Rockets wanted to 'win now' and adding a player like Battier to what we had made sense at the time under JVG. It was a different style we were playing. Adelman would have wanted a different type of player. Probably would have kept Gay. I guess they thought our defense would get us over the hump, offense wasn't as important to JVG. Shane was a glue type guy that could hit a wide open 3. Those shots would be created by Yao and T-Mac. He didn't have to worry about breaking his defender down or being able to create his own shot. We now that teams have caught on to doubling and fronting Yao, and T-Mac is broken and nobody besides Scola wants to move, Shane is rendered uselss on offense.
If you want to be completely honest that trade was a failure from the start. JVG thought that Shane would be able to play power forward which was the big weakness of the team at the time. I remember that first season when Shane arrived he spent the entire preseason playing PF. It didn't take them long to realize that Shane wasn't big enough or strong enough to play the position. It was then that they moved him to SF, moved Tracy to SG, and made Shane the primary wing defender. That wasn't the initial intent though. They wanted a PF that could hit the 3 and spread the floor for Yao and they were extremely thin at the position. They drafted Novak for the same purpose and quickly realized that he couldn't defend the position either. Two failed attempts at the same thing.
I wanted to bump this thread. There was a lot of high end/credible posters including myself who bashed Shane to no end . Just reading back at some of the posts in this thread ... I think we can all collectively have a crow eating frenzy. Dear Shane: you are invaluable to this team. You are the "Super Duper" glue of this team. Please shut Kobe down one more time and lets bang on Melo next ! Best, all the fools who talked bad about you in this thread.
Haha, this is why I love the internet. Everything is written down so that way nobody can ever go back on their word.
Why am i dying inside? I want shane and the rockets to do well. i guess people are willing to look past the 5 ppg on the road right? He played good defense on kobe the other night and i always give him credit, but what happens when kobe is lighting his ass up and on the other end he drops a whopping 5pts. Believe me, i know its not about the points, but shane still has to get offensively into the game. He's the vet and thats his role also. I hope shane does well and the rockets win, but just like last night, if not for brooks, the rox get ran out the gym.
If not for Battier, the series might be long over. Kobe would drop rains on other defenders, inculding Artest.
Shanes value is very apparent in a seven game series with premiere shooting guards. He looks a little less valuable when we play teams where his outstanding defense is mostly wasted.
That's true, but you could actually say that about other players too. That's the beauty of it. The Rockets are getting key contributions from a number of players.
how can you not like battier. He like the friendliest guy in the NBA. He the reason the Rockets are the best defensive team in the NBA. He's also the reason why we have a 7 game series otherwise Kobe would've shut us out already.
That is true. His value decreases against teams like Utah, who's main offensive weapon is PG ,PF and C. Good thing is almost every other elite playoff team has a great wing player. That makes Battier more valuable in playoffs.
For Battier's value to be maximized, there has to be enough offense coming from other sources. Bowen was an integral part of the Spurs' championship runs but he would have been exposed offensively if the Spurs didn't get the contributions they got from guys like Parker, Duncan, Ginobili, etc...
Rox have tons of offense now. Yao, Tmac(if he comes back), Artest, Scola, Brooks, Landry, Wafer, and Lowry to some degree.
