Hayes and Scola. That is the frontline that got you to a 7th game against The World Champions. That is the frontline that deserves to start this year until (and IF) someone else were to earn the right to take their spot. The argument always comes back to what is more important, offense or defense. I argued all last season that defense was more important. Not saying you should start all defense, but you absolutely should start a combination of offense and defense. The Lakers series proved my point. Hayes neutralized Gasol. Had he not, there would never have been a game 7. Think about this. If Yao Ming was a tree on defense (and some agree he is), you still have to start him because of his offense. He can potentially get you 6-8 points in the first quarter and sometimes more. This almost always negates whatever points the opposing Center scores. However, if Anderson is a weak defender (7 feet, 235lbs) and has MAYBE half the offense that Yao has, why would you start him instead of having YOUR BEST POST DEFENDER start and neutralize the opposing Center? Chuck Hayes has proven he can start the game against dominate big men like Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett and slow their production. Anderson has not proven he can start a game and consistently score 6-8 points in the first quarter.
If Adelman's planning on starting David Andersen, the Rockets are going to get mauled in the paint by teams with imposing front-courts. The Chuck-wagon's a better option at this point, as he has a lower center of gravity and a stronger base, allowing him to body up stronger, more formidable post players. Either way, it's going to be a struggle.
I don't know if it is worth speculating much at this time about who starts. Bottom line is coach will go with whoever shows he can help the team win the most. At this time a few summers ago, fans and at least some in the front office thought Swift was gonna start a PF. Another year, the team actually started Kirk Snyder at the beginning of the season. Then we had the summer of arguing who between Steve Francis and Mike James would be the starter and where we would dump Rafer. Last year we were debating how McGrady, Artest, Battier and Barry would be sharing minutes. I don't think in the past couple of August the names "Wafer" and "Landry" were on people's mind much (even coaches' mind much). It's all just gonna play out organically. Of course, we can have fun guessing... but lets not kid ourselves that we can tell what's really gonna happen.
I think you got it right except for one thing. Rick Adelman will start whoever he THINKS will help win the most games which is always the offensive player. And it's not like Rick Adelman is the kind of coach that yanks a player when he is stinking up the joint on defense, just ask Luis Scola. I've seen him run away from his defender too many times and Adelman just sit there like Mr. Magoo.
If that were true he would have started Carl last year when Yao went down instead of Chuck. Or when Scola was first here he would have started from the beginning of the season. Don't try to rationalize your irrational dislike of both Rick and Morey with statements of things that aren't at all true.
Training came and pre-season games will let us know who chould start at C. Ultimately, Anderson will NOT start at the beginning of the season. Scola was a huge success story but he didn't start straight away. Anderson needs to prove himself before he takes up th starting role. I agree t hat a Hayes/Scola frontcourt will start because it is a proven combination during the playoffs.
If David can prove his worth then it would be a case to case basis. Andersen can start while Hayes can finish the game. Hayes could be used in the 4th quarter defending the other team's bigs. It is important that Andersen holds court for the the first two quarters. If by some miracle, Andersen plays defense too then, The Rockets does have a chance to make some noise.
i'm excited about andersen and this is his thread, but to disrespect the chuck wagon -- don't disrespect the chuck wagon. the chuck wagon wins games.
