Last season in April, we got these players, bold are traded or injured or not playing in games by now. Starters: Mutombo-Scola-Mac-Battier-Alston Backups: Hayes Landry Head Jackson Brooks Others: Novak Harris This season by now, bold is new or back from long time. Starters: Yao-Scola-Mac-Artest-Alston Backups: Hayes Landry Barry Brooks None of lineups are same! Below are 4 most used lineups. Alston-McGrady-Artest-Scola-Yao Alston-McGrady-Artest-Landry-Yao Brooks-Barry-Artest-Landry-Hayes, Brooks-Barry-Artest-Hayes-Yao The most familiar lineup should be Hayes-Scola-Landry-Mac-Alston, but never used. When 2 new key players, Ron and Yao, both played 40+ mins, how could you find a lineup with chemistry? Because it's almost a new team with 3 new (key) players and 3 sophomores, they need more time to gel. Plz be patient.
Somebody brought this up from another forum. Imagine this... I think in the long run it would be better for the Rockets pending salary discrepancies: Rockets / Wizards trade: We get: Caron Butler / Darius Songalia / Etan Thomas They get: Ron Artest / Luis Scola / Chuck Hayes maybe even get rid of Luther Head as well.. Caron Butler is younger quicker and just as strong as Ron Ron.. plus gets more lift, similar steals and defense. The loss would be Scola .. as Scola > Songalia at this point. We need Etan's size as Yao's back up and can score in the post sparingly... so Thomas > Hayes.
I like Butler, but not at the exspense of Artest and Scola. Take the BS to another forum. Oh and by the way...Butler is not as strong as Artest
I'm not talking about a boxing match here dude. Ron might or might not knock the hell out of Caron in that scenario. But come on.. Most fans know Butler is a younger more rujevnate version of Artest. Look at his overall game. Artest got blocked how many times going to the rim so far. Butler would have flushed those.. He's also a tad quicker and has that defensive mentality with the steals as well. He's capable of guarding Kobe and him along with Artest and the LBJ are the only real big powerful can play 1 - 3 or maybe even 4 kind of guys in this league. Very low key quiet credentials.. Thomas would help us out in the paint + back up Yao and lossing Scola for not so bad Songalia would be well worth it to make up for short stick Hayes.. I had a party when we got Artest but when I look at Butler he's a little bit better than Artest in every way.. Think about it.
The shelf life of "be patient" has long since run out. The Rockets have been "adjusting" for years, over a decade. They are so adjusted they can't get out of the first round. I say, start playing like you want it or sit down. Yao looks like he wants to go to bed, TMac looks like he wants to go to the hospital. Decide what you want and need and let the able bodied play.
Agree with Solid. We cannot make the excuse that we have different players and lineups this year. We have drastically changed our lineup around EVERY YEAR since the Yao/Tmac era began. We are not getting out of the first round with Yao/Tmac combo. Let's stop being optimistic and defend the rockets organisation, because this won't allow us to move forward. The Rockets need to part ways with their stars. Houston shouldn't build around Yao and Tmac anymore. I say build around Adelman's style of coaching. Aka. Keep our bench players, and ship our stars out of here for some players like Rip Hamilton, Mike Bibby, Amare Stoudamire, Shawn Marion.... anyone who can thrive and score well in Motion Offense.
If Morey even gave that trade a second thought, I would take a personal flight to Houston, walk in his office, beat him down, and come back home. Artest + Scola + Hayes?! Hell NO! Just because a player has one or two bad games doesn't mean he suddenly becomes garbage. Scola has been on fire (w/ the exception of the Lakers game). Artest is still adjusting so give him a bit of time.
