One piece away from a championship - and shot clock trouble explained

I agree with you; i see NO BETTER DEFENSE THAN HOUSTON.
We have actually the best perimeter defenders (Battier) and Ron.
and with Yao and Scola if they improve their defense, and even w/o, we can stop any team,and we proved that all year long and also in the playoffs; we could stop Lebron James(Battier and Ron made him a poor little guy), Kobe Bryant also had big problems that he doesn't have against Denver by the way
the lack is our offense:
1) we need good passers: remember the 1994,1995 rockets: Cassel,Smith,Maxwell,Horry.. everyone was able to pass the ball to Hakeem even when doubleteamed and fronted. So Brooks and Lowry have to work a lot on that.
2) we need players like Tmac who can drive to the basket, shoot..unfortunately, TMac couldn't make his role all over this years. He is surely overrated, because guys like Kobe or Lebron made their team better in early stage, TMac never did.This leads us to the next point
3) TMac is no longer a player that we need an that we can lean on, his career is over, we will never get back like he was in his healthy days, and even with that, it would break our team heart, because of his lazy mind and less agressive play.He costs a lot for this team with no benefit, and we proved that we can go far w/o him.SO...
4) Trading Tmac for 3 or 4 athletic finishing players including a back up center would be great and can give us a strong team to win the champ.

 

trugoy, that was a really, really good post. I particularly like the point about what type of player we need to take advantage of the Yao fronting issue and how that will open things up for Yao and solve some of the shot clock issues.

You should post more often, dude.

 

I completely agree. Slightly off topic, but I'd really like to discuss this. Bill Simmons came up with this:
"Rumors are flying that New Orleans might gut the roster this summer and that, as crazy as this sounds, Chris Paul could be had if you can save them a boatload of money in the process. For instance, let's say they were offered the following "Godfather" package from Houston: T-Mac's expiring deal and Brent Barry's expiring deal ($24 million combined), Aaron Brooks, Carl Landry, Shane Battier and Luis Scola for Paul, Peja Stojakovic, James Posey and Tyson Chandler. That trade works even before Paul's extension kicks in, meaning it would save New Orleans $10 million next season and $4 million to $5 million more if they bought out T-Mac. Over the next three years, it saves them $45 million to $50 million potentially, keeps the team afloat in New Orleans, and might even keep them decent with the right moves. Wouldn't that make more sense than gutting the franchise like a fish (which they will), saddling Paul with a terrible team and eventually pushing him to demand a trade?"
I think the prospect of trading for Paul would be interesting. Now i seriously doubt that we'd do a trade THAT big, we'd be giving yup way too much for too little. But trading say Tracy, Brent, Luis, Shane or a resigned Ron and Brooks for CP3, Peja and Chandler...Thoughts?

 

Don't disagree with the theory, although Turgolu is a really bad example. He's pretty much a jump shooter. And although he's a better finisher than Artest, he's not anywhere near what you're proposing.

People have been raving about Magette for years now. Of course, we've never had the money, and he's never been healthy.

I don't know if there are any good fits. Wing player who fits the description usually either can't spread the floor or they're simply too good. For example, I think Gerald Wallace would be such a player, except he can't shoot.

 

Great post, and what I have been saying for over a year....this is exactly why I like Corey Maggette, because of his game and his fit for this team

Not to mention the guy scores nearly 20ppg on only 11 or so shots....he is uber efficient.

DD

 

I was never high on Corey Maggette. He seemed like someone who only cares to get his numbers. And he is injury prone. Wasn't he called "bad p*rn" by the Warrior fans?

 

I think you're spot on regarding the team's need for a tall scoring wing with penetrating ability. But I think that in addition to scoring and driving, that player also has to be ideally a superior playmaker, or at the very least an above-average passer. If not, we're left with only the small forward (Battier or Artest) to make the safe entry passes to Yao in the starting lineup.

I think that mixture of scoring and playmaking ability is what makes (made?) McGrady so valuable to this offense. I'm not familiar enough with Turkoglu or Maggette to know if they can come close to satisfying those both those needs.

 

Yes. And when he isos he usually just dribble and put up a jumper. Nothing wrong with that of course, as Artest and T-Mac both do the same thing. But that's the thing. Hedo is just like them. In fact, Hedo's jumper vs. in the paint ratio this year is almost identical to Artests, ~3:1(from 82games).

Of course, he is a lot better finisher than Artest in the paint. And his lack of drives may have something to do with Orlando's offense. But in terms of what he currently does, it's definitely mostly jump shooting.

 

tmac has 1 bad season and everyone hops on the hate bandwaggon. this year we can't trade tmac because he just had surgery and might not even be able to play ever again. why do you want to change our team if we just made it out of the first round in 12 years? the only thing we were missing this year was a healthy tmac and a true backup center.

 

tmac doesn't dribble for 10 seconds then take the worst looking shot I have ever seen, artest just isn't a scorer. He's a beastly defender.

 

one piece:



D W A D E

 

one biggest piece away.

one superstar away from contending.

 

I completely agree. Artest is a great one on one defender when playing against wings that not of elite level athleticism, but use their size or strength to overpower people. Artest is a mediocre defender against quicker players, he couldn't guard Kobe at all. Artest even had trouble staying in front of Trevor Ariza.

What Artest does well defensively is gamble and play the passing lanes, also if he cheats off his man and gets a hand on the ball, his hands are so strong he routinely strips the dribbler and knocks the ball free.

Artest is not a "smart" defender either, as we all saw, every time he crowded Kobe on the perimeter he allowed Kobe to drive around him. The "smart" defender backs one step off Kobe hoping he shoots the jumper, and in case he drives the defender has some recovery room. Ron just didn't do that because he knows his advantage defensively is to use his body to over power an offensive player, but Kobe continually took advantage of that move by driving around him.

I like Ron b/c of the toughness he gives the team, but his defensive abilities are definitely overhyped at this point. He needs to lose 15 lbs over the summer in order to gain some more lateral quickness, that will help his man to man defense tremendously. Ron is strong enough, his feet have slowed over the years and the only way to gain quickness at this point is to become lighter on his feet.

 

The other great thing about Maggette is that because he gets to the line so often, he's going to get the Rockets into the bonus earlier in pretty much every quarter he plays. This will be key for the Rox because of how good Yao (and Brooks if he stays) is at the stripe. These two can get an extra 4-6 points a game from the stripe if they have someone who can drive, create contact, and get to the line.