First, Sheed scored 24pts on us; then, Bosh 20. Seems we have problem defending those long, athletic, jump shot shooting PFs. None of our four PFs have the length and quickness to get the job done. One positive note is Yao's stamina seems is not what holding him back now. That was his biggest problem before. Now he needs to learn how to deal with not turning the ball over. And the team need to figure out how to get the ball to him. BTW, Chinese media reports Yao is bothering by the sleeve. He asked Jones(?) whether he can play w/o it. The darn sleeve looks bad, why can't he wear sth like AI is wearing?
That's nothing new. We had the same problems with tall shooting 4s last year as well. And we traded our best defender at this position to Orlando. You can expect the opponents to abuse our defense at the 4 almost every night. Mo and Howard are below average defenders. But to say something positive. We will get more scoring from our front court. That's something. But surely not enough to contend anytime soon.
Yeah, I know that. That's the reason we had the same problems last year. If Cato was a faster, more mobile, good perimeter defender, we would not have had the same problems. My point was that though Cato was not great either, he still was better than what we have right now. Plus, he was the best post defender. So we lost a lot of defense at the 4, which Howard and Taylor have to compensate with their superior offensive game. But that will be hard since their offensive game is basically the same. I've said it a couple of times. We need someone like Elton Brand. A guy who has no ego but who is a banger and can score. The enforcer that complements Yao's game. But I do now this will never happen. T-Mac and Yao will make a lot of money, so we can't afford another Star. I would like to see Padgett getting a chance. He is at least a hustle guy who provides outside shooting.
