I get sick to my stomach thinking of playing Utah again in the first round...we couldnt win with yao so we dont really stand a chance if we play again
Not at all...Of course we will miss Yao playing Utah (every West team) in the playoffs but that doesn't mean we won't have chances. Look, from last year's playoffs a lot of things have changed. First of all it is coach, offensive coach. Remember? Last year we didn't play anything offensivly, because Van Gundy's games was all about defense. And offensivly we had only McGrady who had to create plays for other (be a playmaker) ans score points at the same time. Now the situation is a lot different, offenivly we know what to do, we know how to play and we still know how to defend. Than again, we have Scola, Landy who both can score and contribute well. Remember last year? They had Boozer averaging 23 ppg and we had Chuck who? He couldn't make any shoots, he still can't. So that's another improvement. Than you go with Bobby and Aaron. Of course Rafer's been playing better but he doesn't have to play 44 minutes every game, not in playoffs. Than we have bench which is really great, they can score, they can defend. Again, how about guarding boozer now? It was very stupid decision to put Yao on Boozer every time, even if it didn't worked. Yao was having problems with Okur defending him, we had problems with guarding both Boozer and Oku, now I'm sure it will be a lot easier. How about chemistry...? It is also important.
Dallas wasn't the only team to rest their starters and play well in the playoffs. It seems to me that 2 or 3 other teams did the same with the same results(Detroit's the only one I can name), while Cleveland had to fight for position and kept it up to the finals. I hate the term "rest", but I'd be OK with cutting their mpg by 2 or 3.
cutting someone's minutes by 2 or 3 doesn't realy do anything, it's either play them 15+ less or play them at full strength.
boozer was 4-14 the game we played without yao. the game was tight until novak came in and left korver for all those open shots. boozer was 14-24 the 2nd game of the season yao was guarding him. we will miss yao's offense (as we have been), but against a specific team like utah, boozer will not go off on us. i doubt deke will play more than 8-10 minutes just to give the jazz a different change of pace, but hayes will play more i think. scola/landry will guard okur.
Do you think we should rest T-Mac and Deke? I think we should trust RA and the coaches to know their players and what is best for them. Each player will have different physical and mental needs, and that is why the coaches get paid the big bucks - to make these type of decisions. Trust in RA - he has gotten us this far.
If it will help us in our first playoff series of course we should rest them. If anyone has a nagging injury it is time for rest also. Face it, the west is too tough top to bottom to try to win a 7 game series with tired legs and injuries. Our best chance is to be 100% healthy and rested ... however we do need to have some rythmn so I would play everyone the last 2 games also. I think our losses to Dallas in 7 and Utah in 7 were in part to being worn down as the series went on. Remember how fast we started in each series.
Play them as log as we do not risk an injury, especially in the Denver game when they will be fighting for survival in this last week.
I would try so start some games with Scola and Hayes and check if Mutombo is needed during the game, because i do see that Mutombo has fallen a lot in his production since his first game since Yao was out. Anyway not looking to rest him no matter what, just not start hi so if he isn´t needed he gets a DNP.
If T-Mac and Deke rest during these next four games, our confidence will be so shot that they will have even more rest, 6 months of it, once we get swept out of the playoffs. These next four games are critical--Seattle, Phoenix, @Denver, @Utah. We don't have to win them all but we need everyone who's going to be in the rotation to play, and we need to prove to ourselves that we can still hang with the big boys in the post-streak period. We need to run our offense more smoothly, be in contention every game, and most of all believe in ourselves. If all that happens then we can rest everyone against the Clippers in the last game of the season.
