Don't worry, you can't harm Battier. He can fall off a 200ft cliff and come out with a bruised shoulder.
He did throw it down a couple of times, but wouldnt say as explosive as he used to be. I thought he was slightly frustrated that he didnt get more looks downlow. again wouldnt worry too much tho.
Rafer is not shooting too much when they're going down. Novak is a small forward and should be McGrady's designated backup for his offense. He is a player that forces the defense to adjust and it opens up lanes for guys like Rafer and Brooks to get to the basket. Without McGrady, Rafer actually operates as a true point and playmaker with Head working the shooting guard role. And when Head is shooting well, the combination of him and Rafer looks nice. Short backcourt, we can get by with it against non-playoff teams and can thrive with it against opponents reserves. And I think Rafer actually plays better in this role. Somehow these guys make the ball move without McGrady in the lineup. I'd love to see Rafer, Head, Novak, Hayes, Landry as our backup unit with McGrady, Brooks, Battier, Scola, Deke as our starters. I feel like that is the best balanced lineup and gives every man the opportunity to contribute the most. You could flipflop Deke and Hayes as needed depending on whether the opponent was going big or small in the front court since they essentially are providing defense and rebounding. Hayes played great defense again last night. Deke's defense is a given. Not to mention Hayes was very effective in the passing game also. BJax looked old. I would make him or Luther the 5th guard and switch them out with whoever is cold. Both guys run hot/cold. And he was cold last night. Brooks looked decent again. Only trouble he had was forcing the play a few times, got the turnover. But he was great in every other aspect, shooting, distributing, defending, running the break.
lakers are winning their division. division winners have to be seeded top 4. only way for us to move up is to pass the spurs or hornets records. otherwise we're stuck at 5.
Luther is going to get abused in the playoffs by big 2 guards posting him up. Seattle, tried but they aren't that good, trust me, the other teams are and will light him up on the post. Especially Utah with Brewer and Harpring who is going to be a monster on the post to defend.
Id rather have Harpring post up Luther than see Deron and Boozer run the pick and roll all day. It takes them out of their game.
Unfortunately, Harpring is too strong for Battier, so I'm hoping we can somehow get Hayes on Harpring for spurts where he is abusing our defenders. Utah is a tough team, but can be dealt with. Scola will have to play his best defense yet against Boozer and Landry could be guarding Mehmet on the perimeter while Hayes could be on Harpring. Our forwards are fast enough to switch on any pick and rolls and hopefully this line up would be able to keep Harpring in his place, while only letting Boozer get his (which he will regardless of who we put on him).
I will say this also, what other teams in the west could blow out at team by 23 without their two best players. not just win, but win by large margin.
i completely agree with you... i think landry is our 'x' factor for the playoffs.. his dunks not only puts points on the board, they tend to rile us up.. here is to landry getting to 100% before the playoffs.
i might get bashed for this.. but, i like our chances against utah w/out yao, rather than w/ yao. in fact, i think we will pound utah if we get matched up with them. the reasons why i would rather not have yao when playing utah is as follows: 1) he turns the ball over way too much against utah's defense.. in fact, in the 7 game set last year he had a total of 33 TO's. and, in one game he did not turn the ball over, so he basically had 33TO in 6 games. and, in two of our losses, he twice had 8 TO. that is too much. in fact, this is one of the reasons why i believe yao will never be a 'great' nba player. he allows players; such as okur, to hang all over him and reach in on every possession. i dare okur to attempt that with mutumbo... he will get a mouth full of elbow. 2) with yao not playing, we dont have that added pressure of 'getting the ball to the big man down low' (and i am sure luther couldnt agree with me more.. haha). when we feel pressured to get the ball to yao, it usually ends up in a TO. 3) with yao out, this will give scola/landry more minutes. which, i think these two are good matchups with utah's bigs.
I agree with most of what you are saying but my problem is with having Scola Chuck and Landry all on the floor at one time. They all need to be relatively close to the rim to score, so you can't open up the offense, they will all be clogging it. I think that there are definitely benefits in a match up with Utah without Yao, but I can't advocate ever having those three guys on the court at the same time. Two of them is perfect, three is a nightmare.
So if I understand you correctly, a JVG coached team playing without Yao & Tmac would have been unable to beat a 60-loss team. On what are you basing this assumption? Whatever it is, be sure to factor in the fact that the roster that Rick Adelman was given is vastly superior to the one JVG was given last year. Also don't forget that the Sonics are 18-61 for a reason.
