If the starting lineup is not . . . ill lose my mind

Partly true, but also Hayes and Deke are tremendous rebounders and have a nose for the ball, and are good defenders. Not have at least one on the court really hurt boarding, and defense. JVG was also smart enough to realize Howard and Yao's liabilities worked against playing them together long periods.

Just not the case. Every lineup did better with a Yao-Hayes (C/PF) combination than a Yao-Howard combination. Also better than the occasionally tried Yao-Battier (C/PF combination). Hayes is not the ideal by to have next to Yao (I would have loved to trade Hayes-Alston for Haslem, Haslem is kinda like Hayes + a midrange shot), but he has a lot of the right attributes. An athletically/defense challenged PF (Howard), nonphysical/light rebounding PF (Battier) or flaky not hardnosed PF (Swift) is not what you want next to Yao. If Scola doesn't prove to have any weaknesses in these areas that will be terrific and make our team better.

Well put. I would add helping in at C as well.

 

Which was exactly the point I was trying to make. As I said, you can't take a player's performance in limited minutes and project them out and expect them to remain the same over more minutes.

 

Actually, the extrapolation/Diogu comment was refering to Danny Ainge vs Jerome Kersey, not to Hayes.

No doubt that it's never exactly the same, but coaches do tend to stick with the same philosophy over time. Riley and Fratello are two exception who have coached completely different styles on different teams. Regardless of the differences betweens Adelman's Portland, GS and Sactown teams, he was always consistent in the fact that all 5 starters could score.

Let's make this easy. Let's just answer two simple questions. Assuming a healthy Hayes and Scola, who do you think will begin the season as the starting PF and who do you think will end the season as the starting PF. Pretty easy, huh? No, qualifying with "if this happens" or multiple scenarios. Just give two names. Who begins the season as the starting PF and who ends the season as the starter.

I'll say that Scola is the starter from day 1 and finishes the season as the starter.


So, what are your choices?

 

I'll say Hayes and Hayes. And I reserve my right to change once we Scola in training camp. My main points were that Hayes does do a lot of things that help Yao/front line in particular (his positive attributes are not recognized by many) and we shouldn't assume Scola can do those things on the NBA stage.

I hope my skepticism was not warranted and would be much thrilled if Scola earns the starting role by day 1. But I'd settle for Hayes starting, but Scola proving to be a productive rotation player this year.

 

It depends on how you define "limited minutes". Stats collected mostly in garbage time probably aren't very useful. But if a player gets, say, 1000 meaningful minutes on the court over the course of a season, his per-minute numbers tell you a lot more than his per-game numbers.

 

I'd Rather have Alston Start.

Hes the only playmaking PG on the team.

PG: Alston
SG: T-Mac
SF: Battier
PF: We'll See
C: Yao

Francis to backup McGrady at shooting guard and Mike James to backup Alston.

IMO, Head is leaving since hes another combo guard like james and alston.

 

Well and here you have 2 options. We all know how did Rafer Alston play last season especially in the postseason. He could miss even wide open jumpers or 3s (first of all he shooted only 3s). But he did that things cause he was confident. He knew he would play 40 or more minutes cause we didn't have another good PG he could be a backup for him.

But now we have a lot of great PG, James, Brooks, Francis. And if Rafer will be strugglin' he just won't play. He won't be confident. And he knows now that he has to play a lot better and he has to be a playmaker he has to make game easier for Tmac and Yao and he has to drive more.

 

rafer was very restricted last season.

JVG basically restricted him to be an actuallly PG.

All Alston's Job was to be the primary ball-handler.

 

Interesting discussion Desert Scar and aelliott. While Hayes gets the most out of his limited skill-set, I'll be very surprised if Scola is not starting from day one.

I look forward to seeing Chuck come off the bench and maintaining the bulldog approach that we know he brings. With what we know of Scola and Hayes, our PF spot should be high energy from tip-off to finish.

My expected starting five:

Yao
Scola
Battier
McGrady
Francis

Mike James the first off the bench.

I won't lose my mind if it's not, though...

Good to see you posting more aelliott.

 

i think you guys are very high on Steve Francis.

 

Agree, Scola and Scola.

 

A guard who is a poor jump shooter and can't finish well would be very bad to an Adelman offense, far worse than a PF who is limited but at least efficient around the basket PF.

But James is a much better PG than Francis, and I think he is the clear starter. James is sort of in between Alston and Francis, Francis will be the backup SG and maybe help out at PG if Rafer is gone IMO (which think will happen because I strongly suspect Alston is traded because of the size of his contract and our depth of smallish guards).

 

My point wasn't really about per minute numbers vs per game number. I was trying to show that performance doesn't increase linearly with playing time.

Let's say a player averaged 5 pts and 10 minutes per game. You can't neccessarily assume that if he played 40 minutes then he would score 20 pts/game.

 

Here's an interesting Adelman quote regarding Scola:


"We like to have a lot of activity on the floor to make it easy for your better players," Adelman said. "The more passers you have on the floor, the more scorers, the harder you're going to be to defend.

"I think it's going to be easy for him (to make the transition). I showed him what we like to do, and I think he's going to fit right in."


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/lopez/rockets/4976793.html

You can draw your own conclusions.

 

Alston is gonna be the PG playmaker.

There are no other playmakers other then Yao and McGrady.

Alston should flourish next season if he starts.

 

There are not many playmakers in the whole league.
Tmac is one. Nash is another one.

Yao is not a playmaker. I hope he will be one some day.

Alston does not have any skill set to be a playmaker.

 

It depends on your definition of playmaker.

 

Rafer brings the ball up and then gives it to tracy in our half. from there tracy does all the decision making with the ball. he creates the plays. if thats not a point forward then you're numbskull.

 

tell that jonathan Feigen.

http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2007/07/back_to_our_regularly_schedule.html

hey jonathan,

Do you think Tracy McGrady is a point forward?
In My Opinion he isn't. But do you think he is?

(No, I consider him a basketball player that happens to be an excellent passer. He played most of last season as a guard, but can be considered a small forward. Either way, I don't think he needs to be defined as a point-something because he passes well. -- Jonathan)

Posted by: TMacFan at July 31, 2007 06:02 PM

Jonathan,

Do you consider Mcgrady a point forward? I like to hear your opinion because you have a lot of knowledge.

(I would not so narrowly define him. He is a guard or forward who happens to be an outstanding passer. I don't feel anyone needs to be called a point-something because he passes well. -- Jonathan)

Posted by: Daddy at July 31, 2007 03:25 PM

 

So. Tracy does all the playmaking. he makes the decisions on the ball. he creates the plays. all rafer does is bring the ball up the court. tracy MAKES ALL THE PLAYS