I'd love it if we get to keep Battier when acquring Artest. It'd be awesome...Battier will be our 6th man, and I think he'll accept that after he considers his offensive limitations and he is a great team man after all. Artest will start at 3, with Battier coming off the bench playing equal if not more minutes than him. Battier will cover the 3, and the 4 spot as well when necessary. Battier will get 6th man of the year...trust me...the league is bored of manu as the annual 6th man of the year...
I don´t think the Sixth Man mold fits Battier, if Artest comes here we need to move Battier along with whatever we have and get a PG. By the way Ginobili has been 6MOY only once in his career this year, last year was Barbosa and the year before i think it was Mike Miller or Ben Gordon.
I don't get it. I know PG is our weakest point but i think we can get better with a player that is easier to get. Miller is a really good player but he would be our version of Jason Kidd, he would be left open quite a bit and wouldn't be able to convert on those open jumpers. We would do much better with a shooting PG like Fisher...
We'd be way better with a passing PG! Yao, McGrady and Scola then will be able to set up nicely, and you know they will drain their open shots when set up by the right passing PG with the killer pass. We need that passing PG to set up our offense, control tempo of the ball etc. Isn't Adelman's Offense all about passing and ball transition? We've got two prolific scorers already in Yao and McGrady, and to an extent Scola as well. Its pathetic Rafer only gets 6apg when his team is has that many brilliant scoring options available when he gets to play like 40 mins a game. Calderon gets 8apg when he has to share minutes evenly with TJ Ford, and who has Calderon got other than himself? The only star is Bosh. the rest? Nestrovic, Moon,...you get the idea. and he gets 8apg in those circumstances. There is a reason Rafer isn't working so well for us. He is a scoring first PG, he always looks for his own shot first before passing. Plus he is a below .400 FG shooter! Thats a pretty bad combination. Pass first PG all the way!
So what exactly would we be giving up for the privilege of taking away the starting point guard of the Sixers; their only veteran leader, and one of the most attractive expiring contracts this year? Brooks doesn't help them, as they've already got a similar player in Louis Williams, so then you're looking at a Scola/Rafer package, as the'll absolutely need to get a point guard who can play back. If they can work out a S&T of AI, they might take a Battier/Jackson package. I would think that both of these would seem fairly unappetizing to the Rockets faithful.
