And yet the Rockets avg 113.8 per 100 possessions scored with Battier on the court this year. Seems they have been scoring the ball pretty good playng 3 on 5. Better than the 109.3 they scored without this liability, in fact, by a decent margin.
Just like last year, once all the rumors were gone away and players traded, they played with a more comfort level. Say what you will, but a young team or a team that hasn't been together long with ok talent will always struggle when every plyers name is surrounded in a rumor. The only person it couldn't really bother was lowry and thats because he has leverage this year. Next year, if they do it over again, they will struggle again and to that, reason adelman will not be here next year unless changes in the structure are in place.
The vast majority of Battier's minutes were with the Scola, Lowry, and Martin. Budinger played a lot of minutes with Hill, Brooks, and Miller. Budinger with the other starters has a 120 ortg and a 106 drtg. Brooks sucked this year...hopefully Dragic keeps playing well as the Rockets suddenly have a good bench again.
This...obviously. The Rockets starting offense looks better now than it has all season. The only change is Battier is not in it. I don't see how this is arguable.
6 games w/ Battier Record 4-2 win pct .666 17 games before Battier Recrod 13-4 win pct .764 As I said before, they were already on a roll well before he got there. It's not like he landed in Memphis and they began to turn their season around. He is what he is, an average NBA player. I haven't watched him play at Memphis, but I've seen him play plenty with the Rockets. He's does some little things that help, but those things don't offset the contributions he doesn't make of offense, and he's also not the defensive stopper people make him out to be. Case in point is their loss to San Antonio with Battier, which you chose to omit. Ginobli went off for 35 pts, 8 assts, and 6 boards in that game, including an 18 point quarter. I don't know if Shane guarded him for any of that game, but if Shane is the stopper people claim, then he should've been able to at least contain a guy like that. He's a nice guy, hustles, good in the locker room, but he's not an impact player.
Everyone is running Adelman's offense. Other than the guys at the end of the bench (Hill not included as his garbage time minutes he is atleast moving with out the ball). The off ball movement and motion offense has been running like a well oiled machine during this recent surge. It's great fun to watch. In addition to that the defensive intensity has been brought up a couple notches. In short, they're playing their best ball of the season because their doing what Adelman is asking them to do (not playing outside of their abilities).
We got rid of two players that hurt the offense. One was an iso-player that had a hard time adjusting to the ball movement on offense. The other was a limited offensive player and the defense used to cheat off of him. Offense is much more fluid now.
This and defensively one was really bad while the other wasn't really as good defensively as before anymore Also roles are more defined now. Before, AB was trying to get back to starting or get more minutes so that put some pressure on Lowry and Martin. Also C-Bud and C-Lee wanted to start/get more minutes so there was pressure on them as well. Now, they all play hard without not pressure.
Battier with the 4 other starters were at 117 and 107, I believe, among the league's best 5. . Good that the new starters are doing well, but they've played some bad teams and tired ones in this stretch. The 2nd unit has run better as well (unless we are talking garbage time). Having Lee and Dragic replacing Brooks is the main reason.
Getting rid of AB with the 2nd unit and to close games has made the biggest difference for this team. Not only was he being a wet blanket in the locker room but he was also losing games for us on the court with his awful play late in games. One of the fastest guys in the league but NEVER used his speed for anything else than to get off a 3 or an occassional lay-up. I have been saying that about him since he got here. With speed like that he should have been getting more steals and more FTs. He could easily get defenders off balance and go into them and draw fouls when his shot wasn't falling from the outside. He never played the passing lanes and got steals. Never pressured the ball on D (like Dragic does now when he is in). I hope he tries to show us up tonight. Dragic is gonna shut him down and show everybody why he traded him. Kyle will bulldoze his lil ass if he tries to match up with him...
Lowry-Budinger I think the reason Bud is playing so well again has something to do with the way he plays with Lowry. Last year, when they both came off the bench together Chase was very effective. This year, when Kyle became the starter but Chase was still coming off the bench, he struggled. Now yet again they are on the same unit together and both playing fantastic. Do you guys think it has something to do with that or am I over thinking it?
I agree. CBud is making shots and being very effective recently. But there will be nights he gets cold, he doesn't do a lot things Battier does when that happens except he's a better rebounder than Battier. and he let his man roll get loose under the basket a little too often. Let's see how it plays out and how Cbud develops in a long run. I would like to add PP replacing Hill into main reason too. Hill has some raw talent, but he doesn't have a clue on help defense and box out plus he's a terrible rebounder given starters minutes. With PP, our interior D and overall rebounding is a lot better and a lot consistent.
I think Battier was the bigger problem. He pussified this team. He turned Budinger into a jack-up 3pt shooter. All of a sudden Bud is the best slasher in the game.Offense we were 3Vs5 and on defensive 4vs6 (us being guarded by 6). There were a **** load of games that AB missed and we still sucked. We never blew a team(crappy or good) out of the water before the trade, as matter of fact we were losing to crappy teams. All of a sudden we just whoopin ass and all of our players demand attention which free's up other players offensively.
Majority of the fans who blame battier are one time AB supporters. They don't really know there is a lot things contributing to winning other than scoring big. Scoring fewer points doesn't mean Battier is ineffective. 45.6% FG, 39.1% 3pt is by no means an offensive liability. And not to mention those rebounds, assists, blocks, charges taken, declined but still Superior defense etc.
It also has to do with depth. I remember all the people talking about the incredible depth of this team, but the problem was most were at the same position. Its great to have a courtney lee in case martin goes down, but what happens if that never happens? In all actuality, martin,lee,chase,and williams are all sg's. Chase and williams can survive at the 3 for certains moments against certain players, but they're sg's. Well, they had 4 sg's and 1 who should play at least 30+ minutes in martin. So now its kind of cheating courtney because he's kind like a 30 minute guys also in the mold of affalo. Well now, no player is happy. Its one thing to be minute limited on a chamionship team vs one in which your talent is equal to the guy getting minutes in front of you. Overrall, the team is playing better,the schedule is better and we will see how this thing plays out.
when a team makes a big roster shakeup in the form of a mid season trade it defines players roles. You no longer have Budinger wondering how many minutes he will play (if at all). He can now be a part of the offensive scheme, ie going to the rack more often instead of just coming in for some 3's. you also have the PG role defined with brooks gone. Kyle can now roll hard knowing hes not about to lose his starting job. All you have to do is look at what happened when we traded tmac (get rid of all the drama..), and before that, when we traded Alston and put brooks in the start making a somewhat questionable decision that gave brooks his chance and put the team on a well role defined path to the 2nd round
