I say we start Rafer, TMac, Ron, Battier and Scola. Yao comes off the bench for that little extra oomph.
I think Scola loses his mojo when he comes off the bench. I agree, either Battier or Artest should come off the bench.
scola was our backup center last year (when the matchup wasn't ideal for deke) and he will be our first backup this year. on offense scola has everything a center needs. his post moves were under-used by the rockets most of the time last season. you see what he's able to do in the post when you watch the argentinian national team (where he also plays some center). defense is another story but he's at least good enough to guard the opponents he'll face at the 5 (which are mostly not true centers anymore) as a backup and as a center in a small ball line-up. when we're facing howard, shaq or duncan it will of course be deke's (we'll definitely re-sign him at some point) job to guard them.
Landry was our 6th man last year but with the contract situation, Scola coming off the bench wouldn't be a bad idea
I feel Scola should start. The toss up should be between whether we insert Artest in the starting line up immediately for Battier or do we start Artest on the bench. In Indiana Artest had to share shots with Miller and Oneal, so he should be able to fit in with Yao and Tmac. Adelman will probably decide from preseason play whether to start Artest or not, either way he will have over 30 minutes per game. If Landry is not signed then Artest may play sometime at PF to back Scola.
With all due respect to the OP, having Scola in a "6th man" role would be the height of Rockets madness. I can't see Adelman doing that, unless it's for the odd situational matchup. Like others, I see Battier as the 6th man, unless Artest is put in that role (which would surprise me, although he would be great at it).
I think we need Scola to be out there on our starting line up. Our front court is undersized enough and we can never have enough scoring options. Artest, in my opinion, is wayyy too good to be placed on the bench. I want all three, tmac, yao, and artest to be on the court at the same time to show everyone how scary the Rockets can be at its best.
Artest would be a much better fit in the Ginobili role. We have depth at the wing and he could really lead the surge of scoring from the bench. We benefit the most from Scola when both he and Yao are on the floor at the same time. We got off to much stronger starts when Scola was inserted in the starting lineup. See: Warriors game last January.
I think the best bench player should be energatic and more athletic.so you should see LUIS is suitable for a starter more than a bench player. he is skillful instead of a tough player
my view: starting five yao-C 30-35 mins scola-pf 25 mins t-mac-Sg 30 -35 mins ron- Sf 30- 35 mins alston- Pg 25min rotation barry-pg/sg 10mins carl(if he resign)-pf /c steve battier-sf 20mins dorsey brooks well, we could have yao come off scola into C and artest into pf while battier come on for sf or if defense is really needed, we can have t-mac at pg battier come off at sf ron artest at sg yao at C scola at pf that will be explosive.. anyway well just need two f the big three upcourt anything or even 1 cos u gotta take into consideration that rest=less prone to injury
No, luis meshed well with yao last season, I don't want Ron to bust the chemstry between Yao and Luis.However, it's not proper to let Ron to play the 6th man either. Then what should Morey do ? I have come up with an ideal solution to all these problems. Put Tmac on 1 because he is able to play as a great PG like Magic Johnson. T-MAC is conTemporary MAgiC.
a bench with barry, luther, hayes, dorsey, mutombo, battier, etc. won't work (because none of them can create or are above average offensive players individually). get used to the idea that artest will play a ginobili-like role on the rockets. i've not seen one logical argument against it. and to the poster who said that artest had no problems playing together with miller and o'neal i can only say that that was a totally different situation. first of all you hopefully won't compare o'neal and miller to mcgrady and yao. o'neal was never the dominant force that yao is and averaged only around 20 ppg and miller was totally washed up. he averaged around 12 ppg at this time. so artest was clearly in a much better situation when it comes to touches and shot attempts. yet, he still was not satisfied with his role on offense and did let it be known. at the end there's no way of using all of the big three to their maximum potential when they all should play together most of the time. artest knows that, adelman knows that, anyone with some basketball knowledge knows that. the point of the artest trade was to strengthen our offense and our bench so that there will be less pressure on t-mac and yao. you can only do that by playing artest off the bench. that doesn't mean that he won't be playing 30 mpg or that he won't see the court when t-mac and yao are playing. he will and everyone will be happy. our offense will be potent all game long. artest will get his shot attempts. t-mac will get his rest. yao will have an easier life especially in crunch time when our big three will be playing together. and our sensational team chemistry from last year will remain.
I like Scola as a starter PF. With 1 year experience already, I eager to see what he more he can do on court. He is hustle, rebound (I amazed with how well he grabbed offensive rebounds) and a smart player. In fact. I think Scola could be our 3r or 4th scorer and Scola is definitely capable of getting 20pts or more consistently. Scola is also a proven guy that can pick up the slack and carry his team when he played for Argentine. As for Battier, he played longer in NBA than Scola but I think there's not many games he got 20pts or more. Battier played more like a guy from the bench or has a support role mentality and he definitely has problems if he is asked to carry the team.
GermanRoxFan, I see what you are saying, but you never substitute all 5 players at once.... The Rockets will have at least one of Rafer, Brooks, Barry and Tmac on the floor at all times and more likely 2....giving them 2 creators on the floor.... DD
Scola should start. Let's not forget that we really started to roll when he was put in the starting lineup. Plus Battier will be more productive on both ends of the court playing behind TMac and Artest.
Battier should come off the bench. We need our best 5 to start the game. We are going back to the same arguments people were posting last season about Scola vs Hayes. All can now see that it is better to have the best talent on the floor.
