3) On paper, the Houston Rockets have all the necessary elements to overcome the Lakers: A potent pivotman in Yao Ming, who's also capable of dropping midrange jumpers. A dynamic scorer in Tracy McGrady. A point guard, Rafer Alston, who can exploit the defensive shortcomings of Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar. And in Ron Artest and Shane Battier, a pair of extraordinary defenders to make Kobe labor mightily for every shot and every point. If Rick Adelman manages to meld the Rockets into any semblance of unity and cohesion, Houston has an excellent chance of coming out of the West. ---------- read the rest of the article here
it pretty much lost a majority of its credibility after it said alston can exploit the defensive shortcomings of fisher and vujacic, who are known as tough defenders around teh league.
Vujacic is overrated. He's just a defender who gets under your skin, but that's because he's always slapping and shuffling around. He's not a great defender. Fisher, on the other hand, seems to have the lower body strength to stay with the stronger guards if they aren't shooting well (T-Mac, J-Rich etc), but has trouble with quick guards (Paul, Parker) and especially with strong and quick guards (Deron Williams, Boom). Rafer seems to be quick enough to give Fisher fits, and I have no doubt that he will. If you want evidence of the ownage that awaits Fisher, see the 22nd win of the win streak.
Why would Rosen say the Lakers don't have answers for Duncan and Parker when they beat them in last year's playoffs without Bynum? The comment on Rafer was nutty. His 4 "ifs" on how the Jazz could somehow derail the Lakers in the playoffs are a reach.
You are using the best offensive game of Rafer's career as evidence? If I remember correctly, he chucked in about 8 threes, at least a couple of which were total prayers and multiple feet behind the line. It wasn't like Rafer was beating Fisher off the dribble or anything. He just happened to be hot that night and was hitting a lot of shots he usually misses. I'm not saying your theory is wrong. I just question your evidence.
FYI- This is 2008. Not 2000. Fisher hasn't been quick enough to keep up with most PGs in a few years.
Even if Battier and Artest can keep Kobe in check.. the problem is who is going to guard Gasol and Bynum.. Yao and Bynum can stop Bynum, but no one can guard Gasol. If Yao is on the bench, it would be trouble for Rockets in the front court IMO
Don't even mention Kobe on defense. He is so overrated on defense that I can literally puke right now on how disgusting the NBA (and the fans) overhype and overrate Kobe's "amazing" defense. Has anybody read the article on NBA? http://www.nba.com/2008/tipoff/10/21/gmsurvey.defense/index.html Kobe is apparently a better defensive player than Bruce Bowen. Battier isn't even in the list for best defensive player. When it comes to perimeter defender, Bowen gets all the votings, Kobe comes second, Artest comes third and Battier is once again not even on the list . Kobe is also apparently the best on-the-ball defender, with Artest running behind. Can't believe Fox news even dared to put Battier as the most overrated player. He received votings, but he isn't even in the top 4 of any of the defensive catergories. As for Kobe.... He is in almost every single defensive catergory, and is either top 3, top 2 or the top player in quite a few catergories. Kobe is a good defender, but not a great defender. Nowadays, credit is always given to those who don't deserve it.
Completely agreed, he is definitely overrated. How else would Battier get 2nd in Defensive Player of the Year yet not even make the All NBA First Team defense, it just makes no sense. But I'm just saying Kobe is definitely a top 10 defender in the NBA and by far the best defender the Lakers. He's the only person who can maybe do a job on stopping T-mac or Artest but the rest are pretty much slouches on defense.
You read that passage right? He was right about Ginobili's health being a key. A healthy Ginobili > Bynum's existence.
I'll take it a step further. Kobe and Sasha are both monumentally overrated on defense. What does Sasha do to warrant such praise!? Ginobili was at best 30%. He really had no business playing. I remember Pierce and Allen repeatedly blowing by Sasha, not to mention the game 4 debacle. Kobe!? Top 10 defender!? That's an insult to basketball. Sure he has the tools, but he doesn't use them, like any other superstar perimeter guard. People are so easily fooled because he slaps the floor and gets down in a stance maybe once or twice a game. All he does his roam around the court in the passing lanes or to help double team, often leaving his man all alone and forcing others to rotate into mismatches. Allen and Pierce were both torching Kobe when he was "guarding" them, so Phil Jackson put Kobe on Rondo to allow him to roam, and Rondo puts up a near quadruple double in 3qtrs. Not to mention occasional outburst from JR Smith and Kleiza. For him to be making all these All-NBA defensive teams proves what a complete joke it is. I know Laker homers who will tell you that his defense shouldn't even warrant a single DPOY vote. He's only in there as a recognizable name. I remember he had one good half against Iverson 7 years ago in a regular season game, and he's still getting praise for that. I don't see T-Mac on All-NBA defensive teams for being a stopper in Toronto or shutting down Dirk in 05. Those GM's don't know what the hell they're talking about. Do they even watch the games!? I've seen over 50 LA games each season, and the effort Kobe puts in on man defense is equal to that of T-Mac, sometimes worse.
i very agree with you.i think that kobi is a better defensive player ,but wo can put him in the top 10 defensive players. i also doubt that Battier is once again not even on the list in top 5. Bowen is a good defensive player that is ture,he can stop kobo, jams....but Battier can do the same job as Bowen.can you remember that Battier'hand block the eyes of kobi,it make kobi can't find the ring.Battier not than a good defensive player for personal but also he is a defender for the whole team.he make many offensive fouls to others
I am not a Kobe fan by any mean, but Kobe is a really good defensive player. Did you watch the olympic this summer? When you had the US team coach and other players calling him the best defensive player on that squad, that says a lot.. and I would like to think they know a few more things about basketball than we do. I don't think he is a better defender than Artest, Battier, or Bowen when he has to put in scoring at the same time... but if he is focused on defensive, I believe he is at least on par with these guys.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4Z_F9Zzyi6U&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4Z_F9Zzyi6U&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> Skip, skip, skip to my lou! I love this!
I think the best chance for the Rockets in a playoff series against the Lakers is (besides our big 3 busting out with huge games after huge games) is if Kobe took it upon himself as a personal challenge to take on the 2 Rockets defenders Battier and Artest. If he takes it as a personal mission to average 50+ points against the defensive tandem that the Rockets will throw at him, then the Rockets wins the series. Easily. Now the question is how to bait Kobe into attempting the feat.
