On the other side of the tracks, sharing this award with one of the most prodigious players in recent memory, is Chase Budinger, the one out of 17 from 2006 who wasn’t a first round selection. Budinger isn’t Kevin Durant, nor is his name and stature in the same class with almost every player who competed in that classic game. No, Budinger is something else: The best bargain in basketball. The Rockets smartly signed the former Arizona Wildcat, now a worthy contributor, to what in effect is a four year deal for $3.3 million (two years guaranteed and two subsequent team options after that) after acquiring him from Detroit in a draft day trade.

Through his first two years he’s averaged just over 21 minutes per game, and saw improvements in almost every statistical category in his sophomore season. He looks more than comfortable at this level, and is all but a lock to see a handsome raise when this current contract runs its course. Until then, it’s almost as if the Rockets found a loophole in the old CBA. The contract is a no risk, high reward situation for them, mirroring when a baseball team has rights over their prospect for the first six years of service time. Players like Chase Budinger—more specifically, contacts like the one he’s signed to—are $1 scratch tickets with $50 payouts for savvy/lucky general managers.

It shouldn’t happen, but it does. Only because we’re human. Grading players not by their production related to their peers, but by the size of the paycheck and how much monetary value they’re worth to the team. Rarely does the consensus agree on a player receiving the perfect amount of money; they’re either given too much, debilitating their team’s chances of constructing a winning product by hogging more than their fair share of the roster’s salary, or given too little, grossly underpaid, looking like unappreciated mules being whipped by profitable owners (the most highly paid unappreciated mules to have ever existed, by the way). If a player manages to perform well enough through a slightly unjust contract and into his free agency, they run the risk of over compensation (see Barea, JJ) catapulting themselves into the category of overpaid fat cat. To be fairly compensated is to walk along a tight rope tied between two skyscrapers. When we’re discussing players who actually contribute, only a sparse few get what makes sense.

If all goes well, Budinger is expected to make $884,293 next year and $942,293 in 2012-13. According to HoopsHype, here’s a list of all the players within the Southwest Conference scheduled to make the same or less next season: Ian Mahinmi, Ishmael Smith, Danny Green, Gary Neal, Da’Sean Butler. Stretching it out to the rest of the Western Conference, we have Portland’s Armond Johnson, OKC’s Robert Vaden, Utah’s Jeremy Evans, Golden State’s Jeremy Lin, Los Angeles Clippers’ Willie Warren, Los Angeles Lakers’ Derrick Caracter and Devin Ebanks, Phoenix’s Gani Lawal, Garret Siler, and Zabian Dowdell. and Sacramento’s Hassan Whiteside.

All those players (apart from Whiteside, who like Budinger has a team option over his head next season) are in contract years, and will either be weeded out as unsuitable for the NBA, or have the opportunity to play for a larger contract. Budinger will have to wait two years.

So, now that we’ve established Budinger as someone who doesn’t make a lot of money in relation to a majority of his co-workers, let us figure out why. First, let’s analyze his physical abilities: at 6’7″, Budinger is a versatile player who can survive either at the two or three. He’s a player clearly motivated by his second round draft selection—he runs hard through screens, both to get open on curls that showcase his picture perfect shot, and shadow opponents looking to do the same.

Then there’s the glittering vertical leap, hovering safely above the spectacular 40 inch benchmark. Budinger can jump higher than almost everyone in the league (including Blake Griffin) and he isn’t shy to show it, attacking the rim on 26% of his shots last year, according to Hoopdata. He’s capable of turning the corner with a surprisingly quick first step and finish with what’s quickly become a patented two handed jam in traffic.

He’s more than just an energy guy off the bench. Budinger can score, but he does so both within the offenses structure while still managing to freelance on his own via put backs and an uncanny nose for the action. He slithers his way around the court, pogo-sticking high above the trees looking for ways to help. Chase Budinger belongs in the NBA more than any player in his contract situation. Barring an unfortunate injury, two years from now he’ll be a rightfully paid player. Hopefully, Houston’s writing the check.

Twitter: @ShakyAnkles

The post Chase Budinger Is An Exceptional Bargain appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

You can’t tell me AB looked better than Taylor has thus far.

While Scola was by far the most productive of any of the players discussed,  he was also a seasoned international veteran.

While Landry appeared more impressive, having the wow-factor that accompanied those pre-injury springs, Jordan Hill has been just as productive.   (Sidenote: really, before Carl got hurt that year, he looked like he was about to jump through his shoes every time he was near the rim – freakish.  Sad, he has never looked the same since then, despite being a much better player.)  Jordan also has by far the greatest potential out of any of the 6, just by virtue of his physical gifts.

And of course we have Budinger who has displayed a calmness to his game that is rarely seen in players of this age.

I don’t like to throw out labels like ‘future All-Star’ as so few guys actually even ever make it, but it’s really hard to not get the feeling that the Houston Rockets have once more reeled in three impact rotation players from one rookie class.

The post Houston Rockets’ Draft Class of 2009 appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

•The aforementioned sequence isn’t demonstrative of any malfeasance on Ron’s part, but it’s a convenient segway: I find this entirely contrived vendetta Artest has been perpetuating against Ariza to be pretty odd. The best part is that I’m pretty sure the former actually thinks he would still be a Rocket were it not for Ariza. It’s like “Dude, she dumped you. It wasn’t because of Trevor. She just dumped you. Move on.”

•Chase Budinger had two monster tomahawk slams in the 1st which pretty much reinforced my belief that he’s one of the most confusing players I have seen in some time. Despite the jaw-dropping vertical, he can’t be considered ‘athletic’ because he is actually pretty slow. There’s no other word but ‘odd’ that can describe watching Chase drive in at half speed and then suddenly explode to the rim and attempt to tear it down. That’s shock value right there. The worst part about Chase is that I can’t think of a guy to whom I can compare his game. (Yes, not just white guys.) That’s really what makes this so difficult. Because honestly, when assessing a player, you can always bank on praise for some sort of insight or a couple of cheap laughs when offering a comparison to a former player.

•David Andersen’s game really reminds me of Mo Taylor pre-Krispy Kreme discovery.

•This game demonstrated why I have been backing David Andersen so hard this season. I just love this guy’s skillset. Like Taylor, he’s just smooth. He has a beautiful stroke from the outside and a very solid repertoire in the post. Also like Taylor, he’s pretty much not even there defensively. I think that will come though. Look, he will never be a guy who can guard Amare Stoudemire. The goal is to get his defense to a level where it doesn’t negate his offensive contributions. Give him time. The offense is already there.

•Another interesting point came when Chase Budinger was seen guarding Kobe for a few series’ after the 8 minute mark of the 2nd. That’s some serious confidence Rick Adelman is showing in this guy. And I do think this possibly has Tracy implications.

•What does this win mean? I was going to include my thoughts as a bullet here, but I decided this is a topic worthy of a separate post. More on this later.

The post Houston Rockets 101, LA Lakers 91 appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

•An interesting thing happened with 1.8 seconds remaining in the first quarter. Tyreke Evans penetrated on the fast break and was intentionally fouled by Kyle Lowry before passing off to an open shooter in the corner. In any particular game, that open shot could have been the difference between winning and losing. How many players in the league would have had the presence of mind to actually rationalize their team’s foul situation amidst the frenzy of an end-of-quarter fast-break? That play was symbolic of the cerebral culture that has catapulted this team to 50-win seasons these past few years.

•I am pleased to see that Paul Westphaul is still alive.

•I said it before. Where was Trevor Ariza in 2005 when Jerry Stackhouse effectively ended David Wesley’s career? He’s extremely undisciplined, but this was the breed of player the Houston Rockets so desperately needed at different points throughout the past decade. A long wing with passing lane abilities would have gone a long way against the Jazz in both ’97 and ’07.

•Very strange sequence with 11:08 left in the third. I was noting down that it was the first time I could remember ever seeing Shane dribble in place against tight pressure. As if this weren’t odd enough, Battier then suddenly threw a hard stiff arm at Nocioni while still dribbling (with the other hand.) Not sure what to make of any of this.

•It was pretty interesting seeing Carl Landry match up with Kenny Thomas. Kenny Thomas was basically Carl Landry before Carl Landry – vertically challenged, offensively skilled, hard working power forward with defensive struggles. Kenny was a lot better in the low post while Carl is a better shooter. Remember when one of the big points for excitement heading into the new season was that Kenny had allegedly lost 20 pounds and developed perimeter skills over the summer and would be sliding down to small forward? Yeah, that never happened.

•In total, I counted three ‘action plays’ for Chase Budinger.
*With 9:54 remaining in the first, he drove to the basket on a fast-break.
*With 2:20 remaining in the third, he took tree dribbles and shot a pull-up.
*With 8:05 remaining in the fourth, he drove in and got blocked.

•This sample size was too small to draw any type of conclusions. Based on this data, however, even though he is playing at guard, I realized that Chase only engages in what I would call ‘purposeful’ dribbling. Unlike the vast majority of guards, he puts the ball on the floor only when necessary and with a clear intent. Otherwise, upon receiving the pass, he immediately passes off if no options are available.

The post Sacramento Kings 109, Houston Rockets 100 appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.

The Rockets scratched and clawed for 48 minutes, even making things interesting at one point late, but ultimately fell to a superior foe. This is the same effort you can expect from this group with consistent results. They will beat up on bad teams and lose to the good teams when overwhelmed by the talent differential. There will be nights when they look completely overmatched inside, as they did tonight, but they will continue to fight. You can bank on this team to not ever mail it in.

To me, the most interesting storyline came late in the 4th. The Rockets had cut the lead to single digits with ample time remaining on the clock and were beginning to pose a serious threat to steal the game. It was at this point when conventional wisdom flew out the window.

While Chase Budinger played a big role in the comeback, with a chance to win the game one would expect Shane Battier or at the least, Trevor Ariza, to be reinserted for the duty of guarding Brandon Roy. I mean, this is Brandon freaking Roy, it’s the 4th quarter, and you can actually still win this thing!

So what did Rick Adelman do? Much to my delight, he kept Chase in the game, kept him guarding Brandon Roy, and kept Aaron Brooks and Kyle Lowry together in the backcourt. I absolutely loved that. One might argue that Rick wanted to stay with the hot lineup, but there’s no way you can tell me he would have seriously kept Chase Budinger on Brandon Roy had his prime motivation been to win the game.

What that 3 minute sequence did was prove that Rick Adelman is taking a greater, macro approach to this season. This year isn’t about meaningless wins and losses but rather planning for the future and seeing what we have in each of these players. That tends to be forgotten. Kudos to Rick Adelman.

The post Portland Trail Blazers 96, Houston Rockets 87: No surprises…but a pleasant surprise appeared first on Red94 | essays and musings on the nba and houston rockets.