Shane Battier does a lot more than folks give him credit for. he can't jump, doesn't dunk or break ankles, never find him on highlights. But that guy is the middle linebacker of our defense and runs the defensive show out there. So, with a tough opening stretch and our offense a work in progress, we need to rely on our defense. but I'm worried about our defense without Shane. (of all people, i think it's up to Rafer to set the defensive tone). that is all.
rafer is fast enough to be shortstop and artest has the quick hands. Who is goalie? Last year it was Mutombo. NOW hes sitting waiting... Sign mutombo already!
Yao can be our first baseman/DH....Big offensive numbers that sometimes carry the team, but limited in mobility on defense, yet somewhat decent. T-Mac would be center fielder, definitely.
not as good of a team defender tho. the man is right, anybody who knows a thing about football can see the correlation between shane battier and a middle linebacker. he makes all the defensive calls and makes sure everybody is adjusted. something i've never seen artest be as adept at. we will suffer a bit, but battier will be back before long.
I would expect we will see defensive improvement from the last couple of preseason games, so I wouldn't panic at this point. They had a bit more time to find a vocal leader for defense when Shane's not on the floor this week. That will help, I am guessing it will be Rafer or Artest (cause neither are afraid to talk or tell people what to do). Adelman was working on offense at the beginning of training camp and defense at the end. He said that before the last two preseason games. So I'm not worried. Defense is all about effort and communication, we didn't forget how to do that over a summer. Just re-emphasizing rotations and philosophys in the last two weeks will help.
I was kind of thinking the same thing. I feel like strong D is something we've always taken for granted from our Rockets squads, but Battier's only missed two games with us. JVG always demanded the D and Battier's done well carrying on that tradition. But I'm worried Shane's absence (coupled with the inevitable chemistry/lineup problems that come from getting new players worked into the mix and figuring out who works best together) might be one of our biggest problems in the early going. Of course, when Shane's healthy and everyone's comfortable, we'll be a juggernaut. I'll be looking for a gradual but steady decrease in opponent's field goal % and PPG as the months pass by.
shane is like kobe on defense imo and it sucks to not have him BUT we still have good perimeter defense. ron, rafer, barry, are all good defenders. and i dunno why pple would think tmac sucks at defense. he used to be a lockdown guy in toronto averaging 2bpg in his 3rd year. imo hes our 2nd best defender behind ron. if shane was athletic and fast he could be a lot better but hes still daam good, but tmac is fast, athletic, and a smart player. sometimes he sags off too much. but now w/ our team being stacked he can use more energy on defense, specailly if he doesnt have to create every shot for everyone which he shouldnt do ever again.
Let's see... Artest has a strong postup game (low or high block), moves well without the ball, runs and finishes strong in transition, averages 6.7 more reg season ppg than Battier, has logged 366 more playoff minutes than Battier, was named to the First Team All Defensive team in 2005-06 and 2003-04 (second team 2002-03), is probably the Rockets' best man on man defender, and has the athleticism, strength and size to match up with teams that play PF's in the mold of Nowitski and Garnett. Artest has a tendency to take some Mobley-esque heat check shots and is slighty less than Battier in team defensive rotations. In the words of the immortal Alfred E. Neuman..."What, me worry?"
