OK, I like where you were going with this, but you used the analogy incorrectly. Unfortunately, there are many people on this board who like to argue for the sake of argument, because their parents let them run wild and do what they want. I was thinking something along the lines of kids in different schools. You may have a genius(LBJ) in one school doing the material. He turns in the work and gets the best grade. Then you have the above average intellect guy in the other school(AB0) and he turns in his work and gets the best grade. What some of the more ignorant posters are missing, is that Lars was NOT comparing our guys to the rest of the league. He was comparing each player on the TEAM. As far as the TEAM goes, the grades were deserved and earned. Compared to the LEAGUE, then yes, you could make an argument that the grades were too high. Reading comprehension is not a strong suit on this board. Lars at no time mentioned any other player not on the Rockets, ergo(Latin for therefore, but commonly used in the English language by smart a$$es like me) His assessment was adequate and he took the time to do it while the rest of you only take the time to mock and disrespect while throwing out uneducated arguments. Class dismissed!
you too? I miss Carl Landry. If we still had him we would be a championship contender right now. (I'm totally joking. Carl is gone and we wasn't that great. Get the eff over it, man!) Decent analysis. Perhaps a bit overly optimistic at times but good, nonetheless. I hope we don't lose c-bud for the likes of Chris Bosh and his attitude problems.
I am sure the players appreciate your generosity with their grades until they find out they are in the group of players who have major learning disability.
Are you implying that in order to objectively grade the players, you need to be a good fan? Would that not imply that there is some subjectivity in your grades. I agree with you that the grades should take into account expectations, but I still think the grades are a bit high. To me, meeting expectations should be a B, while way surpassing expectations is an A+ and very rare. I'd only give Brooks an A+ if he picked up his defense as well as his offense.
larsv8: B+ A great effort from larsv8. Your command of the language is good and the text is organized well. You could have benefited from slightly shorter paragraphs and I would like to see more signposts as well. Grammar seems to be just fine as well, at least to my untrained eye. What I think you should concentrate from now on is your objectivity. While rooting for the home team is fun and all, you might also give the rest of the league a chance once in a while. You should also give the players some room for improvement. Handing out A's so freely might make them fell nice about themselves but in order to improve next year, some added criticism might do some good. Also, you should really think about your communication with your colleagues. While most of them might be morons and even bad fans, saying it to them so bluntly could be considered to be in bad manner. In addition to that, you should most likely refrain from using learning disabilities in an demeaning manner when making an argument. In conclusion, you have really a lot going for you in the art of bbs writing. While some improvement next year would be nice to see, I'm giving you solid B+ this time, mostly due to your good writing skills and effort. Homework: Not hanging out with Bill Worrell and Matt Bullard any more.
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Worzel, I'm just curious what the intent was with this post. I think the high praise of Andersen is pretty hilarious.
Nice job Larv, and look at the moron brigade lining up to criticize instead of themselves contributing to quality threads like this. DD
I think your grades all hold true, for offense. What a treat it was to watch this team compared to past years in terms of actually running Adelman's system and getting many, many many easy baskets. But omfug what happened to our defense. It's to be expected with a starting lineup consisting of Brooks, Martin, Scola, all of whom are negative net defenders in my book, although you could say any one of them would do well in a "system" that hides their deficiencies which is what we'd been doing in previous years. To get back to consistent winning, we need more balance in the starting lineup and Morey knows this. Perhaps Brooks can be the carrot dangled in front of Toronto's eyes to net us Bosh? That would knock two black marks on our defense out by subbing Brooks for Lowry and benching Scola for Bosh. Our starting lineup would be beastly in both offense (Martin Bosh Yao) and defense (Lowry Ariza Yao, Bosh?). And Scola should do just fine as the alpha dog among our more defensive-minded bench guys like Battier Hayes Hill and Taylor (Budinger would have to improve his D to get on this list but it remains within the realm of possibility also). The other possibility is to sign Scola and use him in a SnT with Toronto, which I'm sure most Rockets fans would prefer, but that would steal leave us with a defensive sieve of a backcourt. The solution here would be to start Lowry but give Brooks more minutes as the ultimate culmination of Rick Adelman's quest for "the next Bobby Jackson". And no the old Bobby Jackson was not good enough to be "the next Bobby Jackson". In this scenario, Brooks might become so good at this role that we would simply call Bobby Jackson "the previous Aaron Brooks".
Sure lets talk about it Ariza is younger, is more athletic and has more length. He is a worse defender than Battier, he shoots 44% on 2s @ 8 shots a game and 33% on 3s @ 6 shots a game. He also had a 1.7 ast/to ratio. He has 1.75 stls, .75 blks at 36 minutes a game. Battier is older, slower, and less athletic with zero offensive talent. Yet somehow, he is a far superior defender than Ariza, he shoots 46% on 2s @ 2.5 shots a game and 36% on 3s @ 4 shots a game. He also had a 2.5 ast/to ratio. He has .8 stls, 1.1 blocks and 4.7 rebounds at 32 minutes a game. So please explain to me, what makes Ariza deserve a better grade than Battier. Is it all the flashy dunks? Is it the triple double at the end of the regular season? Maybe its Ariza's piss poor attitude when things arent going his way? Please please please bring up his steal statistic so I can destroy you on the number of wide open dunks and layups Ariza gives up on gambling too much. Anyone who thinks Ariza is a better player than Battier either isnt paying attention or is just flat out ignorant.
I agree... people here overrate Ariza to no avail.... how many good games did he have? he has jacked up 3's and his defense is not as good as battiers... were can i find stats on charges taken?? Although, I think Ariza has the higher potential to score more points in any given game, it just hasn't materialized yet. Battier does not force too many shots and plays within his own game and is the perfect glue guy... we have Brooks and Martin who can make 3's and score plenty of points we need someone who plays superior defense who doesn't need to score as much, just be able to hit the open shot.
Great effort,but u couldnt allow your man love of shane go. Shane was suppose to do more with absence of yao and tracy, he went backward. Shane was the biggest underaciever on the rockets unless you want to count cook,andersen,or armstrong. Top it off, he's the oldest and highest paid.
Based on every players individual talent and expectations, i think these are pretty good grades. I would down grade Brooks and Martin for their defensive ineptitude. Some posters are missing the point of these grades, Chuck Hayes and Luis Scola deserve an A because they had as good a season as anyone can realistically expect him to have, not because they deserved the MVP. Considering this teams major physical limitations (a starting frontcourt that dunked 5 times all year) i'm amazed at how many people hold their mediocre record against them.
Its fan grading. Its not like some commanding official Ric Bucher ESPN summary. Its posted like its the central CF list, but really any of us can add our own lists. Not me, I'm not going to go through on those words. I'd rather just rag on someone else's work
I know that you are grading them because we overachieved. Your analysis is good, but the analysis and the grades don't match.
