I just don't get it. It seems as though we are always losing the 1st and 3rd quarters. Then our backups come in and we get a lead but sometimes we can sustain it while other times we cannot. We start too many defenisve players that cannot shoot or create in the game. All of our backups have positive +/- and all our starters have negative +/-. Look at our starting 5 performance shows we are a below average team http://www.82games.com/0910/0910HOU2.HTM Trevors problems are well documented but I think Luis, Chuck and Shane are problems when playing together. If Luis is having a bad game we totally suck, if he is having a good game then we play average. The only consistent player is Aaron IMO. Now I would like to have Kyle and Aaron start games as the guards with Trevor, Carl as forwards and Luis as center. That is our best 5. I would like to see Aaron, Kyle and Carl play avg of 34 min per game. They are our three best players IMO. Kyle creates and rebounds and Carl cause he is efficent and Aaron is just a great shot. Life w/o McGrady & Yao just plain sux.
I have been saying that all year....Battriza is a problem. AB and Scola are playing 2 on 5 out there... Unless Brooks gets off to a good start, generally the team is going to struggle..... CBud would be a better choice as starter than Trevor ........or if his ego is too fragile (as I suspect it is) then put him in place of Shane. DD
Start Carl at the Center position.... Every game it seems like KL and CL has to rescue the starters when they come in. TA is stinking it up bad out there.... I kind of miss Ron.
Fixing the starting lineup is as simple as benching Ariza and starting Chase Budinger. It's as simple as that. Suddenly you have three legitimate outside scoring threats, spacing the floor effectively and opening up the paint area for Brooks and Scola to go to work. Imagine if we could actually run pick and rolls with Brooks and Scola. Imagine if we could actually post and iso Scola without having people collapse into the paint instantly and blow up the offense. *Sigh*...
I'd throw out this starting line up: PG Aaron Brooks SG Chase Budinger SF Shane Battier PF Carl Landry C Luis Scola Chuck Hayes is a solid defender but didn't he pretty much get benched in favor of Scola 2 years ago at the PF position? My thinking, if he played PF then and is now our starting center then why couldn't we start Luis at C now? I understand his defense isn't as good as Chuck's but they really are playing 4 on 5 with him to begin games and Scola's offense can fairly compensate for his lack of Chuck Hayes type D. Trevor is shooting awful. Everything else he does is great, besides the dribbling, he still hustles plays hard defense and plays team ball. His entire offense is just horrible right now. That doesn't work well for the starting 5. Teams have learned how to "not" defend them to start a game.
Look at those 82games stats more closely. Notice how almost every lineup with Scola and Landry together is awful defensively? That pair has one of the worst plus-minuses on the team. And that isn't a new thing this year. Its always been that way with those two.
Landry is one of the worst defenders on the team. Not sure if I would want him starting. However, the idea of starting Carl Buddiger intrigues me
They ignore defense durvasa... I want LESS Landry and Scola... so many want more of that combo.. I don't understand it
The one that needs to sit is Hayes. He is like playing 4 on 5 on offense. Whatever good defense he provides, it is not worth it for what we need to overcome on offense.
You can't just look at that....because it also depends upon who is on the floor with them, whom they are playing against. Too many factors to use as anything more than an interesting stat. If they were starting together, would they struggle? I think that is up in the air. Because what good does it do to hold a team to 22 points in a quarter if you are only scoring 13.... We have too many one dimensional players.....Chuck is not a threat, Shane is not a threat, Trevor is not a threat.... That means, on offense we are 2 on 5...... I don't mind defense, but you need contrast in the lineup.......most teams have one good defensive starter in the lineup...not THREE....... We need offense DESEPRATLY. DD
Actually what needs to change is the schedule. And it will. The team just lost 3 games in a row that they were supposed to lose, regardless of who they start.
The same can be said with everything else too... Landry plays a lot of minutes against second string... so does that mean he's not as good as if he started. Every stat has to be interpreted by actual game factors... but tell me you don't get frustrated defensively when the two are on the court together. I don't need 82 games to tell me it's a bad defensive front court... I can tell just by the amount of times I yell about blown rotations when they are in the game together.
Number 3 scorer in the 4th quarter in the entire NBA, that is NOT against the 2nd string. I don't think they are the best defensively, but they are so much better offensively that they should be playing more. I know you love Chuck he is an elite post defender, but since he can't shoot, he should be playing a lot less...... I would take An average defender who can play offense over An elite defender who is bad on offense. DD