[ESPN] Bill Simmons new predictions on West (Rockets #7)

like durvasa said, I think everything this guy said holds some kind of truth to it (even though he exaggerates)...I still hate that guy though..

one thing that kills me though is the ongoing B.S notion that Chuck Hayes is a liability for this team on offense.. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? why does everyone keep saying that? I am too lazy to lookup the stats, but I think Chuck has the highest field goal percentage on this team.. he hits the shots when open (who doesn't love the Mac-Chuck pick and roll?) and all of his shots are high percentage close-to-the-basket shots.. he is a great reason to our success, and without him on the court, I feel that something is missing on both ends of the floor.. I can't believe everybody overlooks his hustle offensive rebounds that spark the team to make a run or his clutch-time plays on defense that saved our a$$ countless times (remember the game against the bulls, the block he had on a last play, and the charge against Boozer in the playoffs?)

I can't believe that Chuck's name is mentioned on the same sentence as Brick2myLou! Chuck does so many things, from defense, to charges, to hustle plays, to crazy rebounding, to smart cuts to the basket, to high intensity effort that gets the team going..

what does Rafer do? jack up 3's with 20 secs left on the clock, pull up from 18 feet on a fastbreak and airball it, and launches "rainbows" or "teardrops" that improve the employment rate of Rim-maintenance people..

but hey, you gotta give him credit for his "skipping" move while dribbling up the court.. attaboy!

 

Thank you. The Chuck "is a liability" talk is getting out of hand.

I am not trying to be a jerk but I seriously don't understand how someone who has decent basketball knowledge can watch Chuck Hayes on the court and think having him out there is a bad thing. He stays within the limits of his game, defends like a maniac and flat out gets in the middle of every play. He is so efficient that I wonder if people don't appreciate him because of that. Maybe if he had more TOs or took bad shots people might start paying attention and see all of the good things he does.

I'm all for moving Rafer out of the lineup down the road but Chuck earns and deserves his minutes and this team is better because of him. JVG, RA and Rudy T all rave about the guy. What else do you need?

 

So far we have showed that we are still the same old team with the same old starting five who couldn't win any game when any one of our star player goes down.

 

We have those weapons. They are sitting on our bench. Question is, what will it take to play them. The NBA is about speed, making your shots and playing tough hard nosed defense. Put your fastest guys out there who can score and play defense. Yao is big and slow so it slows us down overall but against teams like the Spurs, you need him. I'm not saying to take Yao out of the games, just that we need the other 4 guys to be scorers and push the ball.

 

Hater.

 

His only legit statement was that we don't match up well against quick PG's. Bonzi is capable enough to carry a scoring load(under Adelman)

Yao can't defend!? He always plays Duncan to a draw, never sees Dirk, and destroys Dwight Howard. Boozer for some unknown reason is a different story. It was his own fault, Yao was to keep letting Boozer shoot 17 footers. As soon as Boozer hit 2 or 3 of them he starts to guard against the jumpshot rather than the drive. I'll take a Boozer 17 footer anyday over a layup.

T-Mac a questionable big-game guy!? Do some research then talk to me, they guy is 3rd all-time playoff scoring average behind Jordan and Iverson.

 

I'm actually pretty surprised that Simmons ranked us this low. He's actually pretty good when it comes to basketball knowledge(relatively to his knowledge of other sports of course). I know it's a "10 games into the season knee-jerk reaction" thing, but that's a pretty bold thing to put us that low.

Whatever, I still like Simmons. His articles are entertaining for the most part. And he's one of the few media members who recognizes Hakeem's greatness. Those player-trade-value rankings a couple of years back were awesome too.

 

i do agree with yao has trouble guarding boozer but he CAN guard Duncan and Howard. I remember him owning Howard last year

 

Simmons is a very funny guy. Funny guys who can write funny are exceptionally rare. It's a gift. But when he puts his analytical hat on, his range is exposed a bit. Yao is relatively slow, but he's not the defensive liability Simmons claims he is. If he watched more than a couple possessions of Rockets games, he'd know that.

 

Simmons was prophetic here.

Yao's deficiencies on defense were fully exposed against the Mavs. Don't let those 6 blocks fool you -- he was a huge defensive liability at the end of the game.

Argh ...

 

If the Rockets make the playoffs, they'll exit again first round. Just terrible point guard play (Alston and Head) will cost them at crunch time.

 

There is some truth to what he says, but basically this is a knee-jerk reaction to the past few games.

And that game vs. Charlotte he's referring to, the refs were calling fouls on Yao whenever Charlotte guards would drive towards the basket and literally jump into him. Even though they were BS calls, Adelman pulled Yao out to protect the lead.
Not to say Yao's perfect, but this particular game in no way reflected badly on Yao. It was just what the refs were giving him that day.

 

Simmons has a point. Yao can't defend smaller but quicker opponents. For example tonight, Brandon Bass, an undersized PF, outplayed him on both ends in the 2nd half. Bass was the Mavs' go-to guy for a while, delivering key baskets. On defense, he completely took Yao out of the game. Yao couldn't get the ball in the post, and when getting the ball at the high post, he stupidly passed the ball to frigging Alston for 3's. We all know Alston can't an open 10-footer.

Yao disappointed me tremendously. To me, he has the potential to be great center and offensively much better than Tim Duncan.

But, he has been playing scared and not becoming the leader who can carry the team. In the 4th quarter of tonight game, he did nothing when T-mac was on the bench. When he touched the ball, he gave up the rock so quickly as though it were a grenade.

On defense, why did he foolishly trying to block Harris with his left hand?

I question those who say he has high basketball IQ.

The Rockets will exit in the 1st round AGAIN.

 

It is because of Hayes that the fronting / doubling work on Yao. A PF with touch will create problems for teams that play that way.

 

I think he over-rated the Rockets. We're terrible with no prospects of getting better.

 

Simmons watches a ton of basketball. Anyone who has read him over the years knows that. All he does is watch his League Pass. He is pretty accurate on this one. Yao can't guard the quicker front-court players and T-Mac has no balls. We can't guard the PGs in the West either.

What exactly was he wrong about?

Add to that the fact that Bonzi looks crappy and Adelman doesn't look like a good fit and I would have to say that he might not be that far off.

 

yao will never be as good as Duncan. you're comparing a guy with 4 rings to a guy who cant get out of the first round and gets owned by guys like Kwame Brown and Darko Millicic. i thought it was interesting how he said we matched up the best with the Spurs aside from the Mavs. it's also painfully obvious that Yao is a defensive liability against quick players.

 

He just spoke the truth believe it or not

 

WTF? Yao's a freakin' center. He's not supposed to guard them. None of the listed besides Duncan can guard Yao either.

 

Currently, Rockets is # 9.