If Rockets play Jazz in a traditional manner, they are at a disadvantage. If Rockets think out of the box, Shane Battier might get an opportunity to make a name for himself, and Rockets will be playing in the second round. As it stands, Shane has not produced in playoffs, either for Memphis or the Rockets. If Shane is stuck on Kirilenko and Harpring the entire series, IMHO, the trend will continue. Ball does not go to AK47 on offense so Shane is basically following around a decoy without utilizing his defensive skills. Harpring is too strong in the low post for Battier, so that matchup does Rockets no good either. Why not try smacking 2 stones with one killer bird? Put Shane Battier on Deron Williams! Shane likes to hound people on the defensive end. His defensive skills are better utilized by keeping him on Deron. Also, Deron’s ability to post up guards are neutralized. At the same time, since Deron Williams is the engine that makes the Jazz go, if Shane can slow down Deron, Jazz offense will suffer. This strategy has been utilized before and ironically it was against the Jazz. Scottie Pippen was assigned to harass John Stockton when the Jazz played the Bulls in the finals. Pippen was quiet effective. Let’s see how effective Shane (this board's DPOY), can be in a similar role. Note: This strategy should work when AK47 is in the game at the same time as Deron because the Rockets Pg can switch over on him. AK47 does not have a fearsome post game to kill the Rockets. His offense leaves a lot to be desired and I think Rockets can provide adequate help defense on AK47 if Jazz keep going to him. I would be more afraid of Deron posting up our guards. The bigger problem will be what to do when jazz bring in Harpring to replace AK47? Here’s the twist though. If the Shane on Deron move forces the Jazz to play Harpring more instead of AK47 because Harpring gives them an advantage on offense, then this opens things up for Tracy McGrady and the rest of the Rockets on the other end because I think AK47 is their best defender . AK47 is what makes the Jazz good on defense. The lesser AK47 plays, the better Rocket’s chances get. Adelman likes to play cat and mouse game. Well game on...
If Luther Head is in the lineup at PG then this defensive strategy can work well defensively.....because Luther is strong enough to not get completely dominated inside by Kirilenko on defense or rebounds.........only problem with this is that Luther will be running point for us on offense...
Shane is a great defender, but I think Deron Williams is too quick for Shane, I have confidence in Rafer when he comes back to do a decent job on controlling Deron, but I think we should put Shane on AK and just have him help out a lot on Boozer
Sounds like a contradiction. Like I said, this has been done before. If Shane is as good as people in Houston consider him to be,then he will show it on the court.
You guys are acting like the PGs suck at defense. Bobby Jackson might not be the greatest defender, but he certainly doesn't suck.
I don't know for sure if Shane is or isn't quick enough to stay in front of Deron.....but what I think "dafranchise###" is trying to say is that for instance Hakeem was a great defender, but that doesn't mean you could ask him to go out of position and try to guard a Detlef Schrempf....
Shane is a great defender, but Deron Williams is one of the quickest change of speed/direction guards in the entire league. Shane does a great job contesting jumpers, hounding shooters when they're in triple threat position, and contesting drives to the basket. But staying in front of very quick players starting at 30 feet out is not his strength.
I want Rafer to hurry up and come back so that we can throw 3 different looks at D. Williams. I'm hoping the different styles of play from our 3 pgs will throw off Williams making it hard for him to get into a rhythm. Last year our only PG was Rafer. He averaged around 45 mpg in that series and Williams got into a comfort zone against Rafer and he used and abused us.
Shane is quick enough to guard shooting guards very well, not necessarily a quick point guard. With Shane on the ball all the time, he'd get picked off a lot, and wouldn't be able to take charges and help defend the paint as easily. Depending on matchups, maybe it would be worth a shot, but I'm not convinced it would be the best option.
geez just imagine if we could go big with battier, artest and mcgrady.....battier could then guard williams lol..
That's not a bad idea.. but who will our PG be defending? AK47 may not be able to post up Shane but if he has Rafer, BJax or AB on him, you can pretty much bet that they will try to exploit that. There's no way our PG can guard AK47 on the low block.. I'm not saying it's going to happen... but it'll be interesting to see though.
I don't think it'll work your assuming that they won't run a play for Kirlenko to abuse our PG's. That will happen, Sloan is too smart. I think it will work if the PG was guarding Brewer, but then all they would do is put on Harping or Korver.
Shane on D-Will is an idea whose time is ripe. But IMHO the cat'n'mouse cannot be a one'n'done, it needs to be dynamic. To float. Enough change up to keep jazz out of rhythm for four L's. Battier and TMac are possessed by a collective two-ton pound albatross that arriving in the 2nd Round will be eliminate.
The only way to SLOW down DWill is to make him work on defense.. our guards will have to attack him.. I'm not saying score a bunch of points but challenge him and don't settle for jumpers...
AK is long and can still take advantage of Bobby Jackson guarding him. My vote goes to Shane on Deron, T-Mac on AK, and Bobby on Ronnie Brewer. Ronnie Brewer has no 3pt range whatsoever, all Bobby has to do is cut off his penetration and do a decent job on the mid-range J and he'll be fine.
