who is to say chauncey billups wasnt one of the top 10 players when the pistons won the championship? he was definitely one of the top 5 point guards in the league and he carried that team to the championship. heck his nickname is big shot chauncey. you cant hit big shots if your not one of the top players in the league
Well, the problem is, the Rockets can't really widdle the rotation down to 8 because Yao is only playing 24 minutes per game. So unless they want to play Hill for over 20 minutes per game, they'll need two extra guys, one that can backup Scola, and one that can backup Yao. Of course, they could use Hayes as that PF/C combo player, but it's pretty apparent you guys don't want that. For me personally, this is what I would do... I'd start off by benching Battier, and adding Lee to the starting lineup. Then I'd use Lowry, Bud, Miller, and either Hill, Hayes, or PPat as the bench rotation. As the season progresses, hopefully Hill can develop into a reliable PF/C combo player, and Adelman can drop the rotation down to about 8 players, with Miller and Battier playing spot minutes if need be. And if they still want to sit Yao down on second nights of back-to-backs, then they can just replace him with Dampier and keep the bench rotation the same. That's my personal opinion on it.
I guess the thing is though...what would you have want Daryl Morey to have done differently? I find it funny Mad Max and other posters are actually ragging on DM for building a good team. Daryl Morey came into one of the worst times to build a team, he had a team that was capped out, good enough to make the playoffs but bad enough to lose in the first round, and had like ZERO upside players on the roster. He had to retool the team, fill it with A-class talent and deal with our two franchise players imploding due to diva issues or health problems. If we go par for the course it would have taken an average GM 5 years of lottery picks to sort it out. With DM? We wouldn't even be in the lottery last year if Yao Ming's foot hadn't broken again. DM has done a beyond amazing job building the team considering what he had to work with. Lets not forget that 4 years ago Reefer Alston was considered the 3rd best player on the team. Not only did he manage to replace the garbage on the roster with higher quality guys like Scola and Kevin Martin, he was also able to acquire players that give you hope for the future, name PP, JH and the Knicks swap/pick. Honestly DM has done all he could. Sure he could take the next step and trade for a superstar or someone like Iggy, but again we're in this position precisely because of how good a job he's done rebuilding on the fly while keeping the team competitive. And the roster SHOULD be competitive. We won 42 games last season, why should we do worse this year? In this case RA is the one not doing his part.
Our record has nothing to do with our offense and RA's approach. We play no D and rebound horribly on the defensive end. We need 8 or 9 players committed to playing sound team defense and rebounding with tenacity every night and stop thinking about out scoring everyone. The Heat are going to hang 150 on us if we don't step up.
My bad, but if we played D and rebounded defensively, 16 wouldn't be as bad. AB has no AI in him and doesn't anticipate on defense at all. Also, doesn't case down lose balls after long shots. Dare we questions his basketball IQ?
He has to make one more move, Jeffries, Shane, Chuck, and a Pick for an all around superstar or top flight 3 and 4. You can't have 3 non athletic players at the 3, 4, and 5. Recipe for disaster.
I don't like how he's coached the last two games either, but don't be so quick to part with him. Rick is a very good, borderline HOF coach. Those aren't easy to find. Who would take his place? Van Gundy? He's a heck of a coach, and has proved it over a long, successful career. He's earned the right to redeem himself, so even though the OP denies that this thread isn't knee-jerk, thats exactly what it is. If Shannon Brown didn't randomly catch fire in the 4th quarter or Ellis misses a couple of those hand-in-face, off-balance shots, this thread would be a joke. It's a long season. We all just need to chill out.
Good point liljojo, however, those 3 could add value to a team who isn't going to be able to resign one of their top players. We could also include Hill for Chuck to make more pleasing. Plus add another draft pick
