Haha. Thank you. That was an expression of pure joy from watching the Charlotte game yesterday, and watching the Dallas game on Saturday. I was so impressed. "rage: Good post in general ... As far as Battier vs Landry. Landry does not play defense very well. He has a hard time at the 4. He certainly can not chase opposing 3 all over the court like Battier. On offense, Landry does not have the range of Battier. Landry has a good 18 ft shot but he is certainly not a 3 pt shooter. He went 0-1 in 07-08, 1-2 in 08-09." Thanks for the compliment. I know about the 3-point deficiencies of Carl Landry, but he is deceivingly quick and has HOPS!I'm not expecting him to chase an opposing 3 around the floor, that's what i suggested that Artest could do. I'm not saying "cut Battier", just maybe lessen his minutes when Artest and Yao are on the floor. When Scola is the 5 I understand that Carl has trouble, but when Yao has his back, and Artest can chase around guys like (just examples) Brandon Roy, David West, 'Melo. I just think that, given a chance, Carl Landry would surprise a lot of people with his defense on other smaller power forwards and with his ,not great, but GOOD mid-range jumper. Also, his ability to keep plays alive on the offensive rebounding end of the floor is priceless. It would be a cold day in HeLL if I ever saw Battier tip around an ofensive rebound or lay out and fight for a loose ball. I respect your opinion TOTALLY "rage" but I just think instead of Landry geting 20 mins and Battier getting 33, maybe giving them both 27 or so may help out our toughness. And did anyone see the "Artest Flex" after bein pushed around by Brandon Bass in the Dallas game and finally getting a fould called? AWESOME!!!!!!! P.S. If T-Whack comes back ANYTIME this season, and Adelman decides to fit him into the rotation, we should all REVOLT and petition to have Tracy AND Adelman fired!!!!!! Open to all comments!!!! New to the website and LOVE to talk Rockets. --Blizzle
Hmm ... If Artest guards the 3, whom does Landry guard? You see, our starting line up has: Yao (5), Scola (4), Battier (3), Artest (2), Brooks (1) Landry can not guard the 3 nor 2, that is why he can only get in the line up to replace Scola so he can guard the 4, or when Yao goes out, Scola gets to guard the 5 and Landry the 4. Our other subs, Lowry is set at the 1. Hayes gets in at the 4 or 5. Deke at the 5. Barry and Vafer get in at the 2 or 3. In every lineup, you need 2 quick or smaller player to chase their 2 and 3. Landry can only take Yao or Scola's minutes. Try to come up with a lineup and see for yourself why Landry can not get more minutes.
What about Yao/Scola/Deke (5) , Landry/Scola/Hayes/Cook? (4) , Artest/Barry/Landry/Battier (3) , Wafer/Artest/Barry/Battier (2), Brooks/Lowry/Barry?/Wafer? (1) Realistically Starting: Yao, Scola, Battier, Artest, Brooks Rotation: Yao, Scola, Landry, Artest, Brooks/Lowry Alternative: Scola, Landry, Battier/Artest, Artest/Barry, Brooks/Lowry I forgot about Wafer, but he will get his minutes at the 2 guard in relief. I'm just thinking that Artest can play 2,3,or even against a small 4. Battier is a 2 or 3. Landry could play 3,4. Defensively, think of the small forwards (3's) on contending Western Conference teams. L.A. : Odom? Walton? N.O. : D. West? Rasual Butler? Denver : 'Melo (in which case Artest could guard) or Balkman? or Dontay Jones? Portland: Nicolas Batum Suns : Grant Hill? Utah : Kirilenko? Spurs: Finley/Bowen? Mavs : Josh Howard/Brandon Bass? With a few exceptions, which I'm sure Adelamn could compensate for, I think Landry could hang with 70-80% of those players. My point is with Artest on the floor with Landry, they could switch defensively and because they are similar size and strength, it wouldn't make much difference. I'm not saying get rid of Shane. But let's divvy up those minutes. I think those minutes would be way more productive with Landry than with Battier. That's just my opinion. Tell me what you think rage. ---Blizzle
The whole point depends on Landry being able to guard the 3 and I think he is simply not quick enough to do so. I don't think he can hang with 80% of the 3 in the league. 20%, maybe. You can not depend on Artest to guard the quicker of the 2 or 3 either. He is barely quick enough to guard the slower of those two. (The same was true with TMac). Battier has only been asked to guard the quicker 2 or 3, most of the time he guards their best offensive man also.
If we spend 20M to get a superstar next season, Wow, Real contender !!! Now, what is T-mack thing now? Say i'll be back with 100% or I'm still good.
We can't spend 20mil on any1 until 2010 when we lose T-whack's 23 million dollar contract. And even then, we would have to give up more players with reconstructed contracts like Brooks and Landry and Scola. We need to get rid of Tracy's contract and get it of the books before we can even think of geting any other high-caliber player via free agency, or we trade ALL of our young talent, which I am happy with so far. What sucks, is that this wouldn't even be an issue if we never made a draft day trade of Rudy Gay for Shane Battier. THERE'S your young talent Open to suggestions, questions, comments. --Blizzle
You are right. I just got a problem with shane playing 33 minutes and giving us 5 pts, 3 boards, and 2 steals. When Carl Landry puts us better numbers in his sleep. I'm just a hater that's all. ---Blizzle
I can sympathize with that. I know Landry is a pretty good offensive player but a line up is more than just the 5 best offensive players together. You have to have different pieces to the puzzle. For our puzzle, Battier fits better at many configurations. Landry only a couple. I wish Battier could be better at the offensive end but he can only do what he can do. He is not perfect but none of our players are.
