tmac shane ron scola yao that lineup is more than doable. its not good for the opponents back court thats for daam sure.
Starters: Against a larger, slower paced team: PG: Rafer Alston SG: Tracy McGrady SF: Ron Artest PF: Luis Scola C: Yao Ming Against a smaller, faster paced team: PG: Rafter Alston SG: Tracy McGrady SF: Shane Battier PF: Ron Artest C: Yao Ming Assuming we use the first lineup, our bench will look like this: PG: Aaron Brooks, Steve Francis SG: Brent Barry, Luther Head SF: Shane Battier PF: Carl Landry (?) Chuck Hayes, Joey Dorsey C: Joey Dorsey, Dikembe Mutumbo (?) Their Roles: Aaron Brooks: Limited Role, Brent Barry will do all the ball handling when Rafer is on the bench, and if Steve Francis stays healthy and in shape, he can ultimately take over all of the backup pg duties, and perhaps lift himself in the starting lineup. Steve Francis: x-factor this year for the rockets. If Steve Francis provides nothing, he will be cut and most likely his time in the nba is over. If he proves night and night out he can come off the bench and put some points on hte board while also being a team player, he will be a backup getting a significant amount of time. If he is the player that we saw against the suns earlier this year, than he will be our starter. With him playing at that level that he showed against the suns night in and out, there won't be a team in the nba that will be able to stop us. Brent Barry: Will provide scoring off the bench and handle point duties when Rafer is out. Smart player and will be a great influence in the locker room. Also a great guy to have around to knock down the big shot down the road. Luther Head: Limited Playing time. Perhaps none at all. Unless he lives up to his hype coming out of college, this might be his last year with us. Shane Battier: He will get starter time minutes. I can see us running a lot of combinations with him and Artest both in while spelling McGrady. We will really utilize Battier when we play the lakers because Battier seems to always have Kobes number. Carl Landry: Similiar role to last year, just not as many minutes. Chuck Hayes: Limited Role, spelling perhaps at center at times as well as powerfoward if we dont retain landry. Joey Dorsey: His role will depend a lot on whether we retain Deke or not. If we do not have deke, he will see quite a bit of minutes as a rookie spelling yao and being a defensive prescence. If Deke is back, his role will be limited and perhaps might not see any time in a substantial amount of games. Dikembe Mutumbo: I think he proved to us last year that he can still be effective in games, especially on defense. We will actually use him to spell Yao this year if we retain deke. Either way he is an awesome guy to have around.
I think Rockets should keep the 22 win streak lineup intact Rafer Tmac Shane Scola Yao. Let Ron be the 6th man. But at the end of game, Yao/TMac/Ron/Battier plus either Scola/RA/landry or another shooter. Barring injures, Rockets are realy deep. But who knows. A couple of underachievers will change everything. Just like last year, When MJ and SF3 were buried in the end of bench, everything changed.
I know a lot ppl think Francis is done but he was an all star and he was injured. But his game against the Suns (while injured) gave me a slim hope that he could be at least 70% of his old self back. Imagine if Francis is near as good as when he was at 2004 (or at least he can play like he did against the Suns last season), the line up of (with their career stats) Francis (37mpg/18pts/5rbs/6a/1st) TMac (35mpg/22pts/6rbs/4a/1st) Artest (34mpg/16pts/5rbs/3a/2st) Scola (24mpg/10pts/6rbs/1a) Yao (32mpg/19pts/9rbs/1a/2blk) OMG, that's definitely a dream team.
Assuming no further trades, Francis can be a shadow of his former self, and Landry is resigned: Alston - Francis - Brooks McGrady - Head - Barry Artest - Battier - Harris Scola - Landry - Hayes Yao - Deke - Dorsey I suspect (really, would rather) Novak will be cut, but maybe he stays instead of Harris. I think Barry will see time at the 1 and 3 spots but may not even be a 15 mpg guy, Scola will play a few minutes at center every game, Artest will play a several minutes at the 2 and occasionally as a 4 depending on the matchups. I think Brooks is going to be garbage time only unless he made huge strides in the offseason. For stretches w/o McGrady: Alston - Francis - Brooks Artest - Head - (Francis) Battier - Barry - Harris Scola - Landry - Hayes Yao - Deke - Dorsey For stretches w/o Yao: Alston - Francis - Brooks McGrady - Head - Barry - (Francis) Artest - Battier - (McGrady) - (Barry) Scola - Landry (Artest) - Hayes - Harris Deke - (Scola) - Dorsey - (Hayes)
Pg : Rafer / Brooks Sg: TMac / Barry Sf: Artest / Shane Pf: Scola / Landry and Hayes C: Yao / Dorsey I wouldn't let Francis or head see daylight in this rotation. I really doubt that barry will ever be used as a 1. All brooks really needs to do to win the back up pg position is push the ball hard to up the tempo and not turn over the ball too much. With shane and barry on the bench you have enough shooters, we just need someone that will run the floor.
starters t-mac rafer artest scola yao bench francis barry battier landry deke Roster changes will be based on matchups and who is playing well Francis, barry battier minutes can be substituted on back to back games with fresh legs: mike harris brooks and head Minutes for big three need to be controled to 28 to 32 min a game to keep them fresh- 10 man rotation will do that
Yao Scola Artest Batier Alston I think T-mac should start from the bench cuz Ron and Shane can make the opponent starting SG/SF exhausted, and after that, it's T-mac time.
Yao 30 minutes Scola 30 minutes Battier 30 minutes Mac 30 minutes Artest 30 minutes Rafer 30 minutes Barry *Landry *Deke *Francis *Brooks *Hayes *Dorsey depending on the matchup and if they sign again. come playoff time, 7-8 man rotation.
I'm undoubtedly with Artest to the bench. - Alston - McGrady - Battier - Scola - Yao Remember T-Mac suffering at finding his role in a game oriented to Yao. If we put Ron as starter, whats gonna happen? The quality of our game will go down for sure. Ron is perfect off the bench.
Everyone has discussed the arguments regarding if Battier or rtest should start. Some even suggesting start them both and have Scola come off of the bench. I say we have all of November to try different line-ups and spliting the minutes around. By December, I think we will have a clearer picture on who will start. By that time we will play with a 8 man rotation. Yao, Scola, Artest, Battier, T-Mac, Alston, Barry, Landry. They will get the bulk of the minutes. There are so many different combinations to suit different oppenents it is scary. Outside of that I see Brooks and Dikembe getting some minutes but not a large bulk. Also just for the sake of avoiding Yao, T-Mac or Landry going down with injury I would limit there minutes towards the end of January for a week or two. It is all about building towards the play-offs. By that I mean staying fresh and healthy. Also developing the same chemistry we saw last season, with the new additions.
9 man rotation rafer, tmac, artest, scola and yao. brooks, barry, battier and dorsey. hopefully seeing yao and tmac playing in less minutes, somewhere in the low 30s. which will give lessen impact on their body.
