Alright, I think it's important to keep the main idea in mind. Battier has great intangibles, but at which point does his offensive inefficiency outweigh his intagibles? If he's averaging no points, assists, steal, blocks and rebounds, then is it worth it? Let's keep in mind that he's making a decent amount of money as well. We have to understand that Battier is moving towards Ryan Bowen territory. No matter how good his intangibles are, he has to provide other stuff too at $7-8m a year. I've given him a waiver since his foot is probably still bothering him. But come playoff time, I expect him to make a higher percentage, regardless of how many shots he takes. We need at least around 10 pts, 5 rebounds, a block and a steal on 45% FG and 40%3pt come playoff time. Especially since McGrady is out.
he's been a winner everywhere he's played, even in memphis. he knows the game, and he's the coach out on the floor. he doesn't take too many shots because the shots should and need to be going to Yao, and he does a good job getting him the ball in the post. battier makes such a difference on the defensive side, he doesn't get the credit he deserves. he isn't having the best year on the offensive side of the ball but hopefully he'll pick it up the last few months of the season. we have a real good chance of getting past the first few rounds of the playoffs this year, without mac. with a healthy mac, maybe we'll be challenging l.a. for the west.
battiers got awesome intangibles. I agree. however its only when you have garnett pierce allen that james posey works awesome. can we package AB and Batman for Jose Calderon?
i think we're better with AB and Battier than having Calderon, i mean Calderon in his prime isn't Nash in his prime. look at toronto and how crappy they are...
resigning Ron makes Batman somewhat less effective as he needs minutes to show his worth to the team. and Aaron is seriously going to be another chucker. I can't see him being much better than Rafer in shooting. I really like him, but he seriously is a SG in a PG's body that shoots Rafer percentages. He really suxxxxxx I mean he shoots like T-Mac volume with Rafer %, now thats not a good combination Calderon will make us a contender. BIG TIME.
I agree, Calderon blows. Anyone down to deal with the Warriors in the offseason? You know they would love to get rid of some of those long contracts and take Tracy's expiring back. This would make us instant contenders and I am fairly positive the Warriors would accept it/look at it/because their current roster wont be getting a ring anytime soon. Warriors- Tracy Mcgrady Rockets- Stephen Jackson Corey Maggete Ronny Turiaf ----------------------------------------------------------- Warriors need to get rid of all the long contracts they have been acquiring. Simple as that. Rockets get a leader in Stephen Jackson, a bench scorer in Corey Maggete, and a perfect back-up, shotblocking (energy) center for Yao. Ronny would fill the cheerleading Mutumbo role perfectly and help out a little more on the court. Kyle Lowry-Aaron Brooks Stephen Jackson-Shane Battier Ron Artest-Corey Maggete Luis Scola-Carl Landry Yao Ming-Ronny Turiaf
No the problem is that some people don't actually play or understand the game, but follow statistics as some way of understanding, when the game is actually a lot more complex, and statistics are fallable and counted by humans....which are mistake prone. Were guys finishing easy at the rim last night? LOL - you are better than this Leeb...honestly.....you, more than anyone should know the issue is one of matchups with the Jazz and not one of Shane Battier etc. Utah's bigs all can shoot with range, and it is a HORRIBLE matchup for Yao.....who is slower than dirt, and it brings Yao away from the basket (which he protects) and away from rebounds because he is not quick enough to recover. That is our problem with Utah, nothing more.....the rest of the team matches up fine, but they get a lot of backdoor stuff because our bigs are out on the perimeter guarding their bigs. DD
Data will cheat sometimes and you can't ignore BatMan's D. Without that, Rockets'll not go far in the playoffs. NBA championship based on good D recent years.
In all this back and forth debating/arguing, there will never be a way to measure raw statistics with intagibles (ei. hustle, man on man D, 'glue guy') so really this is all for nothin... Yes while he may be a great guy and have all of the things I mentioned above and more, he is not the Battier that we originally, or I should say Morey/Les/whoever else was involved, thought we were gettin. He does not attack the basket at all. He is not a shooter that can sit on that corner and knock down that shot when he gets open. We need someone that will be able to do that. For that reason I believe that DM will be pursuing a player with that ability more so now than ever. I think he once again will target Caron Butler as our new SG/SF, or a player with his abilities.
For a wing with more offensive skills, I think Morey should try to pursue Ron Artest and maybe get a younger understudy like Von Wafer. A little more offensive efficiency at PG would be good, too. Replacing Rafer Alston with someone who is better at finishing drives and shooting more consistently would likely help. Morey should pursue such opportunities this offseasosn for sure.
The reason I specifically say CB3 is cause he is not only a good scorer/slasher but he does hold his own on the defensive side. The other reason I say him is because I liked the fact that Morey was pushing hard to get him at the trade deadline and I believe that he will have a lil more to work with in the offseason to pull off such a move.
Shane = wins. He does the things that doesn't show up in the stat sheet. So what, he doesn't avg 12 ppg. He does however gets you extra possessions, and he plays shut down def rendering players ineffective. I'd rather be a low scoring <90 ppg team and play shut down D than score over 100 ppg and play no D like the GSW. Why should we keep shane: Lock down D and able to get extra possessions 6 mil contract = a bargin proven winner time and time again The ultimate role player able to knock down open 3 and wide open jumpers Great anterior passer What pure scorer could do all this??? And at a cheap price tag??
as much as i appreciate what battier does on/off the court, his inability to get involved in the offensive game does frustrate me at times. i don't think it's a huge problem at all though. as long as we keep winning like we are right now.
I disagree I think Battier is crucial to this team. Sure he may not score but he does everything else that is important to the team. If you watch he is always trying to get the ball into yao and probably is out best post-entry passer. Also all the loose balls, the hustle the extra possessions he helps the rockets get. We dont win the phoenix game without battier having the presence of mind to call time once ron got into a tough spot. besides the team is scoring well right now. Battier takes his shots when he has to. people forget we got Ron artest in the offseason who was going to take scoring away from someone. I would rather have Yao, Scola, Ron, Brooks. Landry, Lowry, Wafer scoring the bulk of the points since they have better offensive skills than battier. Battier does enough to remain a threat on the floor and concentrates on everything else. I am fine with that.
really? it's funny how we can blame him for our playoff losses b/c he's a "role player" and yet he's a role player that gets credit for helping us win. ridiculous. and he has won what?
i think it's fine NOW, but it won't be fine in the playoffs. trust me on that. it'll get magnified b/c the newer players WILL struggle in playoff games and it's up to shane (who will play a lot of minutes) to pick up the slack. over a 7 game series, teams will treat him like rafer and force him to take shots and just leave him wide open. coaches will pick up on that as they study tapes and tapes. my thing is he has not shown ANY improvement with his shot. he continued his bad stretch in march with the last game. shane is def. crucial in the hustle/defense/intangible department and any fan loves those kinds of plays b/c those guys do things stars rarely do. but at the end of the day, you gotta have "some" kind of offensive impact considering how much minutes you are playing. he needs to show some kind of improvement as we near the playoffs so teams will respect him. right now we're getting by b/c the schedule is easy and we dont' face the same teams over a 7 game series and it's harder for teams to adjust on the fly. it won't be hard as they have days and days to watch tapes and key in on a guy who they want to shoot and shoot often and force that guy to beat us. that guy will be shane battier.
As you correctly state it, humans are mistake prone. That is the problem. It doesn't matter how knowledgeable you are, the game is complex and people will often take from it what they want to. Guys like GATER, leebigez, t_mac1, etc. are intelligent and they understand the game. Same as you, weslinder, Carl Herrera, etc. And yet, with Battier, you come to very different conclusions. If no one bothers to record what they're seeing in a systematic fashion, I don't think either side will be swayed.
