15 fg attempts +11 FT attemps, a TS% of .428 is a highly inefficient 17 points. When Juwan Howard had a 16-17 ppg average with a TS% of .500 or so while Yao and McGrady was out people were calling for his heads. Some people have no concept of reality. They should have education specifically designed for them. They should call it "special education" to ease teh stigma.
Why do some people suddenly think that it's alright to score the same amount as the number of shots you attempt?
the only people who have no sense of reality are the stat geeks who don't understand the most important stat is winning *******.
The rox used to be small in the backcourt, now they're small at the 4. Its not about shot blocking and all this other stuff, its could be about position defense. Say what you want about Howard, but he's beens playing the 4 his entire nba career and is much stronger than shane who is a natural 3. If boozer constantly gets low position, it breaks down your defensive integrity. If they have to switch now its the 7ft okur. I just think that Battier can slide and play the 4 sometimes against teams, not play it full time and take the constant pounding from that spot.
It was one game. Were you expecting an 82-0 season. Right now the Rox have less losses then the Suns, and the same number of losses as Dallas, Miami, San Antonio, Detroit and the Clips. Stop freaking out and getting all bent out of shape about the team losing a road game to what appears to be a pretty good team.
I said it before, and Ill say it again... WE GOTTA QUIT PLAYING PEOPLE OUT OF POSITION, or the Boozers of th league (not referring to Vin Baker - lol) are gonna continuously go off on us. Battier is a great SF - hes a decent PF. TMAC is a great SG - a decent SF. We are downgrading these players by playing them out of position. Yao has a decent outside shot, if we run into trouble at SG, are we gonna move him to SG _ HELL NO, so we need to quit doin that move at other positions! Im not a JHO fan, but having him, or Hayes, or Novak, or Padgett at PF would be a weakness, but we would be capitalizing at SF with Battier and capitalizing again with TMAC at SG! We need to run: Ming/JHO(or Hayes/Padgett/Novak)/Battier/Tmac/Raef!
I'm not getting bent out of shape, I didn't feel the need to start a thread about battier's play, but I'm not gonna let someone make the argument that he played well. he shot well. he also was outrebounded and outscored by his man. I get all bent out of shape when someone tries to make an argument that he is seeing something the rest of don't. its already started after one game. the biggest problem I have is that you guys still don't see the bigger picture. the rockets are outmanned with battier at the four. its just a fact. he's barely a three in relation to other threes in the league, if he has to play four or five on a consistent the basis, the rockets lose that match up most nights.
And what does winning entail? Outscoring the opponent. And what the did Rockets do when Battier was on the court? Outscore the opponent. So if winning is your criteria for judging a player, I don't see how you can blame Battier. While Battier was on the floor, the Rockets were winning (i.e. outscoring the opponent). Of course, winning itself isn't necessarily the best indicator. It's what goes into winning. A player can play great and the team loses, and a player can play poorly and the team wins. If you want to criticize Battier, you need to explain what he did to hurt his team's chances of winning. Just pointing out some stats isn't enough. Context matters. Battier was the Rockets starting PF in name only. He was never matched up against Boozer ... so it doesn't make any sense to compare their production. Actually, Battier was matched up against Kirilenko and Okur for the most part. If you want to criticize Battier based on his individual stats compared to the guy he matched up against (which only tells part of the story), you should look at what those guys did when Battier was matched up against them. And if you're saying "his man" was Boozer, then you're wrong. You seem to be fixated on positional designations as opposed to the actual matchups. And even positionally, Battier was playing SF half the time he was on the court.
I sense some Rudy Gayism eminating from some posters here. To put the blame on Battier for the Jazz loss seems very short sighted to me. The data proves it and if you go back and watch the game video, it shows it clearly. Okur had a poor game. Battier was covering him. Boozer had a great game. Yao, Padgett, Novak, and Hayes were covering him.
Starter for starter the box score is relatively even. Yao>Okur, Battier>>Kirilenko, Boozer>Tmac, Snyder=CJ Miles, Williams>Rafer. The difference was Utah's guards off the bench. Fisher and Brewer got in and they didnt miss a beat. Too busy studying how Shane's measuring up and its those guys killing the Rockets. I guess Shane is supposed to trim down the deficit by 12 points all to himself to mask the other weaknesses. Looks like Novak could expect a good abusing from any good power forward he goes up against in the early goings. If he was in Boozer mighta had 30 and 25.
Jeez......Do Jazz fans get all bent up on being outmatched with Yao and McGrady? Can't win all 4 positions now....
he lost the matchup to boozer and okur, now you guys claiming he was guarding kirilenko. the rockets better get themselves a real four before the season is over.
Who is "he" ? Yao should take most of the responsibility for Boozer. Most of the time in the game, Yao guarded Boozer.
I think this is a pointless debate. We'll just have to check back on Shane later in the season. We aren't going to convince each other to change opinions at this stage.
I'm not talking about boozer or okur or kirilenko, I'm talking about battier. I don't care who he's guarding, he's not a real four. the rockets need rebounding, I really don't care that boozer got 19, I care that shane only got 1.
I really don't know, considering what utah's frontline did last night it just might be a bad match up for the rockets all year. but that's what happens when you don't build your team in sound basketball philosphy. the fours in the league may be more mobile, and they maybe better shooters in than in the past but they still rebound. I'm not the biggest swift fan, and I know shane is a more sound player than he is, but the rockets actually weakened themselves at the four with that trade. and this isn't something I started harping on after the first game. I said from day one of the trade, battier isn't a good rebounder against bigger players than him. as much as you want to slice it, rebounding is a weakness at the four spot on this team. and anyone who thinks mcgrady is gonna make up for it with his bad back is living in fantasy land.
We will rebound our opponents in at least 48 games this season. This team does not have a rebounding problem.
