasn't already been displaced by Barry (he should be).

I wouldn't "take him over Jackson" because Jackson can actually run backup point, Bonzi isn't as good at it as Jackson ( : shudder : ). In our situation, we wouldn't need to consider that, though. If he can't learn to stomach being "underpaid" and "underutilized" at this point in his career, he's going to have some trouble getting a job anywhere. If he can learn to deal with that and finally realize he's probably missed the bus for a last big payday, he could be a nice 2nd/3rd backup option here.

I'm indifferent because I don't think he's great, but I don't think he sucks. Still, the Hornets letting him walk like they are after his decent quarter-season and poor playoffs with them says a mouthful. One thing Bonzi's proven to be reliable about in the course of his career is that you can't rely on him. It's still possible he could make a decent stopgap option until the trade deadline.

[McGrady2Head]

i would love to have bonzi back!

[moofs]

(...And get rid of Battiegay for a third scorer!!!)

[tisbee]

Shay,
The Rockets wanted to unload Mike James-just as the Hornets wanted to unload Bobby Jackson. What you are saying is Bonzi was filler to get the deal done. But James and Jackson's contracts are very close to each other,they could have been trade even up,or Head or Snyder could have been included. Instead the Rockets CHOSE to ship out Bonzi. Adelman,who had Bonzi in his "legendary" SA series-a series the Spurs won-after half a season decided Bonzi could no longer play for him. Think about it,if Adelman had wanted Bonzi,he wouldn't have agreed to trading him.
For the Hornets Bonzi was the same as he was for Houston. He had ZERO lift and explosiveness,constantly unable to finish around the basket. Rebounds were always just off his fingers and his man beat him repeatedly. Check out his minutes against the Spurs while playing for a team that had no other wing scorers off the bench-19,14,17,18(in 20 pt blowout loss),7,8,5. In the most important game of the Hornets season Bonzi got a whopping 5 minutes! FIVE MINUTES.

[PocketRockets]

If we can get him for cheap, I'd say sign him. Then we could give him up to fill up a gap in our roster halfway in the season. I like bonzi, but felt he ate too much and looked sluggish on the court. He had his moments of greatness, but overall he sucked.

As much as everyone hated it at the time, Morey made a genious decision in the trade. He knew we weren't going anywhere in the playoffs with yao out, so he traded for bargaining chips this offseason/season. BJax is going to net us a valuable player this year, and if he doesn't? then we'll have cap space next season to do something drastic.

[jove9]

If we can get him for cheap, I'd say sign him. Then we could give him up to fill up a gap in our roster halfway in the season. I like bonzi, but felt he ate too much and looked sluggish on the court. He had his moments of greatness, but overall he sucked.

As much as everyone hated it at the time, Morey made a genious decision in the trade. He knew we weren't going anywhere in the playoffs with yao out, so he traded for bargaining chips this offseason/season. BJax is going to net us a valuable player this year, and if he doesn't? then we'll have cap space next season to do something drastic.

A refresher on Rockets history:

Bonzi was traded February 21st, Yao was officially out for the season February 26th.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ro ... tnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ya ... gle+Search

Morey made the trade because he WANTED us to do well in the playoffs and realized we weren't going anywhere without a backup point guard. He had targeted Brent Barry to replace Bonzi, but once Yao went out Barry chose to rejoin the Spurs.

[jove9]

Word is that the Hornets do not want to resign him, if that is the case then why not pick him back up?

He could be that 6th man and that scoring punch off the bench that you guys need.

^^^^^^ I agree that his defense sucks. In addition, his attitude is not anything to write home about. I'd much rather go after a young guy like Jarvis Crittenton.

2008-09 Championship Depth Chart
1) Rafer Alston/ Aaron Brooks/Steve Francis
2) Shane Battier/Jarvis Crittenton/ Mike Harris
3)Tracy McGrady/ B. Barry/D. Greene
4) Luis Scola/C. Hayes/Steve Novak
5) Yao/ Sean Williams/Joey Dorsey

God. Here we go with the ridiculous lineups again. Novak at 4? Mike Harris at 2? No "tall, athletic shotblocker like Cedric Simmons"? (I still remember that one)

Ok, but fix Crittenton's name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javaris_Crittenton

Oh, and you deserve praise for going with our real starters for once. Their positions may be off, but at least those are all Rockets players.

[Ballings7]

Bonzi came on well for a pretty good deal of his time with you guys last season... I think he'd be a fit, again. He'll have enough of a role, compared to the inconsistent one he had with New Orleans (as well as not enough shooters), and surrounded by enough 3PT shooters.

[Rocketsterps]

Word is that the Hornets do not want to resign him, if that is the case then why not pick him back up?

He could be that 6th man and that scoring punch off the bench that you guys need.

^^^^^^ I agree that his defense sucks. In addition, his attitude is not anything to write home about. I'd much rather go after a young guy like Jarvis Crittenton.

2008-09 Championship Depth Chart
1) Rafer Alston/ Aaron Brooks/Steve Francis
2) Shane Battier/Jarvis Crittenton/ Mike Harris
3)Tracy McGrady/ B. Barry/D. Greene
4) Luis Scola/C. Hayes/Steve Novak
5) Yao/ Sean Williams/Joey Dorsey

God. Here we go with the ridiculous lineups again. Novak at 4? Mike Harris at 2? No "tall, athletic shotblocker like Cedric Simmons"? (I still remember that one)

Ok, but fix Crittenton's name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javaris_Crittenton

Oh, and you deserve praise for going with our real starters for once. Their positions may be off, but at least those are all Rockets players.

My ridiculous lineups or your poor comprehension skills jove9? How do you give me props for going w/ the real starters but can't figure out the positions are listed from a defensive standpoint??? Battier defends the 2 right? 6-6' Mike Harris was instructed to lose weight so he could defend on the perimeter right??? If he makes the team, Harris would back up Battier right??? T-Mac, Brent Barry and Donte Greene represent the weaker defending wing scorers. Novak IS a shooting 4 if you haven't noticed. If you listen to anything Morey/Adelman/JVG have said over the years, Novak is a space clearing 4 similar to Matt Bullard. The issue w/ Novak is he lacks the foot speed to defend small forwards and the strength to defend power forwards . Maarty Leunen will fill that role next year if Novak doesn't get stronger physically and on defense/boards this year.
http://www.realgm.com/src_playerfile/1219/steve_novak/

Moreover, I'm glad you remember what I said about Cedric Simmons/ Sean Williams etc. We still need a tall/long/ athletic C/PF to backup Yao (and play next to him against the Garnett's of the world) I am still correct about that need.

PS

Incase you missed John Hollinger's all defensive team this year (Like me, Hollinger has Shane Battier listed in the #2 slot because he spends most of his time defending 2's...

All-Defense: Who brought the D this season? (http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/ ... nse-080410)

SHOOTING GUARD
First team: Shane Battier, Houston (1.55)Although a small forward offensively, Battier has spent most of his time defending shooting guards. Plus, putting him here gives us the strongest first team overall -- so shooting guard it is.

This probably is the one case in which the numbers most disagree with my observations, and since Battier's points-saved totals in previous seasons were spectacular, this almost certainly is a fluke.

Subjectively, I thought Battier was clearly the best defensive wing in the league this season and was the best defender on the league's second-best defensive team. I expounded on his defensive skills a few weeks ago when I was following the Rockets during their winning streak, so I won't repeat myself now, except to say that if he doesn't make All-Defense this year, there is something terribly, terribly wrong.

POWER FORWARDS
Third team: Chuck Hayes, Houston (7.46)
A second-teamer a year ago, Hayes, at 6-6, is undersized for his position, but pound for pound, he's one of the league's strongest players. He knows how to use every ounce to push opponents out of prime post position.

His defensive stats have been ginormous all three seasons he's been in the league, so even though he lost his job to Luis Scola, he still gets a top-three selection here.

ANYWAY, If we trade for Javaris Crittenton he could play backup point against tall 1's like Deron Williams and also backup Battier defending athletic perimeter scorers.