There are some haters out there,but pointing out his poor shooting prior to these last few games was denied as a problem by many on the board. Even the coach has admitted that he needs to continue being aggressive. I appreciate what he is doing out there.
Unfortunately, not everyone reads them every year, so as redundant as it may seem, i think they feel they have to remind some fans. I'm sure some overreacted ont he chronicle message board just like they did here.
Personally, I felt as if it would eventually be a problem if he didn't get out of his funk. But the team was winning games and he was keeping his attampts low instead of trying to shoot his way out of the slump during games. I can't help but feel if he did take a lot of shots just back then just to be aggressive it would have cost us some games. Most of the time you tell shooters to just keep shooting, eventually they'll get going again, but i think this was more than just a bad stretch for Battier. He needed to get his mechanics back in order first and then get his rythm and mentality back, which wasn't going to happen through in-game shooting. I think it was clearly a matter of time before he got his shot back as his ankle healed more and more.
Battier and Scola are the smartest players in Rox team. Lowry could be the third one, but he needs to be more active.
I understand what you are trying to say but I feel Shane's problems were clearly noticed and addressed by Adelman .He wouldn't have talked about it if he didn't think it was a problem. I get annoyed and even angry at times with Adelman but he knows a lot more about basketball than any of us.
Lol I think Jonathan is late with this article. He should have wrote this a while back. Battier is a classy guy. Great for any team who needs a veteran to get them over the edge. I wonder if guys are still angry about the Battier for Gay trade. Look how that turned out.
well i think he talked about it because he was asked about it, rather than just stating it becuase it was a significant problem. I think that's the key, it wasn't that significant yet. Eventually it may have been. If you want to ask if it was just a problem, regardless of it's significance, then yes it was, but in tht case you can argue every player has one. I think it comes down to winning. Is the problem consistently causing failure, losses? In Battier's case it wasnt. Just like Scola's defense doesn't, AB's inability to pass doesnt, and Barry's lack of speed doesnt, etc. Certain problems do, like Yao not getting enough shots or rafer consistently shooting a lot of shots.
Yeah, seriously. That was my immediate reaction as well. It seems the Battier haters cannot avoid my eye rolls no matter how well he is actually playing.
I'm not. The point i'm trying to make is that you have to consider significant problems vs problems. All teams and players have problems, but it all comes down to winning. You gotta win more than you lose. Any problem can contribute to a loss at any time, but you can't solve all of them, so you can't dwell on every single problem out there. Take the ones that are CONSISTENTLY causing losses and work those out. If you group all the losses, i don think you can consistently say scola's man dominated us almost every time, or AB got shut down and couldn't pass out most of the time, etc. Shane's bad shooting was consistent most of the year, yet the team still lost with him shooting poorly and won the same as well, which tells me there's bigger problems with more influence on wins and losses. During shane's worst stretch in early march the Rockets were 8-3. The losses coming against SA, Utah and LA by an average of 5 pts. The SA game was close in every way, just a hard fought game that could have gone either way, so let's look at the other 2: Utah- outrebounded 45-31 LA- 23 turnovers to LA's 12 Those are the significant problems in those losses. I think we can all agree that looking back at the losses throughout the season rebounds and turnovers often come up. Those are big and significant problems because they're consistently linked to losses. Shane's poor shooting contributed no more than Scola's D, Brooks' passing, etc. because those are things that are always there from game to game yet we still win most games. If you look at game where we were outrebounded or turned the ball over by a large margin, we lose most of the time. Even wafer played badly during that stretch, shooting about 28% from 3, but i wouldnt say that's a significant problem either because they still win more than they lose when Wafer shooter poorly. That may sound incorrect, since he usually seems to be the spark that pushes the team, but the key is when he shoots poorly, he shoots less. That's the difference between Wafer/Shane and Rafer. Rafer's problem was significant because of how large of a role it played because he shot so much. Von and Shane's shots are limited when they shoot poorly, therefore not as significant. The only difference is Von has to be yanked out when he's cold or he'd keep shooting, while Shane can self-regulate his attempts even when playing 30+ mins. Either way the damage is kept to a minimum by being controlled.
I'm probably Shane's most vocal critic. It's not that I don't think he is a decent player. I just think people overrate him and his smarts. My criticism is that is an underachiever. He was drafted 6th overall and was decent offensive player coming out of college. Instead of working on his game, he became a one trick pony on offense. Unfortunately due to his injury that trick didn't work very well so he became a rick man's Ryan Bowen. He doesn't get boards, he doesn't get assists, he doesn't get steals, he doesn't come up big in the playoffs. I take Shane for what he is. A great team defender that at best keeps people honest on the offensive end. He is someone that I like on the rockets but he is not untouchable. If I had to include him in a package for Granger, Ellis, or Joe Johnson, I would do it without hesitation.
Battier needs to take open shots, period. Recently he's done a good job going to the rack with his hook shot and that's seem to have helped his confidence. We are seriously at a disadvantage when teams do not even guard Battier and he is too smart not to realize that. We can withstand occasional 1-6 (or 8) games as long as he's functioning well in the offense and keeping his man off Yao.
I have noticed that,and that was one of the things that some of us pointed out during his drought,there are other ways to contribute on the offense end. Shane recently has started to do these things with good results as you have pointed out.
I agree that all the rest of the guys have there own problems as well. I have never singled Battier out. I feel all these things have a cumulative effect which to me seems significant,irrespective of our record.
Anybody that watched Battier in college knew what they were getting: a tweener with limited upside that brought a ton of defense, intangibles and a killer three point stroke. Nobody was expecting him to become a 20-10 player. What you're overlooking is how the 2001 Draft was widely considered to be a weak draft. Because of that, a "safe pick" like Battier all of sudden became a much more attractive option. You can't fault Battier for nearly being a top five pick yet ultimately becoming an NBA role player. That, by no means, makes him an underachiever.
Your idea of his underachieving is mainly based on his draft position? That's really beyond his control. The draft wasn't a deep one, Kwame was the #1 selection. 3 of the top 4 picks were high schoolers. Clearly there wasn't much in that draft if they were going for potential. In a deeper draft he probably drops closer to the end of the lottery like JJ reddick, and he was a household name in college basketball. Is JJ also underachieving since he was a great college player? No, he is what he is, a good offensive college ball player, but drops several notches in the NBA. Shane's offense drops the same way. The defense doesnt drop as much because defensive hustle and brains can match defensive talent, but it's not the same on offense. Talent and athleticism are big parts of offense in the NBA. Shane has neither. Have you seen him try to drive to the rim when guarded? He almost hurts himself sometimes. Sure he looks good slamming home 2 points on a cut that leaves him wide open, but who doesnt? His a one trick pony (2 with his hook shot) because that's what his offensive talent allows him to do consistently. Define what "coming up big" in the playoffs means? I seriously get tired of arguing about this when it's clear he's played at a higher level int he playoffs compred to his reguylsr seasons. If you're looking for him to go from a role player to scoring 15 or 17 per, then you're asking too much from him, that's shouldn't be a knock on him. It's like asking Scola to start becoming a shot blocker in the playoffs. He's not capable of it consistently. I think that shane's critics dont realize the difference between his worth as a player and his worth to a team. As an individual player he's not worth much, even I wouldn't say he is. If you take away all other variables and and just compare Shane and Gay, of course Gay has more value as a player. However, the NBA isn't one huge one-on-one tournament, so you HAVE to look at the other variables and they change how much Shane is worth. The fact that Houston didn't have a guy like him and there arent a lot of guys like him around raise his value. How much is a flashlight battery nowadays? 3 or 4 bucks? How much would you pay for it if they were sold out and you HAD to fix your car tonight using it? You'd probably be willing to pay 6 or 7 bucks, maybe even 8 or 9 because it's the last thing you needed to complete your task (fixing the car). Why not wait until the stores re-stocked? Because you have to fix it NOW. So you pay 8 bucks for it, get home, put it in, only to realize the flashlight is broken! The next day you have no cash to take the bus. What do you blame? The extra money you spent on the battery, but what was the REAL problem? Is the battery any less capable of holding power because the flashlight was broken? No, it's still a working battery. You only start complaining about it because you can't use it as you hoped, but all that changes again the moment you get a new flashlight. Same ****. Dont expect a battery to change into a flashlight. Shane is what he is, he's valuable to us when at full force (yao, ron, tmac), but is questioned when we're hurting. You want to trade him for a new flashlight instead of fixing the old one or returning it? Go ahead, but it still wont turn on.
Exactly. No one mentions how it took adelman a long time to address shane's poor shooting. Why was that? Because he knew it wasn't a big issue and the team could withstand it. Even sometimes when teams left him open, Adelman still didn't address it because those teams would go after Yao whether Shane is hitting or not. Like Kobe, he always tries to strip Yao. It wasn't until about mid march that Adelman had shane start making cuts and posting up, which is when teams really started leaving him more often because of his poor shooting, rather than just because of Yao being turnover prone.Soon after that shane found his shooting touch again. Seems like Adelman had an idea of when Shane should beback to the norm, once that time came and he wasn't back, he adjusted. He was only off by a week or two.
