DWill is a great player, and better than BJax, but Bjax is a heck of an athlete... And you guys are over valuing athleticism.....Tim Duncan is not a great athlete but he does ok....Yao...same, Larry Bird...same....Magic Johnson...same... Give me a good athlete with serious Bball IQ and work ethic over the Stromile Swifts of the world every day of the week. DD
Bah. I disagree. Hayes is the only shot that the Rockets have to slow down Boozer. Landry looked like a rookie against Boozer and Harpring, and needs to be off the floor when Utah's big dogs are in. Hayes needs to be in, preferably with Scola. I kinda agree with the Deke comment, not because he's a defense-only player, but because he's neutralized by the fact that all of Utah's big men can step out and shoot.
strongly disagree with the idea that we should play Deke and Hayes less. Hayes is our best option for shutting down Boozer, and Deke is a shot blocking machine who grabs rebounds and shuts down the paint.
But on offense their men can just ignore them and stick to Tmac or the other 2 offensive players. You have to play both ends of the floor....IMHO. DD
They can generally do the same thing with Landry on the floor, because he can't really create for himself. Unless you want to go to a 3 guard line-up, the Rockets don't have a snowball's chance of "out-scoring" the Jazz. They won 22 straight with suffocating defense and decent offense. They've got to get to that.
both ends of the floor would be nice, but I didnt notice any of the players doing that very proficiently against the Jazz. Truth is we dont really have players who can dominate on both sides of the floor. If Chuck Hayes can keep Boozer in check than he its worth having on him on the court. Boozer was the main reason the Rockets left in the first round last year. Take Boozer out of the equation the Jazz are much more vulnerable. Id like to see Harris get some more minutes, but I would hate to see Hayes and Mutumbo taken out of the game plan.
No way, Williams is stronger and faster than Bobby. He is deceptively quick and fast - even with his minor injury. For half the game, though, Jackson did a great job on him but he wore down big time. I am not sure that TMac is a better athlete these days - Brewer is a freak - but he is certainly the better player by far. I agree here except for Game 1 when AK looked like an offensive stud as well. Scola is not far behind Boozer? Seriously? I love the guy, but Boozer is one of the best in the league. He is bigger, stronger, faster, a better rebounder, better post moves, better mid-range shooter, just overall better. Draw in general (only because Deke's age) but Okur has an athletic...shot.
Lessor? Does that make Chuck the landlord? Seriously, though, connecting the streak with Chuck's declined minutes is a spurious correlation. Chuck's minutes declined, and the Rockets won 22 games in a row due in large part to incredible play by Scola and Landry. Well, since he's come back from injury, Landry's play hasn't exactly been spectacular.
Landry only played 5 games with Deke during the streak. You do realize that don't you? We won 12 games where Deke didn't play at ALL and Hayes hardly played. Following Yao's injury, Hayes got his usual pre-Landry emergence mpg, primarily as Deke's backup. Landry never backed up Deke. He backed up Scola. Deke, Hayes and Scola took over the C minutes. In terms of our frontline, our best post-Yao, streak line-ups for the 5 games that Landry played is what we are seeing right now. There is no significant difference. You are mixing up the best of the Yao 12 games with the best of the non-Yao 12 games. For one reason or another, Landry is not as effective, probably because he is no longer an unknown surprise to other teams....not because Adelman changed the lineup.
Chuck regained his usual minutes after Yao got injured....for 10 games, 5 of which Landry was DNP. Don't rewrite history to make a point. It's not needed.
DD- Its one thing to say ur favorite team can win, its another to totally disrespect the opponet. I'm not saying u have to have a team full of atheletes, but when u have atheletes with a high bbiq buying into a system, then u have something. Utah has one of the most atheletic teams in the league. Hustle isn't a skill. Their top 7 is way more atheletic than the rox. From Williams to Harpring. U can just look at the speed and the finishes at the rack. The rox can't even throw the ball over the top because they don't have any atheletes. I've seen williams roll off a backscreen and catch a alley-oop. who can u do this with other than tracy,landry and a scrub like harris. Not to mention the undersized players for their position and lack of explosion equals blown layups inside. I can back u on a lot ideas and topics, but to say the rox are on the same planet atheletically is not true. The jazz drafted atheletes that can play like brewer,ak-4u,williams, and millsap and developed them in the system. The rox didn't.
Are you insuinuating that with Yao, we all of the sudden become better, younger, and faster than the Jazz?
^ I think A_3PO meant that their youth and athleticism overcomes us without Yao. With Yao, their youth and athleticism might not be enough.
You are correct in saying the Jazz are not particularly long. That has nothing to do with the matchup problems they present for many teams, inlcuding the Rockets. It's their bulk. Your comparison between Williams and BJ is just ridiculous. I am sure it is just homerism and optimism that led to that gross miscalculation. The point is that Williams is like the second coming of Baron Davis in terms of body type for his position. He is built like a fullback and has good speed considering his thick frame. Boozer is built like a linebacker. While Scola is the same height, his strength (as well as skill and experience) isn't even close to that of Boozer. Okur is not a beast, but he certainly is not a beanpole center either. He is another relatively wide body that can bang. While Kirilenko is not massive, he has tremendous length to go with tremendous speed for his height. Brewer is quick, extremely athletic and nearly has SF length (6'7") at the SG position. I am not as worried about matchup problems with their bench. ----------------------------- The bottom line is that the Jazz are one of several Western Conference teams that are matchup nightmares for the Rockets. It is not just that they play tougher and more aggressive... they also have the bodies to back up that style of play. Simply put, they are significantly bigger and stronger than the Rockets even if they are not clearly longer or more athletic.
The Rockets drafted athletes THIS year, but not in the last few years..... I think Utah is big, and tough, but is not all that athletic, you don't see a lot of above the rim play, you see good smart basketball players who are fairly athletic. Boozer is a good athlete but not great, Dwill same, Brewer is a great athlete, as is Kirlenko, Okur is an average athlete... The point is that they are not exactly a bunch of grayhounds or thoroughbreds, I think Utah can be beaten, but not if you play their style..... Utah is a very good team, but IMHO, they are the 5th best team in the WC behind... 1. Lakers 2. Spurs 3. Suns 4. Hornets.... So, I am not saying they are not good, just taking issue with those that say they are all that athletic, because they aren't. I do agree they are tougher and stronger, which is why I want the Rockets to run...run run.... DD
The fact that Utah owned us on the boards had nothing to do with length or athleticism either. Those "corn-fed midwestern boys", as Battier put it, take up so much physical space on the court that it's like they have an extra guy out there when crashing the boards. It's not always height or athleticism that gets you rebounds. That is a big part of why Chuck Hayes is such a great rebounder despite being undersize for his position. He uses his body mass to clear out space in addition to using his quickness to get to loose balls and into passing lanes. I agree with DD that we can't have too many defensive players on the court but we can't abandon our strength, which is defense, either. I also agree that we can't afford to have Battier, Chuck and Deke out there at the same time. I can't recall if that actually happened at all last game but that would obviously make scoring an extreme challenge as Utah wouldn't have to put much defensive pressure on 60% of our team. I am not sure what to think of having Deke and Chuck out there with McGrady at SF. Those two give us a chance on defense and on the boards but their is too little scoring between the two of them. DD may be right. It may be time to throw Landry into the fire and avoid the Chuck + Deke combo. Regardless, Adelman will have to pull some magical lineups together to figure out a way to balance our offense and defense. I think he was trying that when he sent Landry, Hayes and Harris out there. I don't know what the optimal lineup is to counter the Jazz, or if we even have one, but I do hope Adelman can find something that works.
