Is Howard a better back-up than Outlaw?

To answer your question...YES. Much, MUCH better.

 

I will third this thought.

 

Because people will point and laugh at me?

 

Is this a trick question? HOWARD I had always liked Travis, but he's no Juan Howard. I think it is time for him to go. Good kid, but.................................
He may fit in better elsewhere.

 

nope

Outlaw is 25 this year and is coming off a season with a 15.1 PER... by my recollection he has pretty much always sucked in the preseason

Howard is 36 this year coming off a season with a 10.9 PER. It was 6 seasons ago when he last had a PER over 15

I wouldn't hang my hat on the results/play of meaningless games

STOMP

 

yes, trade Outlaw to a team that needs a pure shooter. Play Howard on the big nights and Dante/Pendergraph on the low nights.

 

Howard hardly played any games for the last 2 seasons. You think that's because he's a bad player? It's because he was injured. Now he's not injured and HE'S BACK. Look out Aldridge!! Your ass is grass!!

 

Bingo.

Howard's primary value is in what he can teach his younger team-mates. He has smarts and experience - but his play the last couple of seasons indicates there is no tread left on the tires.

The one time I would want him on the floor, is if LMA is out and the team is trying to protect a lead. Since Nate seems to prefer playing from behind - how often will that happen?

 

Better player? Outlaw is certainly a bigger headache for an opposing coach to gameplan for. A more savvy basketball player? Yeah, Howard's probably got the leg up on Travis in being able to do the little things and to recognize how to make other players on his own team better.

All in all I think Outlaw is the better talent, but for 10 minutes a night I think I'd be cautiously optimistic that Howard could do more without having to be in rhythm to be productive on the basketball court.

At this point I'd swap either as a regular rotation 4 for a guy like Milsap, Turiaf, Bass, Maxiell, etc.

 

injuries tend to linger a lot longer with old players. What injuries did he suffer from? Isn't being healthy/able to contribute part of being a good back-up?

the pin in your balloon is the fact that the two season prior to the two he was (according to you) injured he played 80 & 80 games and sucked ass posting 12.8 and 12.5 PERs while logging 31.7 and 26.5 MPG. The season before that he played 60 games and posted another subpar PER of 13.0... and the guy he was guarding tonight went 8-10 from the field. I'm not holding my breath that he'll be worthy of 5 MPG

I've asked many times for someone to list all the super big backup 4s that Travis shouldn't be able to physically handle... for some reason no one ever lists them. I'll start... Millsap,

STOMP

 

yes. he hasn't been a useful player since he played for the rockets and he was bad his last year or so there as well.

 

...speaking of grass, how did that old lawn mowing story go?!?!?!

 

Refresh my memory, Hack. I remember you on a burro in Mexico, but nothing about mowing the lawn.

 

...damnit, where is nuraman when I need him

 

When I said he's back (= he's uninjured) I didn't mean he is or was a big star. I meant he's back to where he was, which as you say, is a PER of 13. Not bad. Average is 15. My point is that the guy is not the rookie we're used to having, for whom we wait 5 years to get to a 13 PER. He's there now, and should take minutes from Aldridge when Aldridge isn't producing. We're so used to easing in new players over several years under Pritchard's bake philosophy that I'm just noting you can change that slowness to incorporate new guys when you acquire the luxury of experienced players, even if their PERs are 13.

 

Would you believe he's busier at work, so he hardly posts anymore. Yet he still passed the 30,000 mark. Even with limited time, his post count is still moving up faster than mine ever did. If you combined all my screen names over 7 years I'd have about 11 thousand. There are guys on the General Board with like 50 thousand, but their posts are usually 1-liners, whereas I used to spend 30-45 minutes on most of my posts. I'd research links, but now no one posts a non-ESPN link or your post is deleted. "The ESPN mod is insane." Where did I read that?

 

and what is outlaw's per?

 

15.1 last season. Howard has had seasons of 17.2, 17.1, 17.1, 17.0, 16.6, 16.1, 16.0, etc. In his old age he's been about 13. But he earns his PER in a conventional way, with a mixture of rebounding, defense, and inside and outside scoring, not the more narrowly-based PERS, mainly from outside scoring, of McMillan forwards like Aldridge and Outlaw. So he'd help as much as Aldridge does. Look at Howard out there. He's the only reliable player of the preseason. This is how Aldridge proves he's worth a max contract? These young punks are worthless (you excepted, of course). If McMillan had a team full of Howards, Blakes, and Przybillas, I bet he'd get them to at least .500. (No championship, but it would sure be easy to coach, and save Paul Allen money.)

 

If Howard can indeed hop in a time machine and go back to his Houston self and log 80 games with a 13 PER for just 10-15 minutes a night, he's really probably an upgrade over Travis.

I realize Outlaw has the higher PER at 15. But he gets it with his scoring ability, and not much else.

Howard, on the other hand, seems to have a lot of intangibles that don't show up in PER. He throws the outlet pass better. He directs the offense more. He gets the ball into Oden.

Which would you rather have, a guy who creates his own shot but doesn't really work in the flow of the offense and plays craptastic defense, or a guy who can get Greg Oden two extra scoring opportunities, rebound and defend well enough that Oden doesn't have to pick up an extra foul?

Here's another way to think about the equation:

Outlaw (PER 15) + Oden (PER 18) = Net 33 PER (Plus about half an extra personal foul a game on Oden cleaning up Outlaw mistakes)

Howard (PER 13) + Oden (PER 21, because he's a more effective scorer next to Howard) = Net 34 PER (and no extra fouls)

That's not even taking into account the better all-around defense Howard gives you.

This all, of course, assumes that a 36 year old big man can just uncork a bottle and go back 3 years.