With Battier still on our team, our team will be SCARY and no one would like to face us in the playoffs
Oh so that's how it is.... Well, I better hit the boards, take charges and dive for more balls on clutch fans....because I want that edit feature!!!! What's the hierarchy for different members? Lurker, rookie, member, members with the edit feature....am I missing any other levels? what's the top level? Also, how do they evaluate that you're ready for the next level...?
There is such a thing as making one trade too many and just messing up chemistry....I'm pretty sure that Morey realizes this. What I like about what he did this summer was that he basically kept all important pieces without giving up anything but players that weren't in our future anyway (Juwan Howard). We have our core that was able to dial up one of the top defenses while adding a lot of offensive firepower. It may seem like the positions are crowded right now, but that might serve us well because we will have to play different styles and will need different strengths to put down each opponent. Sometimes we'll need Battier's solid d and 3 point shooting, sometimes we'll need Bonzi's offensive firepower. Battier and Tmac should play all the minutes at small forward, with Novak coming in for situational purposes. Then, have Bonzi taking the majority of the shooting guard minutes afeter Tmac (who splits between shooting guard and small forward)...with Head getting the rest. Shooting guard is too crowded, so unless Bonzi and Head play badly, Francis and James should probably stick to point guard only, with Brooks coming in as a change of pace point guard when we need his speed.
i'm not too worried about the PF position. even if it is the weakest link in the Rockets, i think Scola/Hayes/Battier should be fairly solid. i remember for the last few seasons, so many clutchfans wanted a PF next to Yao that could just do the dirty work and rebound, defend and block shots. the funny thing is that Chuck Hayes was able to do all those things, well except shot blocking anyway, but with Van Gundy's offensively challenged schemes, having Hayes on the floor was just too much of a liability on a very predictable offense (Rafer handing off the ball to T-Mac, who would usually take a jumper or dump it to Yao). otherwise, he did just about as well as anyone could against the big bruisers of the league. his biggest problem was conditioning (according to his own words in a recent interview) and foul trouble, which could be related to his conditioning. now i'm not saying that Chuck should be the starter, but now even if he were to get in foul trouble, it shouldn't be too big of a deal with Scola on the bench or vice versa (Hayes on the bench). just the look of the offense/defense changes a bit. and i also think that the Rockets could do much worse than Battier as a 3rd string backup.
