The comparison to the Celtics is unfair. We are more lik the Laker's last season. Lamar Odom struggled to fine himself in L.A becasue he needs to ball in his hands to be effective. What did the Lakers do this season? Moved him to the bench. You guys will see when Shane Battier returns to the starting line-up and Artest gets on the floor with Brooks as part of the second unit, how much better the team plays. The initial analysis of the Rockets is correct, but the solution is Shane Battier. Another thing people are not focusing on is Luis Scola. Is rebounding is way down on what it should be. We all know because of his height Yao Ming will struggle to get heaps of rebounds, which is where Scola needs to lift his game. He needs to starting cleaning up the boards more.
I agree Scola does not need the ball to score, but I would argue he best scoring as a post-up player. Because we have 3 pseudo-super-stars, we don't need him to focus on scoring nor be the focus of the ball on offense. No Artest cannot post up a PF. He may potentially be strong enough, but just not tall enough. But watching him play last year with Sac and in previous years, his offensive game centered around posting up the smaller/weaker SF/SG's that would guard him. In fact last year he did this more often, and had one of his most efficient offensive seasons (high FG%, 3pt %, Assists) since he lost that year to the Brawl. Because we have too many people who post up, he has played more slasher and catch-and-shoot so far, which is not his game. Basically what I'm trying to say, is that he is more of a post player, and because we have so many of those type of players, he is trying to use the other parts of offensive game, which are not as strong and part of the reason for the drop to 30% shooting and fewer FT attempts (more than 1/game). Which causes the lack of chemistry and flow and offense.
chemistry comes with time. Give the team more than 9 games to determine whether or not we're gonna make it or not.
Agree on both counts, move Artest to the bench and insert Battier and the team instantly gets better. DD
My thought is simply that T-Mac should take a few DNPs to heal and provide the opportunity for Yao and Artest to play as a tandem. Why? b/c MORE IS NOT NECESSARILY BETTER THAN LESS For the same logic as the OP, but to a different conclusion... we have TOO MANY PIECES that have yet to figure out how they fit in the puzzle. T-Mac moreover is NOT 100% no matter what anybody says. He's pressing... and pressing way too hard for any of the other players including Yao to really get a good sense of on court chemistry. Same is true with Artest. Yao and Artest, imho can share the 40 fga per game very comfortably and at a high and complementary percentage. Divy that up with T-Mac and you get strife. For his health, there is NO REASON T-Mac should be jacking up 15+ fgas when he is this inconsistent. Don't care how good a talent he is. Why not give those fgas to Artest to figure out where he fits in the post up/3 pointer/drive to the hoop picture? Artest would benefit. So would Yao. theSAGE
Why do we have such a useless """"""""""""""superstar"""""""""""""" in McGrady? I think I begin to see how AntiSonic feels now. I'm not willing to go into that school of thought yet, but Jesus T-Mac is bad. T-Mac is more than useless out there, he's pathetic. A t-mac for cuttino mobley would be an outstanding deal right now. Hell, we've already got Francis. Let's sign Cato out of the retirement home and make ourselves the old failing rockets again
That is a realistic option regarding T-Mac. The least we can do, when Battier is back, is to limit T-Mac's minutes.
Tmac640, I was at the game, and Tmac played lethargically, he just didn't try for more than half the game. A prime example is at the end of the first half, Tmac got stripped and he watched the ball as it headed out of bounds only to have a Spurs player run from the middle of the court and reach AROUND Tmac to tip the ball and save it. All Tmac had to do, was reach down and pick up the ball, but he basically just stood there and watched.....which is a microcosm of his entire game. Tmac just did not try, until the end, and by then it was too little too late. DD
but see.. we tried this before.. various ways.. the inside/out with shoothers under JVG.. and Adelman's offense mixing athleticism/speed (Brooks/Landry), shooters(Head last year/Brent this year/Shane/Wafer), and low post scoring (Yao/Scola) last year and this year.. yet it seems no matter the contrasting differences in approach and philosophy, that we've tired.. the outcome has always been the same.. this team simply reverts to old nasty habits... when we haven't had the redundancy.. we were fated to lose as soon as one of the players became sidelined via injury.. because we had no one to make up for/replace the specific quality of the would be player we lost.. now that we have a redundancy in support... we struggle in finding our identity as a whole.. and the only constant cause I can see that most likely is behind all this.. is this dependancy on Tracy and to a lesser extent.. Alston.. which we had no choice but to accept in previous seasons.. but such is not the case anymore.. yet we see the team still revert.. going only as far as those two.. it's unacceptable when you have so much talent on your group.. to still behave this way.. I believe the other players, however new to Tracy, still follow suit as do the players that have been here longer.. because of Tracy's commanding persona on the court.. not in the sense of leadership.. but in his complete command and demand of the ball.. and persistent diversion from the team's offensive philosophy.. which seems to become more prominent with Alston's absence.. and I really think in order for us as a team to have success.. this mental and team over-reliancy on Tracy and Alston.. has got to cease.. there is no need for it anymore.. we have the depth.. we have the talent.. we should not be struggling against up and commers like Portland.. or getting humiliated by the Lakers.. or losing to the Spurs sans Parker and Giniboli.. just because Tracy's not 100% or Alston misses a game.. and my idea to start the 'de-programming' as it were.. if we can't move Tracy.. due to his decreasing value.. Is to move him and Alston to the bench.. and move Brooks to the starting line-up while keeping Artest where he is.. Tracy will be tracy, clearly, no matter what.. with that must to have the ball in his hands, preferably as soon as he crosses half court.. To me that mentality, on such a weary yet healed body, would be better served off the bench as your "instant offense".. And Alston, well.. we have always considered him as the prototypical PG off the bench.. Brooks/Scola continue to do what they do best without having to defer to 3 instead of two.. Yao gets more feeds.. and Artest gets more comfort room, provides Tracy's offense at the start, with better defense, and more effort towards Adelman's philosophy.. Landry/Battier will be able to exceed interchangeably..
I can see the benefit to your thoughts, it might work, and it is sure worth a shot. Getting Tmac out of the starting lineup would allow Artest to do what he does best.... Either way you change the chemistry of the players which is what I am talking about. DD
While I agree with the general premise of your OP, I just wanted to point out that KG's offensive game is not in the low post at all and is totally different than Yao's.
maybe you are right. Yet to see a game where both artest and tmac have played well in the same game. We seen yao/artest or yao/tmac. But so far nothing from tmac/ron in the same game.
The problem is stagnation, both Tmac and Artest do not move off the ball, they stand in one spot and make it easy on the defense, they make their moves off the dribble. What we need are people going to set screen and popping out....all the movement that the team showed in Phoenix was gone, Tmac was not out there setting screens, he demanded the ball. I guess this is the story of TMac's career, he stole a game from San Antonio with 13 in 35 seconds, and now he gave them one back with 0 in 5 minutes. I just do not think that Tmac and Artest fit together as players, we need a guy who moves around screens and makes shots, not two guys standing around waiting to go iso. DD
