Hayes was been underutilized most of his career, but whenever he was given the chance he always shined. Rick Adelman himself admitted that he messed up not giving Chuck Hayes minutes during a few seasons, but he had no idea Chuck was so effective on the court. He is one of the best glue guys you could get for cheap. Dorsey hasn't done jack in his career. I prefer the 3rd string player that has a proven history than the 3rd string that has none.
Dorsey started 17 games last year - Rockets were 11-6. If you replace Dorsey with Hayes, IMO, that's at least 2 more wins with just the IQ and leadership that Chuck brings to the team.
I'm sure Chuck will still be able to, at the very least, provide a situational post defender. The big question is, will they be able to now run any of the old Adelman corner offense sets now that they have a big who can run those plays? I know Fitch knows these plays, and knows how to coach them as he's done with his other teams in the past down in RGV and with GB. Not sure if McHale is really gonna want to mess with a good portion of training camp implementing these sets again for a guy who is the 13th man off the bench though. Also not sure you want Harden running around off the ball, coming off screens and going back door. Ariza as well isn't necessarily a great slash & finish guy at the 3. Oh well. Getting Chuck back as a situational defender/Dorsey type insurance big, and locker room presence is well worth the vet min contract.
There's probably going to be multiple adjustments to the offense this offseason, so I don't see why we can't add this in. I'd actually like to see DMo get some time from the high post.
They do actually run the same corner offense sets with D-Mo & the other bigs, but they don't ever run backdoor for the big to make passes inside the paint. You had guys like Budinger/Dragic/Lee etc. that played with Hayes that would always make hard cuts, and even do that little PG/SG off the ball pick to get an open layup from a Chuck Hayes pass. Now the Rockets run the same play from the start, but it usually just ends up looking like a screen where the big gets the pass in the high post, and hands back off to Harden who does what Harden does. So while our offense starts off looking the same, it doesn't have all the cool screens and movement that Adelman had our guards, and wings doing after the big gets the ball in the high post. But yeah, if D-Mo had the right kind of wings around him, and a coach that implemented these sets, I think he'd be the perfect big to build that offense around.
I think Harden, McDaniels, and Brewer can all do the hard cuts. With Lawson we're going to have a more balanced court, which opens up those pocket passes in the paint.
I remember Adelman's pitch to Morey & Les that really won him the gig was "I can make life easier on your stars", and installing this system really was a big part of that pitch. Does getting Harden & Howard's life get easier installing more of this into their offense? Geez... I don't know if you need to magnify Howard's decision making in the offense TBH. I kinda just want the guy's only thought process to be, set a screen, roll hard, jump, dunk, rinse repeat. As I mentioned, the offense often starts the same, but it is much more simplistic especially for the bigs. I'm really interested though to see what Harden can do more playing off the ball this year though assuming that happens anyways with the addition of Lawson. Harden could be unstoppable... or he could be disinterested in doing much of anything without the ball. Harden was great though with team USA when he played off the ball as well, but as Harden is still Harden, your best option is to get the guy the damn ball, and let him do what he does. We'll see, but yeah, I do want the coaches to do what they can to make life easier on Harden especially, and Howard. Whatever the system that expands on what we already run, it needs to be designed to extend the prime of his career and not burn him out.
People truly don't grasp what has happened here. But I will spell it out for you: David West is Chuckwagon's b***h Zach Randolph is Chuckwagon's b***h Marc Gasol is Chuckwagon's b***h LaMarcus Aldridge is Chuckwagon's b***h Blake Griffin is Chuckwagon's b***h Tim Duncan is Chuckwagon's b***h Draymond Green is Chuckwagon's b***h Anyone in the NBA that tries to ISO on the post is Chuckwagon's b***h. This is chess not checkers. ESPN only understands checkers, so that's why they make a big deal out of David West. But West might as well just open up his wallet right now and hand Chuckwagon all his lunch money because that is how it's going to be.
Was that from last season? If so, wow! Chuck's still got those quick feet on defense. He's still strong. I don't see what he's lost. We could have really used him in the playoffs.
Thanks for posting. Looks like the old Hayes to me. Chuck made those shots insanely difficult....that's really all you can do.
People don't realize that Hayes is elite at positional defense. He just knows where to be all the time and how to get their quickly.
