this guy continues to impress me as a top flight coach. last night bringing battier off the bench to match his minutes to ginobli's is exactly the reason why hes a topflight coach and perfect for this team. he is really a master at adjustments from game to game.
The credit goes to Battier, not Adelman. It was Battier's suggestion to Adelman to use him when Gino comes in. Adelman said it during the post-game interview.
It was Adelman's genius foresight to let Battier come up with such a good idea and Adelman brilliantly implemented the plan to perfection. Normally, Shane Battier, a player for the Houston Rockets, would start games but in this game, Rick Adelman allowed Battier to come up with an idea and then wisely act on it by watching Battier switch his starting spot for a position off the bench whereby he could better match the minutes of the Spurs' Ginobili, arguably one of the league's best sixth men. Adelman is a mastermind of basketball strategy and a genius the likes of which the world has ever seen. To disagree would be tantamount to supporting terrorism and prostitution.
the question is, when will our good listening coach finally listen to Luther Freakin' Head when he tells him "coach, I am a turnover machine and a cancer on this team, I almost cost my team a critical game yesterday with my ill-advised 3's and the 2 layups that I blown and luckily ended up in Yao's hands.. please coach, I am pretty sure I am not the right person for this team, take me out, trade me for a bag of chips, make me the ball boy, whatever you want, just not a shooting guard for the Rockets.."
yep, and it was also confirmed that the players repeated "you will be iso-d by us if you keep playing Luther!!!" 3 times in a firm and serious tone.. in retaliation, Luther proudly and boldly exclaimed "all of y'all bases are belong to me!!!"
DD is right, the Top Dog doesn't always have to come up with every idea, only implement the ones they think will work. It's still a stroke of genius and shows more actual team work than I'm used to with Czar Van Gundy.
did you people see ginobilis stats? battier was completely ineffective against ginobili all night. whats what this board respecting battier as a prime defender? tmac is our best defender and can shut down other team's stars IF HE PUTS HIS MIND AND WILL to it. battier is an average defender at best. he doesnt deserve any credit for tonight.
no man, you're taking it too far.. Battier is a great defender, not because of athleticism, not his hops, his speed, no, none of that, it's just his focus, determination, and discipline that allows him to be a great defender.. in addition, don't just look at the man-to-man defense, look at his contribution to the overall team defense, he always comes off the weak side to help, he double teams effectively, he does a bunch of a stuff that no one even mentions.. the dude basically won the game for us with his tip after the missed freethrow in the end.. he also had another critical offensive rebound that basically broke the spurs' back and allowed us to win.. Tmac is a great defender, he shut down Dirk single handedly, he even shut down LeBron in 04-05 season TWICE IIRC .. but at this point in his career, you worry about him spending too much energy on D that he "Runs out of it" on offense, which is kinda r****ded, because I believe you have to give 100% on all aspects of the game, but as long as we are winning in the regular season, I am fine with it.. he can save it for the playoffs I guess..
