haha, this year is totally different! Yao was just cleared to start RUNNING again at the start of JUNE. He weighs 300 lbs and just had foot surgery 15 months ago. If it was shoulder surgery it would be different, but this was his freakin foot. Our joints carry the weight of our bodies. The more you weigh, the harder it is on your joints.
Lakers lost to the Twolves. No one is going to claim that the Twolves are a great team or that the Lakers suddenly suck...it's one game and it's the preseason.
Not only OMR nailed it, but I agree that Battier appears to be on a serious decline. This is really not based on this pre-season game, but an observation going back to last year. That was my main concern when we traded Ariza. Battier is fine as a backup 3, but he is starter quality anymore. At this point in their careers, Ariza is a much better player offensively and slight better defensively than Battier.
I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but did anyone notice that Hill almost shut Howard down for an entire quarter?? Howard only scored 4 pts. in the 2nd half.
Or maybe because it was the second half of a preseason game and he just didn't give a damn? The guy dominated us. Howard has definitely learned from Olajuwon. Did you see his footwork against Yao early on?
If you bothered to listen to Bill during the game, he talked about how Battier played hurt most of the season...you dont think maybe that had a little to do with his supposed decline? nevermind, I should know better than to bring logic into a discussion round these parts. btw...discussions about certain games belong in the postgame thread, which is where it is going now.
Is he still hurt? I could not tell from his performance in the first preseason game. 20 minutes, 3 points, some 'intangibles'. Same as last year.
Kobe played with a freaking broken finger all of last year. Many other players perform through injuries during the regular season. They don't use that excuse to explain a significant drop off in performance. I will say that again and you can disagree to it: Battier is much more suitable as a backup at his age and skills.
I don't think you can judge anyone from 1 preseason game - much less the 1st preseason game. But while he may have been hurt last year, he's been in a steady decline for the past 3-4 years. Another year older...I don't expect him to improve from last year much. Hopefully this means more Bud time. I see Bud as the most improved Rocket this year.
Battier has never used it as an excuse... that would be why we didn't know about it until later................ Also, Kobe's fans and the media used the broken finger line as much as they could.
All I know is that we need to ship Battier ASAP to a team that's naive enough to believe he still has it defensively. He's becoming a nuisance on the court because he just can't stay infront of his man like he used to and his reliable corner three is virtually gone.
yeah at first he looked lost but then he picked it up in the 2nd half- reading his post game comments on Chronic it seems a light went on in his head and he realized he has more quickness then howard, hopefully he keeps it up
