| Head-ed For the NBA Authored by Jason Linnard - June 29, 2005 - 3:00 pm
“With the 24th pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets select Luther Head from the University of Illinois…..”
Houston Rockets fans awaited the announcement of which young star would join the potent duo of Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. This was Houston’s first 1st Round selection since they went international and selected Yao Ming of China and Bostjan Nachbar of Slovenia.
Luther Head is a versatile guard from Illinois. Many people doubted that he could play the point. He was forced to play out of position in college due to the presence of Deron Williams and Dee Brown. Head proved he could play the point at the Chicago Pre-Draft Camp. Though he was on a team with quite a few point guards, he showed off his passing, ball-handling, and playmaking skills, as well as his lock-down defense and good shooting.
One performance that really stood out was on Day 3 of the camp. He had 21 points on 8/11 shooting, 4/5 3-pointers, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals. He played great defense, showed quick hands, made some great passes, and had a nice shooting performance. He showed his potential to be a floor general when he did have the ball in his hands.
Many people thought that drafting Head at #24 was somewhat of a reach (Though not as much of one as Charlie Villanueva to Toronto at #7) but Houston had targeted him since the Chicago Camp. They had brought him in for 2 workouts, and had been infatuated with him since.
Houston GM Carroll Dawson said, "We're fortunate in a lot of ways with this young man because he played point guard in high school and because of the high talent level they had at Illinois, he played two. So he's very versatile. We think he's one of the best defensive players in the draft. The way Jeff (Van Gundy) likes to play, he fits our team very well. He's a two position player and he can cover a lot of people on the floor. He's a good leader with a lot of plusses and hardly any negatives."
Houston expects to play him at both PG and SG, but either way, he should see plenty of minutes this season.
The Rockets did not have a second-round pick, having sent it to New York to get Jeff Van Gundy released from his contract in 2003. |
