again, what's more staggering is if you look at the usage rating. tmac had a whopping 33.7, which is more than chris paul, kobe, AND lebron james. once again, we looked to one guy too much. we def. need more guys to step up next yr for more balance.
I'm going to wait for the Head apologists on this board explain this one. And no, "Utah had bigger players so Luther can't play against them because his game is tailored for the 6' and under crowd but if it was any other NBA team that don't have ANY shooting guards over 6' ft he'd dominate" excuse is not gonna work this time.
Memphis is still winning 22 games a season, after 2 years. If the Grizzlies lose more games every season as Rudy Gay gets better, they'll be down to 10 wins a year in 3 years.
Head fans are saying it's just a bad series and he wasn't used much. It's BJ's fault. They forget about last year. Head sucked in last year's playoffs without any help from BJ. He can't shoot 3's in the playoffs. What is he good for?
So obviously, Jerry West did not consider Battier good enough for rebuilding process. And seriously why should he have? Battier had dissapointed him big time in two playoff series. I wouldn't blame him if he wasn't too adamant about not trading him later on after having been through that. Now if we go back to the Rockets end, after declaring that the team needed to go fast and athletic, and needed a tough minded player, they spend their 8th pick on a non-athletic shooter spot up shooter. Like I said, we were in need of talent ourselves. We had just come off a painful season where Tmac's decline was obvious. We certainly did not address that issue by taking Battier. We were not close enough to contend, and therefore could not afford an 8th pick on Battier. Teams like Suns, Dallas, who had talent but needed that final piece, could afford to overpay, but certainly not a talent-chellenged team as the Rockets.
Want to take a guess as to how many games Grizzlies would be winning if you took Gay out and put Battier on that team? I am trying to visualize the Kwame Brown/Darko post up to a wishing-he-were-open-for-a-3 Battier....
Not entirely baseless. Rudy Gay is getting better. It is hard to argue against that. As for Battier, he is not going to get worse. He will be steady and stay the same for years to come. Just don't expect him to get much better if any at all. For that trade to work, the Rockets had to capitalize on it early. The longer Rockets take to get out of first round, and with each year as Gay keeps getting better and his trade value keeps getting even higher, the worse it looks for Rockets.
Sure, The Gasol Battier combo won more than the Gay Gasol combo. About 10-20 games more. Kwame only got on their team, what 2 months ago? 3 months ago?
I saw that. The difference is that Landry came down from a 21 PER where Scola came down from a 16. Unless you are a superstar (top 10-15) player in this league, a 19 PER in the playoffs is showing up in my book. If noticed I mentioned that I combined what the stats said with what I saw. Landry showed up. Scola struggled for most of it until the end.
Well if you honestly look at it, the the only difference between Kobe Bryant and Luther Head is scoring ability, composure in the playoffs, ability to take any player off the dribble, jumping ability, ability to guard a person of the same position, ability to bring the ball up the court,without running into a corner, but instead of giving the ball to somebody who can actually set up the offense, you drive to the corner with no where to go, jump in the air and throw it across the court to the other sideline, expecting a 35 yr old bobby jackson to make a Dennis rodman miraculous type dive, therefore saving us from a turnover....also all-star status, an mvp award, 3 rings, 2 scoring titles, and a 17 million dollar paycheck difference, if you take those thing away Kobe, he is no better than luther head...simple as that
there is some valid argument about luther, saying he went against utah, which is a bad matchup for him. can anyone find his per for the regular season's game against utah this and last year, (since we played utah this and last year for the playoffs, and luther just sucked)
The 2nd last person on the list (Farmar) has a whopping 8.56 PER over Luther Head..................... That some major suckage.
The bottom line is whether its PER or other stats , Head had poor playoffs two years in a row. The Rockets have to look for a solid SG or SF to back up Tmac.
You ask and I deliver. Utah is a bad matchup for him after all. I don't know how to independently calculate PER, so here are his regular season stats against them this year and in his career. 2008 Against Utah: 3G 6MPG 0.7PPG 25%FG 0%3PT 0.0RPG 1.0APG 0.3TO So in 9 games against Utah this year including the playoffs, Luther made no threes lol. Career Against Utah: 9G 20.6MPG 32.7%FG 27.3%3PT 4.6PPG 2.0APG 1.4RPG 0.9SPG 1.2TO Career In General: 233G 25.3MPG 42.4%FG 39.3%3PT 9.2PPG 2.3APG 2.8RPG 0.9SPG 1.4TO
People are stupid if they think a team that puts T-Mac, Yao, and Gay out on the floor could win more than 20 games. Look at Memphis, they sucked this year with Gay. Gay is terrible.