(Chron) Spurs-Mavericks shows Rockets their Blueprint

Wow, I can't believe what Feigan is suggesting --- sign Wang Zhizhi????

 

I totally agree with this article. The days of needing a banger/enforcer at the 4 are pretty much gone. You need a 4 with quickness and offensive skills. The road to the Rockets success will be surrounding Yao with four swingmen/guards. Take out the traditional PF and insert a long, athletic SF-type like Horry or Marion. Theoretically T-mac would be able to fill that role, but with the uncertainty in his back, I wouldn't bank of that for now.

That is why I'm really warming up to the idea of Rudy Gay. He's long, athletic, with skills to burn. He could easily be an Horry-esque role player even if he never reaches his potential.

Then we add penetrators and shooters in the backcourt and let them run around while Yao does his damage inside. That's why we need to sign back Mike James if he's willing to take our mle.

Draft Gay and another swingman with our 2nd rounder (Ager, Hassan, Denham Brown, Sun Yue etc.), add James, and if Head can improve his overall skills then we can be a legit contender.

Start out with a mixture of Rafer, James, and Head in the backcourt, three guys with different skills and strengths. Then we throw a stack of swingmen out there with Tracy, Gay, 2nd rounder, and maybe Bogans if he shoots 25,000 three pointers this summer. Then we bring down the hammer with Yao, soon to be the most unstoppable lowpost scoring threat in the league.

Rafer / Head
Gay / James / 2nd rounder
Tracy / Gay / Bogans / 2nd rounder
Stro / Howard / Gay
Yao / Stro / Deke

Stro or Howard would start, but the crunch time lineup would be:

James
Best leftover guard, probably either Luther/Rafer
T-mac
Gay
Yao

If James isn't willing to come for the MLE, then go out and sign Rasaul Butler with half our MLE and the other half to V-Span.

Rafer / Head
Butler / V-Span / 2nd rounder
Tracy / Gay / Bogans / 2nd rounder
Stro / Howard / Gay
Yao / Stro / Deke

With our crunch time lineup of:

Rafer/Head
Butler/V-span
Tracy
Gay
Yao

We'd finally have enough athletes on this team to go up against the big boys in the league.

 

It won't happen. I don't think the CBA will let Wang Zhi Zhi back in the NBA after what happened the first time, and I don't think Wang wants to repeat his story either.

 

This is what I have been saying.

Get rid of Juwan Howard and surround Yao with 4 big atheletic guards/mobile forwards.

Tmac is obviously one. The other 3 should be of SF mold. Big, stong, athletic, who can move, cut, defend and rebound but most important of all, can SHOOT FROM OUTSIDE!

Have Yao guard the paint and the other lanky SF/guards cut off the perimeter/passing lanes.

Keep pounding the ball down low into Yao and spot up shooters all over the place or cut to the basket.

Having Juwan Howard taking up a starting spot on the roster is a serious handicap in the new version of the league.

 

I agree with some of the points in this article, but there are plenty of teams having sucess while using a banging power forward, not finess 3pt shooting power forwards. There's a little team out west called the Clippers, with a guy named Elton Brand. They did pretty well this year.

Shaq and Haslem do pretty well together too.
Duncan is by no means a 3pt. shooter.

Yes you need 4's with range, but you also need 4's who can bang and play defense. Neither should be mutually exclusive of the other. That's what substitutions are for. Right now, not one of the pfs on this roster fits either profile of the pf we need. (no offense to Hayes)

I am in total agreement about the shooting guard issue as it pertains to this article.

 

has this guy ever heard of stromile swift?

 

radmanovic anyone? he's 6'10, can shoot the outside range, and pretty athletic for a guy his size.

 

that's awesome!!!

 

LOL, tell PHX that they no longer need amare because he isnt a perimeter 4 that plays like a guard and watch their face

 

Kaman is totally getting run out of that series. The Clippers have had their best success when Brand is at the C, and a guy like Maggette slides over to the PF.

Same deal with San Antonio, where Duncan is playing center and Rasho, and Nazr can't even sniff the court, not to mention that even Big Shot Rob, Super-clutch Horry isn't getting his normal burn because he just can't keep up anymore.

Shaq and Haslem are playing pretty well together, but Walker is getting much of the crunch time minutes at the 4.

Last I checked, Amare has been playing center for the past year and change. And it's not that 4s need to play on the perimeter. But that they need to be quick and mobile and have offensive skills. A healthy Amare had all of those things, and would surely have succeeded at the PF this year. The days of the plodding enforcer-type PF is over.

I think Feigan misses the mark a little (that Keith Van Horn suggestion is patently absurd) with the perimeter shooting 4. I mean he's right that a PF can't be an offensive liability anymore, and can't strictly have an inside game. But I think it's much more important that the PF be someone with quickness and athleticism to matchup on defense, along with some skills to succeed against soft zones on offense (such as shooting, or penetration, or the ability to slash, catch, and finish). Not necessarily a sweet shooting 4, but a 4 that can punish the defense's rotations.

 

lets not forget that the Mavs/Spurs's guards can shoot.
our guards cant hit Robin Givens if they were Mike Tyson.

 

"Big men must have range".
"With Yao Ming in the low post for the Rockets, forwards need to be somewhere else."

 

If this is the line up we are going to have next year, I will be really pissed.

 

Why. What's wrong with it.

If all Gay does is just be an athletic body that can score some, then he'd be giving this team a Deng or Igudola. And how good would we have been if we had Deng or Igudola out there instead of Wesley. And the entire league is now catering to guys like Mike James. He's ferocious at attacking the rim and can shoot the 3 ball.

If we can't sign James, then V-span and Butler would be a decent backup plan. I can see Butler as this year's Raja Bell signing, good defender and a good three point shooter. And V-span should be able to add some of the penetration and scoring that James would have brought.

Considering our assets and how much money we have to work with, I think it's a good, realistic plan.

 

swift actually has a pretty good mid range jumper, and I'm not a swift fan.

 

If this is the case then how could JVG possibly be the coach that we need? These "all offense/little defense" kind of line-up's we're seeing from Dallas, Phoenix and now San Antonio don't exactly fit the mold of a JVG team.

I totally agree that the landscape of the game is changing with this emphasis on athletic guards with the death of traditional post play, but honestly how is a no non-sense/defensive minded kind of coach like JVG going to lead a team aiming to simply outscore their opponents? Can you really picture one of his teams averaging 100 points a game? I know I can't.

 

1. Get top 3 Lotto.

2. Draft Bargnani

3. Sign MJ or do a S&T for MJ

4. Draft Nokak with the 2nd round pick.

5. Sign Morris Almond to a free agent and bring him to camp (he's a steal if he doesn't get drafted)

5. S&T David Wesley and Stromile Swift to Portland for Darius Miles or to the Clippers for Maggette.

6. Bring over Spanoulis

7. Sign Qyntel Woods with balance of MLE.

 

That would have to be one gigantic MLE.

 

Not true. JVG was the one that was going with a 3 guard, Mcgrady, and Yao lineup against the Mavs last year. And it's not a "little defense" lineup as long as Yao anchors the middle and the rest of the team defends and rotates with gusto.

I mean look at San Antonio. They've been the model defensive team for the past 7-8 years. But now they've had to adjust or get blown out of the building. And look at the Pistons. They are really starting to pay the price for having an offensive liability in their lineup (Big Ben).

If JVG can't adapt then dump him. You surround Yao and T-mac with some decent talent and a chimp could succeed with that team. JVG has no excuses.