I like Hayes and I like his defense but I am trying to picture our offense when Yao, Shane, and Hayes are on the floor at the same time and Blazers are constantly fronting Yao. Option Yao- No go. Fronting takes him out of any offense. Option Shane - No go. No double team on Yao and him kicking it out to open shooters means practically no production from Shane. Option Hayes - That's never a good option. Which means 2/5 of your team better be sensational offensively, and on the other end, Rockets better get a bunch of stops. For this to work, Brooks, Artest, and Wafer would have to be on fire. Not a lineup which gives you a good probability for a win, if you ask me.
I'm worried about the impact of losing Deke's presence around the rim even if it's only the limited minutes where Yao is getting a breather. If Yao gets in foul trouble, we could be in big trouble. Portland is the best offensive rebounding team in the league and they only need a few minutes to go on a game-breaking run. For all of Hayes' tremendous defensive abilities, the Blazers basically have four 7-footers, all with pretty good athleticism. They also have athleticism nearly top to bottom on their roster. Unless Yao can average 40 mpg for the rest of this series, which is doubtful, we are going to face stretches of games where the Blazers will have the opportunity to feast on the offensive boards and attack the basket relatively undeterred. Losing Deke's paint presence, even for 10-12 mpg, may be a HUGE factor for the rest of this series. Those minutes that Yao is out of the game have gone from being a relative non-issue (because of Deke actually being a better rebounder and presence around the rim than Yao) to becoming possibly one of the biggest factors in the remaining games. How we perform under our own basket while Yao is on the bench may now be a deciding factor in this series. With Deke out, we now have no advantages on paper during these stretches. It will simply take us outhustling them and getting some lucky bounces until Yao can get back in the game. If Yao gets in early foul trouble, there are scary possibilities.
Chuck had 2 assists in 13 minutes last games. He had the largest +/-. He's not a finisher, but he's everything else. Not like headless chicken AB who's better shooter, Chuck is good on team offense,.
Funny thing about those nice backdoor passes Chuck makes is that you will see him do it once and then Adelman doesn't run anything even remotely resembling that set for the next 5 games. Hayes will get that assist and then never touch the ball again. The play works because Hayes is not a threat from that far out so his defender cheats off of him allowing him to easily see where the cutters are going. If they run it enough, his defender will get closer and then that opens up things for other players, which pretty much negates the tired old "It's 4 against 5 with Chuck Hayes on the floor" argument.
He can win all the games he wants in the regular season. He has always built teams for the regular season, not the playoffs.
Chuck Hayes is TERRIBLE, and some people in here still dont have a clue...we cant afford to have Hayes in the game with Yao, because Yao is getting double-teamed/fronted and our offense is bad enough when that happens, much less when Hayes is in the game...we need guys in there that can knock down some shots.
I completely agree. Losing Mutombo is a huge blow to the Rockets. It's made this series a whole lot tougher.
You know what the means? Means our other scoring options need to come into play. Stop relying on Yao and give our perimeter shooters a job to do. We couldnt do anything with Yao because no one else could do anything so all they had to do was guard Yao. Everything else was treated like Rafer.
Hayes sucked last night. He is fat and slow. Aldridge torched him and he could only stand there. He won't be a Rocket next season. He will be a Yakima Sun King
Yao was definitely getting fronted/doubled. This means the other 4 guys on the court need to be able to shoot, because its basically 4 on 5 when the double Yao....and if Hayes is in the game it might as well be 3 on 5
Actually its 4 on 3 when they double Yao, with us having the 4. And I guarantee you will see Hayes in the game rotating with out bigs. We just lost Deke so Adelman would be stupid to not put in Hayes more.
I still dont see why some people have this obsession with Chuck. Yea he plays decent defense (WHEN he doesn't foul), but he's WAY over-rated as a defender if you ask me. Offensively he is beyond TERRIBLE, so how do you all expect him to play when Yao is constantly surrounded by 2 guys (which is going to be the norm from here on out)? When this happens, the open spot is the free-throw line area, and last time I checked Chuck Hayes couldn't hit that shot if his life depended on it... People need to get off this guys sack and realize he's a decent REGULAR SEASON role player
Chuck is not at all an overrated defender, he's one of the best in the league. But he can not be on the court with Yao. The defense will pay absolutely no attention to him and there will be 2 players guarding Yao every time down. Granted, that is already happening now, but with Scola or Landry in, the defense has to at least try and recover to defend them. Hayes, not so much. It's not as cut and dry as us beloved clutchfans are making it out to be. Or maybe it is... Yao plays big minutes and Hayes can't be on the floor while he's playing. Therefore Hayes' minutes must consequently be limited. It's a tough/easy decision for coach to make, but he will make the right one. Or at least a better one than anyone on here can make.
