So what the lakers record with Radman starting? This is straight bs and most of guys know it. They dumped stromile and the 8th pick, so what. Do yall also know stro is coming off the books this year? I Any player that starts will have a record if the team is winning. That's only a part of it. What was his plus minus in the playoffs last year? Durvasa , ur the resident stat guru, look that up and tell me. We can go on and on, but next time the rox play and someone is doubleing yao, guess who man it is? Remember 2 yrs ago when they play utah and AK was volley balling Yao shot once he turned in the paint? Guess who man that was. Against La when Kobe was sitting in Yao's lap, guess who his assigment was. Get a clue please. shane is a younger version of Bowen. The differnce is they didn't give up the 8th pick, bowen was a cheap fa. We will go back and forth and people will say he didn't hae the offensive options he has now, but last I checked, gasol, miller, and even williams were pretty good scorers. Bonzi and posey wasn't bad either back then. They didn't wn a freaking playoff game. Let me repeat, they didn't win a freaking playoff game. In houston, what has he done in the playoffs? Do people understand that the year hayes was starting that the rox starting 5 had the highest +/- in the entire league? Was that because Hayes and Battier was so good or because tracy and yao was so good? Recognize that battier is a product of tracy and yao. Without them, he's a 15 mins bench player. He's no better than posey,bowen and those types. Like I've said before is they didn't give up a lotto pick for those guys.
22-6. They're 12-2 when he doesn't start. There went that argument. Not that it's really different than anything else you've thrown out that's been debunked before. Well then it sure is swell we have them.
all role players can be blamed for something like this when the main guys aren't doing their part. If Yao isn't being effective down low and shane is in the corner waiting for a 3 (which IS his role), then Shane looks like he could/should be doing more. If Yao is doing his thing down low and that leads to an open 3 point shot for Battier, then Battier is "the perfect compliment to yao". It all starts with the main guys...the role players aren't suppose to get the main guys going or do the work for them, its about the role players feeding off of the main players.
teams will eventually stack up on our stars. the playoffs are a 7 game series. teams game plan and try to make the role players make big shots (notice the best teams always have role players step up and take and make big shots). eventually shane will be forced to take 10-12 shots a game in certain games and he can decide a game. he plays a lot of minutes so that's why he will have a big impact on how the game is decided. right now, we have wafer and rafer playing well so that's 4/5 of our starting lineup doing well. eventually rafer and wafer are going to struggle. battier will be expected TO MAKE SHOTS AND MAKE PLAYS just to keep the defense honest. but i think if artest comes back and looks healthy and is able to play 35+ minutes, all of this would be moot. we brought artest here so battier and rafer won't have such a big impact on games.
We've got 3 stars, they can't double them all. Also, the reason other teams will force a role player to shoot 10 or 12 shots is because they can't handle the main guys, in our case that would mean Yao is doing his part and the defense doesn't want him to keep doing damage. If Yao is struggling, they have no reason to double and no reason to want Battier to shoot 10 or 12 shots. So one again, it starts with the main guys. If he does have to shoot a lot of shots, they'll be his kind of shots, which isn't a liability. you can't use the current situation as a reason to say Battier is a liability. the 3 b est players are hurt. When that happens everyone else is forced to play outside their role and that rarely turns out well for any team. Rafer for example, tries to be a scorer, lately its worked out, but that's not common at all. So once again, the fact that the main 3 aren't there to do their thing makes everyone else look like they should be doing more. Once everyone is back, then Battier will serve his role. He HAS hit big shots and there's no reason why he can't conntinue to do so, but again, the big shots and open shots come from the go-to guys doing their thing, there's no way to get around that. If you're expecting Battier to play beyond his limits on offense and play like, let's say Wafer, then that's just unrealistic expecations on your part, not Battier playing badly.
with the way the NBA allows to mini-zone perimeter players and sag off to double inside players, oh yes you can double all 3 players. again, all i'm saying is battier simply cannot play big minutes like he has. and you can be right. if tracy and artest come back healthy, his minutes will be reduced. but i remember morey said we have the big four, and he included battier on that list. that's what i'm afraid of.
I doubt Adelman tells shane, go stand in the corner and wait for the double. Adelman is a offensive coach that runs a reflex type offense. That's why you don't see him standing up calling plays. He wants guys to read the defense. When he dumps it to Yao and shallow cuts, its nothing wrong with a jab fake and stop at the ft line for a wide open jumper. That offense has so many variables that can be exploited, but when players can't recognize and execute scissor,shallow, and revers cuts and have people deliver the ball, it castrates the offense. Wafer is doing what u are supposed to do and its not done by calling plays, its read and react. Shane for hi high bbiq, does a very,very poor job of recognizing what the defense is doing and putting himself in position to be effective. Go to www.nba.com/hotsots and look at shanes shots his last year in memphis vs his 1st yr in houston. In fact he shot the ball more here in houston than in memphis. I never said Shane would be offensive explosion, but he can get some easy baskets and get into the flow.
So what Stro is coming off the books this year. Battier is off next year, its not like there is that much difference and dont pretend Shane's contributions would be equal to Stro's over the past two years. As for the giving up the lotto pick, here were the top eleven picks from that year. Bargnani, Aldridge, Adam Morrison, Tyrus Thomas, Sheldon Williams, Brandon Roy, Randy Foye, Rudy Gay, Patrick O'Bryant, and JJ Redick. There is no way you can argue that Battier hasnt been more valuable to the Rockets then any of those guys have been to their teams other then Aldridge and Roy. Maybe Gay as well, but they have been so bad does it really matter and I dont want to start a whole Gay vs. Battier argument again. So my point is, lotto picks are crap shoots. Yes it is easy to say that the Rox could have gotten Gay, but we all know it would have been Sefolosha and can you honestly say you would prefer Sefolosha and Swift over Battier the past two years. That is how you should judge the trade.
Actually, Shane has this year +1. Just because someone else can't make a assesment on players doesn't mean u have to. Pierce,Dirk,Tracy,Marion,Amare, Gay, Kobe , were all drafted 8 or later. Bynum of the laker was drafted 10th. Its not about Gay, its about getting more on the return and that isn't happening. I think Shane is a solid role player worthy of 15-20 mins off the bench. Now if this team happens to play him more than that and expect big results, they're fooling themselves. After a couple years, they opened their eyes and acquired Artest. Shane helps this team, there is no denying that, I just differ on his impact to which he helps the team. I think when the rox get healthy, he will spend a lot of time on the bench and become more situational.
i don't mean he should literally stand there and do nothing else everytime he's on offense for every game. I agree if there's an opening he cant cut inside, he actually cuts baseline and gets a direct path to the hoop as Yao hits him with a pass. However, i think he also recognizes the important of giving Yao space to operate. If i remember correctly, he's usually on Yao's side, feeding the entry pass. If he cuts inside, his man can easily disrupt Yao, like so many help defenders often do. Most of the time it's best to keep his defender at the 3 pt line and give Yao room. Also, it's no secret Battier doesn't have a lot of offensive moves or athleticism. Wafer is more likely to make something happen cutting to the rim than Shane is, so i think Battier just recognizes his weaknesses and sticks to his strengths, which i think is smart of him since that means he's more efficient and therefore he raises the team's efficiency as well.
