Chris Bosh was absolute trash. Played 0 defense, isn't athletic enough to catch an alley oop, couldn't block shots, was too weak for Santiago, couldn't catch ANY pass thrown by LeBron which would've given him easy layups, shot terribly, didn't get out on the fast break, and made no attempt to go inside. He better shape up quick because Dwight Howard is going to make him look bad if this continues.
My 2 cents: Our starting lineup will have Alston, Tracy, Shane & Yao. We will only have 4 full-time starters unless one of the newcomers (besides Battier) makes a huge impact. You can lock in Alston at PG and Yao at C. Depending on who we play will determine the 5th starter and where Tracy & Shane will play the majority of minutes. Sometimes JH or Hayes will start at PF with Tracy sliding to SG and Shane going to SF. Other times the 5th starter will be another guard which will put Tracy at SF and Shane at PF. The main variables will be Tracy/Shane playing either 3/4 or 2/3 with the 5th starter being determined by the other team. Either we will decide to match up with them or possibly try to force them to match up with us.
Interesting.. I wonder if there will be a "platoon" situation like they do in baseball. They do it by lefty/righty mostly in baseball. I wonder if a regular plantooning of the lineup has been done in basketball.
Positions are meaningless, especially when your dealing with the 2 and 3 spots. Say we play the spurs and Tmac starts at the 3, snyder at the 2 and, Battier at the 4. Whos Bowen goin to gaurd? Tmac right Now say we play Tmac at the 2, Battier at the 3, Juwan/Hayes at the 4. You think Bowen still isnt goin to gaurd Tmac? Those random stats are meaningless, the other team will still put their best defender on Mac. He can play the 2 and 3 and play them at an all star level. On defense Battier will always gaurd the opposing teams best perimiter player regardless of position. He is NOT our starting 4 man nor will he be spending the majority of his minutes there.
Platooning may not be the best word for it. All positions are platooned in a sense because, unlike baseball, NBA players don't play the entire game. Most starters only play 25-35 minutes. Until a 5th player establishes himself, I expect us to have 2 different starting lineups early in the season. Even if 5 guys are settled on as starters, the 5th starter will play relatively few minutes because matchups will determine who gets key playing time. If there is a trade for a definite starting caliber SG or PF before the season starts, cancel this.
True about the substitutions in basketball vs. baseball. I was mostly thinking just about the starting lineup. Coaches tend to like to stick with the same starting lineup game after game when they can help it and deal with matchup issues mostly through substituion and minutes distribution variations. I'm just wondering if a coach could realistically just have two different starting lineups that he alternates between matchups... so Juwan/Hayes ends up starting whenever they face a beefy guy and Snyder starts whenever the PF is less beefy.
Fair enough It illustrates where the league is headed. One "big" in the post, a PG and a bunch of swingmen. That's the landscape of the "new" NBA.
I don't know why people say this. Battier is no midget. He's also pretty strong. I would stick Battier on Dirk, Duncan, KG, and Bosh any day. Have you forgotten about how successful Reggie Evans and Udonis Haslem have been playing power forward? Plus, Battier can shoot the ball, and is good from the line. We have a defined PG and Center. The other three in the middle (T-Mac and whoever else) will get in where they fit in, and I like that flexibility.
Like Battier said himself, if you dont notice him then he's doing a good job. If I wasn't focusing on Battier during the game, I'd say "who's that guy that gets all the loose balls". He'll definitely help the rockets.
It's pretty apparent who has and who hasn't seen Battier play in this thread. Just have to wait for October and see what JVG decides to do.
That especially goes for ones who want to completely waste our top perimeter defender by throwing him on opposing post players.
I agree with you until the last part. Against your quick 2s like Wade, AI, Terry, Barbosa, Gordon, Mobley, etc you are going to a quicker player than Battier guarding them and you would rather not burn out Tmac on them either. That means it will be someone like Snyder, Head, Azub, or VSpan's assignment. You also are not considering that many 4s now are perimeter or face up players foremost (Dirk, Marion, Diaw, Horry, Odom, Ak47, Murphy, KG) and few are traditional power 4s that would just overmatch Battier on strength (Brand, J. Oneal, Duncan--but only if the Spurs have a capable 5, Gasol--ditto). In fact unless we get really crappy play by the above SGs, our best defensive and offensive team for playoff success usually have Tmac at the 3 and Battier at the 4. The WC finalists both went small/more athletic much of the playoffs, and you want Battier to matching up with their 4s (e.g., Dirk, Marion, Diaw). Even SA will probably play Duncan at the 5, Horry or Bonner at the 4, plus Bowen, Manu, and Parker. Again, our line-up that creates the most match-up problems for them while covering our weaknesses has Tmac at the 3 and Battier at the 4. Unless our SGs bomb, for most practical purposes Battier will be the 4. But agree you look at them fluid. Tmac should in fact almost always get the easiest defensive assignment from positions 2-4. If the best opposing player is a big swingman or forward, Battier gets the call. If the best opposing player is a quicker swingman, Snyder or Head probable get the call.
Desert Scar, if Head is our top choice to guard quick swingmen, we are in trouble defensively unless he comes back a lot stronger and smarter this year. Luther couldn't guard anyone last year, even though he tried hard. I have a big question mark on Snyder but I'm sure he's a better defender. If not, he's completely useless and our backcourt will kill us again because Rafer couldn't guard me.
