Link to playoff block stats? Landry and Chuck are the only guys I remember making big time defensive stops to win games in the playoffs. He did do a good job on Kobe and now he's lost a step. I'll take some young guys (rookies to play on this team next year. Guess who else is playing rookies and young players this year and heading to the playoffs? The team that just beat us.
oklahoma city has keving durant to dominate their offence and makes every body look better. what rookie is gona do that for us this lottery draft, john wall,....um maybe but were not gona get him.
actually it was the last playoff game we played, game 7 against LA. But i'm sure you just forgot. Just like you forgot a defensive play doesnt necessarily have to be a block or tip to be a defensive play. Or that it doesnt have to come in the last seconds of a game to be a "winning play". A game is 48 minutes, if only the last few plays are important, then someone needs to let Stern know we've been wasting about 46 mins every night.
You mean the blow out lose that sent us home? I'm sure most people want to forget about that one. How could he have an important game when it's a Blow out lose?
Battier also had more blocks during the playoffs than anyone else besides Yao, almost doubling third best, who was Landry, but hey, that's nothing... He's a perimeter defender, he's suppose to be the second shot blocker on a team, right?
Maybe you should be more specific next time. Your question was when was the last time he had a block in the playoffs, implying it was rare of had been a while. Now that the answer turns out to be very recent, you're shrugging it off because it was a blowout loss. If thats your reasoning, then no one in a rockets uniform had an important game that night.
If you watch Rockets games you'll notice that Battier isn't a shot blocking menace. He has moments but if you ask what significant defensive difference he makes the answer will be, "He takes charges". Chuck Hayes is a good passer sometimes so I guess we can't get rid of him because our ball movement would suffer
we got blown out not because of defence but because lack of offence and height with yao and tmac out and RON ARTEST who didnt do anything to contribute, everybody else did a good job, but that another story.
So because he's not a shot blocking "menace", then his blocks arent important or signficant? I'd say anytime you can have a perimeter defender average a block a game it's pretty signficant contribution to your defense and team. He gets enough consistently for him to be considered a shot blocking threat, especially when he's shown the ability to get multiple blocks if teams dont take him seriously. Yes, he takes charges, but he also blocks shots. He may not get 3 blocks a game, but why would you use that to gauge his impact? Use that when speaking about a center or PF, not a wingman. It's like getting on a point guard for not getting 6 or 7 boards a game when he's already averaging 4 and implying that makes his rebounding less important.
battier wouldn't have made a difference in the loss to the thunders. i respect him for what he brings but he's overrated because of people like you.
I guess we don't need Camby guys. Battier and Yao's shot blocking are plenty. I love Battier but If can't notice that he serves us no use as a starter on this team then I don't know what to tell you. This will be his last significant contract (money wise). That should tell you what his value is.
Reeko, I hate grammar police, just trying to help a brotha out.. it's "loss", not "lose." Silly quibble, I know. As for this thread, it's pretty clear that Shane makes an impact on the foor directing traffic and at least making execution difficult for the other team. It's a shame people are discrediting the OP for any reason they can find, including: "It's only 3 games" and "We also got blown out by Miami." To me, saying "Shane has a big impact" does not equal "we never get blown out with Shane." Also, saying "these three losses demonstrate that Shane has an impact", doesn't quite mean "these three losses are the only evidence we have that Shane has an impact." I think it's a valid point. Battier is a leader on the floor, not in points and not in offensive ball handling, but in direction and intensity. This does not imply that he is underrated or that we should all bow to him... it just means we miss him when he's out.
as for "important" defensive plays in the playoffs....look at the famous landry block. Everyone wants to give sole credit to Landry for that defensive play, but the defense didnt start when he blocked the shot. Every single player on the court made an important defensive play. They all stayed on their men like glue, through picks, fakes, cuts...no one took their eye off their man and floated away, no one stopped paying attention, no one was ever caught flat flooted. Deron went one way and there was rafer. he went the other and landry stepped up. He passed to Korver and battier blanketed him, forcing korver to pass back out. Deron had no choice but to make something happen and was met by three rockets on the drive, landry had the angle and made thegreat block and save, but that was all set up by the important defense the team played. It left deron in a desperate situation and enable landry to take advantage of it.
There you go again. You're poking fun at battier's ability to block shots just because he's not camby. Why not give the man some respect for it instead? Is it his fault we dont have a Camby? And a signficant contract is years long, just because a player cant secure a long contract doesnt mean he's completely done or he's not valuable to a team anymore , it just means he doesnt have that many years left to play at a signficant level. It doesnt mean he cant help this year or next until the end of his contract.
Why can't I joke around? Battier's a great teammate a great floor leader but If you want to win a Championship someone will have to pick up the slack for his ineffectiveness on offense. Will that be Yao? who knows. His value to use is based on use not having ANY significant talent. He means more to this team right now but in the long run (next year) he's just not going to mean that much. I truly believe he will not be on this team after next years trade deadline.
that depends on how much they can resing him to, if hes affordable and is willing to come of the bench on a contending team then hes a keeper therefore making our bench better and our team balanced in offence and defence sort of like what like san antonio had with bruce bowen.
Martin scores 20 a game. Brooks scores 20 a game. Scola can score 20 a game. Yao can and maybe will score 20 a game. Something tells me we'll be alright offensively, but who knows, maybe they'll play with 5 basketball next year and they'll play to 300 pts, so maybe we'll be screwed then. We dont have any significant talent?? I'm gonna give u the benefit of the doubt and assume you meant signficant defensive shot blocking talent, but isnt that the case with any player who has a certain talent? Isnt yao's value in that we dont have many tall players? Isnt lowrys value in that we have no one else to push the ball like him? You can value most players in that way, it shouldnt be a knock on them. Not many players in this league can be do-it-alls, a lot of them have to be players on one side of the ball, but there's more stats for offense than defense. Imagine if charges were a stat. And there was a rotation percentage for how well you rotated on D. Imagine there were a few more defensive stats like that and less offensive stats. Then players like Martin, brooks, and scola would get blasted more and guys like jeffries, battier, hayes, and lowry would get more props. Unfortunately that's not the way the boxscore works, but it doesnt mean those things dont happen. Our whole team is composed of players who play one side mainly, with the exception of yao and maybe lowry, but clearly it's only yao who plays a big role on both ends. A lot of fans dont realize that because stats are so offensively oriented that scorers get tagged as more complete players for whatver reason, but complete players are the exception, not the norm around the league.
