[Correct Poll] Battier or MadMax as the best wing defender in Rockets history?

I was never the biggest Ariza fan and I was often critical of him during his time here (almost all offense related) but he was a thoroughbred on the defensive end.

Tall, long, rangy, athletic guy that barely made it to the league based on his youth, measurables, athleticism and potential. He found his calling on the defensive end and made a long successful career out of it.

Maxwell was great and I’m not going to take anything away from him but let’s not forget he had Thorpe in addition to the almighty Dream in the paint so Maxwell was able to focus on staying in front of his man thus it was easier to lock them down since they were hesitant or had to think twice about attacking the rim and challenging Dream.

Battier was a smart defender and he worked hard at mastering his craft taking notes, watching film on opposing wings, learning their tendencies etc. he made the most out of his limited athleticism. He was quite good but I also feel he was overrated especially against guys that had good lateral speed. He also got a lot of praise for his battles with Kobe and the announcers would hype him up and be biased towards how good he was doing but he still got torched on the regular.

Back to Ariza I know his first go around here was viewed as a failure overall but that’s cause we misused him and or expected too much out of him by trying to force him to be something he’s not a go-to star player on both sides of the ball. Of course it didn’t work offensively and his efficiency was atrocious but he was still a beast defensively. Also, his first couple years on his second go around he was very good as well.

All things being equal the answer is Ariza for me. Imagine if he replaced Maxwell in his era. Not only would he have locked down the peremiter he would've been a terror in the passing lane/transition D. He prob would’ve averaged like 3+ steals a game easily.

 

Battier?!? lol

Don't compare him to a champion.

 

Unpopular opinion: CP3.

Why? Re-watch the conference finals with the exception of game 3. Paul had Curry locked down.

 

Max was the better player, but I see a lot of discrediting Battier here. The guy was one of the most fundamentally sound defenders of all time. He had some athletic limitations, but there’s a reason he played a major role on back to back Championship teams. If LeBron trusts a guy, he’s legit.

 

Does this guy not know that Battier has 2 rings?

 

Hard to say honestly.... mad max didn't have to always guard two people because everyone pulled their weight. Battier got stuck with tmac who always picked and chose when to play D...
Battier was a beast when he had ron artest by has side. He just needed to focus on the one player he was assigned to not two...

 

Yeah,in career games vs Maxwell, Miller's ppg, fg% and 3pt% were all higher than his career averages.

 

Beverley is a hound but is not a better one on one defender than CP3

 

The best wing defender I have seen on the Rockets?

The answer is McGrady when he was motivated.

The most underrated swing defender for the Rockets and likely the most consistent? Jimmy Jackson. He was smart and extremely strong and physical. He wore players out and was blessed with excellent instincts.

 

Maxwell was a different era and defense was much more physical back then. You were allowed to put your hands on the opponent so teams favored bigger stronger guys who could use their strength to control an opponent. That allowed players to negate the speed of an opponent. A guy like Derek Harper would hand check his man and prevent him from getting to where he wanted to go. You weren't going to blow by guys like that because they simple weren't going to let you go where you wanted. Pretty much the exact opposite of the current freedom of movement rules.

Maxwell also had Olajuwon behind him erasing mistakes. Houston guards and wings weren't worried about their man beating them off the dribble. If you wanted to try and challenge Hakeem in the paint then they were fine with that.

Hakeem was the primary reason that Jordan didnt dominate against Houston. When he went to the rim Hakeem was waiting.

Maxwell was streaky on both sides of the ball. He could shoot you into games or he could shoot you out of games. Defensively, he overplayed his man relentlessly. Some nights he'd disrupt the opponent. Other times he'd quickly pick up 3 fouls and have to go sit down.

You just never knew what you were going to get from Mad Max. He could hit a clutch 3 to seal our first title and then he could quit on the team and walk away during the next championship run

 

Kobe did that to literally everyone. He got what he wanted , when he wanted regardless of who was defending him. That dude was a stone cold killer on the court.

I always hated him …. but I can respect his game.


I'd probably have to vote Mad Max , he's the only player that could keep MJ in check and that's no small feat.

 

Did Battier had any impact on those two rings? I doubt it. Compare the two players, Battier is a scrub compared to Vernon.

 

11 ppg, 57% from 3, 37 mpg in the first.

His minutes dipped in the 2nd finals but still 44% from 3... But at least he was there for his team, Max wasn’t...

The answer to your ridiculous question though is obviously, yes, he did impact those finals!

 

Max hit game winning shot. Just stop it..

 

Shane. Max was a vicious defender but not always the smartest defender. Shane kept his cool

 

Look back at the #’s - both guys turned their respective opposing SG’s into volume shooters. Also, Shane caught prime Kobe. Prime Jordan, on an individual level, was before the rings.

All love to Max but this is a really close one. Max also turned up for the marquee matchups and tuned out for the lesser guys. Shane was 24/7.

 

never watched Mad Max play.

Battier was really smart as a defender but he had his short comings. I wouldn't consider him a shut down defender by any means. His strength was understanding where the "bad" shots are and forcing you to take them. He did all the little things correctly, like taking charges, body positioning, rotations etc. However he gets bullied a lot by bigger small forwards, I remember Melo used to BBQ chicken him every time we played.

 

This is my view as well. Max was great man-to-man, perhaps in part because Olajuwon was behind him to erase mistakes when a guy blew by him. Max was probably exactly the sort of defender that team needed. Battier didn't have the same quickness to do that, but he was more of a Morey sort of defender, just playing the percentages.

 

...handchecking. Maxwell was playing checkers. Battier was forced to play chess.