that's a great point. out of any other player, he makes the most concerted effort at getting yao the ball at every given opportunity. he's also highly effective at it.
This is why I like this team - look at our starters Yao Ming - Too clumsy, too slow Scola - Not athletic Battier - Can't score Artest - Too unstable Brooks - Too small, too young Let's see what this team that nobody wants can do.
" . . . .see . . your performance is not up to snuff. I have to let you go." - Boss "Are you a Rocket Fan?" - Employee "What?' - Boss "Are you a Rocket Fan?" - Employee "uhm . . yea . . been following them since I was a kid. Uhm . .why do you ask now" - Boss "SHANE BATTIER!" - Employee "WHAT?!?!?!" - Boss "SHANE BATTIER!! Like Shane Battier, sir. I bring the INTANGIBLES TO THE TEAM! My worthy cannot be measured with mere numbers .. . My effort and impact is only seen in the cubicles. It can be felt in the meetings. It is more than any stat sheet . . .any measurable terms. I'm Mr. Intangicles!" - Employee "uhm. . . . .aaaahhh" - Boss "I and the Glue Guy of the team" - Employee "Security!" - Boss Rocket River
You just chose to discredit yourself by choosing this as a useful statistic. Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady also have losing playoff records and a slew of first round exits to their names. I guess these guys are pretty useless to have around as well.
Kwame, You should apply this theory to a chart and send it in to Daryl and Sam Hinkie in regards to the open Basketball Ops internship. Then they can flame you too. After all, knocking the value of a guy like Shane is essentially saying Daryl doesn't know what he's doing. If the Rox brain trust agreed with you, Shane would have been traded long ago, because there's always a market for elite perimeter defenders who can space the floor. As has been said 1000's of times before, you cannot measure what he brings to the team with a regular box score. If you try to, you will miss out on the ADVANCED stats that Daryl and his guys produce...
good post! Battier's decreasing offensive abilities have long been noticed this season. He can barely make open shots, which is unbearable to watch.
Battier is a KEY to this team winning, he plays his role perfectly. We are lucky to have him. Let's see, with the game tied last night and Ron trapped on the sideline after refusing to pass the ball, who had the smarts to call a time out? Oh, yeah...Battier. Anyone who doesn't understand the value of Shane Battier does not have a good understanding of winning basketball. DD
Championship teams have guys like Bowen, Wallace, Rodman, Ho. Grant, Lindsey Hunter, Samaki Walker, Elson, R. Harper, B. Shaw, starting. So get out of here. Anyone making threads to bash Battier is searching for a reason to complain.
Everything you said is well known and acknowledged even by the Rockets. Battier can't dribble, and he can't score one on one. He needs other people to create shots for him. His scoring rate is obviously well below average. Is all that enough to mark him as an offensive liability? By definition, a liability is a guy who's dragging down the offense. In other words, if you put someone else (say, an average player) in there instead we'd be measurably better. If you can present some evidence to show that, you'd have a much more convincing case. Of course, not many people are saying that Battier is a good offensive player. Perhaps he's adequate for what the Rockets expect (a guy who'll stretch the defense and will help get Yao the ball). But if you want to replace his minutes with someone else, it's not just about improving the offense. Will there be a dropoff on the defensive end, and is that enough to offset any expected improvements on defense? Right now, Adelman has a more talented offensive wing option, Von Wafer, who's had experience starting for us and playing significant minutes this season. Adelman continues to use Battier more, which suggests he puts more value in what Battier brings. Considering his basketball experience, his close up view of what's happening on the floor, and his knowledge of what the Rockets are trying to do on the offensive and defensive end -- wouldn't he be a better judge of who should and shouldn't be playing than us? Wafer clearly would score much more per game if he was starting (he was averaging 14 ppg as a starter a few months back), so why doesn't Adelman make that switch?
While you may not deserve rookification, you do deserve major enlightenment as we smack you upside the head with analysis. Your point: Low PPG. Counterpoint: If he was such an offensive liability, they'd double team off of him every single time. why don't they? Because he spaces the floor and requires a guy to guard him as he's spotting up from the corner. His presence means Yao can get single coverage, meaning Yao gets easier points. Do you really want to amp up Shane's PPG by detracting from everyone else's PPG? Your point: Battier has low FG %. Counterpoint: This is based on sample size n=small. Sample size n=big says otherwise. Your point: Lack of offensive rebounding. Counterpoint: If you knew anything about the relationship between Shane and rebounding, you know that when Shane is on the floor, the Rockets team as a whole is a great rebounding team. Also, its hard to attack the offensive glass if you're standing in the corner. What, you want your top 3 point shooter to be a first class offensive rebounder? For every attempted offensive rebound, thats 2 points in transition we give up. Your point: Low assist totals. Counterpoint: That's not his job. Low assists does not mean he's holding up the offensive. Look at Tmac. He has great assists, but absolutely stops the flow of the offense. I'm sorry that there's no "flow of the offense" statistic for you. Game, set, match. Class Dismissed.
Just some stats from the playoffs last year... "When it mattered" Jazz at Rox - Game 1 Rockets as a team shoots: 36.7% (27.3% on 3's) Battier leads team in scoring with 22: 100% FG (4-4 3's) Looks like Battier stepped it up...
Be that as it may, defenses know better than to back off from battier because of his three point shooting ability. That's all you basically need out of him on offense anyway with the other options we have.
My oh my... If you really know how statistics work, kwame, then it suddenly goes into another level... since you understand statistics, I'm not going into details of the multiple faults of your argument except... well, I did a little bit of research... what I found out is... the OP's user name is "Kwame", user who using this username is obviously below average in statistics, therefore, my conclusion is, in my view, the OP really doesn't know statistics. See? I got a fact, I researched it and I analyzed it, and posted my conclusion based on it. On top of that, I managed to add in a "in my view" disclaiming in my conclusion. Does that make my logic sound though? Again, I'm going to repeat it one last time... You can have a valid fact. but without proving a causal-effect or at least a co-relation between the fact and your intended conclusion, you didn't do any statistical analysis. It's OK to have an opinion. But let's not try to PRETEND that you arrived your opinion using valid statistical research. You have not. Period. By the way, since when do I need to build a valid and accurate model to analyse Battier's worth before I can say your model is fundamentally flawed?
Battier is clearly playing subpar this season. His early season injury threw a kink in his game. That said, I'm not willing to give up on him yet.
That's like rating Bruce Bowen on PPGs and saying he's worthless. The spurs should have gotten some other player that can get at least 7 pts a game.
