there's not going to be a lot of love this year when the team loses...right now it's battier, if he starts picking up his play, then it'll be whoever is next, prob trevor.....brooks is always a candidate as well...if everyone played well and we still were losing, clutch the bear would be next.
i love battier, but no one on this entire thread can debate that he is a better fit for this run and gun style than ariza or budinger or even mcgrady when he returns(for the love of god, if anyone quotes me on that in this thread and uses it to make this a mcgrady hate thread i swear). It's not because battier is bad or has gotten worse. It's because he doesn't fit this style. Maybe when T-mac is back(don't do it) he'll fit better on the court, but as of right now he would have to be the odd man out.
Actullay, he gets no blame at all compared to ariza. Everybody is blaming ariza taking too many shots and how not smooth he dribbles. Battier is invisible.Yeah he gets 2 rebounds and 2 charges but how many 3's does he jack up and minutes he gets. He gets our short post players get clogged up.
battier can get more pts in offense, if he's not being underutilized. in the 1st qtr tonight, he got like 8-9 and later they went away from him. and be aware, battier has always been a supporting role in offense since he got here. unlike this year, ab and ariza have been asked to shoulder the load of offense/scoring.
Shane is 31 year old swing man, his level of play is only going to go down from here on out. To the person who says rookies have no impact just look at the Bucks or the Kings. You cant say with a strait face that Players like Evans and Jennings are not helping there teams win. All I am trying to say is that we are getting diminishing returns the more minutes we play battier. We need to cap him at 25 minutes a game he should not be out there for 30 plus, he is not making a big enough impact any more. If Chase got 10 more minutes tonight and Shane got 10 less I dont think its that far of stretch to think that we would have had 5 more points. But thats just my opinion.
Here's the difference b/t shanes jack ups and trevor's: Trevor jacks it up early in the offense, without working the ball around first, and usually after he's unable to dribble by his defender after trying a few times. shane jacks it up at the end of the shot clock, he'll usually set in an area where he can bail out the ballhandler if they get stopped, against LA he did this on at least 3 or 4 of his 3 pt attempts. When he does this they aren't high% threes since he's rushing, but given the alternative, not getting a shot off, it's actually a better option. Of course they both shoot good attmpts within the offense too, so i'm not saying all of trevor's/shane's shots are what i described...but my point is morey and adelman are going to dissect their shots in that way, fans like to see ppg, percentages, but they rarely go back and watch the actual tape like coaches do. So morey's going to plug in his numbers and conclude that shane wasn't as inefficient as many here think and adelman will agree with him, why else would he still be playing 30 minutes + a game...
Battier is a great player to have in any team but he is almost like a wing version of Hayes. Thus, I wish he was paid as much as Hayes.
Shane's defense in the 4th was great. What did JRich and Hill do in the 4th? There's no way he can be the third option on the team but when chuck hayes is out there he has to be. IMO, Shane probably should have been traded after the first playoff loss to the Jazz, and he and Mutombo definitely should have been gone after Yao went down the year after. When T-Mac comes back he definitely won't have to be a top three option.
in the final minutes, he should have made that wide-open 3 at the top of the key. instead it was way off far right.
Like Battier and all of that but I agree. Towards the end, of not just this game but others, I was wondering why Budinger was replaced by Battier. Battier is in some type of funk or something right now, I hope. Otherwise, I would like to know which are greater his strengths or weaknesses concerning this team. I have a harder time watching Battier dribble than I do Ariza and that's even when it consists of only two dribbles. And I have issues with Brooks too to be fair. He is still not what I would consider the ideal floor general, but he has started to get more assists. But to be one of our main guys or enter the "superstar talk," he has to improve in that area as the team's #1 PG. It's the price of the ticket as James Baldwin correctly pointed out. Oh well, hurry up T-Mac, Morey and/or Adelman with ending our speculation!!! Let's get another W!!!
Battier, undoubtedly, is one of the most intellectual basketball players in this league. He's more like the rich brainy kid in the NBA. I like his PR skills and leadership skills, but as others have said, he won't stick for too long here. Lakers, Jazz, Blazers all want him badly. I wouldn't mind Rudy Fernandez, or Lamar Odom.
I'm afraid you're in for a rude awakening if you think that high of Battier's trade value. The best offer I've heard is Steve Blake.
Ask a Laker fan if they'd do Odom for Battier. You'll be surprised. Not sure if fans have the same taste as the organization, but point is... he's liked.
I'm not saying that he's not liked. The Lakers would like to have Battier on their team if the price is Sasha and Farmar.
it's a good thing i've been defending brooks, scola, chuck, and the other guys too then.. unfortunately, people who constantly bash battier care more about him than the team as well. And well, that's pretty much the only reason you come around here..