HOUSTON – The Houston Rockets today announced that 2005 first round draft selection Luther Head will join 2003 second round selection Malick Badiane on the team’s 2005 roster for the Minnesota NBA Summer League in Minneapolis, MN. The Rockets will participate in the week-long summer league that includes entries from the Minnesota Timberwolves, Indiana Pacers, Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors. The league runs from July 15-19th with three games scheduled per day. The Rockets will play a total of five games, facing each team once. The roster currently stands at 11 players but is expected to expand to 12 before the team departs for Minneapolis. . HOUSTON ROCKETS 2005 SUMMER PRO LEAGUE ENTRY ROSTER PLAYER POS. HT. WT Hollis Price G 6-1 172 Oklahoma (’03) William Avery G 6-2 180 Duke (’99) Luther Head* G 6-3 185 Illinois (’05) Pat Carroll G 6-5 190 St. Joseph (’05) Norm Richardson G 6-5 200 Hofstra (’01) Desmond Penigar F 6-7 245 Utah (’03) Chuck Hayes F 6-6 242 Kentucky (’05) Cory Violette F 6-8 255 Gonzaga (’04) David Bluthenthal F 6-7 USC (’02) Malick Badiane** F/C 6-11 240 Senegal (’03) Lonnie Baxter F/C 6-8 260 Maryland (’02)
Hmmm, those are 3 very good college PG's at the top of that list. I'm interested to see how Badiane does this summer.
Heh. I actually don't have much inside information. Everything I post here is public info - or stuff I feel comfortble being public- I just get it a little faster than everyone else. I don't work on basketball side of the business so I don't have any inside information with where certain players are or how they're looking or whatever. I find out more here than I do internally.
A dose of yaomania and Doc Rocket in the same thread! I really liked what I saw of Hayes in the tourney. He played hard and was a leader for Kentucky. Baxter is interesting as well. He averaged pretty much 15+-8-2 (blocks) for 54ish% FG% pretty much his last 3 years at Maryland. He played for 4 different teams in 3 years in the NBA. He just hasn't stuck anywhere, yet. Avery is everything you fear Head becomes. A tweener guard unable to adjust to NBA range. Averaged 15-5 on 41% shooting from 3. Badiane's the only guy over 6-8, so he should get a chance to show his stuff.
That's the name that caught my eye... what's kept him from sticking to a team thusfar? Does he really suck that bad? I honestly thought he would be a Boozer-like steal. It seems like we're looking at a lot of undersized/widebody C's and PF's.
Or more likely, these are the type of big men that would be playing in summer leagues. Guys that have better bodies/talent don't need to use the summer league to prove themselves.
Carrol would be someone to watch as well. I saw he and St. Joes play the Ags in the NIT tourney. I remember I wanted to kick him in his knee b/c of the clutch shooting and clutch free throws he was making in the 2nd half. He is only about 6'6 but would be a gunner off the bench. Not a driver from the perimeter by any means, but can hit the open shots, which there should be a bit of w/ teams doubling TMAC and YAO.
I guess Badiane will have to play C for this team. I don't know if that will give a good accounting of his PF skills where he could possibly help the Rox. Hayes and Baxter will have to split the PF time and Head probably will have to play SG not PG. Maybe there just aren't any jouneyman C's out there but it doesn't look like we will learn what we need to know out of this grouping.
At 260lbs Lonny is certainly a wide body! I expected more of him coming out of college - he averaged around 15 points and 8-9 boards for 3 years (for a good school). Plus he got a steal almost every game and blocked almost 2 shots per contest! He's always been willing to work hard - so maybe he'll pick up some things and show some value this summer...
Really like our Summer League Roster, especailly hardworking good guys like Price and Hayes. I also like the emphisis we are putting on the pg position. I'd love to see Price, Head, Hayes and Baldine play well. I really think these guys are going to surprise some people.
From everything I have read about Hayes, he seems like a serious contender to make the Rockets squad in place of Ryan Bowen. On another note, I am really disappointed not to see Vspan on the team. I guess he will be in Europe for another year. Maybe that's for the best anyway. That way by the time he comes here he will be really seasoned.
Here is the link. http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_13279.shtml Its not complete roster yet. I think Spanoulis will be added to this, I hope so.
here's what my Greek source has emailed me: According to Greek press, Spanoulis is trying to get a Euroleague team to sign him, but the ones offering BIG money are not playing there: Pamesa Valencia, Dynamo Moscow, Dynamo St. Petersburg. Panathinaikos, a final-4 team last year is offering more or less around 550,000 euros/year to him but he doesn't wanna go there either, as the team is filled w/ guards and he won't find enough playing time. Right now, Spanoulis is playing w/ his stock, but his environment says he's not goin to the Rockets' summer league. Let's wait and see as nothing is clear
