Yao Hayes Battier T-mac Alston Starting does not mean a lot for this rocket team. There is no way Yao and Tmac are not starting, so the right way to construct a starting lineup is to find those who assist Yao and Tmac the best. You have to admit starting alston and let MJ contribute off the bench is much better than allowing him taking too many shots with both Yao and Tmac are fresh. I would also like to bench Scola for the same reason. Although Scola deserves a starting position, but he seems more effective coming off the bench in later first quarter. In such case, he and MJ can provide the offense that kill opponents second team with Yao or Tmac on the bench. Also, SF3 is obviously not ready yet and alston definitely does a better job distributing balls to Yao and Tmac. So I am 100% with coach A this time!
i think people get the notion that your starting five has to be your best five players. that's not always the case and certainly not the case for this team. like you said the starting five will consist of Yao and T-Mac, and the other three should be players that best assist Yao and T-Mac's game. I also thought it was interesting how Adelman put MJ, T-Mac, Battier, Bonzi, and Yao on the floor in the 4th. JVG would probably NEVER do that in a million years
Battier and Bonzi as forwards. Isn't that the lineup we talked about this time last year!? It finally happened!
Starting 5 is fine... Scola, James, and Bonzi off the bench kills the opponent's bench, I mean look at the game against Utah? they've got a deep bench, and what do the Rockets do?.... my point exactly
My point is starting alston doesn't make him any better than MJ in any way. It's just he is more suitable to start.
scola and james have really provided a spark off the bench the last few games... sometimes i wonder, if we do start scola, who's gonna come in and inject that energy we need ?
your comment made me laugh. its funny how people on this board always find ways to somehow make the rafer issue surface. very creative comment indeed! i like the comment! [im not pro/anti-rafer - im pro rockets. and i like francis too. but i support whatever coach A does. ]
Good post. I have been thinking this all along and never understood why everyone was saying "start Mike James". Obivously they are upset with Rafer's play but when you demand to start Mike James it does not help the bottom line which is.... putting the most effective combinations of players on the floor together for 48 minutes to get the win.
yea, that even things up alot for us, that way: our starting line-up >= their starting, but our bench >> their bench just like a Chinese folk story about horse racing: a guy named Tian Ji used his low-level horse to race with the opponent's high-level horse, his horse certainly lost... but he used his high-level horse to beat the opponent's mid-level horse, and used his mid-level horse to beat the opponent's low-level horse.... final score: 2:1, Tian Ji won
our strength lies in the follwing five................ Yao Ming Louis Scola T Mac Bonzi Mike James, given time we will see them play together
Why do you think that? JVG went small in the fourth quarter plenty. If he had MJ, and he had a healthy/motivated Bonzi, I think we would have seen such a lineup plenty.
the starting lineup is great the way it is. the bench is great the way it is. don't fix it if it aint broken.
and then off the bench to replace them Luther Battier Hayes Rafer ??? How effective would our second unit be There is only so much offense to go around, we need to utilize our great depth to provide B A L A N C E.
Almost every team in NBA now has a mini-sized lineup. JVG never prepared one and thus Rockets were always in trouble in 4th last season when the opponents speed up the game. Now Adelman has Scola and Bonzi, they can play the running PF/C. What I'm looking forward to, is to replace Yao with Scola in the 4th, which form a pure mini-sized fast lineup. Fast basketball, and a lot jumpers.
I also like our starting lineup of Yao Hayes Battier T-Mac Alston but I am hoping Steve can get in the rotation to either take Luther's spot or take Rafer's starting spot where Luther will be out of the rotation. We haven't seen much from Luther except the other team taking advantage of his defensive liabilities.
