The only one from those who commands a double is Yao, and I do believe this bbs has had questions about his ability to close games also. You can play the Princeton offense all game long, but when it comes down to crunch time and you need one crucial basket, there are question marks abound for each of our players.
But not imperative to double them, not all 29 teams automatically think doubleteam on AB or Scola. And I meant to say next year when Yao is back with the other projected starters mentioned.
I wish we had some access to shooting percentages for contested and uncontested shots as well as frequency of double team per game. Unfortunately, only people like Morey will probably have that data available.
Last year, other teams let yao get his points and then fronted him in the 4th quarter. The Rocket's offense collapses and then they lose.
The only thing that bugs me is that sometimes he seems to play for the foul more than the basket. I remember a fast break on the 30/30/30 game where he sorta slowed down drew contact and just threw it up when he had the clear shot if he didn't slow down.
Considering he is most likely going to drain both FT's anyways, I think that is a great thing to do. Not only will the player and team pick up an additional foul, but he has the potential to make it a 3 point play as well. Fouls can either be used to force a possession or to break down the D. When opposing teams are over the foul limit or players are in foul trouble, they usually don't defend as intensely, giving more opportunities to score.
Last year we had a much more undisciplined AB and then we had crazy Ron-Ron trying to charge inside. This year we have a much better AB and a great scorer in Kevin Martin and a team use to playing WITHOUT Yao. Yao's injury may have been the biggest blessing we've had in a while, because it allowed us to not only part with T-Mac, but Artest as well. Yao should be in a much better half court position now that he is surrounded by snipers.
That's dependent on if the ref makes the call, if not that could be potentially a fastbreak for the other team while Kevin is looking around looking for the call or recovering from a real foul. Like I said, he's dependent on the refs making the calls at times too much, bit of a flopper to get calls. When he doesn't get the call, especially in close games towards the end, it's not going to be good for the Rockets. And I predict threads about Martin needs to stop flopping, not a closer, stop looking for the refs to bail you out, etc. etc.
I personally think these number can be better with Yao in :grin: and with the pressure of be in a better team will help keep the free throw % up ; but that was a great pick up by the Rockets and Morey portfolio
I wrote up one of these things for Landry and T-Mac as well. I can post them up in the NBA dish if anyone was interested. It was initially a write up to follow the performance of the players after the trade, but I decided that introducing non Rockets player may not be the best idea for a finally calm GARM.
I think that Kevin Martin has been exactly as advertised so far: an efficient scorer who has never played on a team that's been committed to winning defense. Kevin's remarkably low rebounding rate indicates to me that he doesn't value a defensive rebound as much as a quick layup on the other end. Also, I've watched him lunge for a steal and totally leave his teammates out to dry playing 4 on 5 a few times. This will inflate his steal numbers but is a horrible thing to do if you're trying to play lock-down team defense. Kevin's biggest area for improvement lies on the defensive end - his scoring prowess is unquestioned.
You can't score 48 or 50 without being able to create your own shot or taking over games. I would like to see more consistency from Kevin because lately he has started off games well but tends to taper off in the 2nd half. I think he needs space to attack one-on-one, remember the Orlando game? But with the way we run the offense, he's the one assigned to come off screens and do the back cuts and run for fastbreaks. Trevor and Shane are asked to do the rebounding while he's taking off. He's playing according to his role in the system. He's not being asked to do a lot of one-on-one. Maybe with game on the line in future games, we'll see more of that.
it's true that martin isn't a "closer" type ala kobe, bron, melo, wade but the guy JUST SCORES. Even when it seems like he's having an off night (bricking jumpers and turnin it over), you look at the final box score and the guy has 22 and 5. You can book it that he'll have 20 plus and thats what we needed. I think he'll hit big shots for us when he has more time to gel with our system and with yao back. He has the quickness and enough handles to create offense at the end of games but he's not a premier closer. I think because of his shooting motion he has a hard time hitting closing shots w/ a defender in his face because all the best closers can "**** back" the ball and jump to shoot from tough angles where as martin "fires from the hip" as bill worrell would say. Then again he hasn't really been given the opportunity yet so we'll see....I would much rather see him take a last shot these days then AB, who can't seem to hit a clutch basket this year (last year playoffs he did though).
hes been excellent, at the very least hes shut up all the misinformed idiots who knows nothing about basketball other than the Rockets
why would his FT average 'come down to earth'? what are u talking about he has a great touch so its not somethin he isnt capable of sustaining i dont expect it to 'come down to earth' because this is normal for him
