[Fox 26] CD and Lindsey to meet with Mike James Thursday

Actually krosfyah, some people are actually suggesting that Battier can be our starting 4. Can he log some minutes at PF against certain matchups? Probably. But it still doesn't negate the fact that we have no one that can remotely stop the above mentioned PFs (very few teams do).

 

Battier is the same size as Juwan, actually he has a little more muscle than him, and Juwan has played the 4 his entire career. I don’t see any reason why Battier wouldn’t be able to start at the 4.

 

Your right, sorry. Docgundy did suggest he could be our starting 4. He's a n00b. I haven't seen many people suggest it. Most folks see that he can play SOME minutes but we are in big trouble if he is our starting PF.

 

I see our starters as Ming / Howard / Battier / TMac / Rafer. Battier would play the 3 or 4 and TMac would play the 2 or 3 - dependending on the case. But those would be their starting positions. Then James would play the 1 or 2 and get the most bench minutes (30-35), followed by Bogans (20), then Hayes (10-15), then Deke(10). And I see Howard getting a few 5 minutes.

But that's just me...

 

Actually, Battier is 10 lbs lighter and an inch or two shorter.

 

Juwan is an inch taller and weighs 10 pounds heavier, that's a big difference when trying to guard NBA PFs.

 

This is an MJ thread not a Battier thread.

 

Can we give him a long term deal using the TE like 5 or 6 years?

 

Sorry. How do you think Mike James feels about playing Battier at the 4?

 

Better than Juwan!

 

I'm sure we can, but not sure if the Rockets want to be paying Mike James $6M/season when he is 36-37 years old.

 

I think 5 years is the max. Somebody else calculated it out and although the TE has a higher annual raise then the MLE, it still isn't enough to catch up even after 5 years, IIRC. It was still like a $2mil difference. That's a lot. Besides, I think the Rockets wanted to offer a 3 year deal.

Somebody else joked that maybe CD will loose $3 mil to James playing black jack in Vegas today.

 

That 6'8" 220 is the same number as when he was coming out of college. I find it hard to believe that he hasn't gained weight in 6 years in the league....especially considering that he's bulked up.

 

Could you use the same logic for Juwan? Personally, I find it hard to beleive that Juwan is only 230. I expected he is was 240.

 

What amazes me about Battier is his shotblocking, I believe something like 1.4 tap outs a game last season. I think he could play some 4, but definetely not all the time. The rockets need to get some youth and size at the 4 position.

 

Stromile Swift?

 

Agree. We could probably get Chris Taft from the Warriors without a great deal of cost. He's big, quick, can slide to center when necessary and the Warriors are packed at the PF position. I still believe the Rockets were daft for not going with Taft rather than Luther.

 

I guess that makes Juwan bigger than the 230 he is listed at as well, and all of the other NBA players as well.

At 6-8, he's already going to have problems with the taller PFs in the league. He doesn't have a lot of bulk which will give him even more problems when battling for boards and trying to guard in the post. But besides his measurements, I just don't see Battier as a PF. He doesn't have the explosiveness that other mobile PFs have (Marion, Haslem) which help them get boards.

 

If the Rockets can sign Cato for the vet minimum, I'd be happy enough. He can play a little 4 and can play 5 against more athletic running teams like the Suns.

I'd still like to upgrade Juwan but easier said than done.

 

You know, maybe we need to back off of this kind of talk until we at LEAST get to see what Battier can do HERE, alongside Yao and TMac. Good grief, on the one hand, when we have Swift, people can't stand him because, while he's long, young, and athletic, he's got the basketball IQ of a peanut, so people don't want him here. Ok, so we get a guy who is, quite frankly, just as big as Swift, same general age, maybe not as freakishly athletic, but with an incredibly high BBall IQ, and people are dismissing him out of hand as being unable to do the job.

Maybe he can, maybe he can't, but geez, it's starting to look like there is simply no pleasing some people.