Dissecting the Rockets

please give Novak a chance under Adelman.

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Steve Francis and Mike James might be the worst passing backcourt in the league.

 

good post, but battier will be the starter. it doesn't make sense to start two scoring guards with yao and t-mac. we need facilitators, defenders, smart decision makers, and shooters surrounding them as often as possible. we had a strong team last year, led by a very good starting line-up. i don't think that part of the team necessarily needs too much changing. where we got bit in the ass was depth, and that looks to be completely solved.

i think alston may get moved and james takes the starting job. francis will be firepower off the bench.

 

Novak sucked in the summer league. Playing well in the summer league does not necessarily mean playing well in the NBA, but not playing well in the summer league as anything other than a rookie almost assuredly means you will suck in the NBA. He has not shown the ability to shoot in live game situations.

 

I think he did well last year and got a lot of hype back then. He's probably not used to the extra muscle he put up last season.

 

Nice post.

My opinon of best start to finish players would be

Franchise
Tmac
Battier
Scola
Dynasty

 

I love Battier on the floor at the 3 with Tmac at the 2 with Battier guarding the most difficult 2 or 3. I don't think Mike or Steve have that versatility.

I would prefer to start Steve and if he's playing well keep him at the one in the 4th quarter. If not, Mike James or Brooks can pickup the slack. Im always concerned with Steve pounding the rock in the ground at the PG.

If we trade Rafer and Head (hate his D and don't see minutes for him) for a draft pick and Haslem. I think Chuck and Deke are history. I also see Landry going to the D league or being given his walking papers as a 2nd round non guaranteed pick.

I definitely see Novak as a casualty - 6?10" cannot rebound or play D on 3's or 4's. Can shoot but non consistently in the quicker NBA game.

 

There are still other moves to be made, but as it stands now like this this rotation.

James, Tmac, Battier, Scola, Yao.

Nice balance of shooting and passing. James,Battier and Scola could be good support players for Yao and Tmac giving them good spacing.

And the bench would have energy guys like Francis, Wells and Hayes with Deke/Butler getting some backup C minutes.

 

whatever happen to keon clark he would be perfect on our team

 

Kings fans seem to think so. Maybe their opinion is skewed by letting Gerald Wallace get away.

Not all of those guys played.... looking over the numbers I only see maybe 8.5 people who could actually be counted as part of the rotation. If you simply look at MPG stats Bonzi, Tsakalidis, and Snyder look like they were part of our rotation when they really weren't.

 

My starting five would definitely NOT consist of Francis and James in the backcourt to gether. One of them has to be your spark plug off the bench and the closer is which one is having the best game that day.

The Frontcourt of Battier, Scola & Yao worries me because of rebounding. Yao is not a dominate board man and that concerns me and Chuck certainly helped him in that department last year. And with Yao...you better have a dominate board man in your 4. The jury is out on Scola in the defense and rebounding at the NBA level. Shane is a very solid defensive specialist but below average board man at the 3 spot. People continue to talk about Shane playing minutes at the 4 but he has to improve this year crashing the boards.

I would like to see us unload some of our guards for Foster or Haslem because of the veteran presence while Scola develops but if that doesn't happen Chuck just might be back in the starting lineup for the first month or two of the season while Scola develops. I know we committed to him as our PF of the future but he has to earn that. I like Bonzi as a board man at the 3 so I expect him to really split time with Shane here.

Starting Five: (Yao, Scola, Battier, Tmac, Francis)
Top reserves: (James, Chuck, Wells, Butler, Brooks)

I think that Scola* is the definite wildcard here and if he's ready out the gate...watchout!

 

Great post Crash. 5 Stars....

I don't agree with all your starters, but you made a nice case for it.

Also to me 12 pounder means an old military cannon.



DD

 

Great post and thanks for sharing.

 

did you look at the number of games played for the season?

go back and look at our championship days too and tell me we only had a 7 man rotation.

 

I actually wouldn't be surprised at a less than stellar start because of all of the things you mentioned. I could see an around .500 first half with a strong second half and a trophy run from the 4 or 5 seed. It may take a while to gel, but when they do (if everyone is playing close to expectation) watch out.

 

I stand corrected on the championship Rockets, I wasn't trying to make a statement about them. I was looking over Adelman's Kings, and it seems that say for 2001-2002, there were 8 guys in the rotation, and Funderburke was sort of in the rotation, but he definitely only got minutes because Webber was injured for a large chunk. So I'd say there were 8.5 guys, and it seems similar for most of the years.

 

webber played 54 games, funderburke played 56

im sure there was some overlapping considering theres only 82 games.
i would bet that there was a 9 man rotation for 3/4ths of the season and thats not including wallace playing 54 games and 8 min avg.

there was also a 9 man rotation in 2002-2003 season, and thats not including damon jones played in place of bibby when he missed 27 games that year.

 

If Francis keeps from over-dribbling, then I don't see why Francis wouldn't be a better fit for PG than Alston. Francis actually makes his layups. He rebounds. Hell, he average more assists than Alston in his career. Only thing to worry about is too much dribbling. I seriously believe Francis can very well be past that point in his career.

 

A very well informed post - thanks crash. I am in the "two SG" category on this but I am sure we will see this lineup at some point this season. And maybe this one:

Yao
Scola
TMac
Bonzi
Francis
with Mike, Battier and Butler off the bench first.

Each of these guys can play multiple positions but maintain scoring in the offense. I threw Bonzi in to start because I really believe he is playing for his last big contract and if he puts together a season like last year he won't get offered squat. We will see the best he has to offer this year because - it is about the money with him

My hope is that Battier can take some minutes from TMAc to save him for the playoffs over the long haul of the season - I am hoping for the same from Butler for Yao but waiting to see like the rest of us. He will be playing for the money/contract, too! Steve is playing for a contract too so there is plenty of incentive this year for 3, hopefully, key players in the lineup.

Morey sees something in Reed - hopefully the same things he saw when he wanted Brooks and Scola! If not, then we have two good to very good PF backup scenarios - sign Hayes or trade for Foster/Haslem.

That would be ten deep with plenty more for injury backup backups!