Could Courtney Lee play better defense than Shane Battier? From what I can tell, Lee is an athletic player that knows how to make buckets off the dribble. Started for a Finals contending Orlando Magic. He played great defense back then too. Is he a legitimate "replacement" in terms of those extra minutes taken away from Battier or is he too small to guard big combo guards? I bring this up also because we gave up Ariza for him and Ariza, despite all his offensive deficiencies could play 10 times better defense than Battier could right now. So given Lee's history and what he was brought here to do, could he be effective in Battier's shoes?
Wrong. Ariza's individual and team defense is sorely needed. His length and ability to cover distances would have definitely improve our perimeter defense.
I think he should, When I was watching the lakers game I think he did pretty good job on Kobe and forced him to shoot many contested shots. When shane came back in the game Kobe was scoring on him with relative ease, but then again it comes to RA and his decision.
I view it simply as matchups. Just like Artest was better against certain people and Battier was better against others, so it can be the same for Lee and Battier. Battier against Ellis is not a good matchup, as Ellis is too quick. Lee would have worked. But there is no way Lee could ever say, guard LeDouche, which Battier can. I don't think it can be said one is clearly superior to the other as of now.
Yeah, this year it is getting pretty obvious. I am all for trading him, but I think you have to wait until Feb for a contending team that needs someone like him. Hopefully they can get a pick out of him, we don't need more players right now, we need picks. DD
I wanted Ariza to be traded but I thought it would be for a superstar or star small forward. Now that he is gone for just Courtney lee and no other trade has been made to get a better small foward, I'm missing Ariza. Maybe we just need patience.
I'd have to see longer stretches of Lee on defense, but I did see that he made a couple of nice defensive plays last night. Battier looked slow last night. Trying to guard Ellis and Curry will do that to you, but I think it's getting to the point where he isn't going to be able to guard just whoever we put him on.
I'm tired of hearing about Battier's non existent D, who has he stop lately, nobody. So until that happens, we need to stop referring to the Shane Battier from 4 or 5 years ago. That dude doesn't exist anymore.
shane at least leads his man into a trap, you can tell he's slowing down though. I still go with shane.
Judging by the way Battier play D and essential a non-factor, I would favor Courtney LEE. You can't do worst with Courtney than with Battier. Courtney would not have missed that ridiculous easy crucial layup that Battier did in the Lakers game. Battier is just not athletic enough to do anything...he's horrible when it comes to ballhanding and attacking the basket.
Battier, must be retired or traded. The Coach is making a mistake. Not only but the team playing without any defense with the a run and gun team of Golden State. Two fresh players who could go to the rack and score were not even included- Hill and Taylor. 0-2
I like Shane, but at this point I would like to see what the team could do without him. Sometimes coaches stay too long with old reliable.....when there might be much better options on the bench. If that means CBud should start and Lee back up both wing positions, then that sounds pretty good. Maybe it is time to relegate Shane to Hayes status, a situational player? DD
I think we're going to be having this discussion all season long, but I don't see Adelman not starting Shane. I've been a big Battier fan ever since we got him on that draft day, but he has obviously lost a step each of the last two seasons.
That is true, he will be valuable against slower players like Melo etc, but he can not stay with the quick young guards any longer. He is just not fast enough.... DD
Lee is a 6'5'' SG while Battier is a 6'9'' SF. At this point, Lee is better at defending against quickness and Battier is better at defending against size/strength-- which is only natural. With a guy like Monta Ellis, Lee is the better matchup. It's saying something, by the way, about your PG's and SG's defensive abilities when your 6'9'' SF is the guy asked to cover the opponents' 6'3'' PG/SG. Yesterday was one of those games where the Rockets' probably can use the Brooks/Martin/Lee lineup because the opponent has 2 scoring small guards and not a high scorer at SF. And they did just that (neither Bud or Battier played many minutes), and Ellis had tougher shots-- pretty much everything he took from the 2nd quarter on was 17-21 foot Js off the dribble contested by Lee-- exactly the kind of shots you want him to take, but he just made them. What's the lesson? Luck is a part of basketball. By the way, ne thing that got lost in the b****-fest is that Battier spent the first part of of Game 1 defending Ron Artest, not Kobe. (The Rockets had Martin on Kobe and brought heavy help, which resulted in Kobe dumping off passes to teammates for easy shots). Artest was totally frustrated offensively, going 3-15 and kept on getting his shots swatted, and didn't even play in the 4th quarter. Battier did a good job on Artest and Yao was very good at helping when Artest drove. When Battier was on Kobe, Kobe mostly posted-up from about 15-17 foot away and shot turnaround/stepback Js. He was brilliant at creating separation (Thanks, Hakeem!) and hit a good number of them but these are shots you live with. Lee was on Kobe for a while, but he wasn't strong enough and Kobe kept on getting deep post positions on him. In any case, it's too early to announce Battier's demise, but Lee should take the small SG/big PG defender role which he was acquired to play.
