IMO, every guy that hustles on the court and helps contribute to the team is needed, a team is like a puzzle, and you need all the pieces to work together. I remeber last yr Morey said Shane was like a lego piece, everyone just works better with him. He just helps the team, it maybe something nobody can notice, its just there.
There are certain players in this league, that are considered "glue guys" and Battier is one of those guys. Adding Battier makes a good team better. If he is on a weak team, they will not get much better. He seems to be one of those leaders that push good players to excel. He is injured, so now is the time for someone else to take that role. Who? I don't know. When you have a star, so long as the star is healthy you can afford to lose bits and pieces of your team. When you have no star and the team depends more on sharing the ball, losing a few players to injury can devastate the team.
It's hard for me to understand how people could overlook all of the things that Battier does on the floor. Yes we need everybody healthy but I think any coach in the NBA would love to have Battier.
9 points...not really. the miami one was brooks's fault clearly, wade only had 17. but obviously no such statement can be absolute. it's not really like battier has this special power called no-blowout or something. he's just a great contributer, often underrated by most rockets fans.
I don't think the point is that we lost. It's the way we lost. The defense is visibly atrocious. Without Yao, we are not an elite defensive team. Without Yao and Battier, we are down right terrible on defense. (BTW, we did not play "pretty good D" against Chicago. We let them shoot 47%, 50% from downtown, and blocked zero shots. And Chicago is nowhere near OKC's offensive power.) The point is that, Ariza does not replace Battier's defensive presence. I am not saying that Battier is more important than Ariza in terms of winning games. Ariza is clearly better on offense when he does not try to do more than he can. Some people think that you can just bring any player who can shoot the three and play decent defense (a la Ariza) and take Battier's job.
bottom line for us to be a contender next year we need battier! we absolutely cannot trade battier he may not be a guy that takes the winning shot, but he is a guy that can stop, block or deflect a last winning shot in crunch time or the playoffs.
When was the last time Battier blocked or tipped a shot in the playoffs? Chuck Hayes has made more game winning defensive plays. Trade him for some picks please. We need to get younger.
fail thread. lol. you are WAY over rating Battier. he brings some nice things, but lets be real. i agree, with others. lets move him. Do both sides the favor. move him to a better place and get something in return for him, before his value goes to 0.
There are certain defenders who put so much pressure on the guy they're playing that they disrupt the other team's whole offense. Lowry is one of those defenders. Battier is another.
It's a matter of probabilities. Battier is not going turn every 20-pt loss into a win, but he does give you another piece to throw out there that gives you a relatively good chance (compared to say, Mike Harris) of disrupting the opposing team's momentum. We've seen Battier at least make life somewhat difficult when opponent is on fast breaks (he might make the opponent FG% something like 60% rather than 80%, but that's a pretty good improvement). He is also probably the best shot blocker on the squad (unfortately, we have no one better than the relatively unatheletic SF for that role) who tends to make the proper rotations and challenge shots. Does that stop every shot? No. Does that totally prevent opponents from having an big night? No. But it gives you a better chance and that's the point.
battier is good money, im sure morey will aquire more talent without giving up battier, i say keep him a little more it dosent hurt to have this .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4aDM5d27_w&feature=related
Understand the argument but we have been playing NO "D" for months now with or without Battier. This is an offensive team NOW not a defensive squad so this should be common place, not sure why people freak out when we are playing Hilton FREAKING Armstrong in the regular rotation because of injuries vs a VERY explosive offensive team. I said we played pretty good "D" vs the Bulls because I was comparing the recent performances and, FOR THE ROCKETS, they did a pretty decent job IMO. If you remove Hinrich's 4-4 performance the Bulls go 3-10 from the 3 point line. IMO Ariza is not the defender Shane is but darn they're not to many players who are but what Ariza does do is bring more offense and, while not great defensively, he is very good on the defensive end. By the way, lose is a lose and if this was the 93-94 Rockets giving up a string of +100 point games i'd be concerned but not this unit...the 2009-10 Rockets are offense more offense and even more offense.
Let's see here, Battier only missed 3 games, so that means our defense has been great the rest of the games right? Wrong. Our defense hasn't been the same all year. There are many factors for that, not just Battier being hurt for 3 games.
the stats said he had many blocked shots last year's playoffs. that and he defended kobe better than anyone else last year's playoffs. yes, let's trade all of our core players for a bunch of picks. that way we can be the first team in a long time to play only rookies next season.
