After watching the last preseason game and the substitution pattern of Turner I was concerned. But when Martin got in foul trouble Adelman substituted Budinger instead of Lee. I was surprised by that substitution and then later when Adelman wanted to rest Battier he substituted Lee instead of Bud. Again a bit of a surprise. While I was a bit surprised, I for the most part like the substitutions. Lee and Martin on the court at the same time make sense. battier and Bud on the court at the same time make sense. Martin and Bud on the court at the same time don't make the most sense. Especially when Kobe is one of the other players on the court for the opposing team. There will be some nights when Bud and Martin can play together but against Kobe is not one of those times. That being said I was most impressed with Martins D. I hear complaints about it but IMO he has definitely improved over last year. Yeah he got into some foul trouble but it was mostly because he was over hustling. Bud has improved too but he still has a ways to go and a longer ways to go to replace Battier. But the substition pattern all in all was good. Now lets see how they handle tonight's game without Yao. Does Miller start or do you keep him in his same role as to not throw off his rhythm. Is Hill the starter. Does Jeffries get any minutes. Lots of things to learn tonight. I am surprised we didn't establish some of these in the pre-season. But leaves for a little subplots in the game. We are clearly a team still learning. Oh and just one other note. We are clearly a team that still misses Lowry. We are just not as good without him. That become even more obvious last night.
Definitely saw this too. People forget he was guarding Kobe Bryant. I don't care if it was one legged, one armed, or three headed. It was still Kobe freakin' Bryant. With that in mind, he did as good of a job as a supposed all offense, defensive liability could've done. Very encouraging, because the offense was obviously as advertised.
I'll be interested to see if Hill plays well tonight and in games Yao misses, will Adelman consider bringing him off the bench before Hayes during games Yao does play.
I am still not convinced about Hill. Okay let me rephrase that. Some on this board will remember I initially said he was just a throw in for cap balancing in last years trade. I retracted that statement last year after watching him play some and in preseason he even showed me more. So I am extremely impressed and he is definitely not the slouch I wrongly accused him of being. ( Hey I am human I make mistakes) I definitely feel if he wants he can be a contributor on this team eventually. That being said my biggest concern is his consistency. He seems to have lapses of poor defense. Sometimes he will impress me on defense and then other times he seems to be standing in his feet while his opponent passes by him. I am not sure if that is because he is still learning the defense and has memory lapses or he just doesn't try hard enough at times. Either way at times he is a liability on the defensive end. That is why Adelman has suggested Jeffries has outplayed him. I hope he overcomes this because he is clearly the better offensive player. Maybe will see some good stuff from him tonight. That would be a great Bonus for this team. I also would like to see Patterson get a few of Hayes and Scola's minutes. Okay one thing at a time... lets just win!
i like this take, martin HAS improved his D and is at least an average defender. as far as hill, i'm still pissed that he got no pt against odom, at the very least rick could have put him in for a few mins while we had a lead to see how he would match up, lets hope he makes a big impact 2nite, run n gun with the warriors is more his speed anyways aside from that, the subs were timely, we ARE missing lowry, brookes probably is sharper for that last shot if he had more rest
Looks like Adelman wants to keep at least one good perimeter defender (Lee or Battier) and at least one good scorer (Martin or Budinger) on the floor. So it's Martin-Battier Battier-Budinger Lee-Budinger but not Martin-Budinger Lee-Battier Martin-Lee is probably too small against most opponents. When Lowry is healthy, this may change.
Yeah that's a pretty close assessment. I wouldn't worry about Lee's size against threes. He guarded Kobe pretty decent for a stint and if he can do that I suspect there aren't to many threes that are harder too guard than Kobe. Maybe Lebron and Carmelo... can Battier guard those guys better? Maybe right now but Battier works so hard to know the nuances of those players and plays as hard and as smart as he can to guard them and still comes up short on most nights. Lee is a hard worker too and if he can get anywhere close to the knowledge Battier has then that will make him a real option over Battier. Anyway not to lose site of my point... Size is overrated especially when you consider Lee can out jump Battier everyday of the week and is quicker and younger. So Lee and martin is a viable option and may by season end become our starting to and 3 with a bench of Battier and Budinger. WOW!
omr, size is not overrated. You think it was an accident the rockets missed layups last night? Ray Allen did a great job on kobe in the finals and no one ever considered him even a avg defender. Thabo also did a good job on kobe and he is known as a good defender. Kobe doesnt have the explosion and first step quickness he used to have so now its about competing and not giving up. Ariza and his length played kobe well also.
Size on the perimeter is overrated. Lateral quickness is much more important. For 4s and 5s it is more about length than quickness. For 3s it is about matchups. I feel like Lee has the length to play the 3 against most guys. I also feel like Patterson would give us a lot as a backup 4 if he can ever get on the court enough to figure things out. He has a lot more length than people realize. Certainly more than Scola, especially when factoring in leaping ability.
