[Chron] Adelman leaning towards Artest off the bench?

That's because the Rockets are smart.

 

It makes more sense to have Artest come off the bench to give you instant offense as well as defensive intensity. On a consistent basis, Shane can only provide a defensive spark.

 

Assuming Shane's foot is ready and he can play, I believe going with the same starting lineup as last year (yao, tmac, rafer, luis, shane) would be the best way to go to start the year. These guys have a great chemistry together and everyone on the team knows and respects them a great deal.

Having Ron off the bench initially will be a good thing b/c it will let him adjust to his new team and not put so much pressure on him to be great starting game one.

I bet Ron eventually takes the starting spot from Shane though, maybe late December early January.

 

I am with Artest off the bench. Let him run with Yao or Tracy out of the lineup where he can breath. So his ball stopping ways won't destroy us. Spark off the bench. Finish in the 4th with Yao/Artest/McGrady, feed to Yao relentlessly.

SLU is the same; "I dont know how big of a deal that is". Ummm.... Huge. We won 22 games in a row half of which came without our best player. So DUHHHH. I will fight Blinebury before I die.

 

These would be the players in my 9 man playing rotation coming out of camp.

Yao - Center
Scola - Power Forward & Backup Center
Landry - Backup Power Forward
Battier - Small Forward and Backup Shooting Guard
Artest - Backup Small Forward, Backup Shooting Guard, Backup Power Forward
McGrady - Shooting Guard, Backup point
Barry - Backup shooting guard, backup point guard
Alston - Point Guard
Brooks - Backup point guard

 

Ginobili comes off the bench for the Spurs and still makes a huge impact. Artest can do the same.

 

A lot of people was saying the same thing about Scola and Hayes. At the end, it was proved that it is best to have the better talent from the start.

Hopefully Artest will start and Battier come off the bench.

 

No i think its more because Hayes clogs up the lane when he is in with Yao. We need power forwards who can space out the floor to give Yao some breathing room.

 

I always thought Artest would come off the bench as a 6th man. But he will probably start with Battier out. The question is, how he does with the starting unit during preseason, and when Battier comes back if they just keep Artest there if he performs well.

 

That would be my list also. With Shane out, we have the depth to plug it up, but Rafer... That's a no-no.

 

So if Battier's not ready, and Artest comes off the bench, who's the 5th starter. Move Tmac to the 3 and start Barry at the 2? Sit Barry when Artest comes in?

 

Keep Artest on the bench then start him when one of our stars get injured. We will always have a back up star this way.

 

let artest play the ginobli role of our team! He would be our instant offense from our bench. He would get around 30 minutes/game considering we need to limit tmac and shane's minutes.

Also, Artest is the most versatile player on our team. He could come off the bench and play the 2-4 depending on our needs.

 

If Battier is injured, I think Ron Artest would start. Thats a no-brainer. If Battier is able to play, Im sure he'd start.

It looks like Adelman stays with what works as evidenced by having Hayes start 1/3 of last season before Scola was inserted.

 

I totally agree with this, also can you imagine the spark we will get off the bench with Artest and Barry along with Landry and Mutumbo(god willing). This team is going to be sick this year. Can't freaking wait for this season to start. Bring it!

 

i agree. i've been saying it ever since he got traded. a person with some basketball knowlegde knows that artest will be used best as our 6th man. can't say i'm surprised that adelman obsviously thinks that way, too.

 

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich moved Ginobili to the bench midway through the season in hopes of getting more offensive energy from his reserves. That helped the Spurs overcome some midseason struggles and go 23-6 after the All-Star break.

Popovich: "The bench wasn't really producing a whole lot. I thought maybe it would be easier for Michael (Finley) or Brent (Barry) to play with the starting group,'' Popovich said. "And I'm fortunate in that Manu is the kind of guy that obviously cares more about the team. Sure, he'd rather start, but he'll do whatever he's got to do for the team and would take it well and not moan and groan about it.''

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Popovich can't say how long the lineup will remain the same, but he does like the flexibility Ginobili has afforded him.

"I still think he'd rather start if he was pressed and asked," Popovich said, "but I think he's become comfortable in (a reserve) role, and our team has become a little more consistent in a rotation-sense.

"It makes substitutions a whole lot easier that way. We have our top three players on the floor more often. I don't mean all at the same time, but at least one of them is on the floor, and that's important to us."

Ginobili typically replaces Barry with about six minutes left in the first quarter. With Tony Parker and Tim Duncan usually headed to the bench a couple of minutes later, Ginobili becomes the team's primary scorer on the floor.

When he was starting, Ginobili said, "sometimes I went back to the bench with nothing done."

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This article was written last season after Ginobili started a few games due to Parker's injury:

That number sends up all kinds of red flags for Popovich, who is perpetually wary of wearying his full-throttle guard. If Ginobili were a race car, he would have finished both those games in the red.

"His minutes might go up a bit, but we're trying not to," Popovich said. "I don't want to overplay him to the point where he runs out of gas."

With Parker expected to miss the entire trip to come, that could be easier said than done. The Spurs will have to fight the temptation to overuse Ginobili, their second-leading scorer at 19.5 points per game.

The subject of Ginobili's minutes always has been a touchy one among Spurs faithful.

Popovich is adamant that he needs to keep them in check in order to maintain Ginobili's freshness and effectiveness. Fans — especially those from Ginobili's home country of Argentina — wonder why he can't play more.

By most measures, Ginobili is the NBA's most efficient player, the only one in the league to average at least 19 points and less than 31 minutes. But that efficiency seems to wane when he takes on too many minutes for too many games in a row.

Ginobili approaches every second on the floor with a pedal-to-the-metal mentality. His battery can drain rapidly if he is overworked.

With the Spurs set to play six games over the next nine days, Popovich will attempt to massage Ginobili's minutes as best he can.

"We've got to find that fine line," Popovich said.

Ginobili has never averaged more than 30 minutes per game in any NBA season. In the past two, he has logged a tad less than 28 per game.

No doubt the Spurs would like to keep his workload in that ballpark.

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So, there isn't the exact same justification for bringing Artest off the bench. While Popovich cites the need to increase bench production, he also mentions Ginobili's relentless style of play and his need for rest.

Artest is relentless, too, but I have never seen an issue with him running out of gas. I still think Artest should start and consider Ginobili's situation an anomaly.