I don't know that McGrady thought that Hayes sucked so much as he realized that he and Yao were THE offense on the floor during the playoffs. Personally, Hayes reminds me a lot of Chucky Brown. Both players were nice role players, but you really can't expect to win too many championships with a series of role players at two or three positions. The 2004-2005 team really didn't get going until they moved Horry to the four and Elie to the three. Before that, they just rotated Brown, Chilcutt, and whatever other stiff they had. Brown has some obvious advantages. He does cut well and he is energetic, but he isn't the high end rebounder/shot blocker that even Deke was/is. I've often wondered if Yao would do better with a Ben Wallace type of player (tough defender/rebounder with no offensive game). Unfortunately, that guy isn't out there and Chicago found out that Wallace didn't take them as far as they thought. With Adelman, I think having two competent offensive big men in the game is paramount. Vlade and Webber had great success in Sacramento with Buck Williams and Kevin Duckworth less so in Portland.
advanced lol at anyone who would say "omg look at ben wallace hot from the 3 he needs to shoot more 3s to be like rasheed wallace" anywho hayes isnt bad, but if he cant grab the rebounds that we need then yeah hes not what we need. we were killed last playoff series because we couldnt get critical rebounds. scoring doesnt matter, we have enough firepower now
Word....if Chuck was 4 inches taller he'd be a throwback PF from the 80's and 90's.....but unfortunately his height (or lack thereof) kills him at times in the paint and on the backboards...he's a nice piece to have coming off the bench, but not someone you want as a starter
Hayes was -abused- by Boozer in game 7 vs. Utah. 35 points 14 rebounds. They badly exploited our weakness at PF. We also tried Jho on Boozer and he couldn't stop him. Add to that it was a home game. If he was difficult to guard and could score (or had a little more height) Boozer would have had a much worse game. In game 5 vs. Oberto and Duncan he put up 9pts on 3-10 shooting (but still had 12 boards). In theory Scola is far better than Oberto. The future seems to bode well for us in this situation.
If we can't get anyone else,will a combo of Hayes and a fit Butler be enough to help Scola out at the 4?
They didn't move Horry to the 4 until the WCF if memory serves. Chucky was at least starting against Utah in the first round I believe. That right there proves Hayes is good enough to start, it just depends on the rest of the team. The 3-peat Lakers started Samaki Walker there and a 40 year-old AC Green. There's no one position where a team can't be deficient at compared to the rest of the league and still win.
Chuck didn't get abused by Boozer. Yao Ming did, and he didn't have the quickness to stop Boozer. Chuck guarded Okur and was very successful at it overall.
This is true and I wish JVG had played Hayes on Boozer much for that reason, but with that being said you need someone with length to guard Duncan, Boozer, KG, Brand, Amare, etc.
Yeah he did miss quite a few lay-ups. A better PF would've dunked those. He's good with the timing of his cut, but not that great as a finisher.
The key is to try to make Boozer play on both ends of the court. Hayes was nearly ignored on the offensive side while it's likely Scola would not be ignored.
Yes, Hayes had a defensive GEM for Game 7 at 2rb's in 28 minutes, 0 steals. Hey that's 1 board every 14 minutes! Btw: Maybe you should have looked up Okur's Game 7 stats - he was 7-13 for 16pts, 11rbs. Hayes didn't step up and we lost. Even Jho had 7 boards in 27 minutes that game.
The fact that guys like Duncan, KG, Dirk, Amare, Bosh, and J. O'Neal won't even see him when they go up for shots. Other than that I liike him at PF. He's an excellent position defender and has excellent timing around the rim. He's giving us his max effort with his minimal ability, and there's nothing more I can ask for.
