Depends what sort of Yao comes back, his minutes will be severely limited, and which current team would we better than with a limited Yao, I'm thinking maybe san antonio with a declining Tim duncan.
But that's the entire point -- great PGs don't need to be great scorers, especially from 3PT range. They just need to be able to run their team well and know how to take advantage of the personnel on the court at any particular time.
Idiotic excuse, the original post to which DD replied never specified a ring to justify his reason. With or without a ring, John Stockton was a HOF player who was the quintessential PG that controlled the floor without scoring that much. Not to praise a Jazzhole, but the Jazz have never missed the playoffs during Stockton's whole career. AB wishes he and his teams could have the same productivity like Stockton's Jazz teams.
So you are invalidating your point by admitting a great PG is just some one that can rider the coat tales of the nearest superstar rather then do anything themselves but just carry the ball up the court and dish it out to better players. A point guard directs the team, but just because one doesn't help out on the offense, doesn't mean he is a great one. By that logic, guys like Nash, Paul and D. Williams aren't good because they can score when their teams need it and have been known to take over games. A great PG, plays the game well in multiple aspects, they can score, break down defenses, play solid defense, etc. Fisher is known as a very good game manager, but anyone trying to call him an elite or even great PG is overkill. Like saying Martin is the equivalent of Kobe or McGrady in their prime.
Derek Fisher hardly runs the team. The system is passing the ball into Gasol, or passing it to Kobe, and see what they do with it. 3 out of the 5 starting 5 for the lakers are just reactive players. If the ball comes to them, awesome. If not, then at least its Kobe/Pau taking the shot.
So, that is your baseline, arguably the greatest PG to ever play the game? So your argument is that Brooks is not as good as Stockton. Ok.....and most every other PG that ever played the game isn't either. I can live with that. DD
Both our starting guard positions are poor defenders. They are not even average. Scola isn't very good defensively either. I suggest packaging 1 or more of these players for someone that can score to some degree, but is more defensive minded. (possibly Bosh).
True, but people would be amazed by how good our guards defense looks when you have a 7'6" guy guarding the rim. It makes EVERYONE's defense better. DD
so what? this notion that you need an ultimate team orchestrator with phenomenal court vision to be a legit contender is based on no evidence whatsoever. not an ounce. lakers, cavs, spurs, magic, pistons, boston.... all have won or have played for a title in the past 10 years and none of them save for maybe boston has had what anyone would consider an elite "pure" pg. so why do the rockets need one? AB isn't the greatest "pure" pg in the league, but he handles the ball relatively well and can orchestrate the offense well enough than when combined with his insane 3-point shooting and his vastly improving step-back j will be a huge boost when yao is back on the court. it's all about how the pg fits into the system and team and on the offensive side AB is a huge plus for us (not so much defensively though). but then you look at how AB performs head to head with some of the elite guys and he typically plays pretty damn well... telling me that we are more than capable of being a championship-caliber team w/ AB manning the 1.
Very well said DD. A true big shotblocker who can anchor the defense makes everyone else's defense dramatically better.
Not sure if this was brought up already, but I don't see the concern about matching up with the Lakers. It seems to me that you beat them by netralizing their 2 strengths, and attacking their weakess points. I think we already built that way, or are headed that way. Their two strengths are Kobe, and inside dominance. We have Battier and Ariza, can you do anything more about that? I think Yao, Hill, Scola, and maybe another big can match up with thier bigs ok. As far as attacking, they have no answer for Brooks. They cannot match his speed. As well, despite their size, I don't think their post defense is all that great. Yao and even Scola would be able to score on them. For one thing, what other players score in the manner that Yao and Scola do? How do you prep for that? And the fact that we can draw fouls would also be huge. Get their bigs in foul trouble, and they have to depend on Kobe going nuts...which is distinctly possible, but you gotta live with that.
well you scoffed at the notion that PGs don't have to score to be effective and your own sig says AB is now an elite PG so I don't see anything wrong bringing up Stockton to debunk your notion that PGs have to score to be effective
Kyle Lowry is better than .393 from the field. To think if Lowry shoots his career average, the Rockets are automatically .30 points better If Martin and Ariza shoot THEIR career %'s, thats almost 2 points better. Then once YAO gets back, Lowry, Martin and Yao are going to have free throw fest. Each one of those guys can actually get WORSE, at least count on 1 guy to not shot his career % (Lets say Luis Scola or Brooks gets worse). But then you add to that Budinger and especially Jordan Hill getting better, Rockets can improve just with players playing to their NORMAL capabilities. Too bad someone will get dealt away.
Why are we not contenders? This team as is already has 3 (count 'em) 3 20 pt scorers on any given night, add Yao Ming to the mix and you have more than enough offensive weapons to go around. The problem is the defensive end, and I don't really see how Bosh could be such a big improvement over Scola and Hill on the defensive end. For that matter, I'm not sure why you think Yao, Bosh, and whoever is left will be better than the cast we have now-he won't exactly come here for Brian Cook. The only two guys I'd consider a significant talent upgrade would be LBJ and Wade, and only because having that elite swingman makes chasing the 'chip a bit easier. If we end up giving up the pick, Scola AND Hill for Bosh then we essentially just downgraded ourselves.
The problem is that there are two many if's going into next season, especially with Yao. - If Yao can stay healthy - If Yao will opt out or not - If we can retail Lowry or Scola - If we make a big offseason splash or not - If our team can actually stay healthy - If Yao can catch an entry pass thrown by AB - If Rockets can figure out how to fight fronting If all the stars align and all our players are healthy for the entire durations of the playoffs, then yea, our chances are as good as anyone's. However, that is still a cluster ton of if's and I can't recall the last time we were all healthy.
There is always room for improvement. Yes, Yao's condition next year is a big if. I am expecting that next year we pass the second round. Then, year after that we content for a title. The ideal case senario would be we find a legit PF that can play some C along with Scola. Like Bosh, who can slide into C when Scola's on the floor. Both their PT will be there, and they give Yao a breather.
Sure, assuming Yao is healthy, there's no doubt that he will make Brooks & Martin look better defensively. However, you still have a 5'10, skinny, shoot-first, starting PG with poor defensive skills. We should give the job to Kyle and package Brooks in a trade for a backup center and perhaps draft Avery Bradley to backup Kyle. Bradley has potential on both sides of the court even if his passing skills are currently below par. At any rate, we need to improve defensively. We will not go far in the playoffs next year with this unit - with or without Yao.
