I agree that you have to make the most of what you have, but don't be fooled by what happened last year. There was a handful of elite teams last year and then a huge falloff, which can explain why the Rockets won so many games. Ultimately, you have to be able to put the ball in the basket and with guys like Head, Alston, Brooks, Hayes, and Battier out there, scoring becomes a challenge. I will give them credit for playing hard, but when you're not that good, playing hard is overrated. I've already said what needs to be done, but let me reiterate: The Rockets need to go after a legit 3rd scorer and somebody that can hit wide open shots. Realistic players that come to mind are Jason Kapono, Kyle Korver, Corey Maggette, and/or Jamal Crawford.
I agree with you...playing hard/having heart is overrated as execution wins championships. But that is what head is doing..hitting open shots, running the fast break, and giving the team a person to space the floor. Subtle changes like that can turn around a season, and I think it is worth the risk.
Might as well rename this the Luther Head Appreciation thread. He has been the facilitator behind Bonzi today.
He's terrible at running the offense. It's almost terrifyingly bad. But he is a great volume shooter. When he is allowed to shoot 10 threes, he will end up making half of them. His ball handling is still pretty shaky, but he has been able to get to the basket with a defender in front of him. He has also played well without the ball cutting around Yao going to the rim. I don't know if he should start over Battier, but he should have minutes over Steve and James.
Luther played extremely well. There was one player who killed us early: his name was Mike James. I blame him for being the fly in the ointment -- the loose bolt that stalled the Rockets offensive engine early and prevented them from getting off to a good start. He forced so many bad shots, killed so many passes and just interrupted ball movement, was lazy on defense ... and then one of the few times he actually hit something, he started backpedaling allowing Iverson to blow by him to the basket for an easy fast break layup. And I hated that Rick Adelman took so long to send him back to the bench. Thankfully, once he was benched, he didn't come back into the game. It's official now: the Mike James for Juwan Howard trade was a disaster, and should've never been done. At least from my point of view.
sure when tmac is out, i like head but he has his on/off games in another word, unconsistent..so..unless he starts playing like this every game..ehh
Yeah, but at least he isn't single-handedly killing his team, and actually does good things when he's off the court, like providing veteran leadership and motivating his teammates. Lord knows this team could use some of Juwan's leadership right now.
The big 2 guards in the league would kill us. We've seen this line up before and we get killed on the defensive end.
i think we should try starting luther at the 2, t-mac at 3, battier to the bench. its worth a shot right now IMO.
No, Northeastfan is right. We've seen that lineup many times, and almost invariably what happens is that the opposing 2 guards take Luther into the post every time and punish him. Also doesn't help that T-Mac doesn't exert himself defensively, so that hurts backcourt defense big time. We kinda got away with it tonight because the Nuggets don't have a big 2 guard with J.R. Smith sucking, and well ... Luther played a great game offensively. I like our starting lineup still. The only thing is I'm hoping for Scola to grow into the starting spot over Hayes sooner rather than later, so that we can finally field five offensive weapons at once to start the game.
We could have really used Juwan in this game. Hitting open mid range jumpers than Scola was clanging. Ohh well, thank god Rick finally realized HEAD > JAMES!
