Chuck can guard most of the power forwards but you cant expect him to play center. The main problem with the rockets as far as personnel is the big gaping hole in the middle where a 7'6 monster was standing.
Scola and Landry to start. Anderson, Hayes and Pops to come in depending on match ups and situations.
From Yao's facebook: "I like David Andersen, our new center. We played each other in international games a couple of times. He's a good a good face-up shooter and has good low-post skill. I think he will fit Coach Adelman's style very well."
i feel like too many people overrate hayes' defensive capabilities. he has the ability to get leverage due to his lower body strength, his basketball IQ's through the roof, and he's fundamentally sound (he even uses battier's hand-in-the-face technique), but his lack of height leaves him at a huge disadvantage against big men with consistent mid-range jumpers in their arsenal (gasol, stoudemire, okur, duncan). gasol abused chuck with finesse hook shots and short jumpers during the playoff series against la. he's a formidable opponent against big men who solely rely on power to get to the rim, and lack the ability to step out. bynum, oden, nene, and even shaq struggle against chuck in the paint. don't get me wrong, chuck's our best defender in the post, but i'm tired of people claiming that he's one of the best in the league, or in the western conference. it's just not true. i'd give the nod to landry and scola down low, and adelman can bring chuck in based on the situation and matchups. chuck's non-existent offensively, allowing his man to cheat on helpside and shift over more frequently for double downs, most likely limiting scola's output. we need scoring this season, and chuck can't provide that. he's too much of a liability offensively, and he can't shoot a FT to save his life. landry's not going to be the defender that chuck is, but he can shoot the mid-range, attack the rim, and shoot FTs at a higher rate. we're going to be running up and down, playing aggressive and open on the offensive end, trying to get to the line to control the pace of the game, and landry's clearly the better option.
that would give us the best starting lineup, but the absolute worst bench in the league. i think we should start pops and scola. landry is the first off the bench to take over for pops and put scola at center. then when scola goes out you bring andersen in to play center next to landry and bring scola back in to end the half. if there is foul trouble or we need to slow down kg or someone like that you bring in hayes or maybe pops back in. landry isnt starting but hes playing starter minutes. we need a bench. thats all im saying..
I dont see Pops starting over Hayes a whole lot; Andersen will probably see a good number of starts, but it really just depends on matchups.
