http://www.82games.com/0910/09HOU5.HTM#onoff http://basketballvalue.com/teamplay...summary&sortnumber=94&sortorder=DESC&team=HOU Live by the plus/minus, die by the plus/minus...
that i agree is a legitimate concern, i havent looked into that part of his game enough to know what's going on there, so maybe Durvasa has an answer or anyone else that's looked into it..
Here is the deal. Battier is still an incredible defender, but we all know he has trouble on offense. When you have a championship caliber team with all the perfect parts then battier works perfectly and complements the team to take them to another level. If you have a bunch of role players on one team Battier does not fit in very well because he asked to do things he is not normally doing or very good at.
Obvious if you're really really desperate to spin everything in Battier's favor. We hear things like this all the time. Kobe has a huge game against Battier: "Well, them's the breaks. Good thing we had Battier guarding him, otherwise it would have been worse." Kobe struggles against somebody other than Battier: "Well, clearly Kobe just had an off day. That's the only explanation. It's not like that guy did better job defending him than Battier lol. If Shane was on Kobe, he would have went scoreless. Fact."
well then you can address that with fans who make excuses like that, i dont. I've always said kobe will do what he wants on pretty much anyone, one on one. Had shane guarded him this last game i would not have given shane all the credit. I would have to be blind to not see the difference in Kobe's game. Right now i'm not ready to declare trevor our best bet on shane on that one game, you have to consider the condition kobe was in, as well as the emotions trevor was experiencing because of the ring ceremony and the ron incident. All that plays a part. If trevor can show he can bother kobe again the next game, then by all means put him on kobe every time. Right now one game, regardless of who it is, isn't enough to give him the job permanently. Don't bunch me in with fans who reply "shane is great, he can't go" every time. I'm not going to support him blindly either. I never respond that way and include as much visible info as i can. I've said a few times this season that he should be traded if A)the deal makes us better and B)trevor improves his one on one defense to where he doesn't gamble as much. Part of why i can't see him being traded this year though, is because next year he'll be expiring and that'll raise his value, along with giving the team time to evalute trevor for a full season to see if he can without a doubt replace shane's defensive role and also evaluate how trevor and shane will play with yao. Everyone is gun-ho about trading shane now that Ariza is averaging almost 20 a game, but no one is thinking about next year, how will that affect Yao? Trevor can kiss those 20 Fg attmpt nights goodbye, because he won't get them next year, he'll have to accept a role similar to shane's where he's scoring 10-12 a night. The team needs to evaluate whether he can completely replace shane in that role, not now, but when Yao is actually playing.
Never said you were gay, just a general statement. I dont understand how most fans over-value their players. I dont get caught up with players on my home team like that. I look at the NBA as a whole, and can think of about 200 other players that would out play Shane any day of the week. I understand his role. When Yao comes back, I think it would be a different story. Battier plays the role of "that guy" that hits the open 3 when we get double teamed, ala Jim Jackson or Mario Elie. Problem is we arent getting double teamed this year.
Nobody but Shane Battier's family loves him more than I do. But yes, our present squad is wasting him. He's the final piece of a championship puzzle for some team, and for a few years I thought that team might be us. But now it isn't, and he never was the kind of playmaker we're now asking him to be. The guy deserves a championship. Find him a good home, Daryl.
It all can change once Yao comes back and some other addition after Tmac leaves. Battier fits Yao's style much better than a run'n gun style. The only thing worries my is he seems to lost a stop each year.
I wouldn't call him the odd man out,but it's no surprise to me that he is having difficulties with Yao being out. It's easier to get more shots when the defense is centered on Yao.
Shane battier would be a starter on any team that did not have a star 3 on their team. Most teams are made up of a really good guy or two and then good fillers, shane battier is an upgrade filler, perfect for any legitimate, healthy, mature team. Him and duncan would work very well i bet, random thought.
Lol @ this post. Anytime there is anything even remotely critical of the hero you worship, you run into the thread, often times incoherently double and triple posting, to defend Battier. For example, I wonder who has the most posts in this thread? I'm just glad other people are finally starting to see the light
I don't really care what the latest forum paradigm is; everyone seems to be trying to single out Battier but I don't really get why. As of now, Ariza is shooting a dismal 39% on a whopping 17 shots per game, 7 of which are threes. He gets some steals but he is also slow to rotate on quite a few defensive rotations. He rebounds decently, but his inability to get good looks for his teamates really hurts us imo. He turns the ball over often when trying to dribble through traffic. He has been given a pass for nearly everything Tmac gets flack foor. Budinger is streaky, he is either shooting 20% or 70% for the games so far. Whether this is caused by the opposing defenses, or his confidence, I do not know. His defensive effort is there but still needs some work. He needs time, but 20 minutes a game is probably where he should stay unless he is absolutely lighting it up. He should play with Lowry more, they have good chemistry. In my opinion, if McGrady comes back to any semblance of old Tmac, Ariza is redundant. As of now, Battier is a more effecient offensive player than Trevor and a better defensive player. Maybe Ariza can get better if he is able to feed off McGrady but we will just have to wait and see. We are blessed with some great wing players, I am betting we will see more of a three wingman rotation on the floor once McGrady is back. Ariza's minutes will probably go down from 38 to 32, Brooks from 35 to 32, and so on and so forth.
A more important question is, who has the most posts outside of this thread? I just post a lot about the team, and last time i checked, battier is on the team... You on the other hand just post a lot about battier.....
wow, then i dont know what to tell you, are you expecting him to score 20? if he shoots 1 of 8 he didnt "show up"...i'll give you and anyone else that, but he shot 3 of 5, 50% on threes, 5asst, 4 rebs, 2 stls, and did hit an important three late int he 4th. Isn't that pretty much what should be expected offensively? Sure maybe he could have had an extra bucket or two, prob should be in the 10-13 pts a game range, but is this really a ghost performance? Seriously?
Yeah, I'm going to agree with RV here. I only got to see the end of the game, so I can't really give a firsthand account of how Battier played. But judging by the boxscore I'd say he had at least a decent game. Ariza and Brooks performances were much more concerning IMO.
Well if you dont know, why have a input? Did you see him get blown by Al Jefferson on the pick and roll 3+ times? Did you see Johnny Flynn just strip battier of the ball and take it down his throat on the other end? Did you see Brewer drain shots as Battier didnt even contest them? Oh yeah, you didnt. I think he just needs to step his game up. He has only scored in double digits 4 times in 12 games. He has finished with 4 pts or under in 3 of those games. He is averaging 32+ mins a game. All season he has never went over 5 assists or 5 rebounds. For a starter in the league, that has to be pretty bottom of the barrell....esp if you are looking a box scores like you said above.
As far as i know Jefferson isn't his man, maybe Jefferson just runs the pick and roll well, he is good afterall...we're not talking about a scrub here. Flynn is a quick PG, he does things like that. And why was brewer open? Could it be due to a pick? Obviously not every bad play is excuseable, but not every bad play is inexcusable. It's basketball, as far as i know teams don't shutout others completely, even championship teams. You're always going to have both teams make good plays and bad plays, the point is to make a lot more good plays thna bad. Offensively he played his role well, didn't over do it and didn't exactly shy away from shooting. Shot a good %, and was involved in the other categories as well. You're complaints are all defensive. Are you telling me the plays you singled out is all he did defensively? I'm sure it wasn't. He was the first guy back on D most of the time the rockets turned it over, he caused a few misses, fouled on a few, but contested them all. He had good defensive plays in the perimeter. Overall i'd say his D was not above average, but ok. offensively he did his role, not sure how you can blame him for scorign only 9 pts when his counterpart on the wing threw up 13 threes and the rockets had like 20 turnovers. Not many shots to go around when that happens. No one is claiming he played to perfection or went above and beyond, you're the one who came in and claimed it was a ghost performance, which for this game is downright ridiculous. It's like claiming scola as ghostly because he was "only" 7 of 10 with 8 boards. For scola, that's not great, but far from ghostly, same with battier. He's a small forward, why would he be expected to average over 5 assts?? We've got Lowry averging like 5 and brooks is probably close to 7. The teams that have wings who average 5 a game don't have the production at the pg spot and/or are all-star players. Why be concerned about points when we've been scoring well? You want him to take shots from scola, brooks, landry? Could he score more than 2 or 4 pts? Yes, but scoring hasn't been a consistent issue this year overall and Trevor has been jacking up a high volume, which automatically cuts back on everyone's attempts, incl battier. I'm more concerned about scola and landry not getting enough attempts, i'd take 5-7 attmps from ariza and distribute them among those two, rather than giving them to shane just to make the stats look prettier. I'm concerned about shane's FG%, three pt % and low rebounding, that's what he needs to improve, not his point totals or assists. And we're still talking 12 games into the season here, it's as annoying as the posters who claim we've been figured out or something isn't working, as if it's been going on for a significant part of the season...
and i hope you're not an actual red rowdy, i rather have one of those corporate fools who leave the game early take your place, they probably have more realistic expectations of our players in relation to one another, and most of them don't even know much about basketball in general.
