Interesting, Elie is totally different and could actually drive to the basket, run the brake, dunk and make plays. Sure he was known for threes and tough D so I do get that.
Agreed. Elie had better offensive skills. Still, for what we do, Tucker and Luc are nearly perfect. With those two, the team's defensive ratings are tops. Btw, when I think about Elie, who can't ever forget that corner 3 to eliminate the Suns? Just magical.
“Me being a role player, being proud of being called a role player —everybody wants to be Jordan or Kobe (Bryant) or LeBron (James). For somebody to come up and say that, that’s big time. Big time.” Great quote.
Exactly. Read. the. article. PJ is sort of a mix between Mario Elie and Chuck Hayes. He is truly the best defender I have seen on the Rockets since Shane Battier.
Loved reading the article, Durvasa. Thanks for the find. I've been making the Elie/Tucker comparison in my head for a while, but I'd toss a chunk of the Chuckster in there. Tuck is a heavier, wide body version of Mario, and the opposition's big men are discovering that, like Chuck Hayes, Tucker is hard to move and seems to instinctively know where to be on defense, inhaling rebounds along the way. That was Chuck. The rest of his game, especially the attitude the guy has, seems so much like Mario's that it's freaky, in my opinion. Morey struck gold when he signed PJ.
they're both 3&D junk yard dog type players. i get that. mario had better guard skills, pj has better bigman skills.
Shane overcompensated on D no doubt. He could have done more on O like when he was initially with the Grizzlies. PJ's real position is of an undersized power forward. His O suffers because of the role that he is expected to play. It's sad to see Ryan struggling out there. He needs to shoot the ball well, and give us some defense under the basket.
PJ is a gamer no doubt, he will try to guard anyone, but it's too much to expect him to slow 2's and 1's. His role is purely as a 4 now. When he was with the Suns, he was primarily a 3.
