Funny how all the Shane arguments about minutes seem to focus only on the offensive side of the floor. Why do you guys think that is? DD
Shane's hit 31 three pointers at a 46% clip in 13 playoff games against Utah. That looks pretty effective to me.
QFT. that's what i have been saying since the thread started. but people don't get that. it's minutes per production. the way people defend shane on here, it's like if he left the floor, our defense would break down like civilization is over.
that's why i never complained about shane BEFORE THIS YEAR. but it's funny his offense > defense v. utah in the playoffs. now if we play utah again in the playoffs, dude could pull a luther head (well, not quite that bad).
how many have said, even in this season, that coming playoff time mcgrady's #'s would be awesome - going by history? i believe that "many" included yourself.
Tmac doing better in the playoffs has been debunked so many times, he doesn't elevate anything, he plays more minutes and jacks up more shots.... Unreal. DD
and yet current and former NBA players and coaches say otherwise. remember that game on TNT. charles barkley AND reggie miller said a ton of praise about tracy in regards to the playoffs. hell, reggie brought up his infamous 3rd in scoring ppg. but hey, what do they know? if going by your post, lebron's fg% is lowered by 6-7% in the playoffs so he just jacks up shots also . that's unreal too DD?
Seriously, i am not worry about Shane Battier shooting. He's been rushing his shots a bit. But i don't worry a bit and i am surprised people want to talk about it. It happened to every player, no matter how good a shooter you are, you go through slump every now and then. If it's someone like Rafer...then i am worry cuz he sucks.
you're only saying that because you're assuming ron will be here. If ron leaves, deke retires, who's going to be the defensive leader? Who's gonna guard the tough wings? Wafer? What if Tmac doesnt come back and we miss out on the big name free agents? Don't forget shane's reputation. That alone gives him an edge the few times he does bump/foul a guy or his fee arent set on a charge. Who's going to provide all of that?
Maybe that's you're argument, but there's alot more people complainging than just you. I could read 20+ pages and quote the posters saying shane sucks, he's on the decline and can't get it done, nolonger a good defender, lost his shot, needs to be benched/traded, and so on..but i think you've read enough to know there's more arguments involved here, so i'm not going to waste time quoting them. and you answered you're own question. "how can shanebe effective vs a team that never leaves him"....well why is shane in there in the first place? To spread the floor and give Yao room. So if Utah chooses not ot leave him, then THAT is how he's being effective, by giving Yao one less defender to worry about. That's the whole point. And if Utah never leaves him, then that makes over half the arguments and opinions here against Shane worthless because they're all based on "what if we face utah and shane misses all his shots", well if they dont leave him then he doesn't get many, if any shots, problem solved....
Well if he's not providing offense, and the coach plays him so much and he's always in there during crunch time, then add Adelman as one of those people who think that way...
DD could be refering to elevating the team's play, creating more shots for others, etc, like you implied. Instead he just shoots more, therefore just scoring more.
RV, just using utah since they have beaten us a lot lately and its not all shane fault, but do you think if utah singled yao every posession for every game he's good enough to score 30 per? Utah normally single yao and with the size and wingspan of ak, he's the guy that leaves the stationary target and volleyball spikes yao's shot backside. That's not spacing. Defenders split the difference when he's in the corner, they split the difference and they know shane won't put the ball on the floor. So the guy is crowding yao.
If they played him straight up, just one man, without doubling him and without AK coming over at the last second to try and block Yao's shot, i think Yao could put up close to 30 a game, assuming he's getting the attempts. I think its up to the point guards to have a bigger part in a utah series than Shane. You have to take Utah's aggressiveness away and that will only happen if you get them in foul trouble. Brooks and lowry need to take it in repeatedly and Scola/landry have to go up strong. Once utah can't push guys around because of foul trouble, they're toast. As for battier and the spacing, another thing to consider is that Yao has alot of problems with pesky guards roaming around the post who sneak up behind him and steal the ball. In the past everytime the person feeding yap the ball cut through after the entry pass, their defender would come back to Yao instead of following their man and steal the ball. Yao's gotten better at turning around to check if the defender is gone or not, but once he starts dribbling he loses sight of them again, so having any Rocket cut inside or move around close to Yao could be just asking for trouble, especially with guards and small forwards because their defenders are small enough and quick enough to sneak in. Thats why it also makes sense to keep Shane far away, to minimize pesky defenders roaming the paint (they may drop down but wont go all the way) and they're not exactly wasting his abilities since he's not a big scoring threat or slasher.
Why are you keep picking the Utah games to disqualify all the good things Battier brings to this rocket team ? As I know we play 82 games in the regular season and we don't play them every day. All I know from watching the Utah games is that we never get any breaks from those blind referees. They always turn a blind eye to those dirty, flopping Utah players. If we lose to the Utah Jazz, this is the team problem, the coaches' problem, every players' problem, the referee problem. This is not a Battier problem. Not even close as you make it out to be. It's not fair to pin it on Battier every time we lose to Utah. This is a team sport. If the Utah match-up is such a glaring problem, shouldn't this be the coaches' responsibility to come up with a solution? We haven't even come up with a good solution for Yao's fronting problem yet. I think that is a bigger problem than the Battier match-up problem or non-problem. Are you suggesting that we should get rid of Battier just to find a player that match-up better for Utah? If that's the case, you are not looking at the big picture. Why would a gm get rid of a top defensive player that is needed to defend all other 29 teams just because we need to defeat those damn Utah Jazz? We need every players to step up when we play Utah. We need the coach to make timely substitution and not let the players to find out what they should do and figuring out on their own if the opposing team making adjustments. I am not sure if I am qualified to make commemts here on this topic among all other knowledgeable basketball experts- including you, on this board. I am just a casual basketball fan from China. I can smell there are some former NBA players,and basketball coaches here. I may look like a fool here. But I don't mind to looked like a fool if I can learn something from all you.
Low enough to block a potential game winning shot against the Nuggets?! Kwame, you are just another stats twister. It's too easy of a thing to do. There are 3 types of lies...
