What position do you see Battier playing? Will he be backing up Tracy, or will he play another position?
He will backup Tracy and play some 4 when the Rox go small. Tracy may see minutes at the 2 while Battier plays the 3.
I assume TMac moves back to SG, Battier starts at the 3. TMac can slide to 3 with Head at the 2 and/or Battier at the 4.
We just upgraded our starting lineup significantly. Now we have options at the 2 & 3 positions, and can move one of them to the 4 when other teams go small. We are set at 2, 3, and 5, and could use upgrades at the 1 and 4 positions...enter Mike James & Wilcox or Radmonovich. DD
I see Battier starting, of course that depends on who else they sign in free agency. He can guard the 2, 3, or 4 positions which gives him the flexibility to start at SG or SF. I guess it all depends on what position you want Tmac to play.
I see Battier starting also, especially because of his D. Too bad he isn't much of a shooter. Isn't that what our biggest need was- shooting?
Mike James is the one we need now. We need a scorer who can create shots to come off the bench. Wilcox is a Stromile clone so I don't see that happening. Radmonovich would require our entire MLE and we drafted a similar player in the 2nd round in Novak. Bring back Mike James. Rafer/James Tmac/Head Battier/Bogans Howard/Hayes/Novak Yao/Deke
Battier BETTER f$%#ing start. I really hope we didn't trade Gay/Swift for a 6th man. Whatever it is, the Rockets just traded away a lot of depth w/ only the MLE and 2 TEs to make up for it. With Swift gone, we don't have a lot of tradable assets.
Battier is strictly a small forward. I see him slotting in as our 6th man - which is a role he could excel in by bring energy from the bench. We still need to get a shooting guard. Where this pain wear away I will look into that. The missing parts we need now just increased, instead of decreased because Stro doubled as backup center. For now, we need a true shooting guard (since the rumour is that Tracy does not want to play 2-guard extensively). We also need back-up forward (maybe Malick Badiane) and backup point guard. We only have the following to work with: 1. TE - 4.2 ~ 2. TE - 1.7 ~ 3. MLE 4. Tradine away our next year's picks for immediate help 5. Sign and Trade (because the FA market is not that inspring especially considering what we need). If nothing else, we will not get to see Bowen backup Mac anymore.
on offense battier will be a 3rd option.. spacing the floor on the perimeter, knocking down open threes as he pleases and also putting in a lot of fast breaks and trash points with his speed and size (When Tracy has to sit he can be a decent stop-gap) on defense battier will be asked to shoulder the load against guys like Nowitzki, Marion, Kobe, Ginobli, AK47, Carmelo, Ray Allen.. etc I expect 15+ppg, 6rpg, 1.5apg, 1.5spg In other words, I think he can be a Michael Finley type player at his top performance. At worst he's James Posey. I'm banking he'll be more Finley for us than Posey. Yao and McGrady will give him so much oppotunity he should flourish as the smart, efficient player he is.
Battier has improved his shooting, but he is hardly someone to count on to spread the floor. He only took about 2 three- pointers per game, which isn't even in the top 50 in the NBA.
He's gonna be a workhorse who's expected to do a little bit of everything. Think Jim Jackson from '03-'04, only younger.
Battier is going to be our starting PF -- book it. McGrady will play the 4 against the longer PF's who aren't troubled by Battier's strength.
Think 8-10 minutes per game. Backup 3, with some minutes at 4 when we go small aand some additional minutes at 3 when we go big (TMac at the 2).
