These threads kill me. Hayes should not be a starter on no team in the nba,period! I cant or dont understand why he is so called valuable on this team and starting. You dont see reggie evans or bo outlaw starting. People want to talk about fit, didnt 2 yrs ago Howard started and the Rox took off. He is what he is and thats should be good for the rox. I think hayes is a 15 minute per night guy. Having him on the floor is like having Ryan Bowen on the floor. He's a good rebounder, but he also puts the other team in the penalty from fouls. His ft percentage also sux and he has trouble finishing at times by the rim. It shouldn't even be a question and i really didn't understand why he was playing early in the season so much.
So? We have Chuck and Howard. That's the topic being discussed here. I'M sure Howard gives up 4-6 points more points than Hayes because he's a horrible defender. I'm sure other teams' PF's are much better than ours, but that's because our C kicks everyone's ass, as does our star swingman. The fact that there's a salary cap in this league means that when you gain somewhere, you lose somewhere else. All you can hope for is that the loss is fractionally less than the gain which is what differentiates teams from each other in this league... There's a very small difference between the teams in the NBA and those tiny gains are the difference. So when a team finds a D-league player who has the skills that Chuck has and locks him in, that's significant. That's creating something from nothing, even though that something is small. He's a ridiculously good rebounder, an excellent defender and hits 55% of his shots.... So I think we can forgive him if he hits only 56% of his ONE free throw per game. Regardless of who starts, I'm pretty sure Chuck could get 20-25 minutes per game on almost ANYONE's team in this league. We ARE lucky to have him. Even if we had Elton Brand or Kevin Garnett on this team, Chuck would be a rotational player off the bench. He's not ideal, but who are we kidding? We don't have the assets or the money to get our ideal PF.
Okay, I've finally read this thread. I have to admit I avoided it for a while figuring there would be Hayes bashing... happily not! Since we all know I am a wee bit biased when it comes to Chuck, I am going to reply what I think will happen rather than what I would like to happen. Juwan has earned that starting spot. JVG isn't going to take it away from him when Yao comes back. Until he shows fatigue, I think that he will keep the same amount of minutes that he has right now. Chuck "looks bad" right now because he's not playing PF the entire time he's on the court... instead he's playing center, unless its the end of a quarter where JVG puts Deke and Chuck in at the same time for limited minutes (yes its happened a couple of times, but only when Tracy is on the floor with them). Instead of having moments where Chuck and Juwan are on the floor together as we do now, eventually as Yao gets completely healthy they will go back to splitting the minutes at the PF position. Because undoubtably Chuck is more successful playing with Yao, not necessarily that Yao is more successful with Chuck. The one thing that Chuck does better than Juwan is recover on help defense, which is where that whole "protecting Yao from fouls" thing comes into play. I don't know if Juwan will like the decrease in minutes (but its probably necessary so that he doesn't burn out before the post season) but I don't think he will lose that starting position. I don't think the situation was ever a case of Juwan and Yao not playing well together on the court, it was more a case of before the season started Juwan didn't have a compelling reason to overachieve ... watching a soph start in his position lit that fire under his arse and forced him to give a little bit more hustle to earn it back. He's done that. As long as he continues to hit his short jumpers JVG isn't going to take it away from him again. Surprised ya with my answer didn't I? By the way.. I voted "I don't care"
Non-concur. See leebigez, i.e. prior reply. Also, re-read my reply. I'm not a Chuck hater. He does well considering his limited physical tools.
I think Hayes should start because he's a better rebounder and he hustles more. He also fits in better with Yao. Juwan should come off the bench to provide some instant offense off the bench and add depth.
Hayes is a good rebounder, but when he's in there with Yao, the other team doesn't even guard hayes and they double Yao relentlessly. If howard has his jumper going like he does now, then he's a better fit with yao.
Hayes does complement Yao better but he just won't cut it in the playoffs. Teams are going to immediately go at him defensively. He's better as a spark guy, someone who can come in for 10-12 minutes, grab a few boards and maybe get a charge. He can be exposed easily. I think Howard deserves to stay the starter because of his play, and we should target a legit backup 4 at the deadline, someone like Melvin Ely or along those lines.
yao could be back by the all star break if the team was in dying need... but since they are in cruise control right now they will let him heal 100% and make the return date closer to the playoffs so that he doesnt risk getting another injury and also he will be fresh for the playoffs. also tracy should be running a constant high screen with juwan setting and diving to the basket... and let mcgrady dictate the ballgame... you cannot scout this if it is ran right...im sick of these guys just standing around watching tracy shoot the ball...i think he should shoot as much as he does but i hardly saw anyone crash the boards against dallas... luther, shane, and rafer looked like lame ducks out there just staring...these guys should be spotting up and getting ready to shoot or cut just to keep the defenders honest. they are rarely getting wide open looks now. i couldnt count the number of times dallas got an open look. Lastly, where the hell is Novak at? this guy needs some more attempts... he could really mess with a defense trying to double tracy on the perimeter and a cold blooded shooter just waiting to tack on 3. Oh well rox will win 55 games i believe and grab the 5 seed play a weak 4 seed (utah,denver) and dominate. then play phoenix in the 2nd round and beat them in 6 given its the playoffs and now a half court game then go on against dallas w/ yao which they will not have seen but once in the season and we take a 2 game lead and this time finish it off at home...GO ROX
We need to start Hayes because YAO is weak in rebounding. I repeat, he is WEAK. He has problems catching a fast ball and grabbing the ball when there's a body on him. Offensively Hayes is not bad. We've seen him executing a play with Tmac. The only problem I have with Chuck is his height, but if he can still grab a rebound despite of this handicap, that's fine.
