Battier wasn't the right fit for this team and was too much of an offensive liability (and his defense was quickly slipping too). Maybe all the Battier supporters can quit saying they know what management wants now, because clearly they didnt. I'm calling you out larvs8. Brooks was just bad this year, made bad decisions with the ball all the time, and didn't know how to be anything other than a midget SG. His major weaknesses were hidden last year because the Rockets depended on him to score, which is the only thing he's good at. But with Kevin Martin on the wing this year, it was either become more of a PG or a Jason Terry type backup..and he failed to become either. I feel pretty vindicated for my "hate" (more like objective criticism) on Brooks and Battier..although honestly anyone who knows a lick of basketball could qualitatively see that Brooks (and Battier to a lesser extent) was sucking hard.
Funny how the second unit and ex second unit players (Bud and Lee) are playing much better after the deadline. I wonder why?
Brooks is gone These guys knew what was up <iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fMyFF7LkRZM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
• We got back to an offense that is constantly moving and cutting after Brooks is gone. • We got more playing time for Lowry after Brooks is gone. • We got last year's Budinger now paired with Lowry after Brooks is gone. • We got much better 2nd unit defense after Brooks is gone. • We got improved FG% after Brooks is gone. • We got happier players after Brooks is gone. Ouch, didn't realize until now that ONE player can hurt the team so much....
vs OKC +8 , 5 offensive boards, 3-6 @ Dallas +11, 6 offensive boards, 4-10 @ Hornets +10, 1 steal, 1-4 vs spurs +11, 2 offensive boards, 1-3 @ spurs -2, 4 steals, 2-6 Dude, tell me he is making minimal impact..... I bet you didn't watch him play right?
We are just flat out sick offensively now. Lowry hasn't even let anyone doubt whether or not he is a better starting PG than Brooks. Courtney Lee off the bench has been huge as well as C-Bud's good shooting. I hope they can keep this up! The off season will be a lot better if we at least get a shot at someone in the playoffs!
The trade deadline passed. Everyone's nerves are at ease. They know where they'll be for the rest of the season. Aaron Brooks being gone helps, too. Harsh, I know, but he was killing our bench production. Increased minutes for Courtney Lee and Chase Budinger over Shane Battier is helping as well. While Chase isn't as good defensively as Battier, Lee more than makes up for it and both of their offense is irreplaceable at this point. Easier schedule helps, too, but wins in New Orleans and Portland are certainly nothing to scoff at.
Battier & Brooks are gone... Both are/were over rated on this board... Both hurt the team a lot...we see (most of us) how much now... ( the 10man rotation is gone, too ) Jhill does more in less than 8min... he look like an asset with limited time Give time, time
Defense. The only thing keeping this team from winning before was defense. It was horrendously bad. Epic bad. It was matador-like, layup drill, slam dunk contest, sieve defense of legendary proportions. All they could hope to do was simply outscore their opponents, which they were capable of doing quite a bit. The offense is still kicking ass, but now they're playing defense.
What had happend was?.....................It's K-Mart's team now.....and Chuck Hayes is playing like he was in high school,when someone told him he had a basketball future
Battier was holding our offense back is part of it. Many people here seemed to say we don't need Battier on the offensive end because "why do we need 4 or 5 good offensive players on the floor if we already have 3 or 4." Like the Rockets are a team that relies only on isolations or something. Adelman's offense is about getting everyone involved with player and ball movement until an opportunity opens up, often in the form of a slash to the basket. Battier just wasn't able to take advantage of those opportunies and Buddinger is. Hence, we are getting easier baskets than we did before and there are more threats that keep defenses on their heels. Shane just had too many games where he scores 0-6 points and wasn't even a factor. His weakness isn't as noticeable when playing with Yao, but with him out the past two seasons Shane's shortcomings have been amplified.
