Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison, and Edgerrin James are often referred to as "the triplets" for their offensive brilliance. on the other hand, the ineptitude of david wesley, juwon howard, and ryan bowen is absolutely killing this team right now. there is no doubting the fact that wesley and ryan bowen won that game for us last night with their hustle and overtime heroics. however, i wonder, more specifically in the case of bowen, does the hustle and energy he brings offset the fact that he is a complete liability offensively? teams are able to completely overload the defense onto McGrady and Yao because Bowen is completely worthless offensively. i know he was able to sneak in for numerous putbacks last night late in the game but does righting a wrong render the original wrong right? our offense should be geared towards open shots, not hoping for a putback. his presence as the single worst starter in the NBA is putting an unnecessary burden on the shoulders of yao and mcgrady. combine that with the fact that howard has suddenly become completely useless this year and you see why we struggle so hard to score. while swift has glaring weaknesses, he is definitely an upgrade to howard and there is no excuse that he is still coming off the bench. there is the fear that he will foul out, but i don't care. if he is supposedly our future at power forward, he needs to be thrust into the fire because there is nothing to lose - he can't possibly be worse than howard is right now. you can't be conservative when you are 8-12. wesley's sloth-like footspeed has badly hurt us in previous games. however, i understand his presence as a necessary evil as we don't have any other veteran ball handlers. there is absolutely no excuse for "the triplets" to be starting together every half. we simply cannot keep playing come from behind every game. swift, head, and anderson have developed as very viable alternatives and also all have potential for long term improvement. we have a 4 game winning streak right now but we cannot expect to rally a comeback in every game.
I agree that howard should not be starting anymore. He should play as a backup to swift and hopefully provide a "scoring threat " with our second team. We start way too slow each and every game and half. This isnt just this year though, last year was the same. I think Tmac needs to establish himself early too. It seems as though JVG tries to get Yao involved as early as possible and establish his low post threat, but that also results in early crap offensive fouls on Yao. Tmac needs to drive to the hoop 2-3 times in the first 5 minutes of the game and try to get in the zone
JVG is not going t change it soon, because we are winning. Harward is terrible over there. Wesley can not hand the ball. Bowen is good off bench at some given night, but definitely not starter. I dont knowwhat's JVG doing,evenwe win 4 games in row, head , swift, and anderson should start, thenwe can compete with anyone.
i would like to dispute this claim. i think dampier is worse.... but i have no statistical data to back up this claim.
GEEEEZ lighten up man. Ryan Bowen brings an intangible that doesn't show up in the box score "hustle". His hard nose play not only pesters the other teams players but it also inspires our players. Who else would you put in that brings the same level of hustle that Super Fly Bowen brings?
I love Bowen's hustle. Who doesn't? But if we need a hustle-only guy to start for us, we are in trouble. DA and JB are hurt now. I hope when these two guys are back, Bowen will go back to be the 10th guy specialist status. I am hoping Howard's shot will come back like Wesley's. I don't know which will come around sooner, Howard's shot or Swift's brain. Or will they ever come around?
I love RyBo's hustle. I don't think you can blame Ryan Bowen for playing his butt off, he's what he is, a player that gets you the loose ball, try to shut down the best player on the opposite site. The problem however it's we should not have Howard, Wesly and Bowen in at the same time. That way, teams can just crap all over Yao and TMac. The better combination is to have Head play more and handle the ball and have Wesley be a shooting guard to hit that spot up jumper. Swift exchange Howard.
I agreed with you, we have to start these guys because we are so short on players right now, we're forced to, doesn't mean it's something we should do.
While Bowen cannot take more than 2 dribbles or hit a jump shot, he did have 5 offensive boards last night. That's pretty impressive; plus he made his free throws. He's not a total offensive liability, but he does need work. Since the defenses do not pay much attention to him, he very well could be a beneficiary of a Yao or Mcgrady baseline pass under the basket.
Bowen undoubtedly helped save the game for us last night but let's be fair here, this is the one player opposing teams don't even bother to guard. Think about this, when's the last time you've seen an NBA player be able to lurk around beneath the basket without somebody even thinking to account for him? That shouldn't happen in this league and it happened last night. He's a 6'9" player that grabbed the ball beneath the basket and threw it up for some uncontested put-backs. Now after seeing he isn't completely incapable of functioning offensively, don't you think teams will make a note of that in their scouting reports next time around? Defensively, he can't function like JVG asked him to last night, putting him on J-Rich was a mismatch from the start. Even stoner boy Tolbert picked up on that. I love his hustle and complete willingless to sacrifice himself for the better of the team, that's a good thing to have on your team. He's like the college player that isn't very talented, doesn't have much basketball ability to speak of yet is willing to run around, slap the floor and make all the hustle plays. That's a good thing to have ON YOUR TEAM, not starting.
We've won 5 out of 6 and so let's complain about JVG's starting lineup. Am I missing something? Ryan Bowen will start as long as he's effective. Energy only goes so far and in a few games, he will be back on the bench. This will happen when other teams adjust and better capitalize on his glaring weaknesses. For right now, Bowen is the hot hand. I've stated several times my feelings on starting JH for now over Stro. To say JVG should throw Stro "into the fire" because there is "nothing to lose" is just wrong. It's all about winning games and finding chemistry. Ever heard of "If it ain't broke don't fix it?" Why throw Stro into the fire when he finally seems to be coming around and improving some each game? Let him earn more and more minutes as the season wears on. It's more important to be a closer than a starter. When we won our first championship, Sam was clearly better than weak-minded Kenny. Sam also finished games while little Kenny sat on the bench watching. It won us a championship! If JH continues to shoot poorly and Swift continues improving, Stro will get the 30+ mins/game everyone hoped he would. He'll probably end up starting too. Wesley vs DA: DA is NOT NOT NOT a starter. Hired gun off the bench is perfect for him as it was for Mike James. DA's needs to work on his shot selection. Wesley vs Luther: Defenses are starting to adjust to Luther, and he may go through a tough stretch. I don't mind Wesley as a starter when he plays decent. I'm happy as long as Luther gets good minutes each game, especially when he's in there at the end. I don't recall that we started poorly in our last 2 games. If it becomes a problem, JVG will make an adjustment. Why change a rotation that is working so well? At 8-12, it's all about trying to win games right now one at a time.
