Huh? Which Barkley are you talking about? Sir Charles wasn't out of shape when he was a superstar in Philly or Phoenix. If you only saw him on the Rockets you didn't see him when he was special. He was a superb athlete and Chuck Hayes isn't anywhere close to him. 6'4 players that are out of shape don't make it in the NBA.
Barkley was forever out of shape. The Round Mound of Rebound. He says it himself. When he came into the league he was fat and out of shape and I think it was Moses or Dr. J told him that he needed to work on his body. Now, he did get into shape and he did come in to camp in very good shape..........for a few seasons, when he was really making a run for the Finals. But during the last couple years here, he wasn't in shape. He was always heavy and he got by on brains, experience, and a deteriorating skill set that was a great skill set. And Barkley did know how to use his body. You are referencing the only 2 times in his career when he was really in good shape and that was in his 2nd year in Philly and in his first year in Phoenix. The rest of the time he came to camp in average to poor condition.
Chuck Hayes, to me, should be the most improved player on the Rox this year. I would look for him to come up and be either the first or 2nd player off the bench for us. We all know JVG likes the D. And when teams go small on us, it is going to make a lot of sense to move Chuck in there for those matchups. It would not even surprise me against certain matchups if JVG actually started Chuck with Batt and TMac at the 2/3. Do not be surprised if he gives us 25 mpg and 10 boards and 6 points on about 4 shots.
Nice read Justinh and hopefully Chucky will bring us some success this year...just wondering though howcome you can start new threads when your still a rookie...i dont have permission yet
Barkley was not 6'4. That is absolutely a myth. Look at some pictures, look at some video of him standing next to people. Be realistic here. Barkley was not Cuttino Mobley's height.
I don't see why people think Hayes' good performance last season was meaningless simply due the fact that he was playing his minutes off the bench. First of all, teams don't all substitute their PFs at the same time as the Rockets do. I suspect Hayes played a good amount of minutes against starters and don't notice a dropoff in his play. Second, teams don't just sub 5 backups for 5 starters in at the same time. Most of the time, the 5-man teams on the floor are a mix of starters and bench players. So, Hayes probably played plenty of minutes against opposing 5s that have at least 2, 3, or 4 starters in them even when the opposing PF is not a starter. Even if he isn't personally guarding or guarded by a starting PF, he still has to run the offense against other starters, defend other starters on switches and help defense. Finally, even if all he's proven is that he can play well against bench players, it's still meaningful. Teams play bench players plenty of minutes, and the points you score or give up during these minutes count in the W/L column just the same and if Chuck can do well agaisnt them in these minutes, it'll help the team.
Since I was looking specifically at instances where he and Howard were on the court with Yao AND McGrady, I wouldn't be so sure about that. Also, I put the opposing lineups seasons numbers in parenthesis. The lineups Chuck faced while playing with the two stars (albeit in a very small sample) scored at a higher rate on average than the lineups Juwan faced. Since starters are generally more offensively potent than second units, that indicates that he could have been facing a mostly starters in those minutes. Even if the numbers don't prove Chuck will be effective, they do show that there isn't much evidence in the opposite direction ... that he wouldn't be effective playing alongside Yao and McGrady. Fact is, we never got to see him play alongside them long enough to make a judgement. That was my main point.
Agree, I don't think people realize how much of a freakish athlete Barkley was. In his prime he easily had close to a 40 inch vertical leap while weighing 280 lbs. We probably won't see another athlete like that for some time.
Funny but true. Hayes has a Charles Barkley butt capable of moving other players around the court. You can really create space with a big butt. I have been waiting to see Ming do more of that as well. At the end of last season he finally started doing more "butt bumping." And talk about a giant butt. Ming can clear the key if he really wants to. The only draw back is that Ming's butt is at the level of most player's faces.
Maybe he could ues that to his advantage. I think players would tend to back off if a butt was rubbing up against the head.
chuck will have a much improved season from last. i don't want to overhype him and say he'll be a starter soon, rather that he will make a very nice spark off the bench.
