Time to replace Shane Battier in the starting rotation?

That is exactly what I think too, said as much, it is just like Scola, when Cbud earns it, he will become the starter.

DD

 

Your assuming that Battier is playing good defense when he gave up or was part of a team that gave up 112 points. Your also assuming that if we had not had more offense and the same player as Battier is but offensive minded scores more ? We dont win 114 to 112. Battier didnt do enough defending obviously for it to matter one bit in the score. Thats an assumption he played great defense. i saw Kevin Martin in fact our supposed worst defender play much better defense on Kobe than Shane did. It wasnt until Shane got back on him that Kobe started getting hot in fact. Thus 112 points on us is not good defense. It just isnt because most teams dont average 112 points as the uppermost given away on defense in any given year. So right now we are the worst defense inthe league and Shane is part of that. 112 points is as non defensive as it gets in any year inmost defensive teams worst stats. Shane? Is part of that stat. As a starter.

 

And let's not forget the "PACE" factor.

DD

 

Tell me what the score was with battier out of the game. Please.

Im looking at the bigger picture. It's one game, on the first night. More offense will always win you games, just like more defense will. It doesnt mean you keep stacking one or the other...teams that are one sided don't do well int he palyoffs, period. You may be happy having suns-like seasons, but that's not the goal here. Kevin martin? How many times did he guard kobe? If i guard kobe twice, and he misses both shots, is that great defense, or just a low sample?

and again, tell me what the score was with battier out...i want to know how much he was really a part of all this.

 

Time to replace Shane Battier in the starting rotation?

Not yet. Lets see how things play out for a couple weeks at least before we measure things too closely.

 

RV6,

The Rockets were +9 with Shane Battier on the floor, the highest +/- on the team last night

You were saying?

DD

 

The +/- has a lot to do with who is on the floor with him, dont you think?

 

No doubt, but you can not ignore that the team was winning while he was on the floor.

DD

 

shane should play all game then

 

I saw saying just that

It's thetatomatis and others who don't seem to get it

 

My humblest apologies for tossing you in with the rebels without a cause.



DD

 

It has a lot to do with the fact that he wasn't on the floor during the 7 minutes when the Lakers made a 21-4 run.

So, you may not be able to credit Shane for getting the Rockets up by 9 during his 31 minutes since the other 4 guys might be responsible. One thing you can say, though, is that Shane was not to blame for the key period during which the Lakers made a huge run to turn around the game.

I believe the players who played during most of that stretch were AB/Lee/Budinger/Scola and either Yao or Miller. Martin was in for 2 of these minutes, if I remember correctly.

 

Yes. Who is on the floor when the opponent makes a big run is what people here should be looking at. Its a bit too easy to look merely at the lowest point totals by a starter and blame him in a tight game.

 

I get 112 points, loss, Shane getting torched by Kobe, Not scoring himself, Brooks, Martin, Yao carrying us. Scola late. Thats how i go logic. i dont go phantom no stats allstar logic. If it isnt there and i dont see it? It isnt happening. Just like the tooth fairy. Battier isnt playing defense tat can be seen or felt for that matter. You can play and get +9 wit the starters and best players out there at the same time you are out there. I would like to see how +9 means anything with him on the bench and then see if that stat matters at all with the second unit. If it does? Then +9 means something. Until then its phantom stats and no tangibles.

 

If he were such a great defender and had such great intangibles, he could have stopped Shannon Brown from the bench.

 

I can go +9 with Kobe and gasol starting the game with me. You get how subjective that stat is? Its a phatom stat. There is nothing tangible with + or - stats. Subjective to each player. Each lineup with that player. Each run in the game that happens to hit a hot or cold spell. Thats as useless a stat in one single game as no stats are.

 

You kind of contradicted your own argument there. However, one game, on the road, against the best team in the league is not enough info to try to establish a trend. I think he was actually very productive a few rebounds, a couple of assists, two blocked shots, he hit a three and played good defense on Kobe. I don't know what game y'all were watching but he was in Kobe's pocket the whole night. Kobe is just the type of player that will hit shots despite having a hand in his face. Playing good defense on Kobe is not having to resort to double teaming him not holding him to 10 points.

It also seems to me that when crunch time comes we have a hard enough time deciding who needs to take over and take the improtant shots. Adding more scoring to the starting lineup does not solve that problem.

 

You do know that in the first half, Battier was on Artest right?

 

Of course, whats even worse than the 21 given up in 7 minutes is the 4 scored in 7 minutes.

As it turns out, if that had been a 21-7 run, we would have won the game.

 

Exactly. When the Lakers where behind with Kevin martin covering Kobe. Thanks for pointing that out that we lost the game when Battier started to cover him.