Since the usual victims , SF, Yao and JVG did a good job in last few games, I would like to dedicate this bashing post against Pike. When he got into Rockets, i thought it was a good addition to have another Glen Rice type of shooter. However, a bit disappointed about his recent performance. What's wrong with him or am I asking too much?
Pike came back from injury not a long time ago. There has been sign in recent games he is picking up. But JJ up and down bothers me more.
Why does there have to be a "Bash of the week". Why do you HAVE to bash a player, especially after a win?
I know Pike is coming off an injury but he has been with the team on the court for the last month. He needs to play better. I am expecting more from Pike off of the bench. I would say so far he has been a mild disappointment.
I'm not bashing him but if Pike shoots better our scoring can go up and we are missing that right now.
I think we should replace JJ with Pike in the starting line-up. It's important to make defenses pay for doubling Yao early. Let JJ take all backup 1, 2, and 3 minutes, I'm sure it will amount to as much as he's getting, and we saw how effective he was off the bench last year. If you've noticed, whenever we hit some early 3's, we wend up playing really great, because it opens things up for everyone throughout the whole game. Just start Pike to make defenses respect the 3-pt shot, and then sub in JJ who's a pretty good 3-pt shooter.
I agree. The reason JJ was in there early on was because JVG needed a veteran presence to help keep his offense stable while Steve was trying to learn how to be a point guard. Now that Steve is starting to get the hang of it, I'm not sure we need JJ as a starter anymore.
I see Piatkowski getting the ball when he is running. I'd much rather he be a 3 point shooter with no dribbling. Piatkowski admits to be somewhat cautious when jumping due to his ankle injury. Piatkowski is really the only guy the Rockets have who is career deadeye shooter. He is being forced to dribble the ball sometimes to get his shot off. That's no good in my opinion. I do agree that he should be on the court with Yao since the kick outs of double teams are great ways to get open 3 point shots with minimal dribbling.
That's exactly it. One solution could be more consistent penetration by the guards. If they go to the hole every now and then and actually make shots, the defense will be forced to collapse off Pike, thereby giving him more opps at set 3-ptrs (if we recognize that he is open and dish the ball).
I think that JJ deserves more bashing than Pike at this point, but honestly we should keep the bashing down until next loss (which hopefully will be a while).
no need for a bash of the week in my opinion either. however, piatkowski coming into the season wasn't going to be our #1 scoring threat obviously. Rice avged 9 pts a game along with some rebounds and change during his 2 year stint here, Piatkowski in comparison is doing worse. but.... he's our 3 pt specialist I suppose, so there you have it
guys, i think we are missing the point here... pike is SUPPOSED to be our three point specialist... but he hasn't been so far... dude shoots .361 and all his shots are wide open looks... i expected better, he needs to play better... and he was a liability on D last night...ie. Deshawn Stevenson blew past him twice
Maybe his shooting woes are because we are asking him to only shoot 3's. We are barely 1/5 of the way through the season and he is on pace to shatter his personal record for most 3 point attempts. I'd like to see Pike get a few more mid-range shots.
Definitely. They shoudl try to free him up with some screens for the 15-18 foot jumpers. He is usually just hanging out at the three point line doing nothing. Van Gundy should free up the offense just a little bit.
I'm not going to bash pike or any of our rocket players. No not anymore but I'll say this, Cat is our three point specialist now.
I guess i have not been watching the correct Rockets game, I rarely see Pike miss. I constantly see him spotted up for wide open jumpers but no one passes him the ball. Are you guys basing this assessment off of one game? Pike is one of the only players we have that knows his "ROLE". What more could you want from the guy he is a more versatile Matt Bullard as far as I see...
