Here's the difference between what he said about Dorsey and what was said about Battier. With Dorsey, dropping him to the dleague and keeping him there is basically him admitting he was wrong about dorsey being ready. Shane still is playing 30mins per game though and the rockets are winning and that means more than anything you can say. If they were struggling and the staff was reluctant to make changes, like benching battier, then maybe i'd agree with you. As for Rafer, Rafer had a BIG problem, that was shooting, scoring. Everything else he did was solid. Morey always praised his defense, running the offense, etc. I'm pretty sure he wasn't praising his offensive abilities unless he was talking about a specific game. as for Deandre Jordan.."project" says it all.
And "y'all" act like one role player is responsible for years of failures and is suppose to make the difference between winning and losing. If it gets to that point, where role players are deciding games, then either both teams are equally talented, or your big names players didn't do their job, either way it's not on the role player from game to game over a span of YEARS.
RV6, u need to decipher what a talkative gm says about his own players with a grain of salt. The gms job is to do whatever to keep the value of his player up. N other words, morey lies like all the other gms. I can chronicle a lot of lies that he's told if you want or if you don't want to call them lies, we'll say misrepresentation of words. Dorsey being nba ready now was false. The whole landry free agency ploy was dirty. The statement about battier saving the rox from a bubble playoff is crazy. Now if you want to keep the rose glasses on, then keep on keeping on, but he's just keeping his players value up. If you drive the guy in the mud, how can you get anything for him?
Battier is simply a starter mainly for defensive purposes, he is not expected to contribute on offense. I hope Battier works on his 3point shooting as its been lower than in previous years. Some people pointed out that his lack of scoring means that whoever is guarding him can leave him to double team Yao or Artest. Adleman can simply work with Battier and get him to cut to the basket a little more whenever his defender leaves him.
I think you can have a pretty good idea of how a team feels about its players based on the minutes they get, the situations in which they're subbed into games or out of games, what the coaches and other staff says about the players in interviews, and how plugged in media members who aren't on the Rockets payroll describe the situation. Based on all of that, my best guess is that Rockets love what Battier brings the team. As an organization, I do think they do put more value on what Battier does than many other teams would. All that said, if scoring is a big problem for the team in the playoffs, and Battier can be used to fetch a significantly better offensive player, I'd be surprised if the Rockets do not explore those trades.
Hello, internet [espicially CluthFans] GM's Battier must be a damn good player if he can start for a NBA team while averaging low PPG, all while being in the dicussion for being one of the best perimeter defenders, one of the well-spoken players, a future NBA coach and an "almost lock" the basketball HOFer [mainly due to NCAA days]. Stop asking the Batman to step it up.
The critique of shane always take on a life of its on. The things I crticize shane for are more simple things than complex. Some people make it seem like rocket science when its just basketball. Basketball is just like any other thing in that you get out what you put in. Shane may be a great guy, well spoken, and great teammate, but when you don't improve from your rookie year, there is something wrong. Maybe this summer, he couldn't work on his game because he was hurt. Cool, I get it, but there are ways to interject yourself into the game without the coach having to tell you to do it. Imagine how many more points or more efficient the team would be if shane took advantage of playing with yao as much as scola does. He has it in him because I watched shane at duke and memphis, but for some reason he's scared or just don't want to. A cut here, a slash there, and finish on the break and shane could have 12 of the easiest point in the world. If opponets couldn't turn and focus on yao or if the had to hug shane, imagine how many 1 on 1 looks yao would get. I think people are just making excuses for him.
If you want to convince people, all you got to do is point out all the plays (by game time) where Battier missed a simple scoring opportunity on the offensive end that cost us. The way you put it, it happens several times each game. Just point it out, and people can go back and review it if they have the game recording (I'm sure many of us do). People just aren't going to take your word for it.
I agree that a GM has to watch out and keep a certain value to a player. I imagine its better to keep dorsey away and have him look decent against inferior comp than have him embarassed by NBa players, that's what u mean by keeping his value, right? I understand that. But answer me this, if he's supposedly talking up battier to protect his value, and battier is supposedly done for and the staff realizes this, why in the world would they keep playing him 30+ minutes a game??? If they really believe he's done then they must know if they keep playing him that much then he's going to keep playing badly, it's going to become very noticeable, and that's just going to hurt his value way more. if they really believed he was done and wanted to keep him out there to make teams believe he still had game, then they would at least limit him to 20 mins or so and tell everyone it's because of Wafer emergence and Ron being healthy. The fact that he's out there, playing a lot of minutes and in crunch time says it all. Period. Nothing else matters except what goes on during the game and the result. Right now that translates to Battier playing a lot and the team winning.
Consistently, regardless of the coach, and regardless of how other players are doing, Battier is on the floor in crunch time when the score is close since he's been a Rocket. Coaches aren't thinking about pumping up the trade value of their players when the game is on the line. They're thinking about winning the game. And two very smart basketball people -- Van Gundy and Adelman -- have consistently put Battier on the floor when the game is on the line. That goes for both defensive and offensive possessions. To me, that speaks volumes for how the coaches value him.
I'd agree with you there if Tmac was healthy, but i dont see how the team would would go after offense and sacrifice defense when they have Tmac (instant offense when healthy) out. I would think they'd address the tmac situation first, decide if he stays or goes, before they'd see shane's low scoring as a problem. I'd understand trading, say Wafer, since he's all offense, so you'd be replacing offense with better offense, or at least offense with more consistent/efficient offense, but defense for offense when you have 6'8 of offense in the garage for repairs? Nah, deal with that first.
I think it just means he's a good defensive player who can hit a wide open three point set shot off double teams which is part of Houston's offense. He's a good defensive player but offensively he's painfully limited to that three point shot.
I don't think the Rockets are going to plan their offseason with the assumption that McGrady is returning. It would be foolish for them to do so. I think there a greater change that McGrady either is out for the entire season or is traded before the deadline than him playing next year for us. I'd put it at 60-40.
I agree, it doesn't mean much more than that. But considering he's always on the floor down the stretch, that is something the Rockets apparently value quite a bit. When their primary go to guy is always going to be Yao, they don't mind having a player who's primarily a spot up shooter and post entry passer, if he's also playing very good team defense.
i dont agree that there's must be a problem just because he hasnt improved since his rookie year. You'd be right if he was a project and picked based on potential, but the guy came in NBA ready from college. Since day one in the league everyone knew what he'd bring and they wanted and accepted that. He's been bringing it since. It's not that he didn't improve because he didn't try, but because he topped off as far as abilities go. He's been overachieving since the beginning because he's never had the natural skills to be an NBA player other than height and size, and we all know that alone may get you here, but it sure won't keep you here. So he added the hustle and studying the game, doing things through consistency and hustle since he couldnt do it with natural skill. It shouldn't count against him just because he was ready early. Let's pretend him and posey were at the same level. If posey gradually improved to reach that level, but shane was always there, is it shane's fault that it appears like Posey put in more work? No, shane put in work too, he just did it before he got here. As for college, the action there isn't based on athleticism as much as the NBA. You got guys there that actually play down to a lower level because they have to stick to team ball and a system, while slower, more unathletic guys are able to go up a level because of it. Shane's the perfect example. The one thing most rooks say when they make the transition is the pace is so much quicker and the play more above the rim than in college. The college game was perfect for Shane because it's about consistency, repetition, sticking to game plans, etc. In the NBA you have more wild card scenarios because more guys are able to, and are allowed, improvise using their special abilities. I do agree that he doesnt look to do little things on offense like you mentioned, sometimes he'd rather leave it up to the offensive players and that could be a problem, but if we're winning I think it needs to be accepted and just move on.
I'm glad Battier finally stepped up and made a play in the crucial moments of a game, but I remember a time when role players like Maxwell, Smith, Elie, Horry, and even Carl Herrera would step up on a consistent basis. At over 30 mpg, I need to see more of this, I expect it. As the poster mms posted in the Battier to rescue part 2 thread, this is what we've been getting unfortunately: I need more tangible production on the offensive end at over 30 mpg. As I said earlier in this thread, if the trend that mms has shown us continues, short term solution is to reduce his mins. Long term solution is to either trade him or move him to the bench once a better all around wing is acquired with T-Mac's expiring contract. I'm thinking the latter is going to happen more so than the former.
