Shane's role will be signficantly diminished in the new season?

I pretty much know who the starters going to be...it's going to be Yao Scola Battier Tmac and Rafer.

Now you can start Bonzi over Battier but that doesn't make sense since Battier is just a better shooter and when Yao and Tmac is in the lineup, you got to have people making them pay for double team. Plus Battier is a relentless defender and hustler. Although I like Bonzi athleticism and relentless attacking the basket....Battier just a better fit w/ Yao and Tmac.

Ok now Scola....you got another relentless high energy player...high basketball IQ and can knock down shot for doubling Yao as well...can easily finish close the hoop and can post up too.....so even though his rebounding might not be there in the beginning....his overall talents is just too much for him to come off the bench...there is no way. It's like the Spurs with Ginobili....because of his relentless and competitiveness nature..the Spurs eventually had to start him. With Scola and Battier...you got TWO high energy player with off the roof basketball IQ....that is going to get you a lot of wins.

Now Rafer...why Rafer?? Well simply because he fits (YES FITS) better in the Adelman's system than any PG in the Rockets' roster. He is the pure PG that the ROX need and his ball handling skill is highly needed for this type of offense...the Rockets need a QB to engineer the offense...and i don't think Steve or Mike James can do that consistently...they're not pure PG. Steve has a better chance though. But in terms of shooting, Steve is a better at off the dribble shot than spot up shooting. Rafer is the opposite..he's a better spot up shooter than off the dribble shot...which complement Yao and Tmac better.

So coming off the bench will be Steve, Mike James, Bonzi, Hayes, and whoever.

 

Definitely have to agree with those puting Rafer at starting PG. No matter what you say, he is a very good passer, and probally the best playmaker PG on our team. In the beggining of the game you need to set down whos who, and what strategy your going to take, and thats what Rafer does well by starting everything off. Then you have two energetic PG/SG coming off the bench to rattle the already confused defence. Plus he's played the seasons in the past with Tracy and Yao so he works very well with them two.

 

Well, at least we know Battier is starting:

link

 

www.cluchfans.net If you go to Day 3 interview with Adelman at about the 4:45 mark. Adelman says Bonzi is coming off the bench.

 

don't you think bonzi is more like a PF??

 

Adelman is apparently interested in a short rotation 8-9 man instead of a 10 man rotation.

 

So Adelman has a good idea of his player combos and I think the players do also. Lock in Tracy, Yao and Shane as starters. Adelman isn't ready to name Scola yet. I still think MJ should be the starting PG on October 30th.

 

I suggest we not excoriate mos-def for his opinions. In fact, I share some of them in part. We can't realistically trade Shane Battier because we have too much invested in him. I still believe the Rudy Gay for Battier and Stromile Swift was a bad trade for us, but let's not go there.

Battier has average to poor foot speed when compared to those he is asked to guard. That's why he disappeared defensively and offensively in the Utah series. As one of our esteemed but absent colleagues always says, Battier is a good help defender but a very poor man-on-man defender.

IMO he eventually will be a highly-regarded sixth man for the Rockets because he can raise havoc with second tier players. Against first tier players he has the intelligence but not the athleticism. Yes, he draws charges but when one subtracts the fouls / points earned against him, his positive play is largely negated.

That said, I am a fan of Battier because of his intelligence and character. If offered the rapist Kobe Bryant for him, I would smile and walk away.

 

yes it seems like adelman is looking for a 8-9 man roster. if that's the case, i see the rotation being something like this:

Starters:

PG: Rafer
SG: T-Mac
SF: Battier
PF: Scola
C: Yao

Bench:
Bonzi, James, Head, and Hayes

don't know where francis fits in because James plays the combo guard better than him.

 

which is why youre not an NBA GM

 

A point forward?

 

You're absolutely correct. I have principles!

 

Looks like NBA coaches JVG and Adelman think more of Shane than many people here, which is fine by me. He will be a starter this season, play a good chunk of minutes and that's the way it should be.

I don't know what you mean by "disappearing" in the Utah series. Shane's stats were on par and he came up very big in game 7. Calling him a "very poor man-on-man defender" is ridiculous but everyone is entitled to their opinion. There is nobody else on this team who will put out the defensive effort on the other team's best 2/3/4 swing player that Shane does. Were you thinking of Bonzi maybe? And I'm sorry that tipped passes, charges drawn, proper and aggressive defensive rotations, etc don't show up on the stat sheet but those things actually help win games, believe it or not.

"Too much invested in him"? Shane has a very reasonable contract and it's one of the reasons he is so valuable. Any number of teams would have been glad to take him off our hands. If you mean we are invested in the sense that our team needs him so much, OK.

When we add a better swing player to our team, I agree Shane would make a great 6th/7th man, part-time starter.

 

The same as JVG, and most coaches in the league infact, yet people were always critical of JVG's 'short' rotation.

 

It looks like Alston will start , because Adelman said he wants who will get the team the most organized to start (Alston) and that there won't be a big dropoff when we go to the bench (Francis and James can score).

 

For me, the problem with JVG was not his 8 1/2 man rotation, it was his refusal to give the scrubs any playing time at all until 3 minutes were left in the game even though we were blowing the other team out. There were times I would wonder why the main players were still playing when the outcome was long determined.

A few times he would put the scrubs in almost all at once and they were so ice cold from never playing they would get routed. Then JVG would grumble about it after the game even though we won easily. He wasn't called Van Grumpy for nothing.

At the beginning of the season, Adelman may have a 10 player rotation until he gets a comfort zone with his top 8, 8 1/2. When he pares it down, people here are going to grumble about their favorite player not getting enough minutes. That is, unless we are winning a high clip. This whole season is going to be a work in progress and, before the end, we will have some unhappy players. But maybe winning will keep them quiet if we contend for one of the top records in the NBA.

 

it won't diminish if we play the lakers, miami, cavaliers or any team with great scorers. tmac will guard the other team's best player more b/c his responsibility on offense will be less but shane is still our guy for the defensive load.

 

Given the fact that Battier will guard opponent's best 2 or 3, I'll expect a 30~35 min PT.

 

I hate this constant guessing of the starting lineup. You see this at the beginning of every season. Guess all you want, but nobody really knows who's going to start until the season opener. After witnessing two preseason openers, suddenly everyone is jumping on the Scola bandwagon. I admit, he deserves it and should be our starting PF over Hayes. Maybe Adelman may even try that for a while after the season starts. But I think eventually, for the sake of team chemistry, the coach's gonna ask Scola to come off the bench in order to bring his excellent playmaking ability to the second unit.

It bothers me how a certain few posters keep on pushing for the fact that we should pack all our offensive powers into the starting lineup such as even substituting Rafer for James and Battier for Bonzi. I'm all for scoring a lot of points, but is this really necessary??? What about defense? What about passing? What about playmaking? We already got our two primary scorers (Yao/T-Mac) in the starting lineup and there's only so many points to go around between 5 players.

No, to bring maximum efficiency and chemistry to the floor we need Battier, Hayes, and Rafer in the lineup. Scola is wonderful but save his talent for the second unit.