Mike James vs. Luther Head, who should get the minutes?

This is hard for me to decide. At this point Mike James got his chance and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the basketball. When Luther got his chance he's making shots but maybe not making the best decisions at all times.

So I am going to go to the other side of the ball and see which one is more effective defensively...

Luther is small, which is a con, but he does do good help & recover defense most of the time. During an iso, Luther on defense is sad, but in the scheme of the team defense he does well.

Mike James looked like he was trying on defense and I can't recall any obvious times that he looked completely lost on that end. But statistically when he's on the court the team gives up more points than when Luther is, telling me his help defense may not be as good as Luther's.

Maturity could also be a factor and we know that Mike James has had veteran minutes on a championship caliber team in Detroit so you would like him to have a role in any momentum going into the end of the season.

Last year was Luther's first playoffs and to say that he was invisible would be putting it gently. But he has added aspects to his game this year that I think will help him grow the more time he has on the court and we want him to be comfortable at the end of the season because his three point shooting under pressure could be important.

So... after all this I am going to vote for Luther. Mainly because Mike J was given his chance and his performance lost it for him. Plus since he is a veteran sliding him into the lineup later in the season will be a lot easier than doing it to Luther, because he has had that experience.

Wow.. this ended up being a long post.. my apologies!

 

neither head nor james should get the minutes, instead we should play our rookies like brooks or novak in the place of those 2 ball hogs who are not clutch at all compared to other shooting guards in the likes of ben gordon, derek fisher, brenden roy, barbosa, stephen jackson, these guys are clutch, unlike the inconsitent head or the ball hog james

 

i still dont think luther is capable of passing well. i'll give you that he's improving but geez that pass to yao that resulted in a TO late in the game against the celtics killed me. i think once james can knock down his shot we'll be much better off. luther can't drive and the only thing he can do is shoot which wouldnt be a bad thing but unless he can raise that % back over 40/45 behind the 3pt line then id take MJ over him.

 

Luther disappeared during the playoffs last year. Completely nullified by the Utah defense and he couldn't hit a shot. So no to Head for clutch situations and finishing games. James, I dunno, if he shoots like he has been no NBA team will want him. In fact, James and Francis are both in danger from their recent play of exiting the NBA by way of Waiver.

 

Both suck. It's like picking your poison.

 

Lets assume that Francis isn't coming back. Leaving us guard choices of Brooks, Alston, Head, Bonzi, James, and T-Mac.

I will tell you what I do not what to see. Bonzi and T-Mac running the point. T-Mac cause you want him off ball in scoring position. Bonzi because he's more of a garbage scoring 2 guard. I do not want to ever see Head or James playing a lot of minutes except in relief of our primary point guards. That leaves Brooks and Rafer playing the point guard position period!

Think about it, with Rafer as the playmaker being able to get around his man at will and dish the ball and an extra fast Brooks, our PG position is covered. Heck I'd even like to see Rafer and Brooks playing the PG and SG at the same time with T-Mac at the 3, Scola at the 4 and Yao at the 5.

 

Head has outperformed James throughout this season when they were given minutes. He deserves the minutes he's been getting while McGrady's out.

James has been playing poorly and IMO it's not just because he's missing shots. Many of his shot selections seem random and take the team out of the offensive set, while his perimeter defense has just not been good. I believe he could play better, but he hasn't shown it so far.

But I think the point will be moot when McGrady returns to the lineup. We've got McGrady, Wells and Battier taking most of the minutes at shooting guard and small forward. At point guard, Alston and Brooks are settling in, and if the team goes small, Adelman may choose to go with Alston and Brooks manning in the backcourt as he did today.
Unless Brooks proves to be a defensive liability (which he hasn't so far), that doesn't leave a whole lot of minutes for either Head or James.

 

I just want to add that before the season, I was sure that Head would be at the end of the bench or traded when James was brought in. I also thought the same thing would happen to Alston. Man, both of them are proving me wrong.

 

Simple - Luther Head
Mike James has his name that's good on paper, nothing else.

 

And I forgot to say, when it comes to playoff time , I'd love to see Mike James AND Steve Francis stepping up!

 

It pisses me off when Miguel James starts acting like Miguel Jordan and hoisting up shot after shot.

 

Luther Head: Team player, better 3 pts shooter
Mike James: Black hole of the ball, destroy the chemistry of the team but a better slasher.

 

Yeah, because he's been such a big problem since his demotion, right?

 

I'm very disappointed in Adelman's rotations....notably his refusal to play bench players according to matchups......he stubbornly insists on playing the same exact rotation for a few weeks instead of mixing and matching bench players according to the opposition.....

obviously Head does not match up well against a lot of team, such as the Mavs and Warriors for instance.......and obviously his 3pt shooting is more needed against others, such as the Celts.....but Adelman makes blanket decisions and then never sways from them....

and the same can be said for Bonzi as well.....he can destroy certain teams such as the Spurs and then play horrendously against teams with bigger guards that he can't overpower.....this is where RA needs to start thinking about matchups and use some of the talent we have rotting away on the bench...

 

Well, we all knew WHY Mike James was traded to Toronto Raptors for Rafer Alston back in 2005 ~ 06 season.

• Both Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady did not like him then as they both felt he was too selfish
• He is a ball hog who just like to handles and control the ball, dribble and dribble and then shoot. Too ego-centric and not a team player.
• He played little if none defense. I suspect he is not interested in playing defense at all. That was probably the reason why Jeff Van Gundy gave up on him.

Well he had a break-out year at Toronto Raptors the following season cos that team sux and willing to give him lots of minutes and lots of shot attempts; but he was given up and traded to Minnesota Timberwolves, which already indicated that there is something wrong with this player.

Now in this motion offense systems of Rick Adelman which stresses unselfishness, passing, without ball movement and team work, I doubt whether Mike James will be able to change and adapt himself to fit Adelman's systems.

On the other hand.....he's getting old (33 years old) but not wiser.

Even though Luther Head had some problems in his ball handling, basketball IQ, and his defense also needs to be improved, at least, he is only 25 years old, 8 years younger, more a team-oriented player than Mike James, and he had a 40% career 3-pointer %.

I would give Luther Head more play minutes.

 

Because Bob Sura had a career ending injury and we didn't have point guard who could start to replace him. James was not traded until AFTER Sura came into camp on crutches.

 

Even then, given the Bob Sura's career-ending injury, it did not negate what I listed as the reasons for Mike James being traded away.

If he is good, if he is not that selfish, if he is not that disinterested and bad in defense, if he is a more team-oriented player, if he is not being liked by the 2 superstars on the team, if his play style fits JVG, he could have stayed to play as the starting or back-up point guard.

 

If Bob Sura had not been injured, we would have kept Mike James. James played well for us at the end of 2004-05 and in the playoffs, don't you remember? At the time, he was the only perimeter player we had other than T-Mac that could create his own shot.

 

Mike - I can penetrate too - James

or

Luther - I can stroke it - Head


Two of the most homoerotic nicknames anyone has ever come up with