Bingo. I wasn't too high on James either but the fact is this team NEEDS depth desperately and needs a 3rd scoring option. James brings both, and, of the FAs out there right now, he's the best bet.
So rather than sign someone who can dribble, pass and shoot, we can go out and sign one more bricklayer who dribbles off his foot or can't dribble at all, and throws balls into the stands, like we had last year? Take your pick we had a team full. It got boring fast. Oh yeah, and the other teams out-scored us. And it's not a ten million dollar contract? Run, don't walk CD!
totally agree, James must accept his role. I am also worried that just because he had a breakout year and he is one of the hottest free agents on the market, it will make him even more selfish and make bad shot selections.
BINGO!!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!! No but seriously, this guys shot selection is gonna kill us next year, quote me on that one.........I hear all of you sayin "off the bench" which is totally fine with me so he can come in and be a gunner....but on the floor at the same time with t-mac and yao and his shot selection is gonna drive us all to drinkin....i'm willing to bet on this one plus like he said he will be as cocky as hell after all this attention....plus he is not gonna ride the pine here guys....that is one of are bargaining chips i can asure you........he can ride the pine with the western conference champs for that matter
I find it interesting that the Mike James detractors are already whining about James taking shots away from Yao and the image is burned into their retinas. Here's what is burned into mine. Game on the line, shot clock is off, the defense is shading Yao and forcing the ball out of McGrady's hands. Mike James has ice-water in his veins and confidence in his heart as he takes it to the rim, finishes and it's And1. As opposed to Alston who unconfidentally is still trying to figure out how to get the ball into the post as the clock expires. We had no Pitt Bulls. With James and Battier, we've at least got two. I'm probably talking to deaf ears but... 2005-06 FGA's/48 Mike James = 20.2 Rafer Alston = 14.6 James as 04-05 Rocket = 20.2 To paraphrase James himself...there are pass first point guards, there are shoot first point guards and there's me...I'll do whatever it takes to win.
GATER, I totally agree. I think with Mike James, we all have to accept that there ARE going to be nights where he does something that frustrates us. It will happen. However over the long haul there will be 3+ times as many nights where we thank the lord that he is on our team. That 3rd scorer, that player that can DRIVE the lane and collapse the defense, that player that has a firey bulldog personality? We TRUELY need that! Plus you add in a player like Battier? A healty Tmac and the "new and improved" Yao Ming already is a dangerous team! That's a playoff team right there with scrub role players. But if you had "starter quality" players like Mike James and Shane Battier to the mix? To me that makes Tmac and Yao even MORE dangerous!
Those are certainly gaudy numbers but do you really think James will accept that he's our 3rd option or will he turn into that Mike James we saw when he first came over from Milwaukee? Sure he put up good stats but I remember watching those first few games. We won some, we lost some, but James took more shots than Tmac, and Yao averaged 9 FGA a game or something liek that. And goodie, James' per48 in 04-05 correlated to 20.2 FGA a game. Too bad Yao only took 12 shots a game in 04-05. I expect Yao to take about 13 shots a game in 06-07 while James gets "his" 20.2. And then all the complaints about Yao regressing will come out despite the fact that James dominates the ball so much Yao won't get a sniff of that new synthetic leather. And we'll wonder what's happening and why the rockets haven't taken off. Believe that.
I'll take my chances that that "might" happen versus what DID happen last year (not counting injuries) where we missed having a 3rd scorer and bulldog personality on this team.
it's not about taking shots away from Yao or T-mac. I am perfectly fine with him taking shots if both Yao and T-mac are covered. I'm worried about him making unwise shot selections or keep jacking up shots himeself when Yao or T-mac is open. The key here is efficiency, it is about knowing his role and accept it.
I don't have time to go dig through the numbers. But I'd be willing to bet that when the Rockets added Mike James in 04-05 that Yao's and TMac's FGA's did not go down in spite of your recollection. IMHO, if you are focused on half-court recollections, you are missing a huge piece of the larger picture. One of the key aspects of the team that started horribly and got red-hot on their way to 51 wins was transition O. Younger and healthier were Wesley, Barry and Sura. The key to the success was not how many shots Yao took or didn't take. It was the aforementioned and Mike James pushing tempo. If you'll do the arithmatic, you'll see that statistically Mike James takes just over 1 more FGA per quarter than Alston. That pace can easily be met without costing Yao a single half-court shot merely by forcing tempo and getting easier transition baskets. I can't prove it statisically, but my observations are that Mike James' nature is to play the NBA game at a much faster pace than Alston. Given Battier is a decent (though not great) transition player, Mike James is the initial step in putting together a solid transition O team to compliment Yaos' half-court presence.
Right on, he didn't do **** in game 7 against Dallas, has no clue how to run team, don't pass the ball to a wide open TMAC for GODs sake, never liked him, I wish he never came to H town.
I think you may be underestimating the progress Yao made the last part of the season. His confidence soared. I really think he'll demand the ball. He has to, for the Rockets to be successful. Yao has to demand the ball, and when he gets doubled because he's nailing 60% of his shots, and Tracy is doubled because he's Tracy freakin' McGrady, and if you don't you're insane, then your going to want James to take advantage. I don't expect him to take 20 shots every night, but there will be times when you'll want him to. I expect Battier to get wide-open looks as well. James is going to want to win. He'll still get his, maybe just not as often. We're going to be a nightmare for opposing defenses.
Mike James will clearly know he's option #3 in our offense and won't average near 20 pts/game. Sometimes his shot selection will frustrate us but that comes with the package. If his shooting % is like last year, it's all good.
As long as he can become a third scoring option, we should be even better than we were when we took Dallas to 7. Considering the scrubs we were playing back then and some new additions this year, this year can only be better than that season.
David Wesley, Jon Berry and Mike James were all very good outside shooters. Even Sura was hitting his outside shots that year. That was the perfect compliment for Yao and TMac. So you can call them scrubs if you want but the recipe worked.
