I'm sure I'll get flamed for this. Just remember, you heard it here first. Bonzi can shoot, pass, post, defend, cut, and loves to attack the basket. Bonzi most importantly can rebound, and is in shape. Honestly, I think Shane is one of the most overrated "underrated intagibles" players to ever play the game. Shane is a great person to play the three position. However, Shane is a terrible player alongside Tmac, and to a lesser extent Yao. Shane is a slow 6'8" player who can not handle the ball, can not create any offense, is not a great passer, is not a post up player, and is a decent shooter from the corners. He takes charges well, and never gives up on defense. His "IQ" is totally overrated. He often makes "mistake minimizing" decisions, but these decisions add to the indecision of our team. If there is an open man on a cut, Shane is quite obvious and often telegraphs his next move, making it easy for his defenders. When Shane is open, he often passes up the open shot with a hesitancy that wastes opportunities. The one thing Shane can do extremely well is defend players at the three position. However, this requires Tmac to guard the two, and waste his energy. Put Shane on most two's, and he is really not much better than an average defender, as his footspeed is not up to par. The only good two I've really seen him frustrate is Dwayne Wade, mainly because he can draw charges so easily against someone so drive dependent. Honestly, I feel that a change much akin to the Jim Jackson -> David Wesley is needed. JJ was a solid player that many people liked. However, David Wesley brought the ability to take the two guard position and actually allow Tmac to play the three. Tmac back then was also a lot more explosive and would have handled being next to Shane better had he still had this explosiveness. But right now, Bonzi is a much better fit next to Tmac and Yao, and is clearly the best third option.
It's not like you're going out on a limb here. We all know what Bonzi can do when he's in shape and motivated. He was supposed to be the third best player last year under JVG. If he's the third best player on this team this year, i dont think it's gonna surprise a lot of people, especially under coach Adelman... edit: I think you're wrong about Shane all around...especially his passing abilities...He's great at getting Yao the ball in the post (probably the best post passer on the team)...And you gotta remember that he's mostly in there for defense and his ability to hit those wide open spot up threes...
I'm not going to flame, I thought Jim Jackson sucked.. Wesley played much better then JJ could have dreamt. Anyways, Bonzi is finally in shape and ballin' I'd still much rather have Shane in there to start. The man gave Kobe fits last year, you can't deny his defense and I don't think he's overrated on the intangibles, I think he is rated in the same league as Bowen, and rightfully so... Bonzi needs to be our 6th man.. not sparkplug sixth man that James needs to be but our 6th man force, a reliable scoring option coming off the bench that can then stay in the game and continue to produce and be a threat beside Yao. That way we always have a reliable scoring option in there minus any scoring from the pg slot to go to for iso's when trapped.. Yao/T-mac/Bonzi.. then again it also depends on the score as Battier is a reliable 3pt threat. Now 4th quarter depending on the lead, if we are Losing I'd have Bonzi in the 4th over Battier, if we are winning you have Battier in the game over Bonzi.
Bonzi really do the good job tonight. Especially defend and passing, he will break out this coming season under RA's system.
This will play out over the season. One clue to look for is who finishes games, Bonzi or Shane. The finisher will be the player Adelman has more trust in. As for 3rd best player, I'm going to drink the Kool-Aid and think it might be Scola before the season ends. Right now he's way too foul-prone (which I expected), but once he adjusts, watch out.
link 2008 MVP? No brainer -- it's Bonzi. Our long national nightmare is over. Bonzi Wells is back with the Rockets and now the good times roll. This time there will be no root canals during training camp. No personal leaves of absence. No extra weight that makes him look like a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Bonzi is in the best shape of his career. We know this because his agent said so. He is a man on a mission. He is going to have the best season of his career. His agent said that too. There is no question that when the Rockets signed Bonzi on the eve of training camp last year, they figured they were getting a bargain. Now imagine how much of a steal it will be next season when he actually plays? Kinda like buying one of those dogs-playing-poker velvet paintings and finding a Rembrandt hidden underneath. Of course, it was all Jeff Van Gundy's fault that Bonzi didn't get a chance to shine last season. It was personal. It was a vendetta. It was all because Bonzi wouldn't give Van Gundy one of those really cool headbands to wear on the sidelines to keep the two or three hairs out of his eyes that was behind all of their problems. Now Rick Adelman is on the scene and that means Bonzi is sitting there on the launchpad like a space shuttle at Cape Canaveral just waiting to take off. After all, they have a long a harmonious history. Part of one season together in Sacramento. That glorious playoff series against San Antonio, which they lost. Yao can't stop Carlos Boozer in the paint in the playoffs? Don't worry. Bonzi will take care of it. T-Mac can't bother to show up for the first half of Game 7 at home? Don't worry. Bonzi will carry the load. Would the Rockets have spent the last decade wandering in the post-season desert without a single series win since 1997 if Bonzi had been here sooner? Wouldn't they have benefitted from the leadership he showed in Portland, where he threatened to punch out a referee on the loading dock? Wouldn't they have been lifted to greater heights by the player who was banned by the head coach from even entering the arena in Memphis? Make no mistake about it. I was all for the Bonzi deal a year ago. At those prices, the Rockets couldn't afford not to sign him and give it a whirl. And I was all for Van Gundy giving him more opportunities last season. Now I'm just gonna hop on the Bonzi Express with everybody else and wait for him to carry the Rockets to the parade next June. After I cast my Bonzi vote for the 2008 MVP Award, maybe he'll let me ring the bell on the lead firetruck. Let the Lakers deal with their Kobe problem. Let the T-Wolves find a suitable place to ship KG. Let the Spurs worry about Tony Parker's energy level after the honeymoon. We can put our feet up and take the rest of the summer off. In Bonzi We Trust.
I actually think it might depend on the match ups and other situations..If we're trying to hang on to lead late in the game, I think we'll see Shane. On the other hand, If we're looking for offense, you gotta consider that Bonzi can abuse a lot of people on the low block. Who knows, we might even see both of them....I just dont wanna see Bonzi trying to contain Kobe or Lebron in a 4th quarter... (I cant wait to see him matched up with Ginobili late in a game)
I have one qualm with that Fran Blinebury piece. Sure JVG wasn't ALL at fault with the last season, but that doesn't mean he didn't have a big part in what was wrong. I really hated it when people said "why run a play for Bonzi? Why run a play when you have better options in Tmac and Yao?" Bonzi is an offensive player (maybe a pun on words), but even if he was in shape, I'm not sure that JVG would have used him very well. JVG tailored his system to his two stars, and let everyone else roleplay. RA takes his entire roster into account, and uses his system. I for one hope that his way finally works (ie. Sac vs. LA) against the two-three man games that you see elsewhere. JVG's idea of using talent is to place those proverbial square pegs into round holes, or to use smaller round pegs instead.
Agreed. I actually mentioned that in another thread. At the same time, I still think one of the two will become our default closer for most games while the other will become a situational closer, if you know what I mean.
What??? All absolutely true. You're underrating his jumpshot, though. 42% from 3 is excellent, even if it's all from the corners. His weren't. I think you're making that first part up unless you're talking about this preseason. We never had anyone cut to the basket last year besides Luther on the baseline and Chuck when Yao was double teamed. Shane did not have the ball in his hands in either situation and never held on to the ball, ever. If he passed on a shot, he'd pass it in less than a second. There was always enough time to run another set; he wouldn't pass on shot if there were six seconds left on the shot clock. His actions were predictably quick: 1) Dump it into Yao from the corner. 2) Shoot the open 3. 3) Two dribbles and a left-handed hook. The predictability hurt us on offense, not the hesitancy. There was no hesitancy. Battier guarded Kobe last year. He guarded Manu last year. He guarded Wade. In the double OT win over the lakers, Tmac guarded Kobe for maybe six minutes tops. I know this from memory. I'm watching the spurs highlights from last year right now, and I can confirm that Tmac is guarding Bowen. I switched to the Heat highlights. Shane guarded Wade. Who did Tmac guard last year? You talk about David Wesley, when Shane has the exact same job. He guards the other teams best perimeter player and shoots the three. So please tell me who Tmac wasted his energy on.
I'm a big fan of Bonzi 2.0, it's just that the better he plays the more his value increases, and the less chance we have of keeping him next year.
i hope adelman let tmac guards the other team's best player more. last yr, battier did guard kobe/wade/lebron well. tmac shows he can defend but b/c JVG thinks tmac has so much responsibilties on offense that he can't expend all his energy on defense, esp. when he was so out of shape. in 04-05, JVG did put tmac on kobe, lebron, paul pierce quite often and he did really well. so we'll see
Absolutely. Tmac is an extremely underrated defender simply because he took it so easy on the defensive end for a season and a half in Orlando. He was very good defensively before that and very good defensively in Houston. I've said it before: when he goes out with injury, we miss his defense almost as much as his offense.
Good points (strange to refer to guy w/ the name Mr. Buttocks). When I said Hesitancy, perhaps I used the wrong word. Shane is just slow. His shot can take some time to bring it forward, hitch it, and then release. One thing I loved about Wesley was his ability to come off of movement and hit any shot, much like a true SG. He also didn't need time to set up, and was far more unpredictable as he always had the threat to drive as well. He also moved the ball quickly, and in general was a quick player, even if he wasn't fast. With Battier, one of the most gruesome sights is to watch him try to post up. God forbid that I have to watch that again. Also, Wesley could also handle the ball as a secondary point at times, and could initiate offense into Mcgrady. But more than anything, I felt Wesley (along with MJames, Sura, Padgett etc) could take the opening created by the extra attention to Tmac/Yao and capitalize. Sure Battier didn't do anything wrong in last year's system technically, and maybe if Rafer could have fulfilled this role better he wouldn't have to, but when 2/5 (3/5 if you count Chuck) couldn't create offense... I'll stop beating the dead horse now.
I look at our signing of Bonzi last year in the same sense that the Yankees gave Jon Leiber a 2yr-deal immediately after Tommy John surgery. That first year is gonna be a wash no matter what, but hey, pretty good bargain in year two! But give Shane a chance to redeem himself. Here's my rendition of a piece of JVG advice in a preseason conversation: "STOP TRYING TO PLAY BASKETBALL!!! You are useless, ****ing useless, all you can do is shoot open threes and take charges!" Thus, the Resurrection of Shane Battier's Offensive Game will be a long and arduous process, but it'll happen in time. Did you see his left hand hook today? His finishing touch will get better and better the more confidence he regains.
So far all preseason games result in early blow out!! This is an indicative of easy buckets created by Adelman's offense and at the same time Rockets still have that JVG's defense. So i guess that's why it's a blowout. I remember how difficult it is to score under Jeff against great team and there are times where they miss so many opportunities to score. But now i can imagine how easily it is to blow out teams and i mean GREAT TEAMS...just because this team still play touch interior D with Yao inside!! Sacramento never have that.
in view of our starting 5, bonzi may be the 3rd best player, but james and scola have a more important role than bonzi at this stage.
I'm thrilled that Bonzi is playing well, but you have to remember, he's the only player who has signficant experience with Adelman's offense, and is already comfortable with it. So, it makes sense that he would shine before anyone else, especially since he came into camp in shape.
The next guy who seems comfortable with Adelman's system is Yao. The one who is the most uncomfortable with the new coach's system is Steve Francis.
