Maybe our definitions of UglyBall are different, but I watched a number of Celtics games last year and I didn't see what I see with the Rockets. They can shoot for one, they get players open and they get the ball to them, their passes are crisp and they get a load of offensive rebounds. Instead of make the game look hard, they make it look easy. And they were doing that from the beginning of last season with several new players. The Rockets are always struggling to adjust with the hope that when the season is three quarters over they might be getting it. No such problem with the Celts.
U can find battier anywhere. Mo evans, bogans, greg buckner, ime udoka are all the same battier clones. Evans does the same, but is more atheletic. Its too late and we've had the argument 1m times. I like shane, but he should be a more rounded offensive player. I mean I would take childress or outlaw right now for him. At least those guy can get better. Shane seems content just spotting up. He doesn't fill the lane, he doesn't pump fake and get into the lane. Thre are creases for shane to take advantages of the defense,but he doesn't.
You are totally wrong. Comparing Evans, Bogans, Buckner, and Udoka to Shane Battier is completely laughable. It's a shame that someone who supposedly watches all the Rockets games would come to this conclusion.
I stopped reading your post right there. You really think Shane Battier and Keith Bogans are the same?
This is the same sentiment to prevalent around the BBS. TOO MUCH SPORTS CENTER, TOO LITTLE JOHN WOODEN.
Yes, as much as he takes bad shots he is really a great ball handler. After all he was a king of streetball and everything's about handling on the streets.
Rafer does have good handles, after that it drops off significantly. Aside from his two are three little shooting streaks during the season (one just ended) night after night he throws up more garbage than any starting PG in the league. That is indisputable. Sometimes he looks like he just aiming for the backboard. Normally, you don't see shots like that past junior high school. He just goes spastic. Rafer would be sooo gone if I were in charge of the Rockets; I would have never traded for him in the first place. The Rockets pay too high a price (not money) for Rafer's "handles." True, the team will "struggle" without him, but they "struggle" alot with him.
We can find Gay anywhere... Wafer, Alston, Head... all Gay clones. /sarcasm But seriously... Mo Evans? Bogans? Buckner? Are you kidding me? My opinion of the Gay trade has always been the same and always will be the same. We were betting that Gay wouldn't have panned out, and we were wrong. Gay turned out to be probably the 2nd best player in that draft, but he could've easily have been Tyrus Thomas or Randy Foye or Andrea Bargniani or Adam Morrison... and some of those players aren't complete busts by any means but on a winning team they wouldn't have had the opportunity to even make the rotation.
To the 3 above posters who think I'm wrong to say evan, buckner,udoka, and bogans aren't just as good defenders as battier, let me ask a question. What was the rox defensive rankings pre battier? Once u tell me that, then we can move forward. In fact I will say this, with old, short, slow david wesley, kobe's numbers were worse than with the great shane. Not only that, even during the injury plagued yr, the rox still played great defense. Now i'll hear how shane allows tracy to be more offensive since tracy doesn't have to play the premier wings. Have any of u ever thought how much tracy could focus on defense if he didn't have to set everybody up? Have you thought about those premier wings spending 0 energy on defense because they don't even guard shane? If the rox had mo evans vs battier, the defense would be the same and the offense would be better. Evans can get to the rim and finish, fill the lane on the break, shoot the butt naked 3's shane gets and defend. Yall just keep watching channel 0 and believe shane is the end all be all on this eam.
You are digging yourself in a hole of ignorance. It's funny how you're basically some self-appointed BBS scout or coach on here with your whole "I don't just watch games like most fans, I'm a student of the game" balderdash. Then you feed us this garbage. You have absolutely no clue on how to evaluate a player like Shane Battier.
I'm not diffing some kind of hole, I just speak the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts if u live in fandom. I've started threads with observations, not from trying to get star ratings. Splash u still haven't told me how kobe's numbers worse pre battier and the rox defense was just as good pre battier.
It didn't seem to affect the 1980's Boston Celtics teams... As Yao Ming goes so goes the Houston Rockets. He needs to take over the team and be the leader all the NBA will be his oyster.
1) The teams you've fixated on don't have the slowest and least athletic Center in the entire NBA. 2) Tony Parker, Rajon Rondo and Chauncey Billups are combinations of very fast and reasonably strong. Tony Parker's one-man fastbreaks destroyed the Cav's in the Finals. Anyone comparing Rafer Alston's skills in transition O to any of the aforementioned is probably related to Rafer. 3) While they may not run and gun, ALL championship teams are extremely capable in transition O. 4) If the playoffs slowed down as much as some of ya'all think, the FGA's/game would dive by 5+ or more. Check the box scores. The FGA's are consistent with the regular season when playing a playoff caliber team. 5) Part of being athletic is having above average physical skills and not being too short or too slow. All of the current Lakers run the floor, the Spurs and Pistons did it when they were winning Championships. There's way more but I'm tired of discussing it.
Gater- The rox have so many players that can't be measured by numbers. Its some kind of magical code that only a rox fan in fandom can see. If I ask one thing about shane, they bring up intangibles like he's the only one. Hayes,rafer,shane all have these intangibles that can't be measured if you listen to most posters.
This is one of my big concerns with the current Rockets. But I'm not as concerned with their ability to run the quick transition as with their ability to defend against them. Up tempo games have always been a good way to tire out Yao and take him out of the game.
I mean we can't change what Yao is. He's a big,lumbering center that can be unstoppable when he wants to. I don't have a problem with that, my problem is the guys around him. Scola is a small pf in terms of length, not fast or quick, but plays hard. Tracy is a galloper. Injuries has drained some of his atheleticism, he's more fast than quick. Artest is a bull in a china shop, which is cool. Alston has ok speed, but is a very.very streaky shooter who can't finish around the basket contested. The quickest, most explosive player on the rox are all average to below avg for their postioon in terms of length and size. I'm not knocking that because I like all 3 in brooks,landry, and wafer. The problem is with Head,Barry,Hayes, and to a certain extent Shane. I'm not that worried about shane if he's playing 20 mins off the bench, but Hayes and Barry are really slow and small for the players their playing against.
