Keith Van Horn: Soft or Not?

[The Pocket Rockets]

This from the latest SI, in the "Scout's Take" section.....

The misconception about Van Horn is that he's soft. The truth is that he's overpaid making $43.5 million through 2005-06], and he's a poor defender because he's slow and unathletic, but that doesn't make him soft. Unlike the guy he was traded for, Tim Thomas -- now there's a soft player -- Van Horn doesn't back down from anything. Milwaukee pushes the tempo, shares the ball and plays help defense, and all of that fits Van Horn's game. He'll be a more prodctive rebounder and scorer than Thomas was, which means that people may focus on his strengths instead of his weaknesses.

I found that interesting in light of the argument between the NBA-heads concerning Van Horn's alleged softness.

[CSD]

KVH is a bitch.

[CD]

Van Horn is a fine regular season player but anyone who watched the last two playoffs would be an idiot if they said he didn't play unbelievably soft...unless you thought his avoiding going near other players as much as possible and horrendous offensive performances were displays of toughness.

He's probably tougher than Vince Carter (at least since the 2001 Sixers-Raptors series), and he's definitely tougher than Tim Thomas...that's about it though.