Hmm the problem is Batman already seemed recovered after the All star break (aka Dark Batman). He was shooting and well and scoring inside. Then as his tan wore off his performance suffered as well, it just wasn't noticeable because he still played good D and Artest started hitting 50% of his 3 pt shots. If he was recovering from injury then shouldn't his performance be better as time goes on, not up and down like this? I think he's just in a slump. He does have some missing cartilage like Tmac, but if he can play well enough before when he had the tan then there's no reason he can't play now, unless of course he reagrevated his injury by playing and just isn't telling anyone/not aware of it. Like he is now though, I think its time to bench him and start Wafer again. He's us nothing on either the offensive or defensive end.
This seems like a viable option and I can actually see it happening against some of the weaker teams. Besides giving Battier less minutes it would help to develop Wafer's game for the playoffs. Come to think of it, maybe it IS all mental (a slump). I seem to recall Battier making a highly uncharacteristic lazy feed to Yao. He just did not seem himself at all. I wonder if Morey's public acknowledgment of the team trying to resign Artest has anything to do with it; the time frames do seem to correlate...
He needs to jump when defending a jump shooter. It seems he barely ever gets off the floor and does enough to just get his hand in the defenders face. On offense Battier is useless, point blank.
I think he will be traded in the offseason. Morey is a smart buy low sell high kind of guy. We got him when he was underrated, we hyped him up culminating with that HUGE article on the NYT a couple weeks ago. Now he is very overrated and has good trade value.
Are you saying this because of one play? If you say he's not jumping, then how can he reach the face of a shooter up in the air? I hope you're not just refering to that kobe shot at the end. Battier pretty much always jumps at shooters and get a hand in there. Ron was the one not jumping or getting a hand up tonight. Watch Kobe's highlights. <object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6c0dnsVLRTw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6c0dnsVLRTw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object>
That's terrible defense. Jumping at a jump shooter leaves you helpless on the drive and get could cause you to foul.(Fisher on Brooks) Faceguarding works but let's just give credit to Kobe. Who hasn't Kobe burned. Offensively Shane is doing two things, he seems to be rushing his shot and also leaning forward way more than usual. I think it's definately the ankle, he leans forward to get more distance on the shot because his ankle is just not right. The reason he looked better after the AS break was simply due to a few days off. It is a cause for concern in the playoffs, playing every other night is not going to be good for him.
