Starting and bench lineups that provide the most balance in offense & defense

Sigh... I must be the only one here that thinks Kirk Snyder is worth a sh*t. Couldn't make any of your second units, eh?

 

That looks good except for one thing, Steve Francis. I'm possible one of the biggest Francis critics on this board without stepping into the Francis-Hater category, but i don't see why he's not getting even spot minutes based on matchups. Francis has questionable basketball IQ, but still he's shown a willingness to play hard to help the team, even if he's not in the best of shape. I think his blend of speed and strength would really help us when we play a big lineup or even small-ball with him at the 2.

One thing that i think Adelman is doing wrong is how he's playing Yao big minutes over Deke. Yao might be your star offensive Centre, and Deke might be on the wrong side of 40, but it's absurd to think that he won't produce effectively. In 5-8 minute spurts, I think Deke still has it in him to seriously affect games with his defense, shotblocking and rebounding, which at this point, is obviously better than Yao's.

This is a problem a lot of coaches have with Deke. So far, I've only seen JVG use him to fully in recent years. I'd go out on a limb and say either Adelman is saving Deke for the playoffs, or he's seriously underestimating him.

 

In fact Shane got 10 rebounds tonite.

 

Sorry, the number should be 12.

 

Is all depends on matchups. Against athletic teams, Synder will be useful.

In fact, if head didnt make his jumpshots, he is worth less than a sh*t too! At least Rafer still can handle the ball well whereas Head just simply cant!

 

agreed, trade head for a big man !

 

We can't have Francis in the starting line-up alongside Scola because that means Hayes and Rafer are going to be on the court at the same time.

I truly believe that is on bad combination when we decide to sacrifice the D for the O. What that basically means is that teams will dare them to shot open shots while they crowd the lane.

If you have Yao and Mac on the floor with those two, then teams just double Yao and Mac to prevent them from getting the ball. Sort of what happens when Head is in the game. So what ends up happening is we get a rushed shot from one of the role players.

If you put them together in the second unit, then things get even worst because the will just triple team the one superstar on the floor.

Solution (if there are no trades):

Starting line-up: Rafer/Mac/Shane/Scola/Yao

Bench:SF/James/Bonzi/Hayes/(Yao or Mac)

Then we can have Head and Deke come in at times depending on the situation of the game.

 

You can start Scola, but only if you don't rotate in Hayes and Mutombo at the same time. For example, Yao/Scola would start, Hayes checks in for Yao with Scola moving over to center. Then when Yao checks back in he'd replace Scola. Whenever Mutombo comes in, it would be with Scola or with a small lineup with Battier or Wells at PF.

So the frontcourt combinations would be:

Scola/Yao
Hayes/Scola
Hayes/Yao
Scola/ Mutombo
Battier or Wells/ Yao or Mutombo.

Basically the combinations we've been seeing except Adelman's been starting with Hayes/Yao. He could easily start with Scola/Yao and avoid playing Hayes/Mutombo, IMO.

 

No we can't but instead of rafer, mike james should be coming in. No matter how it is, neither of those two have give up attitudes so they can play together, but Rafer blows and i know by the look on his face sometimes that he knows it too, but its like he has a voodoo doll on the rockets coaching staff, where nobody will sit him down even he's a total screw up.

 

francis maybe. but i have trouble benching hayes.

what about running james at the two? looked valuable to me tonight, might even make room for more minutes for my boy brooks. Brooks/James would get run on by any other guards with any kind of scoring potential, and would be undersized in almost any matchup so it is hard to make a case for solid rotation minutes for them. The could shoot lights out though, and it probably has to do with my wanting to find minutes for Brooks.

 

We need to have Scola/James out there together because they are like a poor man's version of Yao/Mac. They really play well together and it seems like Scola is the only player James likes to pass to before throwing up a r****d shot. They have a mini-version of the Yao/Mac pick and roll going.

 

I really would like someone to do an indepth analysis on why Scola struggles offensively to score when T-mac is on the team. Where is his comfort zones? is T-mac not finding him with those nifty assists of his? I would have thought T-mac would have made pts easy for Scola but its obviously not the case!

 

Not sure about your rationale but, I actually like this rotation. This is what I expect to be the rotation when we finally find our stride.

 

Here is my rationale for the line-ups I proposed:

Starting Line-up: Rafer/T-Mac/Battier/Scola/Yao

We need to replace Hayes with Scola in the starting line-up because Rafer and Hayes on the court at the same time basically makes the Rockets offense into a 3 on 5 game. What teams basically do in the games with Hayes and Rafer in the line-up is have Hay's man double Yao to prevent the pass and have Rafer's man roll off to double T-Mac to make him pass the ball. The forces the ball to go into the hands of Rafer, Shane and Hayes, all of whom end up rushing a shot they aren't comfortable with. With Scola in the line-up, teams can't cheat off of him because he can hit the open shots. That only leaves teams to dare Rafer to shoot whereas before, they could dare Hayes and Rafer.

Second Unit Line-up: Francis/James/Bonzi/Hayes/(Yao or Mac)

This line-up gives us two/three penetrators depending on which combination of Francis/James/Mac is out there. It also gives us two/three rebounders depending on which combination of Bonzi/Hayes/Yao is out there. We also have don't lose our offensive power and have Hayes out there taking charges. The reason we need either Yao or Mac out there at all times is because without them, our offense is a complete mess. But with either of them on the court, teams will have to double and that opens the court for the other players to do damage.

That leaves out Head, Deke, and Synder who have gotten minutes this year. We can put Head in the game unit with the second because of his three point shooting at times. We can put Deke out there at times and same with Synder. But lets be realistic, everyone can't play.

 

The fact is that JVG fielded defensive players (Hayes, Battier and Rafer, for the fact that rafer is a low turnover type of guy). So if you look at the current starting line up defensively there should be pretty good, but offensively they seem to be playing 2 on 5. The opposing teams main focus is stopping Yao and T-mac. Last years low scoring games and strong defense was the only way we where going to win. This year supposely Adelman wanted a high offense unit. Last years line up is not the way to go for the fact that defenders will leave Shane, Chuck and Alston to focus on Yao and T-mac. The big two (Yao and Tracy) need other threats out there. Battier always defends the best player on the opposing team so he stays. Chuck can play with the best of them and also takes on tough assignments, just wish he could hit a few baskets, or free throws, but he stays for now. Then the PG, Rafer is just a average player all the way around, He's gone, to 2nd or 3rd unit. Steve Francis is the man at point, He's a Vet, defense better not leave him or he will shoot or go the the hole. He a good free throwing PG, who also knows how to finish.

So Starting you have: Yao, Chuck, Shane, T-mac and Steve. Good solid starters, who do you leave? Steve? Not, but I hope they do. Chuck? leave him under the basket for one of those McGrady passes? Or Shane? Do you want him sittting in the corner waiting for a pass?

Off the Bench: First you need scoring and energy. Scola one of the first guys off the bench, with him and Chuck splitting minutes depending on who's having a bigger game. you still have Bonzi, and James. When you start to go deeper into the bench of coarse you still got Deke, Head and Rafer and throw in Landry, Landry seems to have energy and plays big. When teams try to trap the ball, I like the look of the three headed monster out there Steve, James and Rafer. Not to many teams are capable of trapping those 3.

Anyhow, this is My opinion, and how I think the team will co-exist and play to the best of it's ability. Adelman will never turn all of these defensive players into offensive players and get the results he wants. Remember Balance! Yao and T-mac, mixed with Mr. Shane Battier and Chuck "Wagon" Hayes. with Steve Francis to make sure we keep the defense true and not to focus on just T-mac and Yao. Fire power off the bench Scola, Bonzi, James!!

Go Rockets!! It's Time!!

 

Is it only me that notices that when Scola or Steve are in that Tmac isn't interested in getting the ball to them? Not that it is that much since Rick doesn't seem to want to play them together too much. Maybe Rick is afraid of putting "TOO MUCH OFFENSE" on the floor at one time? Go figure.

I only saw my favorite starting lineup on the court for one time this season:

Steve, Tmac, Bonzi, Scola and Yao.......

It was for a free throw and before the second free throw Rick substitued Chuck. Go figure. He obviously didn't like the idea of that much offense being on the floor at one time. I don't get it, I thought he was supposed to be an offense first coach!

I surely hope Tmac isn't worried about his stats so much that he doesn't want too many scorers on the floor with him at the same time. Im sure he has some influence on this team, whether verbal or implied. If my starting lineup were all getting 30 plus minutes a game, Tmac stats could suffer and his averages in all categories would go down. But our starting five would all be weapons and make it easier as a whole for the TEAM to score almost at will. I trade off that I would gladly make cause it means that in crunch time, the other team doesn't know who you will go to. That makes it terribly hard to defense you if the game is still close.

 

Maybe he didn't want Yao to be exposed in the paint on the matador defense of Bonzi Steve and Tmac.

Though I have to admit Steve has played better defense than I expected.. as has Scola.

Tmac is a good defender when he feels like it, so you go with the thought that he doesn't typically feel like it.

 

If you notice about the Suns, their offense becomes their defense to a degree. They put so much pressure on you offensively, that it disrupts the other teams offensive, most of the time.

While the Rockets will never be the Suns, putting our best offensive team out on the court to start the games and play most of the minutes, will put more pressure on other teams defensively so that they have less energy on offensive. Plus, as you mentioned, Scola defense is getting better, Steve's is better than expected, and Tmac can play good defense when he chooses. So Yao won't be exposed so much if the others give good efforts.