CHRON: tracy and artest practice (with new quotes)

I don't agree Battier did not help on the offensive end. Sure his shots is not there right now. But he is the only one among the starters can reliably feed Yao the ball. It may not always resulted an assist on his stat, but that is something you should not overlook.

I also agree with the other poster -- his shots will come back to him just like Brent Barry.

 

I would think so. At least he's not wincing in pain out there like before. The fact that he is not performing at his normal defense and 3 point for now should not be overlooked though. Hopefuly its just a matter of time.

 

I find it's funny all the tmac fans suddenly became battier haters.

 

DD, I disagree with you on their roles in memphis and now in houston. In memphis, he had Gasol,miller,williams,and posey along with bonzi and wright and swift. On that team, he had the same role offensively, but let me show you the difference.

2004-05
26
MEM
NBA
80
72
2516
271
613
.442
70
177
.395
180
228
.789
158
255
413
126
91
77
75
201
792
2005-06
27
MEM
NBA
81
81
2839
303
621
.488
65
165
.394
147
208
.707
164
265
429
136
92
114
90
223
818

The differnce his last year in memphis to his 1st yr in houston is shot selection. He's getting the same amount of shots and in a way, his ppg are close to the same. The deal with shane now is over 59% of his shots are 3pters where as they used to be half of that. Also he used to go to the ft line almost 3 times a game where as now its barely 1. Those type of things are crucial in a offensive flow. The rox didn't trade for a standstill spot up bruce bowen type, they traded for shane because he could shoot the 3, fill the lane, defend wings and play solid ball. What shane has turned into isn't the player they thought they were trading for. I can almost guarantee that they thought shane would be 14pts 5 rebs with good d .

 

I really hope T-Mac comes back and shuts a lot of people up, because the things some people are saying is ridiculous, their acting like T-Mac is just some average player and he can't really help the team. The guy was injured and your comparing him to Von Wafer saying wafer dunks more than him...Wow, his knee was hurt he couldn't jump of his strong knee, Wafer wouldn't be dunking either if he had a weak knee...Now when he comes back and starts going to work i wanna see the same haters shutting up..

 

I do worry about the player combinations with the return of T-Mac. I'm sure a healthy T-Mac will return to his starting 2 position and that will put Wafer coming off the bench. T-Mac has the ability to draw the defense and find the open man and he will likely take alot of the play-making role away from Rafer. This will probably benefit Scola & Yao, but will put more of the outside shooting on Rafer & Battier. Even though Rafer has been hot, he is not a two guard or our best outside shooter. The combination we have now allows Rafer to be the playmaker and Wafer to be the primary outside shooter. Wafer's outside shot allows the neccessary spacing for Yao to be more effective. I think we will see more combinations of T-Mac with Barry, Wafer or Brooks in the backcourt as oppose to T-Mac playing alot with Rafer. RA must figure how to get enough minutes for Von Wafer, he appears to be a rising star and is one of the primary reasons we have done so well with the absence of Artest & T-Mac.

 

I think that's true big time. I think coach will think long and hard about pairing rafer with tracy. Its obvious, rafer has more freedom without tracy. I would rather go with Brooks and wafer with tracy then bring rafer,artest,battier and landry off the bench I guess. Someone will be squeezed for time and I think its going to be shane and barry. That's why they pay adelman the big bucks though.

 

oink oink

 

Rafer will always be the starter... no doubt abt that..

You think Rafer will become a good "consistent" PG if he does not play with Tracy for too long ( i mean in games) ?

 

Good points. Although Adelman did say in the beginning of the season he wants Mcgrady to play off the ball more. Hopefully that's what he's been implementing in these last few practices.