If Scola is going to continue to be the man we hope he is, he will have to bring up his shooting from 15-20 feet a lot. Landy has a large edge on Scola from the near outside. But considering Scola started as less of a rookie(IMO), than Landry, I expect Landry to surpass him in the future.
Do people really still want to call for Tracy Mcgrady's head after seeing these PERs? Its like he was the only person doing anything on the team. 24 is a fricken huge PER number and number 5 in the playoff being the only option is huge. That being said im surprised Battier's is so low. Well not surprised I didn't think he did much all series which disappointed me alot. Head has to go, he just doesn't fit in my mind.
The per numbers are going to be skewed by playing without Yao. The team was built with his skill set in mind. Battier and Head, in particular, are freed up to shoot because Yao and McGrady draw double teams. Novak goes from being a non-factor, to potentially seeing solid minutes and contributing just from Yao playing. Head's problems are probably deeper since his confidence is shot and we just need more size from the two spot.
See my other post. Head sucks against Utah in general. In 9 regular season games, he averages 33% shooting and 27% from the 3pt line over 20 minutes a game. Most of those were with Yao in the game. And do you really want me to add in his postseason games against Utah??? In theory Luther should have great utility against Utah. Whenever they bring in their 3pt threat (Giricek last year, Korver this year), we play our own shooter against them as a counterbalancec. And Luther should be fast enough to get around those screens set for each guy, and the other guys should NOT be fast enough to catch Luther. I think it has nothing to do with X's and O's and everything to do with Head not making the shots when they count more.
I think that says a lot. It just shows you that T-Mac had to do much more and had less to work with than Paul or Kobe.
Were you watching a different series than I was? I think you are forgetting that Landry (who I love having, btw, and a real steal in the draft) didn't do squat the first two games against Utah, while Scola was putting up 37 minutes, 13 rebounds (8 offensive), 2 steals and 14 points, with only 2 turnovers in game one, along with 44 minutes, 5 boards, 3 turnovers, and another 14 points in game two. Yes, Luis struggled with his FT shooting and his shot, but pretty damn impressive for a rookie (even with his international experience) who'd never experienced just how different the NBA playoffs are from the regular season. Landry came up big in game 3, but Scola still was impressive in more minutes. Luis with 16 points, hitting from the line (8-10), at last (the guy hit from the charity stripe at a good percentage in Europe... it's all in his head and I expect him to improve a lot in that department next season with more confidence), and another big night on the boards, with 10, 5 offensive (the guy is a great offensive rebounder), 4 assists, and another 2 steals... along with those intangibles DD likes to talk about. Scola was a victim of the love affair the refs have with the Spazz in game 4, fouling out in 27 minutes. Landry had another good game. Scolandry weren't the reason we lost game four. When Deke is the only other player to shoot well, you know you're in trouble! Scola came up huge in game 5, with 18 points (7-12and 4-5), with 12 RB (4 on the offensive glass... this guy is a beast on the fighting for the ball on the offensive end and will only get better, imo), 2 assists and only 2 turnovers in 35 minutes. Landry had a very decent game, but Scola out-played him. Game 6? Luis is 15/9 (7-12 and 5 offensive boards!), while Landry plays 10 minutes and was ineffective. Result of the 6 games of the Series? Scola has a bigger impact than Landry in 4 out of the 6, no question about it. What were it you saying??
24 is alright. I wouldn't call it 'fricken huge'. What sucks is that he has a 18.5 PER during the regular season. That's your average borderline all-star type of player number. For a guy earning 20 million, it's way too low. It sure is easy to 'show up' when you coast through the season. I have a feeling that he could have any of these players on his team (of which all are undoubtedly better) and he would still have the highest usage rating. It's the way he plays. He wants to be the guy running things and when he's forced to play within certain limits, he starts to sulk.
i think that's more b/c rafer was out for 2.5 games, along with the increased dependency on tmac b/c bobby and head were simply not stepping up. you see tmac handling the ball much less when rafer returns. the thing i like about rafer (this year) is when he misses shots like he did in game 4, he was still ultra aggressive on both sides. head just hesitates when he misses. and bobby gets so nervous he blows open layups and double dribbles with no one on him.
watch games 1-2 and then watch the rest of the series with rafer. he rarely brings the ball up anymore. he rarely runs pick and roll. the offense usually started with rafer. in the first 2 games, it wasn't the case b/c bobby didnt know how to run an offense, he's more of a scorer. yes his efficiency was not so great during the reg. season. but again, he fought multiple injuries. he had to pace himself. 24 is not an "out of this world" # for a PER, but considering how great kobe is playing right now and his PER is only 28. lebron is at 22. again, tmac could have been much more efficient with his shooting, no doubt about that. he has to improve his stamina, ft, and stroke this off-season. but what he shows at least is that he's our most dependable player in the playoffs. and the playoffs is what really counts. although not all our role players step up in the playoffs, with our defense, we can win a lot of games with tmac "coasting." and we did. if he can pace himself but elevate his level in the playoffs, i think that's what we want.
Bringing the ball up is one thing. When he does that, he's playing PG position on offense. But I totally disagree with the pick and roll comment. To me, he does it way too much and usually just invites the double teams that way. How many times did Tracy score after a pass from somebody? Not too many. Most of the time he scored after individual plays. That is a problem considering we're trying to run an offense here. He tries to do Rafer's job too much for his own and the teams good, imo. As for your last paragraph, I'd rather see him give his all for 32 minutes than coast for 38 per game. Please don't think that I'm trying to bash him or pin this loss on him. It wasn't his fault and I don't really have a problem with the way he played in these play-offs. We lost to a team that was healthy and therefore better. I realize that.
but tmac coasting can still provide you with playmaking, and size on defense. our backup is luther head. that should say everything. if tmac had a legit backup, i'm sure he'll rest more. if you look at tmac's usage rating in the reg. season, that was WAY lower than when it was under JVG. that proved that he did play more off the ball (only 30 usage compared to 35 under jvg the last 2 years). the only thing i like tmac to improve on specifically is his ft shooting and stamina as a whole. it's hard to prevent freak injuries.
Luther Head just choked plan and simple and there is no excuses. It's been two straight years he has done this and Adelman just exposed it more than JVG.
I am amazed at you guys, did you not see the GOAT Rocket in the playoffs? Loren Woods! He had a PER of 137.93! Now you can't argue against that, he made 1000% shot in the playoffs, had 10 times the offensive rebounding rate than Chris Bosh, and his Usage Rate is off the charts at 41. None of you picked up on the Greatest Rocket in Playoff of all time, the GRIPOAT. Lol, ok on the serious note, it's disturbing to see Luther Head so low, but historically he hasn't done well against the Jazz. I hope the Rockets won't do something rash like against the Sonics, Barkely got us past the Sonics but, well, you know what happened. McGrady's usage rate was 33.7, highest so far. Don't know why I posted that, but I did. I've got a slight problem with how people pointing out how badly Memphis is doing. Hasn't anybody noticed that Memphis was tanking all season? I don't know how a team with Gay, McGrady and Yao will do, but I'm 100% sure it will win a bit more than 20 games. Battier and Gay are like different ends of a spectrum, Battier is jack of all trades, Gay is master of scoring and dunking. Who knows? Maybe a year under JVG would've hammered a defensive mindset into him, but of course this is only hypothetical.
It's not just basketball IQ that he's missing. Basketball IQ doesn't shrink to the size of a pea when it comes time to shoot that wide open three-pointer in a playoff game.
