The Way We Hear It Houston Rockets By Basketball News Updated Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2000 There remain those in Houston who would sooner swear off basketball altogether than question the value of Hakeem Olajuwon to the Rockets. That’s a nice thing; Olajuwon, for all his Hall of Fame-worthy accomplishments, is deserving of lots of loyalty. But a cold, hard look at the numbers reveals this plain truth: The Rockets are better off with someone else in the starting lineup at center. Olajuwon has started the team’s past two games—both losses—as Kelvin Cato recovers from a sprained ankle, bringing Olajuwon’s season totals to an even 16 starts and 16 appearances off the bench. The Rockets, if you can believe it, are 3-13 (.188) with Dream as a starter, compared to 9-7 (.563) when Rudy Tomjanovich uses him as a backup. Furthermore, in the club’s 20 losses when Olajuwon has played, the 37-year-old has averaged 13.1 points in 27.0 minutes; in 12 wins he’s averaged only 9.1 points in 22.4 minutes. Houston is 9-13 (.409) this season in games Olajuwon has missed. … Considering all the different pieces to the puzzle he’s worked with this season, what is Tomjanovich’s ideal lineup in crunch time? According to one team insider, the coach is most comfortable with Steve Francis at point guard, Cuttino Mobley at the 2-spot, Shandon Anderson and Carlos Rogers at the forwards and either Cato or Olajuwon in the middle.
So what. Check out the stats of the games (wins and losses) for when Francis did not play and you might realize that they are worthless stats.
Actually I think our best crunch time lineup includes Francis, Anderson, Rogers, Thomas, and Olajuwon. Mobley and Cato could arguably be in there and I know they have both saved games in the last second, but they make me nervous as Hell sometimes with their inconsistency.
do you really want a ineup that spells out the following: O-lajuwon F-rancis A-nderson R-ogers T-homas
