The one thing I enjoyed the most in this game was watching how the Chuckwagon played defense. If not for that put back dunk in the last minute, Greg Oden would have gone with 0 points and 7 turnovers for the game. To be fair the Blazers did not force the issue inside and did not give Oden many opportunity to post up, but for the few times they did, Hayes absolutely destroyed him. Although Oden has 8 inches (?) and 40 pounds on Hayes, he cannot gain any grounds in the low post against Hayes. That leads to: a) Hayes strips the ball out of Oden's hand; b) Oden loses balance trying to back Hayes down and travels; and c) Oden forces up an off-balanced ugly shot that although Hayes has no chance blocking, it does not have much better chance going in. Watching someone undrafted and unheralded completely owning the "man-child" of the league is truly a thing of beauty. And it doesn't stop there. The way the Chuckwagon rotates on help defense, the way he boxes out and hustles for the loose ball. He did get posterized, but the fact that he was in that poster is something we should appreciate. a lot of people would not challenge that dunk. Anyway, throughout the game, he played defense to almost perfection. Shane was lost on a few possessions, and Ariza gambles for steals too much. Hayes is the only player on the team that I don't remember making a mistake on defense the whole game. This season will definitely be an intriguing one, and one of the most intriguing thing for me would be to watch how our defense operates without a shot-blocking presence. Hayes would probably be the most important piece to the answer of this question.
Chuck for DPOY! Seeing guys with highlight blocks win DPOY is getting ridiculous. Chuck is a difference maker and it is pretty evident when he is on/off the floor how our defense picks up/breaks down, respectively.
I watched the game with family tonight. My sister busted out laughing when Bill Worrell said: "Chuck Hayes is a MAN!" We had fun with that quote through the rest of the game. Somehow, its doubly funny when an old guy with a thick southern accent says it.
I want to see the Rockets use him more at PF defensively. I think he'd make a bigger impact there. Andersen+Hayes would be a combination I'd like to see, but it probably won't happen too often.
Oden's severely challenged offensively. I'll wait to see how he defends some of the premier post men (Gasol, Duncan, Big Al) in the league.
He struggled with foul trouble matching up against Chuck Hayes. I expect he'll have problems staying on the court more than anything.
Oden did average about 17 pts per game in the preseason. Granted it is just preseason, but it's a lot more than 0 pts he scored on Chuck today. And Chuck had played fairly good D when matched up with the premier post men before.
http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2009/10/blazers_96_rockets_87_the_good.html [rquoter] I did a story over the weekend on the Rockets' stat crew, something different for the day the basketball preview section was running. I felt a little funny about it, given that it included a lot of gushing about a bunch of guys nobody sees. I've noticed how good they are for years. So has the NBA. I get reminders on the road all the time. Tuesday offered one of those reminders. We see these freaky Chuck Hayes defensive plays from time to time and he made one in the second half. With Brandon Roy driving, Hayes came over, got a piece of the shot, caught the rebound while falling out of bounds and passed ahead to Trevor Ariza, a blocked shot, a rebound and a terrific play. It was scored steal, Ariza.[/rquoter]
haha I also laughed out loud at that. It was something like "Oden might be bigger, but Chuck is tougher. He's a MAAAN!" lol
Granted, I missed the beginning of the game, but I thought the team shouldn't have doubled Oden when Chuck was on him. What was that about? It lead to many easy baskets by the Blazers.
Anyone who doesn't appreciate Chuck doesn't know basketball, IMO. On the court and in the locker room he embodies the spirit of true professionalism.
Most of the time they didn't... at least I am fairly certain through the first quarter they didn't... there were a couple of times I remember that they did and it led to easy baskets for Portland or wide open shots.
If it wasn't for Chuck we would've lost by 30. He can defend any position. Underrated around the league.
If Memphis called you up and offered Hasheem Thabeet for Chuck Hayes would you do it? I was joking around with my buddy about this earlier but I am seriously asking. Chuck Hayes vs. the #2 overall pick from the NBA Draft. Just for fun -- who would you pick?
I don't believe that Thabeet is going to develop into a good player so I guess my answer is no. If I believed he would become a good player than sure.
chuck hayes is godly. so unbelievably active defensively and is getting more competent on offense too. i'll take chuck over thabeet surprisingly because i'm not convinced of thabeet's offensive ability and i am more than convinced of hayes' defense.
Hayes was terrific defensively, again. I liked that he was able to match up against their 4 this game, because they didn't have a physical presence at C. His full defensive skillset, not just the post D, was on display.
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