-Our offense is atrocious. Before I had no opinion on whether Artest or Battier should start. After a few games I can safely say that I would prefer Artest off the bench. Our 3 stars don't gel together offensively. In every game of the season so far one of them has had a god-awful game, often sparking knee-jerk reaction threads from some of the posters who lack basketball knowledge. We have enough fire power with Battier starting as it is. Ron Artest should feel more comfortable off the bench instead of trying so hard to defer to T-Mac and Yao. He will finish games, and at that point we'll be feeding the hot hand and everyone will be in rhythm. -Our bench is one of the league's best. Aaron Brooks is a monster. With Barry in to take facilitator responsibilities Brooks can do what he does best..... score. Hayes should be a DPOY candidate and Landry remains solid. Now if we bring Artest off the bench we won't be missing a beat and can go full throttle all game. -Adelman's rotations and subs have been suspect, but that was the same case as last season. It looks like he's trying to see which units work well together. From now I could say that the 2nd unit works great with either Artest or T-Mac out there, but not both together. -Rafer should remain the starter for obvious reasons. Whoever finishes matters on who is playing best. However Brooks and Rafer's minutes should be split straight down the middle to 23-28 min each. There are more shots available to the PG who comes off the bench. Who would you rather taking more shots, Rafer or Brooks!? Besides Brooks is a spark plug. Spark plugs are supposed to come of the bench. Brooks for 6th man!!!! -Our defense has picked up over the week. When Battier comes back we'll be complete. We do need to grab those rebounds. I'm positive Morey is busting his ass looking for some length on the front lines. All our effort and hustle won't be enough to make up for the 6 to 7 inches we fall short of every so often. Top priority is anyone 6'10" and up, NOT A PG. -Freethrows
I always consider Battier should be our start SF,not Artest,this lineup is more effecient in both offense and defence,this lineup has guled for a long time,I dont like Ron break this lineup's chemistry. Latest 2 games Alston get suspended,Brooks become our start PG,but he performed not like a PG,much like a SG,vs spurs,he shooted 17 times about twice of Yao's,but only got 6 times.And his assist...dont to say more,he better as a bench leader.
I agree Brooks must stay coming off the bench. Minutes decided as seems fit in each game. If the O is actually working sometimes and Rafer is doing a good job running it then hes going to probably play his 35 mins or so, however AB is great as that guy who can just create his own baskets if the going is tough. Of course AB's problem will be his D... and hes not a bad defender its just his size, hes good on a guy like Paul to match with speed but if we come up against the Jazz I really don't wanna see him playing too much time on Deron as it will be a bit like with B Diddy the other night. While theres a lot of idiots calling for their AB to replace Rafer as start BS I think most know its best all around for the team with the current setup. When you start playing guys just because they can score you end up with the Knicks.
Believe it or not, according to 82games.com, our most efficient lineup is the starters. I agree that Artest should come off the bench... but I just thought it was interesting that, as bad as the offense looks with the big 3 out there, they are the most efficient group.
agreed with everything you said, additionally i wanna see lines up for tmac + artest and yao ming + 3pt shooters. lets face it, yao is ineffective in the high post, and artest and tmac are big mismatches posting up. the double overtime denver game last year showed how dangerous yao + 3pt shooters can be, while the 22 game win streak showcased mcgrady's effectiveness without yao. yao and mcgrady together works but they are limited by the amount of touches they get. tmac artest scola hayes any guard yao landry battier rafer/brooks barry/wafer
