Good post on Hayes' strong points. If you look at his data on 82games and compare it to say, Shane Battier, he seems to be a comparable performer in terms of impacting games. In particular, per 48 minutes, when Hayes plays the Rockets hold a +2.5 point advantage over opponents. That means he's a winner. Seems like a pretty good statistical measure, so here's what that site lists for other players: Alston +4.3 McGrady -0.3 Battier +0.8 Hayes +2.5 Yao +0.0 Wells -2.5 Scola +0.9 Head +1.1 Brooks +2.1 Francis -1.2 James -3.6 Mutombo -16.2 Snyder +5.0 Landry -11.0
He's always had a slight hitch on his FT and on his jump shot.. but it has progressively gotten worse the more people talked about it and tried to get rid of it. Now I think its all psychological. Apparently, the mental block is spreading to the rest of the team.
I think it's difficult to improve his FT technique during the season. However, I would strongly hope that the Rockets management would get a FT speciailist coach to improve not just Hayes but the lot (Scola, TMc and others) during off season or the summer.
The chuckwagon's FT's (or lack of FT's) is reason enough, Les, to rehire CALVIN MURPHY, the greatest free throw shooter in NBA history.
he should shoot them underhand like the great Rick Barry. <object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PCLf3ltMsMI&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PCLf3ltMsMI&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
