You gave him money? You fool! I've told you not to give him money he has a really bad junk habit. No, not Heroin, just shitty reporting bad choice of words on my part.
Our Offense sandbagged it in the playoffs, and he was a part of it, I have no sympathy for people whining about Rudy being a whiner
Give me a break, how does that excuse at least 2 or 3 instances where he had wide open looks with around 6 on the clock that he then sent on over to another perimeter player? Maybe his back hurt him?
Rudy was exposed as pretty much no better than Euro scrubs like Marco Belinelli last season. He's a streaky shooter that's more off than on and can't create off the dribble. All this talk about all his demands in the media hurting his value are overblown. He didn't have much value at all anyway after the choke job in the playoffs.
If Rudy wasn't sandbagging, then he is suffering from a Peja type back injury that has derailed his career. What frosts my buns, is the disconnect between his words and his actions. He wants more PT/a bigger role? I could sympathize with that. The catch is, when he was given the chance, he looked like he wasn't even trying.
One thing I think we can all agree on, Trevor Ariza should have had a multiple game suspension at the very least. A classic example of major media market favoritism in Stern's league. Bunch of bullshit. Just like Rondo's clothesline of Brad Miller. Stern loves him some Boston/LA teams.
Rudy is a fun player to watch because of his passing and his dunking ability. (to go along with his 3 ball) So in a up tempo game he will be better. But last year (and lets not forget he was hurt for a portion of it) I agree he was not better than your average streaky bench player who has little time to find a rhythm. Very few players can do it consistently. If he was a little better at the mid range game he would have been more successful. It's not Nate's fault he can't get a shot off in a half court set. Martel was not good at it either. (3 ball or dunk) I saw more from Babbitt than either of those two in terms of creating off the dribble.
As one of the few who still has fond feelings towards Rudy (and who actually predicted that his game would suffer with Sergio's departure), I'm wondering where in the NBA would Rudy flourish? The obvious answer seems to be the Suns. He can join Channing Frye in the "happily liberated from Nate" crew. He could plug right in in the space left by Barbosa. But who could we get in return? Apparently they've just let Amundson walk, otherwise he might be useful, although, perhaps he would look a lot more scrubby in our "deliberate" offense. What about Jared Dudley? I would be super-duper happy if that happened, as I've liked him since he was in BC and was surprised that he didn't get more PT in Charlotte. Now, normally I would think that the Suns wouldn't want to trade him, but they've just acquired Turkoglu (and wouldn't it make poetic justice for Hedo and Rudy to be united?) so Dudley might get a minutes squeeze anyway. Of course the player we REALLY want is Dragic, but after the playoffs, and given Nash's advanced age and lack of alternative backup, he's likely untouchable. Other suggestions? Or are we too busy photoshopping vaguely gay-baiting pictures of Rudy to work the trade machine?
I agree. Babbitt is a way off from becoming a regular rotation player, but he's already better than either shooting off the dribble from what little he's shown us in Summer League. Rudy is probably still here since they want to keep him as a throw-in for a larger deal. Sure he's getting anxious, but his camp needs to shut up and let the new GM get a handle on things.
I'd love to see a Rudy for Dudley trade ... that would actually serve both sides of the deal pretty well.
^^^^^ If we had a legit double team commanding (healthy) center and PF would there be any use for Rudy's skill set!?!? Yes, no, maybe?
I think a few things contributed: 1. Missing Sergio. Sergio just made it a LOT easier for Rudy. We got at least one spectacular alley-oop every other game or so last year, but this year I don't know if there were any. Now, some here attribute that to scouting. Yeah right. You think NBA players actually pay attention to scouting reports? Their coaches WISH they did. And besides, that would have applied about ten games into last season, but Sergio still found ways to get it to him. (Could it be that maybe Sergio was pretty damn talented? Nahh!) 2. The nagging back injury at the start of the season. As I've mentioned a few times, Rudy was shooting like crap before the surgery, but he was still hustling, and was among the league leaders in steals. Then the surgery. After that, he shot like crap AND he wasn't getting steals. So yeah, the back can't have helped. Probably the pain and being unsure of his body contributed to his all-round misery. I think Rudy just wants a fresh start. Perhaps he thinks he's super-great and being held back from greatness by stupid Nate, but perhaps he recognizes his limitations and just wishes to go to a system that will allow him to gamble more and not force him to be something he's not. There are plenty of them out there. And hell, he didn't look too bad against the "Redeem Team", did he? I like Nate. Nate has great qualities and has forged a winning mentality through dire circumstances. But like many people, I wish he could let himself be a bit more Mike D'Antoni and a bit less Mike Brown. A coach who wanted to could still get a lot out of Rudy who has a rare quality of a flair for the dramatic that is not only fun to watch but can turn the tide of a game (remember the "5 points in about 3 seconds"?)
Are they going to play Dudley and Hedo together? Is Grant Hill going to get fewer minutes or play a different position? And I totally forgot about Josh Childress! Dudley looks like FOURTH string SF to me, and who's their second string SG? Besides, if Rudy plays like he did for us as a Rookie, I think Suns fans would come around pretty quick. (I bet the Suns would prefer to offer Earl Clark. But I would hope we can do better than THAT.)
