Player by Player: Expectations for Next Season.

[bjax24]

What do you expect from each of our players?

Jon Brockman

I think we'll see more minutes than this season, I dunno how to predict his stats, he could definitely be a 10 rebound guy with minutes, but I doubt he will see enough to do that. I think we will see an impoved version of this years, with an impact that goes way beyond the stat sheet.

Omri Casspi

With an off season to improve on FT's, and to get his jumper back, I think he can go for 15 a night or so depending on minutes.

Tyreke Evans

After a relatively good rookie season with decent rookie numbers like 20-5-5, he will be a bonafide star. I think Assists and Boards will be about the same, though they could change a little. I think scoring could go up as high as 25.

Francisco Garcia

MAYBE he can finally play an entire season without getting some random injury. I don't want to call him injury prone, just unlucky. He's injured himself on an inflateable ball, and turning his ankle on Brad Miller while trying to get a ball that was stuck on the rim. I love Cisco's energy. He reminds me of a bigger Bobby Jackson, when he is on the court, his energy seems to transfer to the rest of the team. I know he will be 30 by years end, but I think he can finally break out as long as he doesn't get some new fluke injury.

Donte Greene

Breakout season. He has shown his talent this year, now if he can take this off season to hone the talent to make it more consistent, we will have us a nightmare for the other teams on both sides of the court. At 6'11, I love Donte's skillset, if he improves between this season and next as much as he did from last season to this season, we will enjoy watching him.r

Spencer Hawes

Who Knows? I am not as down on this guy as many are, big men take a long time to develop, so he could stand pat where he is now, or he could break out any season. If he can bulk up and work on D, I will be pleased.

Carl Landry

He's the only secure starter of our big men. I think he will improve to something like 19-8 or 9. Love players who work like this, so I can see him exceeding expectations.

Sean May

If he's not gone, he will sign another minimum deal (I hear he's well liked so I can see it happening) to be the teams highest paid towel boy.

Dominic McGuire

Haven't seen enough to say. Poor guy got injured when he was really going to get a chance to show what he has. We can extend a 1 million dollar qualifying offer to him, I'd do it just to see what he has.

Andres Nocioni

Gone

Jason Thompson

I love JT, apparently the NBA doesn't. The guy seems to have a target on his back sometimes in the foul department. I think he takes himself out of games because of this. He's shown that he can produce, now if he can do it over the course of the season, that will be great for us.

Ime Udoka

Gone

Beno Udrih

Who Knows? He's gone from the heathen everyone wants burned at the stake, to our most reliable shooter. Hopefully he is the latter next season. If he can play like he has recently, that really helps our team out.

What are your thoughts?

[SacKingZZZ]

Tough to answer since there's a chance this team looks drastically different next year or at least the roles and minutes could be depending on who we draft. I think out of that entire list only Landry and Evans are safe bets to stick and be a major part of the offense.

Landry should be around his current level since the trade. I expect a slight boost in ppg however, 20 ppg and 7 rpg.

Evans really depends on how he wants to play next year. I wouldn't be surprised to see a dip in ppg and an increase in apg with the way he's been making plays for others lately. I'll say 19 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 7.1 apg.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

Tough to answer since there's a chance this team looks drastically different next year or at least the roles and minutes could be depending on who we draft. I think out of that entire list only Landry and Evans are safe bets to stick and be a major part of the offense.

Landry should be around his current level since the trade. I expect a slight boost in ppg however, 20 ppg and 7 rpg.

Evans really depends on how he wants to play next year. I wouldn't be surprised to see a dip in ppg and an increase in apg with the way he's been making plays for others lately. I'll say 19 ppg, 5.8 rpg, and 7.1 apg.

If Evans puts in work and improves his jumpshot, I don't see any possible way his PPG go down. He's averaging 20 pts without a jumpshot!

[pillwenney]

Sean May
Probably gone, but maybe he sticks around for the minimum. He definitely showed he can be a helpful player at times this year, and if other teams see that and he continues to stay in shape, I could see him being productive somewhere, given consistent minutes.

Ime Udoka
Probably the same, although I think he's more likely to latch on somewhere where he can contribute. I would expect him to keep working on his jumper though.

Andres Nocioni
As much as I would like to rid us of his contract, I think there's a good chance he's probably stuck here. I just hope he doesn't get much worse. Keep your chin up Noc and keep playing hard. If you could work on anything, it would be passing competently...or finishing competently--really anything that would make your drives to the basket less horrible.

Jon Brockman
We're seeing glimpses of that mid-range shot. I'd love to continue seeing glimpses of that. Brock should probably always still be the 5th option offensively, but if your 5th option can do some things well like that, then that's a good thing. Also, as much as I love his toughness, the dude fouls at a staggering rate. Basically right now, he's on pace in a given game to foul out in under 34 minutes. Don't get me wrong--he should never play 34 minutes, and it's nice to have a guy that pisses off other teams like that, but I also recall a couple of time where he's gotten us into the penalty quickly. I don't know though. Maybe it just comes with the territory of having his toughness around. Anyway, looking into the future, I would like to think of him as our 4th big in the future regardless of who we draft.

Dominic McGuire
I wouldn't mind keeping him around, but it's going to be tough for him to find minutes--especially with Noc stuck here. Seems like he could be a really nice player if he can find a jumper.

Francisco Garcia
It's tough to take this year too seriously. Assuming health next year, I expect Cisco to be back to being himself. We won't be able to move him, and I'm not sure we should try. Cisco is still clearly one of the leaders of this team. The main thing for him as far as actual improvements is just continuing to work on his ballhandling and PG skills, so that he can be our main 3rd guard off the bench. With our team as its currently assembled minus Noc, we could actually not have a log jam if Cisco is primarily a guard. Of course that's assuming we'll be able to get rid of Noc, which we probably won't and it's forgetting about our draft pick, who will add to a logjam no matter what position he plays.

Donte Greene
A big thing is consistency--consistently showing the defense and shooting ability that he has shown at times this year. Another thing is really shot selection--when he's not hitting, then the dribble into a pull-up probably isn't a good idea. The main thing to literally work on is the penetration game--which boils down to ballhandling, court awareness, and using his athleticism more effectively in traffic. He could really learn somethings watching Tyreke. Passing is another thing he has to work on, specifically in traffic. I don't really know what to expect, but there's a lot to hope for with Donte.

Jason Thompson
Jason mostly needs to work on little things. Defensively, it's mostly about the bad fouls. He has improved ever so slightly from last year, but it is a cause for concern at this point. It's the kind of thing that you really can't work on much in practice, so that's hard to really gauge as far as where he'll be in the future. A lot of the stuff really is really game specific stuff--stuff Jason does on impulse, or almost as a reflex. That's why I think we've seen little improvement from him despite his reputation as a hard worker. It's almost like he has too much energy for his own good. I think a lot of his problems can be linked to actually playing too much on instinct, and just not using his head enough. So as for what I should expect? I don't know.

Spencer Hawes
This is more or less going to be Spencer's last year of his rookie contract. It's going to be time for him to show what he's worth. If we do draft Aldrich, as I see it, it's going to come down to either him or Jason going. I think the ideal situation would be trading Jason, and getting Spencer used to a roll off the bench where he can have things run through him both in the low and high post. I still believe in the potential of his low post game and I believe that it would still be so wasteful to just make him another Brad Miller. The main thing as I see it for Spencer is just really hitting the weight room hard this summer. He definitely has added some strength since his rookie year, but it's still not enough for him to be able to compete in the post on either end. He certainly shows good instincts defensively at times in terms of blocking shots. It's just a matter of not getting pushed around so much. The potential is still there, and we see signs of it. And I'm not giving up just yet.

Carl Landry
I'd say that when you consider him when he's firing on all cylinders, he's basically as good as he's going to get in terms of scoring. So the main thing I'd like to see him improve offensively is his passing. He often doesn't need it because of how well he can finish in traffic, but it really would be a boost to his offensive game if he could improve on that. Defensively, we definitely see some correctable mistakes at times, but given his body, I also think he only has so much more room to grow next year. Next year it will mostly be about getting used to his teammates, and gaining the mentality and passing ability to be a main option offensively.

Omri Casspi
Omri has a couple of things he can work on, outside of just not hitting the rookie wall. One of those things is passing to an extent. You have to love how aggressively he goes to the basket, but at times, teams are going to collapse and Omri will have to pass out of it. Defensively, it's just a matter of preventing rookie mistakes. Omri should be a good SF defender in the future, given his physical attributes and his attitude.

Beno Udrih
Really just expect and hope for him to keep doing what he's doing. Beno has not only improved in basically every way this year, but he has clearly become a leader of the team. I really don't expect or want anything different from him next year.

Tyreke Evans
There are a couple of little things Tyreke could do differently--a couple of his turnovers can be blamed on rookie mistakes, along with some of his defensive issues he has at times. But I expect all of those things to be improved with time--many of them already have improved. Really, it all boils down to the jumper for me. He'll continue to become a better playmaker, but he's already a damn good one, so I'm not worried about that. It's all about the jumper, and there's really two aspects to it--catching and shooting and pulling up. If I had a preference, I would have him really focus on one of those this summer. I think the one he focuses on should primarily be dependent on who we draft. If we get a Turner or a Wall, then catching and shooting has to be his main priority, because he'll need to be able to get better off the ball. So I'd primarily want him to spend the summer preferably with Coachie behind the three-point line working on his form and touch. If, on the other hand, we draft an Aldrich, or somebody who won't be a main option offensively, I'd want Tyreke to focus on improving his on the ball game--pulling up. Make defenses more honest coming off screens. Smart defenses will likely still go under screens, but if he works on this, Tyreke can make them pay for it, making him that much harder to guard on an individual level.

[SacKingZZZ]

If Evans puts in work and improves his jumpshot, I don't see any possible way his PPG go down. He's averaging 20 pts without a jumpshot!

I know, I'm saying he might take it upon himself to spread the ball around a little more and I certainly think teams are going to zone the hell out of him next year. I don't think he'll have a consistent jumper by next year, hopefully he does but it could take some time and teams will gear their entire defense to stop him every night. With the recent passing skills he's been showing he could very well make teams pay for it next year by making plays for others.

[D-Rock]

Jason "Shock" Thompson should wear a shock collar in the gym all summer long, with a coach holding the button.

Every time he brings the ball down low after catching it in the post - BZZZZZZT!

Every time he puts the ball on the floor, when he could have just gone up to the basket with it - BZZZZZT!

Every time he puts his arms up on defense, but doesn't keep them vertical - BZZZZZZT!

It may sound stupid, but I bet it would work beautifully.

[longfellow44]

^^ I'm fine with that as long as he gets nibbles for doing the good stuff too.

[KF10]

I don't know where I could post this but here it is:

Tyreke Evans is the youngest guard ever that is attempting at least 6.5 FTs per game.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rder_by=ws

If you are looking at the whole spectrum, Evans is the 2nd youngest player ever behind John Drew (Only 11 days younger) that is at least attempting 6.5 FTs per game.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rder_by=ws

.....

Also, Spencer Hawes would have been the youngest center ever in the history of the L to notch a triple double. Hawes recorded a 17/11/9 stat line. That one assist screwed him.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... der_by=pts

[SacKingZZZ]

And that was KF10 with your random fact of the day ladies and gentlemen!

Sucks about Spencer though, that would have been interesting to see.

[TexFTW]

Reke: 27/7/7 and barely less than 3 TO.

[cuad]

Omri Casspi: Turnovers galore, bad defense, worse dribbling, worse jump shot.

Tyreke Evans: A few more assists.

Jason Thompson: More clueless offense.

Jon Brockman: Out of the NBA.

Spencer Hawes: Bust.

Beno: More of the same.

Garcia: More minutes.

Carl Landry: Saying "**** this team, and mailing it in early."

Sean May: Out of NBA.

Dominic McGuire: Out of NBA

Andres Nocioni: Beast.

[Fobbie]

^^
Isnt next year landry's contract year? Why would he mail it? As a Rockets fan I love his work ethic. I Think his scoring will prolly be the same, but his rebounding might go up.

[Wolfay]

^^
Isnt next year landry's contract year? Why would he mail it? As a Rockets fan I love his work ethic. I Think his scoring will prolly be the same, but his rebounding might go up.

You should know that cuad is not a frequent user of logic. Whether it's part of trying to be funny or not, nobody really knows.

[cuad]

^^
Isnt next year landry's contract year? Why would he mail it? As a Rockets fan I love his work ethic. I Think his scoring will prolly be the same, but his rebounding might go up.

I had no idea that next season would be Landry's contract year. Thank the lord!