That's the whole point. Without the stars his role gets diminished. He can help on defense and help the young guys,but we aren't going to get far enough with that.
the usual, and because he's a vet with experience, an example of that is after smith's putback, most of the team stood there complaining about the call or i guess asking for interference, but battier immediately went to take the ball out before Atl could get back and motioned the Hou players to take off to the other end..
He and Ariza did a good job on Johnson but were both torched by Williams. Cbud played the best out of the 3 wings. DD
Although,that's true but a 6'8" guy should do more than that. I'm not implying we lost because of his rebounding. We couldn't stop their guys when it mattered,nor could we make outside shots.
i dont remember seeing battier on williams, ariza was on him most of the night and then budinger. That's why adelman took budinger out, because although he was hitting, marvin was scoring on him. I agree that overall bud played best though..
i was just askin because you said he had one brilliant game and that was in the preseason, but he had an above avg game against Sac.
Shane Battier is what he is, a good (lost a step maybe) defender, a guy who HUSTLES (and you can never have too many of those), and contributes garbage points here and there. He never was meant to be our offensive threat or go to guy. Please don't tell me you would have rather kept Rudy Gay? Maybe if you ONLY wanted youth. What about Louis, he doesn't seem to be doing quite as good as last year, I am being serious. Why does Landry not start, after the first 12 games this year I now believe Landry should be starting.
Where are the stars going to come from? There is hardly any chance of getting much for Tracy's expiring contract and Yao can't be relied upon next year either.
The team probably needs Shane Battier around to mentor this young group. As Tracy gets closer to returning (less likely) or getting traded (more likely), then Morey might also find Battier a new home. It isn't that Shane has outlived his worth, so to speak, but the guy's 31 and would be much better served playing 28-30 minutes per game for SOME contender SOMEwhere (Cleveland?) or providing defense on a team otherwise lacking (Toronto).
Marvin scored one 3 on Budinger when he rotated over to cover the other 3pt shooter. Budinger played excellent tonight in his short 15 minutes..... He needs 24 or more every game, IMO. DD
i think it's too early to just throw him out there that long every game, he needs to stay in when he's playing well, and limited when hes not. He's pretty much had a good game or a bad one this year, he hasn't developed consistency yet.
I agree with this HOWEVER maybe around Jan or Feb the Rox should experiment with the idea of moving Bud into a starting spot with Ariza just to get them into there right spots and bring Battier off the bench. If Bud struggles then Battier can still gets the majority of the playing time, afterall its who finishes not who starts. All this depends on TMAC and his saga of course.
Veterans are critical,but we aren't going to get much more out of Shane,unless we can miraculously get someone valuable for McGrady. We need to re-build and add the vets later. I do think that Landry is good enough to start right now,while bringing Luis off the bench. Shane and even Luis would be better off on a contending team.
Rebounding wasn't even close to the reason why we lost. Bob Sacamano is once again off base in his Battier criticism. From the AP recap:
This was as bad as I've seen Shane play this season, AB. He was awful. Ariza was off most of the night. Every once in a while a light would go on in his head, but he didn't play very well, IMO. Going against a team of long athletic players (Leeb must love the Hawks), it was bad timing for Trevor to play a bit shaky. No, I wouldn't call Battier an albatross, but he's lost at least half a step, maybe more. His intelligence makes up for a lot of that, but the Hawks are so long and quick that he's at a serious disadvantage. We needed a huge game from Trevor and it just wasn't in the cards. Ariza and Battier were a combined 3-13 from Downtown. I wish we'd had better ball movement on some of those. Incredible game by the Rockets, regardless.
When Yao and Tmac (or a star shooting guard) come back, would you put Battier in the lineup ahead of Ariza? I wont. Defensively, Ariza does maybe a little bit less but offensively Battier is a non-factor. Also there is a Cbud waiting.
