So all of a sudden it's against the rules to talk about your favorite "we should have had him" player? Avoiding the pwnage of what the answer to the question is? The answer (since you avoided it all this time): Rudy Gay will not be in the playoffs this year. So the next question maybe you can answer is why a talented player like Rudy Gay cannot take his team to the playoffs? Even with a better player like OJ Mayo as his teammate. To your question, I admit I don't have an "All of Shane's Faults" widget on my PC. Kudos to you and your relentless pursuit. If I did, then I surely would have thought about creating such a thread as this but then I would have realized Kwame would have beaten me to it, since he is on top of every Shane (negative) info there is. I'm surprised you didn't open a thread about Shane's travel today lol. Quick, tell us how many double dribbles has Shane committed this year. lol
The problem with that is people will only see and remember what they want to see and remember. When you have to think over a possession more carefully and put it down on paper, you tend to be a little more objective. That's what this discussion needs. More objectivity.
DD is right about this one. We may have started out decent but the problem eventually exposed itself. Both need the ball in their hands, both are ball stoppers, both didn't really seem to grasp the idea of a motion offense. I think it became abundantly clear, especially after our late 2008/early 2009 hole (the Knicks game late January was probably rock bottom this duo), that these two had to be separated. With McGrady [sort of] in the line up it made the most sense to bring Artest off the bench and try to limit their minutes together.
keep your eyes on battier and no one else, for a whole game. i really think that's the best approach.
I think Battier is in perfect situation here in Houston, and that we have a team that really maximizes what he is good at. 1) Battier is a good 3 point shooter and post entry passer. On a team with Yao these are very big pluses. 2) Battier is unselfish. The starting lineup has 4 other players who are pretty effective scorers/shoot a lot so its nice to not have everyone competing for shots. 3) Battier is a really good defender. He isn't nearly as good of an on the ball defender (IMO) as he gets credit for, but he is GREAT in transition D and at helpside defense. I think he is better than Ron at the last two. The only knock I would have on Battier is his dribbling/penetration skills. Now that He and Ron are both starting, Houston doesn't really have anyone other than AB that can drive and penetrate in the starting 5. I actually think Battier would be fairly useless on a crappy team (like Memphis) or even other good teams that don't really have low post scorers (like Denver) but in Houston Battier skill set really helps the team IMO.
that's because he hasn't. i thought it was only 3 games but this is a 5 game slump. he came into March shooting 40.4% on 3's, which is very good and right where we want him. since then? he is 1 for freakin' 20 in 5 games. and 0-15 in the last 4 games. i bet he's never done this in his career. and von wafer is 0 for his last 8 and 2-12 in the last 5 games. meaning battier and wafer are 3-32 on 3's in March. but we're 4-1 in those games so it's good we've overcome their slump. hopefully they pick it up if lowry or scola or someone else starts struggling on their jumper.
Ughhh....I really hope Wafer starts focusing more on cutting and slashing rather than becoming primarily a three point shooter. We don't need any "Ghost of Luther Head" performances in the playoffs. I realize he gets to the basket more than Luther ever could but despite his athletic advantages and dynamite first step he's not a very good finisher. A lot of times he gets bailed out by a whistle or just expects to get the call. Just saying I hope this doesn't discourage him from attacking the basket because we need that much more than we need another erratic three point shooter in the playoffs.
Battier is missing because he hasn't adjusted to his new spot. Dont know about Von. As soon as he gets some practice time in the gym at his new spot, after some shooting drills, etc. he will be fine.
Von Wafer seems like kind of a loose cannon. He needs to calm down a little. In addition to not hitting his 3s, he's been doing a poor job finishing his drives lately. In mid-January, he seemed more poised and under control. Maybe teams have learned his tendencies better.
We are seeing why Von Wafer was a 2nd rounder and bounced around the league. It's one thing that he misses open 3's that are within the offense and that we want him to take. Those I can live with. But...he makes bonehead mistakes, he sometimes forces up ill advised shots, and some shots he creates are way beyond his realm of talent. As Dirty Harry once said, a man's got to know his own limitations.
i really do think he's been shooting more lately. i like his aggressiveness to a point, but even on a team that needs that aggressiveness he has got to shoot less. i swear he shot 7 of the first 8 (or 8 of 9) times he touched the ball in the offense (the pass for the artest 3 was really the first pass i remember). and it couldn't have been much better in garbage time when he got to 13 attempts, but i wasn't paying much attention then. and he's been doing it for a week or two. i like the confidence von, but you do have to pass some times. now his 3's have generally been open so i can't really complain on those. they just aren't going in right now.
I think what some don't understan is that its not the numbers, at least not to me. Its other things that happen that casual people don't even count. I've talked about the non cutting and using som of that duke education to get easy baskets. I've talked about being more assertive and making his man guard him. Here is a scenerio that happens all to often especially when tracy was playing. Ball entered to yao or tracy has it, they're running the offense of some kind and they're against the clock. He receives a pass with under 5 secs left. Instead of shooting the ball under a little stress, he would kick it to tracy or even rafer. Now some will see that as unselfish, but a lot of coaches and think tank types call that selfish. Its passing the buck. Its just as selfish to force a shot as it is to pass it to a teammate witht the shot clock winding down because you're scared or sont want to mess up your shooting %. I've seen that many times and Rafer or Tracy used to wind up shooting contested jumpers with the shot clock going down. Like I've said, he's not a easy person to blame for rocket failures, but when you watch the rox play a team like utah and watch who is backside blocking yao shot or who the jazz force to be effective in the offense, then you will see. DD, he is part of the problem and I can admit that scola is better than I thought, but its not like he's a great or all star quality player. He does if I must admit take advantage of his chances. It still doesn't change my thinking that he doesn't compliment a player like yao and its a reason why guys finish at the rim so easily against the rox. Back to shane, the rox with continued good play are headed to the playoffs. I said they would make it with or without tracy because they have ron in his spot. Its still fluid, but it looks like they rox might wind up with Utah and that not going to end up good for the rox. Utah can basically turn the game into a role players game and their role players have shown to be better than ours. I guess this debate will rage on and on for a while.
My 5th variation of a summary describing this thread and describing Battier, and counting: - Battier is a 1 on offense, who can be a 2.5 to 3. I think he's under-utilized 1 or 2 extra small little skills, And thats really IT for me. I think Battier's sold HIMSELF short his entire career. Chuck Hayes is a real 1 with no hope. Jason Collins is a 1. Battier is a passive 1 who can be a 3 but people want a 5. - But its much too late in his career to build his offensive skillset. What Battier CAN do is just be more assertive with what he has. Instead of a p***y 6 points chip in a more assertive 8. - This thread presents a forum to assess Battier's weaknesses and strengths. But there's simply too much slant one way from the beginning. Well meaning people could have a fair, legitimate critique about Battier. And will express here cuz at the moment this is the most accessible place to do that. We're free to think how we want, but all whats happening is its feeding into someone else's vitriol and contempt, like its padding their support. Comment: "I think Battier should exploit the matchup when he's being guarded by a point guard in the paint" Response: "See? Yeah man, he 'gotta go' " Lame, transparent typical board form that gives me a headache
Shroopy- I like the part about being a passive 1 that could be a 3. If Shane was a consistent 3, I don't think there would be as much griping kinda like scola. Scola is a 3 that plays to a 3. He takes advantage of hi settings as much as anyone. Again, no one is asking shane to break people down off the dribble and go dunk on people, but asking him to take advantage of the percieved advantages he has isn't asking a lot. I mean, you say its too late, but if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. If Landry can add a knock down 17 ft jimmy, are you saying its too late for shane to add a pump fake move in closer 18 ft er? Over the years, I've seen a equally offensive inept Bowen add this move in the summer. Is it aslo asking too much to set the defense up that could result in a easy 2? What about running hard on the wing and maybe drawing a foul? These are small things that he should be able to do. People on this board talk about him being a hard worker, but where is the imprvement in his game? What has shane done better since he's gotten here? I mean this isn't asking for the world is it?
