http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2010&week=9 Here's something I found interesting: Too small - Hayes, Brooks Too short - Hayes, Landry, Brooks Too dumb - Who is the referring to? lol Can't shoot - Hayes, Ariza, Lowry Unathletic - Almost everyone except the rookies. Is this a thinly veiled attack on the Chuckster by Shane Battier?
I'm still in shock that we're rated ahead of the Nuggets, Spurs, Suns, and the Jazz 30 games into this year
I think Ariza mistakenly gets categorized as athletic when he can't jump very high, doesn't run very fast, and isn't that quick. He really is just tall and has a huge wingspan.
I think that's Battier's tongue in cheek way of taking a shot at himself and his reputation as the uberminded cerebral player.
I've seen him jump very high. but not consistently at all. so you're right I wouldn't categorize him as athletic. Overrated as being athletic.
I guess they are factoring in we've had the league's toughest schedule so far and have $40+ million on the bench?
He can do some pretty spectacular dunks that take a lot of athleticism. I don't even like the guy but he is pretty athletic.
http://www.nba.com/powerrankings/ 10 - Seven minutes per game is not enough for Tracy McGrady. The reunion lasted just six games before this latest separation, which looks to be permanent. Meanwhile, Sunday's loss in Cleveland was the Rockets' worst offensive game of the season.
To be honest, the Rockets have not looked very good since Chase went down. Hollinger's rankings have them slipping all the way down to 14th, and it makes sense. Adelman has to figure out some things -- how to somehow make Trevor Ariza a competent basketball player, get Brooks to be more aggressive and make some adjustments on the high pick and roll with him, sort out the McGrady situation once and for all, and get them to improve on defense. As it is right now, the wing rotation is a mess. Trevor Ariza is an offensive albatross. He does not complement Aaron Brooks well at all. Not at all. Much has been made of the redundancy between him and Battier, but the real problem is Ariza-Brooks. Those two have zero chemistry. They can't play off each other, and sometimes it seems Ariza exists only to make things more difficult for Brooks as teams are content to cheat off of him and Hayes to make sure Brooks doesn't get anywhere. The alternatives on the bench right now are Taylor and McGrady. Taylor has not produced offensively despite showing occasional flashes, while McGrady has been terrific on offense but has struggled on defense and obviously has yet to adjust to the new system on that end of the court. 6-8 minutes is certainly nowhere near enough to get anything worthwhile out of a player like him anyway. The only wing player that truly fits this system to a T is Chase Budinger, and he was in a way the unsung hero of the bench trifecta that so often covered for the starting lineup's deficiencies and overpowered opposing 2nd units routinely. He is the one player that gets it done on both ends efficiently. That's why I and others have constantly argued that he should have been getting more minutes. But now that he's out with this injury (at perhaps the worst possible time), Adelman is going to have to figure out something with his wing rotation or the slide will continue. He's certainly right about one thing -- they may have done admirably well in the face of a difficult schedule, but they are still on the bubble and there other WC teams that are also doing better than expected and could easily pass them up -- OKC, Sacramento, Memphis. And then there's the Blazers. Bottom line is, right now ... there's a leak in the ship and she's sinking. It's not that obvious right now, but it will likely become apparent soon unless things start to change.
