Hey Jeff, your answers to question #16 to #20 were translated into Chinese by SPORTS.SINA.COM.CN. Link: http://sports.sina.com.cn/k/2006-09-26/11122478166.shtml
And the interesting part is that the reporter just screwed it up in the following translation saying Jeff will punch Charlie Rosen and Jeff Van Gundy when any more comments about Yao Ming needs a mean streak......
This is the most interesting idea I've heard in a while. Juwan is our answer as the 4/5. It's not the best option you could possibly have, but it's probably better than any other reasonible answer(aka Cato/MoTaylor). Getting Battier and a handful of guards makes us so much more versatile than we have been in the past. Everybody on this team can play multiple positions (minus Yao, Deke, maybe Rafer). jlweee, you have made me believe in this roster a little more than I did yesterday. I'm also starting to like Morey a little more. I wonder what Juwan's per minute ratings look like at the center position?
The Sina translation sucks on more than one front. Take for example this part of Jeff's answer to question #18: "Frankly, if I hear one more 'he needs to have meaningful and consistent performance' comment from a national 'expert', I'm going to punch Charlie Rosen's (US Fox Sports NBA expert) fat-ass face or Van Gundy's sorry-ass face." Apparently the "mean streak" got completely lost in the translation, in addition to the mingled xxx-ass face punching stuff. Sina did call you "another expert" before the translation though, Jeff.
Who are these centers that are going to 'demolish' Juwan? The league is full of bad 5's. It is the single weakest position on the whole(and we've got the best one already). The only worry we would have would be facing a team like the Heat. If we face them in a series, we'd be in the Finals. I have no problems with that. Juwan is a very adequate backup center these days.
Question... Did Sina cite ClutchFans as the source of the story? Just curious since I don't read Chinese. Thanks.
To be exact, it didn't say "A" rox fan board. Since grammatically there are no articles in Chinese language, on the first look it would seem to be OK if you added either an "a" or a "the." In all likelihood, the actual meaning of an indefinite article "a" would be (explicitly) expressed in situation like this -- as in "one rox fan board" -- in Chinese, while the definite article would only be implied. Hence, a more careful treatment would call for the definite article "the" to be placed before the "rox fan board" if you were to translate Sina's statement back into English. Furthermore, we have no reason to believe Sina is not referring to ClutchFans.
It's been diiscussed to death by Clutch, et al. I don't understand why you guys think Rafer Alston will magically get better at shooting this season. Since he became a rotation player 4 years ago, each year his minutes go up, and each year his shooting gets worse and worse. That a relatively convincing correlation -- and we didn't exactly go out and get tons of help. Spanoulis isn't a natural PG and John Lucas III is still a longshot despite his improvement. If Rafer plays big minutes - his shots suffer. There's nothing to indicate that trend will reverse other than our hopes and dreams.
I have to say I have very little faith that it will improve. As Clutch mentioned in his article, Rafer shot a terrible 30% when both Yao and Tmac played (22 games). He definately strikes me as a guy who can hit the 3 when there's no pressure and he feels like taking them. Unfortunately, when defenses leave him wide open, he shrinks.
A big part of being a consistent spot-up shooter is having good shooting mechanics. Alston's form isn't very good. He's a volume-shooter, ala Iverson, Arenas, A.Walker, etc. Give them a lot of shots, they are bound to make some of them. Maybe even heat up every now and then. But over the course of a regular season, Alston doesn't have the mechanics to be very reliable. He's a good playmaker, though. He makes T-mac and Yao better, which is what you want from your role player. He also doesn't turn the ball over. Hopefully, this will offset his shooting enough to make him a good 28-30mpg player for Houston. If he plays 38mpg again like last year, his flaws are bound to stand out again.
Even if T-mac does come back 100% healthy, the only way I can see him reestablishing himself as a top5 player in the public eye is by having a big postseason. In the reg.season, he's going to be deferring to Yao a little bit and likely won't put up the 30ppg that Kobe and Bron likely will be getting. But if Houston goes deep in the playoffs, and T-mac elevates his play like he did against Dallas, then it can happen. Otherwise, no.
I didn't say the opposing centers would do it so much as the other players. Remember the old days when OT played backup center to Dream in the late 80s and early 90s? When Dream sat down the opposing teams quickly attacked the basket relentlessly. OT was a decent man to man defender and rebounder but he was never a shot blocker. Not only does Juwan not block shots, he doesn't rebound well in traffic OR defend. If he's our backup center, we'll just have to get used to teams going on runs whenever Yao sits down because the invisible defender will be guarding the paint. When teams do miss, we can forget about getting the rebound unless it clanks off long because the last thing Juwan wants to do is put a body on someone and box them out. At least Deke defends the basket and clears the boards for the couple of minutes he's in the game. I don't dislike Juwan at all like the people that pile on him relentlessly like he's some kind of cancer. But let's be real about his abilities. He declined a lot last season and I doubt he's taken a drink from the fountain of youth.
The burden is on the head coach to 1) exploit the matchup problems for the opposing teams; 2) maximize the output from specialty players such as Novak in short term; and 3) to make them more well-arounded in long term.
No. The long term burden is on the PLAYER, not the coach. Novak seems like a hard worker and it's on HIM, not JVG, to improve his physical skills so he can contribute in more facets of the game than just shooting. In the short term (as in this season), it's on JVG to figure out how to maximize Novak's one strength, shooting, while masking his lack of physical ability and NBA knowledge.
