An Objective Look at Battier's Shocking Decline in Offense and Yao Turnover Horrors

offensive fouls count as turnovers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yao to's the ball because he's not strong with the ball, when he gets tired he loses focus and gets lazy, and his mind doesnt work as quickly as his body. He's not a dumb basketball player, but he's not a guy that is 1 step ahead with his next move or play.

 

I think his turnovers are not that bad, what he has to improve is his clutch turnovers, right now he averages 5 TO per 48 mins of clutch play, against 4.74 TO per 48 mins of games.

He has to be better in the clutch, not worse.

 

If Yao's mind does not work as quickly as his body, then he's dumber than a box of hammers.

 

I wouldn't say that...

So what have we learned here? Yao turns the ball over, but he always has. Shane doesn't score much, but he never has. And, we aren't a great offensive team.

Oh, what would i do without clutchfans.

 

Excellent thread, Carl Herrera. I liked your analysis.

Interesting post, durvasa. I am not surprised to see those stats even if you would think the team is more under control with their go to guy on the court.

And I agree with leebigez 100%. Battier is offensively UNaggressive to the fullest extent. Even Hayes is a more willing offensive player.

A small example from last night's game: Scola was pressured near half court after chasing a ball down. He barely squeezed the ball around the defender in an attempt to bounce pass the ball in Shane's direction. The ball got tipped and ended up in no man's land with Shane the closest player to the ball. He hesitated twice before finally running to collect the ball.

Battier's unselfishness can actually be counter-productive at times. He is so willing to do the little things yet almost equally unwilling to assert himself at the offensive end, likely due to his lack of confidence. The unselfish thing to do on offense would be to be slightly more assertive since it would likely benefit other players yet Battier seems unable to take that upon himself. The basketball is a hot potato to him. That is good in the sense that he's not a ballstopper but it's bad in the sense that he is borderline scared to have the ball in his hand. Defenses see that and use it to their advantage on a nightly basis. Both JVG and Adelman have tried to get him to be more assertive but it seems like it is nearly impossible to get him to change his mindset. As leebigez pointed out, Battier is also hesitant to do other little things within the offense off the ball that would potentially result in him ending up with the ball in his hands. There are several times each game where his man completely stops paying attention to him and he could make a backcut or go right to the basket to receive a pass for an easy layup or putback but he doesn't even try. Adelman would likely need to punish him (take him out of the game) to get him to alter his behavior since Battier would do almost anything within his power NOT to participate actively in the offense. I'm not sure Adelman would take that step but I think it would take something that extreme to induce any kind of real change in Shane's offensive mindset.

 

Very nice post. Thanks for the effort.

 

How about since McGrady has been out? We were terrible offensively with McGrady, but have been significantly better since. I'd like to see those numbers, along with how our defense has improvied, in that span.

 

he's also making a less % of his shots. our offense is average at most. hopefully he'll improve b/c i'm praying hard every day that he will.

 

Half or more.

He is having the worst Season on flopping against him.

 

In this new offense Battier ends up out of his comfort zone which is in the corner. Now he ends up towards the elbow behind the 3pt line. He really needs to practice this shot more so he can be as dangerous in his new spot as he is the corner.

 

Good point by the OP that Battier is still helpful to this team. I think anyone that has watched the games played without Battier and compared them to the games that have been played with him this year has to acknowledge this.

However, it still does not answer the fact that Battier has been worse this year on offense, and why that is the case. I think the sample size is big enough--we're looking at a down year from a good player caused by one of three reasons: 1.) He's still bothered by his foot injury, and will recover to his baseline statistics next year; 2.) He's still bothered by his foot injury, but it might be something that sticks with him for the rest of his career; or worst of all in my opinion, 3.) He's not bothered by his foot injury, this just represents the beginning of Shane's natural decline in ability due to aging. Two of these three explanations suggest that Battier will not recover his game to last year's form at the very least.

 

I think he's already stated that his foot will be a problem him all year.

I think it's that combined with all the time he was sidelined during preseason and early reg season. He's robot-like in his preparation and I honestly believe that all the time he missed is still currently affecting his game without even considering the lingering foot problem.

I do think he'll return closer to last season's form down the stretch.

 

Those numbers are skewed, because the team has played only 2 road games since then. There is a huge difference in home record and road record for this team when McGrady isn't playing. They have only 2 losses at home, and only 2 wins on the road.

 

Really nice analysis, it's easy to see that Battiers offensive production has been transferred over to Scolandry and perhaps Wafer as well.

 

As much as I dog McGrady and have no problem if he never plays a game in a Rockets uniform again, he was somehow immune to road pressure more than most other players in the league. He actually thrived on it if I recall correctly. I don't know about his career but as a Rocket, I believe he produced more on the road. Not sure about the difference in efficiency.

 

We disagree, but please do not put words in my mouth, I would love for Battier to cut more and have said it A LOT, just read my DD's big adventure thread from last year, where I sat courtside and told him to cut...IN PERSON...but to me, he is doing fine....he could be better but he is the least of the worries on the team.

DD

 

I created a (poorly rated) thread recently that touched on it. Even this season, as poorly as McGrady has played, the Rockets were 12-11 on the road when he played, and only 2-6 when he hasn't.

That means our record this season is 18-2 at home without T-Mac, and 2-6 on the road without him. Two things stand out there. One, obviously a huge disparity in win% at home and away without him. Two, we've played 12 more home games than road games without McGrady this season. That tends to get overlooked when people mentioned our win-loss record with and without him.

 

According to Hollinger, the Rockets have had the easiest SOS in the league this season (tied with the Thunder) and the 2nd easiest over the Last 25% of games. To be fair, jsmee pointed out a few weeks ago that we had just about the toughest scheduling in terms of b2bs, 4 games in 5 nights, etc... I don't know how much that has changed over the last few weeks.

Regardless, the next few weeks will answer a lot of questions about where this no-Alston, no-McGrady team actually is.

I do know that it was almost impossible to win without McGrady a few years ago. That has certainly changed no matter how things go down the stretch.

 

Also -- a point about the Rockets offensive efficiency: they have been mediocre over the years, and this season as a whole, they have been mediocre. I would, however, like to see what their post-McGrady efficiency split looks like, because my eyes tell me they have been generally much more efficient on offense lately than they used to be, and much of their inconsistency (especially on the road) has been on defense, not offense.