PG: Rafer SG: Artest SF: Battier PF: Scola C: Yao Artest and Battier are both better spot up shooters than T-Mac but T-Mac has the potential to get hot any time, but that potential is wearing thin.
well.. for starters.. this wouldn't be as problematic.. currently Ron Artest is suffering from not really knowing where he's suppose to go or be with one ball and three stars on the court at the same time.. Tracy and Ron are both struggling to acclimate their respective games into Adelman's offense.. equally.. let's not try to make one better than the other.. the difference is.. Tracy's struggles are habitual.. and mental.. in other words.. unmanageable by anyone but himself.. while Ron gives his best effort to fit into the offense every game.. It is why he was "falling in love with his jumpshot".. early on.. while Tracy was still being Tracy.. Ron was trying his best to make those necessary cuts and provide the needed movement off the ball in the offense.. unfortunately between Yao in the post.. and the prior being so prevelant on the court.. the only good looks he was being fed.. were out on the perimeter.. His "ball stopper" ways didn't really start being imposed so heavily inbetween plays until around the Portland game and after.. where everything just started falling apart.. fact remains.. we are still without an established identity.. and with the "big 3" playing the majority of their minutes as part of the same unit.. we will continue to.. one of them will have to be moved to the bench.. and with all things being equal.. between Artest and Tracy.. I'll go with the one that not only doesn't have the current issues of health and shaky confidence.. but also the one that demonstrates the most effort towards the team.. Shane Battier.. as for Ron with our second unit.. that won't prove as productive as you make it seem.. Hayes, Landry's offensive production pretty much comes off backdoor feeds and cuts.. which Tracy excells at.. Tracy's problem has never been his lack of passing.. but his lack of commitment.. off the ball.. so you pretty much provide argument as to why Tracy would be better on the bench.. with Alston..
I like the "coaching" from the fans who know nothing about basketball other than watched a few games on TV. While we are on it, we should put Yao as Landry's backup, so he can come in with fresh legs, and have weak competitions.
i think everyone is realistic that tracy's prime has passed. however, we all know he can still be dominant (the jazz series last yr isn't so far passed). and it doesn't matter if he starts or comes off the bench. he'll play his 35 minutes regardless. whatever is best for the team, i'm sure tmac wouldn't mind doing it. but my problem is we brought artest here to be another dominant scorer; and he's not going to be dominant hovering around the 3pt line. his post game has been non-existant b/c yao occupies the paint primarily.
Sorry Tinywang, you got it a bit mixed up! When Battier comes back there will be changes:- Starting Players Alston, McGrady,Battier, Scola, Yao Supporting Players Brooks, Wafer, Artest, Landry, Hayes This means that there will be four scorers and two defensive players on both the starters and supporting players.
it's not like i'm saying ron plays exclusively with the 2nd unit. tracy will spend time there too. all i'm saying is i think ron would excel playing LESS with yao so we can emphasize his post game. right now, i think he's afraid of demanding the ball in the post because that would take shots away from yao. i mean, ron isn't seeing double teams down there; he should be getting the ball more in the post and less on the perimeter. like i said, ron is worse than tracy on one leg playing from 20 feet out.
The real question is do we need Tracy to be like he was in Orlando? Or do we need the Rockets to be the team they were during the winning streak? I think we need the latter. Before we make any drastic changes, we should see how things go when Battier returns. The natural move is to have Artest be our sixth man and have ths starters who played so well last season together.
agreed. i think ron is just having a role identity crisis right now and still trying to adjust to the team. the real problem is tmac and getting him into a comfortable position where he can having a nice offensive game. cause lets admit it, having games where he is 0 for 5 or 1-12 is just flat out unacceptable for THE tracy mcgrady. i have too much respect for him to see that.
TMac off the bench wouldn't improve this team overall. As mntioned earlier, it doesn't address the reall problems with our Offense, ie. Ball movement. I honestly can't htink of a fix with our current set of players. Find some way of acquiring Rip Hamilton lol NOT GONNA HAPPEN ANYTIME SOON!
You mean like you? When people start talking about put TMac on 2nd unit, that's called ignorant. The season is just barely started, and you have two of your main guys came of surgery, now the so called "fans" started calling people's heads already? What a shame!
Sorry to disappoint but I am not basing this off from just the start of the season. Tmac has not shot well for much of last season and it's gradually gotten worse. Call me ignorant if you want but I have been a long time Rockets fan and I am sorry you if you take offense for me suggesting an uncommon and unconventional idea.
How many of you are just saying T-Mac should come off the bench because you are frustrated with his performance or whatever? Think about it for a second. Forgetting that McGrady's my favorite player on the team, it doesn't make sense to have him playing with the 2nd unit over Ron Artest. What's McGrady's game? Mid-range jumpshots to mid-range iso's with the occasional (and not often enough) drive to the basket. What's RonRon's game? Mid-range iso usually resulting in a drive to the paint or a mid-to-close range shot or spot up 3's. T-Mac and Yao play pretty well with each other on the floor. Yao is option 1, T-Mac's iso is option 2. When Shane Battier gets back, he will be camped in the corner for a 3, Scola will drift around (probably near baseline) and like it or not, Rafer will be camped out by the 3 spacing the floor. Yao has space to operate and T-Mac does as well. If Rafer can just hit at a half decent clip, we'll be alright. Now, when Ron comes off the bench (which I think he will when Shane gets back), Ron is allowed to go to work freely anywhere on the court. He also is allowed to be in a "score-at-will" mode along with Aaron Brooks. That gives us some athleticism and scoring punch off the bench, which I am SURE this team could use and could have used in previous seasons. The starting lineup of Yao, McGrady, Rafer, Scola, Battier brings defense, shooting, scoring, post, size, spacing. The reserve lineup of Ron, Brooks, Landry, Hayes,and Barry coming off the bench to substitute brings size, speed, scoring, shooting, defense, and athleticism. We know Ron can score at 20ppg, we know Brooks is a scorer not a distributor. Utilize that value off the bench where we have sorely needed it the past few seasons. I think our starting lineup has always been solid, but the addition of Ron and the emergence of Brooks of the bench is a blessing for this team.
While i don't agree with the OP in this case, however, I do agree with the need for some changes. I just can't think of anything realistic. Yes i understand that Battier is still out, and the chemistry isn't there yet, but our team makeup isn't right for Adelman's style of coaching. This just won't work in the long run. If fans are being critical, it doesn't mean they are thinking short term. It is the tooootal opposite. It's like how we went on a 22 game rampage yet still bowed out of the first round. Maybe things are different with yao back, however we've been battling excuses for 7 years, and I think there is a point when we can't make excuses anymore. Either we change the coach, change the players, or the payers chage their style of play because there is no compatibility with the starting lineup and adelman. I don't believe that the veterans can change the way they play, so that leaves coaching or player changes.
The thing is, Adelman has started playing Tmac alone with 4 bench players (usually Brooks, Hayes, Landry/Scola and Head/Wafer/Barry). And it works! With Tmac in the line-up, Brooks doesn't have to run the offense. Hayes obviously credits Tmac for 90% of his offense. On the other hand, he doesn't have to come off the bench to get time with the "bench mob". The way Adelman has been doing it, he's just kept Tmac in for the first 18 minutes of the game. He could also easily sub Tmac out the last 4-5 minutes of the first and then bring him back in during the 2nd to get time with the "bench mob". Benching Tmac could work, but really, he's going to end up coming into the game after 5 minutes for Battier anyway. I'd almost rather him start the game, come out after 6 minutes for Battier, and then he'll be fresh in the 2nd to play with the bench. But really, it doesn't really matter either way.
Ahh let me clarify on my post. I don't mean to say that T-Mac doesn't work well with the bench players. I'm just saying that we had a solid starting lineup last season, and when Battier gets back, we will have that same starting lineup. I see no reason to meddle with that. Why not just take Artest and bring him off the bench so he's allowed the freedom to play his game, instead of deferring to Yao/Mac when he should shoot and shooting when he should defer? If you had to choose compatability with the starting lineup, you go with McGrady. Now you could always sub out Battier and Yao and bring in Artest/Hayes or whatever and gradually change the starting lineup to the bench and have T-Mac still in there. But the 5 that should be starting and finishing games shouldn't change, with the exception that Artest has to be playing in the clutch along with Battier.
