If we are looking for a backup 4/5, I think we should go after Raef. Great shooter and a very good shotblocker. Yeah, he makes $10 mill, which is too much, but Juwan is making over $6 and he actually plays for the other team when he is on the floor. Raef would be the player that could spread the floor with Yao, or he could play the 5 when Yao needs a blow. And against teams that decided to go big against us for whatever reason, he gives us defensive post presence. He's one of the best 3 point shooters in the league and there aren't guys with his size and shooting skills that make much less. Troy Murphy??? Raef is a better defender and shooter than Troy. Not as good a rebounder granted but to me shooting and defense are our priorities. With Yao, McGrady, Hayes, and now Battier, we will not have a rebounding problem. Another big that can shoot the 3 is Jamison. Look at his salary. Ultimately, I don't think we are looking for a 4/5. How many teams out there go big at the PF slot and play both their 4/5 in the post?????? Dallas-Dirk is a perimeter player. You need quick footed defenders to take away the perimeter and force him to put the ball on the floor. San Antonio-They will be playing Duncan with 4 smaller players a lot. When they play Duncan and another true center, we can play Yao on him and let Deke have the center. Clippers-Kamen and Brand. Two smaller, quicker type players. Battier makes more sense on Brand to me than does a big 4/5. Phoenix-Amare, Battier, Diaw, Kurt Thomas. The biggest they could go would be KT and Amare. And in that instance KT is effectively standing at the top of the key for the jumper. Battier makes sense on him with Yao defending Amare in the paint. Memphis-The biggest combo they could put out there is big Jake and Paul. And in that instance, Pau is a skinny player that moves around a lot and likes to receive the ball in the high post and get off a jumper or create off the dribble. Every other combo they throw out there involves Pau at the 5 with smaller, quicker players around him. Battier still makes the most sense against Pau over a bigger, slower player. (Situations like this and with Phoenix are where a player like Darius Miles would really come in handy.) Minny-Garnett and who else? Once again emphasis on quickness. Garnett is not big on the post up. He plays all over the floor. You can't put another big, slow type player out there with Yao and think you have a shot at hampering Garnett defensively. Sacramento-Miller at the 3 point line and whoever else mostly coming from the high post. They basically have no low block big men. Denver-Hmmm, now here's some possibilities. Camby, Nene, and KMart. A face up center who plays at the top combined with a garbage man(Kmart) and a true low block 4/5 in Nene. Once again, Battier is going to have the ability to switch out on Camby out high and take away that face up game a whole lot better than Yao. We let Yao play against Nene or KMart. Yeah, Camby has a size advantage, so he will drop into the paint and attempt to post up Battier. Great. They're playing right into our hands then. Because Battier is a decent post up defender and Camby has to deal with not only him but Yao coming over to help. We want Camby posting up. It's not his game. Utah-they have Boozer, whom they are trying to trade, as their only back to the basket player. The rest of their big men are face up perimeter guys in Okur and perimeter cut and move type players in AK-47. Lakers-with Lamar Odom at the 4, we need quickness at the 4 once again. All the contenders in the East have at best one low post presence surrounded by face up players. Even Miami doesn't use Shaq and Zo in the game together. It's one or the other that you are facing with a midrange to long range perimeter face up player at the 4. It is blatently obvious just from watching our game last year that teams use our size and lack of quickness against us when we are playing Juwan with Yao. And it should be blatently obvious that there are very few true post up low block big men left in this league, maybe 5 or 6 at the most. The emphasis is on quickness and spacing. That's why Juwan doesn't work here. He is not either one. You have to be at least one of those 2 to be a positive contributor. So, if we bring in a bigger 4/5 type player, they had better be able to shoot the 3 ball efficiently. Or else, they had better be able to move and defend the perimeter against all these faster, quicker 4's that play outside in.
do yall actually think our current lineup is gonna remain the same during the year? our ACTUAL BIG MEN are Yao, Deke, and J-Ho. Those are the big bodies we have. We have so many guards on this team so be ready for a trade during the year. We're going to have to give up alot. Snyder/Azubuke, Chuck Hayes, and Luther Head will be shipped off somewhere for a big body PF. Shane will help out on the perimeter PFS in the NBA such as Dirk, Rasheed, Antoine Walker,Lamar Odom and etc. He also can defend maybe some of the Small Forwards in this league. But do you think he can honeslty match up with KG, Duncan, Jermaine O'neal, Chris Bosh, and etc. A big Body in the paint will be needed.
and btw.....That Snyder dunk was SICK!!!! Whoever on the Laker got jammed on probably lost their manhood after that.
im not sold on raef lafrentz. the guys shot 43% from the field last year.....to me, a 4 should shoot better than that.
Great post, jopatmc! I'm not sold on getting Raef (his salary is too high), but everything else you said is exactly what I've been thinking. There aren't that many post-up big men left in the league and certainly no team regularly plays 2 of them at the same time (other than the Rockets with Yao and Juwan). On defense, the emphasis should be getting guys that can defend the perimeter bigs like Dirk, Gasol, Odom, etc. Battier fits that bill perfectly. On offense, we need a catch and shoot guy with range to keep the defense from collapsing on Yao and open up the lanes for penetration by guys like TMac, Rafer, and VSpan. I like Juwan, but his game fits poorly with Yao and TMac. He takes too much time to make his moves on offense and is most effective playing in the post. But we need to conserve as much time on the shot clock as possible for getting Yao the ball, and with Yao on the court, you want Yao to be getting all the post attempts anyway, not Juwan. Also, with 2 post players (and their defenders) clogging the middle, there's very little room left in there for penetration by TMac, Rafer, etc. I think in today's NBA, Juwan actually makes more sense backing up Yao at the 5 than playing on the court at the same time as Yao.
Why in the world would you leave two absolutely deadly 3 point shooters on the inactive list in favor of a hustle guy? Remember, we now have a guy that has everything Ryan Bowen does and bucket loads of more talent (Battier). I tell Ryan to take a 9 month vacation and collect his million bucks.
Well you have to keep in mind, he shoots a lot of 3's. That will scew the overall shooting average, making it look worse than it really is. Plus that was a career low (not to mention his career average is 47%). Don't overlook the fact that he shot 39 freaking percent from 3 either. Sometimes the overall % doesn't tell you all you need to know.
I've said all along we will add a 4/5 player before the season starts but not Raef. I don't know who, but that's what we need to complete our roster. I just don't see us starting Yao & Battier as our "bigs" and backing them up with only Deke, JH, Chuck Hayes and maybe Novak.
Alright, i have a question for all the clutchfans out there. If you had to choose which player would be most successful this year, out of V-Span, Snyder, or Novak. Who would you choose? I ask this because it is vital for one of more of these players to "surprise" us and become a really good contributor. V-Span would provide us that pg we always wanted if he breaks out. If it's Snyder, he'll become our athletic slasher and possibly third scorer. If Novak breaks out, he would become a deadliest three point shooter. So if you only had to pick one. Who would you choose?
I'm being objective...a rookie and a journeyman we are talking about. But now that you brought that up, Battier makes Bowen redundant. But again, barring a great preseason or injuries, Jacobsen and Novak won't be in the playing rotation. This is a totally revamped roster, just wonder how long it will take for the chemistry to click and if JVG will still use grind it out plays to tha last second now that we have a more athletic roster.
Great question. I would choose Snyder because if he becomes a starting caliber big/athletic SG and a solid backup to Tracy at SF, this team could inflict some serious damage. I should also add that I doubt this happens.
I agree with most of your selections except for the fact that Battier is starting at PF. I think T-Mac will occupy the SG position while Battier is the no.1 SF at the beginning of the game. Howard and Yao up front as usual and during the course of the game, this is where battier will shift to that PF position. Looking at the lineup we got, its pretty flexible and versatile.
My line-up projection for the 2006-2007 season. PG: Alston , V-Span , JLIII SG: T-MAC , Snyder , ??? SF: Battier , Steve Novak , Ryan Bowen PF: Melvin Ely or Brian Cook , Juwon Howard , Chuck C: Yao , Deke
I agree with most of what you say but want to add some things. HTML: <br> HTML: <br> 1. Yao's foot is not as big a concern to me as it would be with big men's feet; He's got a very solid base (basically tree trunks), is young, and didn't break his foot in the central regions. HTML: <br> 2. Man..TMac's back. We all feel him on that one. I just hope he really is healthy. He deserves it and we need it. HTML: <br> 3. Sometimes gut reactions are very telling. If I were to pick some guys from the current team that I would want to go to battle with (on the court), I could only name Battier, VSpan, and Dikembe. Others are either unproven, inexperienced, not healthy, or just have too many weaknesses. I am not trying to diss any of our players. I love the Rockets. I'm just explaining why I feel your unease as well. But on the other hand, I do think we've got a great group of guys, and a solid duo to build around. Let's just hope the stars align themselves the way they should. Go Rockets!!!
So, there are 14 guaranteed spots on the roster. That means that either Azubuike, Jacobsen, or a possible future FA can get the final spot. Question is, who you you rather have in the final roster spot? My choice would be Jacobsen bc of his 3 pt. shooting, although if there was anybody else available, I'd like to check one of them out.
When I first see this roster, I see a lot of depth. However, Van Gundy uses a strict rotation. His rotation is 7-man, it'll have to be about 9,10-man this year, if anything. Yao-35/Deke-13 Juwan-22/Chuck-18/Battier-8** Battier-30/TMac 18 T-Mac 22/Kirk-20/Luther-6 Rafer-28/Luther-12/Vasilis-8 That's a 9-man rotation. **-Denotes matchup differences. I think that's the general base of our rotation, though Juwan is a terrible fit here, still, and it really depends on who we play. I expect Yao in the 35mpg, battier in the 38mpg and T-mac in the 40. I expect Kirk/Luther in the 20mpg area. If reports are true, and Battier is our 4, which I wish, however it goes against Van Gundy-ism. Yao- 35/Deke-13 Battier-28/Juwan or Chuck-20(I think Juwan will be moved then) T-Mac 40/Battier-8 Kirk-26/Luther-22 Rafer-33/Vasilis-15
